Robust marketing automation; invest in a seasoned admin.
April 05, 2018

Robust marketing automation; invest in a seasoned admin.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Enterprise

Modules Used

  • Eloqua

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Eloqua

Eloqua is primarily used by our Marketing department (specifically the Demand Generation team), but Sales leverages the Profiler tool (in CRