Eloqua Training: 107 Eloqua Multi-Step Campaign

Feb 19, 2020

Introduction to sample case to create your Eloqua multi-step campaign

Sometimes you are going to need to create a multistep campaign.  The Eloqua campaign automation engine is arguably the most powerful one in existence.  In this scenario you are going to be creating an accelerator campaign.

An accelerator campaign is designed to create sales ready leads through offering timely and relevant marketing assets based on interest.

In this example we are going to send contacts a series of three whitepapers on a topic.  If they download the whitepaper through filling out a form then they will be sent the associated product factsheet.  If the contact downloads the associated product factsheet we will send them an email with a case study. Finally, if they download the case study they will be sent an email asking them to request a call back.

In addition, your manager wants you to have at any time lists of where in the campaign contacts progressed to.  Your manager wants lists of all contacts that got to the different stages of the buying cycle in the campaign.

You will need to consider the actual deliverables you will need to create before you can build this campaign.

From drawing it out on a whiteboard your campaign looks like this:

The following marketing assets will be created required for this campaign since the whitepaper, product factsheet and case study will have already been created.

Reach Reputation Relations Revenue

3 x Emails

3 x Landing Pages

3 x Forms

1 x Email 1 x Email

1 x Email

1 x Landing page

1 x Form

On top of this you will need five shared lists.  One for the last stage that contacts get to, e.g. No Interest in this campaign.

Once you have created the assets and shared lists you will need to put them all together in campaign canvas.

CREATING THE MULTI-STEP CAMPAIGN

Initial steps of creating a multi-step campaign

Navigate to Eloqua > Orchestration > Campaigns

Click on Create a Multi-Step Campaign

Click Blank Campaign and then Choose

You now have your blank canvas on the right-hand side you have series of options available to you.

Available Campaign Steps

The options you have available to you are:

Option

Description

Audience

Segment Members

Add members to the campaign flow by using a contact segment.

Assets

Email

Send your campaign members emails in your campaign flow.

Form (reporting only)

If you add an email that links to a form or to a landing page with a form, you can add that form to the campaign canvas for reporting purposes. After you add a form to the canvas, you do not connect it to other campaign elements. It is on the canvas so that it is visible to users and included in reporting.

Landing Page (reporting only)

If you add an email that links to a landing page, you can add that landing page to your campaign canvas. This allows you to include landing page activities in your campaign reports. After you add a landing page to the canvas, you do not connect it to other campaign elements. It is on the canvas so that it is visible to users and included in reporting.

Decisions

Clicked Email?

Route contacts depending on whether they clicked through on any link in a selected email.

Compare Contact Fields

Evaluate and route contacts based on the values (or lack thereof) in a selected contact field.

Compare Custom Object Fields

Evaluate and route contacts based on values populated in the contact’s linked custom object fields.

Shared List Member?

Evaluate and route contacts depending on whether they are in a selected contact list.

Shared Filter Member?

Evaluate and route contacts based on whether they are in a selected shared filter.

Opened Email?

Evaluate and route segment members differently depending on whether they opened a specific email at least a selected number of times.

Sent Email?

Evaluate and route contacts that have been sent a specific email separately from those that have not.

Submitted Form?

Evaluate and route contacts that have submitted a specific form any number of times during an evaluation period.

Visited Website?

Evaluate and route contacts that have viewed any page on your website at least a selected number of times during a specified period.

Compare Date

Evaluate and route contacts on, before, or after a specific date, or during a period between two specified dates.

Actions

Add to Campaign

This element lets you add segment members from the current campaign to specific elements (including cloud step elements) in a different campaign for further routing and processing.

Add to Program

This element lets you add segment members to a selected step in an existing program, built using the program canvas.

Add to Program Builder

This element lets you move campaign members to a program created using the program builder.

Add to Shared List

This element lets you add segment members in the current campaign to a shared contact list.  Adding members to a shared list is a dynamic process. As contacts progress through the campaign steps, Oracle Eloqua adds them to the shared list that you have specified.

Remove from Shared List

This element lets you remove segment members from a shared list used by other marketers (users) in your organization in campaigns and segments.

Move to Campaign

This element lets you move segment members from the current campaign to specific elements (including cloud step elements) in a different campaign for further routing and processing.

Move to Program Builder

The same as add, it moved the contact out of the campaign though.

Move to Program

The same as add, it moves the contact out of the campaign though.

Move to Shared List

This element lets you move segment members to a shared list that can be used by other marketers (users) in your organization in campaigns and segments.

Wait

This element allows you to specify how much time will elapse between steps of your campaign.

We are going to use several of those steps.

Setting up the steps of the sample case campaign

Adding segments to the campaign

First, we are going to create the add the segment that we wish to send this campaign to

Click and drag segment members onto the canvas.

Double click on segment members you will now need to set the segment.

To configure the Segment Members element:

  1. Type a descriptive name for the step in the Step name field.
  1. Select the segment from the drop-down list, or click Folder and browse to the segment. Alternatively, you can click New to create a new segment.
  1. Choose how you want the segment members to be evaluated:
    • To evaluate the segment one time, click Add members once when the campaign is first activated. After you activate the campaign, members of the segment at the time of activation enter the campaign. No new segment members can enter the campaign after it is activated. If you use this option, the element appears gray on the canvas.
    • To evaluate the segment continuously while the campaign is active, click Add members regularly until campaign is deactivated and specify how often to evaluate the segment.  Eloqua will evaluate the segment according to the frequency you specify and add new segment members to the campaign. If you use this option, the element appears green on the canvas.

Important: Avoid evaluating the segment hourly. This can overload the Asynchronous Commands queue. Evaluate the segment instead every 12 or 24 hours.

  1. Click outside the element configuration window to apply your changes.

After you add the segment, you’ll notice the step indicates a count of the segment members.

Next you need to set the first email in the Reach track.

Type a new name into the Step name field.

Select an email from the drop-down list or click Folder and browse to the email. To create a new email, click New.

Select additional configuration options by clicking on the corresponding tabs:

Signature: Enable the Use a Signature check box (optional), then select either Send using a dynamic signature rule or Send on behalf of a single user, and select an option from the corresponding drop-down list.

Sending Options: Select the check box next to the sending options that you want to utilize for this email.

Break send into smaller batches: This option allows you to break the overall email send into smaller batches. Specify the number of hours or days and then choose the correct time unit.

Allow emails to be re-sent to past recipients: This option allows emails to be re-sent to past recipients of the same email.

TIP: In most cases, you will not want to select this option as it increases the likelihood that the recipient will report your email as spam. Only select this option if the email contains crucial or emergency information, or if a critical correction has been made to the content of the original email.

Include List-Unsubscribe header: This option includes a list-unsubscribe header to your email.

Send email to master exclude members: This option sends the email to users on the master exclude list. This ensures that members on this list do not miss out on critical non-marketing emails, such as product information.

Send email to unsubscribed members: This option sends the email to unsubscribed users, this ensures that unsubscribed members do not miss out on critical non-marketing emails, such as product information.

Scheduling: Select the days and the specific time range that you want to send the email. The default time zone is your local time zone.

If you would like to configure a batch send and distribute it evenly over a specific period, you must configure both the Sending and Scheduling options.

  • Under Sending Options, select Break into smaller batches and specify the sending period in hours or days.
  • Under Scheduling, select Only send during certain days and hours and specify the start and end time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example

As part of your campaign, you want to send an email to 100,000 contacts over a five-day period between 9:00 am – 5:00 pm ET so that a group of 20,000 contacts receives the email each day.

To configure the email options in your campaign:

  • Double-click the email element on the campaign canvas.
  • Click Sending Options and select Break into smaller batches. Set the Sending Period to 5 days.
  • Click Scheduling and select Only send during certain days and hours. Set the Start Time for 9:00 AM and End Time for 5:00 PM.
  • Your campaign is now configured to send the email to 20,000 contacts each day for the five-day period.

Routing: Enable the check box if you want to automatically route contacts excluded from the email send. Click Choose and specify a target.

Once you have set up the rules you wish to use on your email you will need to link the segment to the email.  This completes the workflow from step to step.  You do this by clicking on the circle at the bottom of segment and dragging it over to the email you wish to send.

You have now set your first email up to go through the campaign. Now we need to create the rest of the track. The next step we will want to use is a decision step which is identifying if the contact has submitted the form that will allow them to download the whitepaper.

Adding a filter-decision step to the campaign

Since the campaign we are building has the option of a contact downloading any one of three whitepapers before pushing them over to the next stage in the buying cycle and sending them the associated product factsheet email we will use the decision step “Shared Filter Member”.

You will have needed to create a shared filter which will be able to determine if the contact has downloaded one of the white papers.
Please view the Appendix – Creating Shared Filters.

To add the decision step “Shared List Member”. Click on it and drag it onto the canvas.

Now you need to set it up.

Type a new name into the Step name field.

Select a shared filter from the drop-down list, or click Folder and browse to the list.

Set the Evaluation Period, the time period in which you want to evaluate for this criterion. Type a number in the box, then specify if it is hours, days, weeks, or months.

  • If the evaluation period is set to 0, Oracle Eloqua will evaluate the contact immediately.
  • If the evaluation period is set for 24 hours or less, Oracle Eloqua will retry the evaluation every 10 minutes.
  • If the evaluation period is set for more than 1 day, Oracle Eloqua will retry the evaluation every 30 minutes.
  • If the evaluation period is set for more than 1 week, Oracle Eloqua will retry the evaluation once every hour.

Finally connect the steps from the email to the decision point.

You now have two options.  The yes path will lead contacts to the next step on the buying journey by sending the contact the product factsheet email and the other will send the contacts the second whitepaper email.

You are going to create the no track emails.  You need to repeat the step for setting up email two more times and use the decision step for “Shared Filter Member?”

You will now have a campaign that looks like this:

Move contacts to shared lists in a campaign

You now need to set the No Interest shared list. If you need to know how to create a shared list please view the Appendix – Creating Shared Lists.

All contacts that show no interest in the three whitepapers that you have sent to them will be placed into a shared list. This will allow you to do other things with them like reporting, putting into another campaign, etc.

To do this you need to click and drag over “Move to Shared List”.

You now need to set the No-path to Move to Shared List.

To configure the Move to Shared List:

Type a new name into the Step name text box.

Select a contact list from the Choose a contact list to evaluate drop-down list, or click File Chooser and select one from the chooser. To create a new list, click New.

Next, we will set the yes path. The yes path is going to send contacts the email that contains a link to the product factsheet.

Adding a wait step to the campaign

Prior to sending the email though you may wish to add a wait step so the email doesn’t look fully automated.

Click on the Wait step and drag it on to the canvas.

Connect the yes path from each of the “Shared Filter Member” steps.

Next, we need to set the wait step

Type a new name into the Step name text box.

Select one of the following options to determine how long the wait interval should be:

Wait for a set amount of time: Specify the number of hour(s), day(s), week(s) or month(s) for the wait period.

Wait until a specific date and time: Set a specific date and time as the target wait period. Confirm the correct time zone is selected.

Once you have set your wait step you need to create a new email step and add in the product fact sheet email. In this instance the email contains the link to the product fact sheet. 

Add a “Clicked Email” Decision Step to a Campaign

Next you need to set up a decision step which will evaluate if the contact has downloaded the product factsheet from the email.

Click and drag on to the canvas the decision rule for “Clicked Email?”

Now you need to set “Clicked Email”, the platform will automatically set the email.

Type a new name into the Step name field.

Set the evaluation details by selecting:

The minimum number of times that a link in the email was clicked, choose from the number drop-down list.

The time period during which it was clicked (within the last…), type a number in the box then choose if it is hours, days, weeks, or months.

The Evaluation period, the time period in which you want to evaluate for this criterion. Type a number in the box, then specify if it is hours, days, weeks, or months.

  • If the evaluation period is set to 0, Eloqua will evaluate the contact immediately.
  • If the evaluation period is set for 24 hours or less, Eloqua will retry the evaluation every 10 minutes.
  • If the evaluation period is set for more than 1 day, Eloqua will retry the evaluation every 30 minutes.
  • If the evaluation period is set for more than 1 week, Eloqua will retry the evaluation once every hour.

Next you need to set the No side of the decision rule which will add contacts to the Reach shared list.  Drag Move to Shared List on the canvas and set it to the shared list for reach.

Now you need to set the Yes action for contacts that have downloaded the product factsheet.

For the yes track you are going to wait for 1 day and then send the contacts the Relations Email.  The Relations email will have the same filter set up to determine if contacts have downloaded the case study.  If contacts do not click on the case study they will be added to the Relations shared list.

Follow the steps you have been taught to set this up.  Your canvas should look like this:

We now need to deal with the sending of the final email.  The final email for revenue sends contacts to a landing page which will allow contacts to complete a form which will be passed over to sales requesting a call back.

Set up the final email for send.

You now need to click on the decision step for “Submitted a Form?” and drag it over to the canvas.

Now you need to set up the query for the decision point.

To configure the “Submitted Form?” element.

Type a new name into the Step name field.

Select the form from the drop-down list, or click Folder and browse to the form.

Set the evaluation parameters by selecting the time period during which the form must have been submitted to be routed differently (Sent within the last…). Type a number in the box then choose if it is hours, days, weeks, or months.

Now connect the last email you sent to the form step.

Now you need to connect the steps for Move to Shared list for contacts that should be in the Reputation or Revenue shared list.

You have now finished your campaign.  It should look like this:

ADD “FORM (REPORTING ONLY)” AND “LANDING PAGE (REPORTING ONLY) STEP TO CAMPAIGN

You must now add the final part prior to activating. You need to drag Form (Reporting Only) on to the canvas for the form that is to be used for downloading the different whitepapers and the request a call back.

To do this click on the Forms (Reporting Only) option and drag it over to the right-hand side of the campaign.

Once you have dragged it over you need to click on it, give the step a new name and then set the form you wish to report on.  It is very important that you do this step.  It is required for end to end campaign reporting.

Repeat for the second form, your canvas should look like this:

Now you need to add the corresponding landing pages for reporting.  Click and drag Landing Page (Reporting Only) on the canvas.

Double click into the landing page, change the name and select the landing page

Your canvas should now look like this

Now click on save

Navigate to the correct folder and save the campaign using the naming convention tool

You will now see that the landing page and the corresponding form have a grey dotted line connecting them, this way you can tell that you have set the correct form and landing page.

ACTIVATE THE MULTI-STEP CAMPAIGN

When you are ready to deploy your campaign click the activate button.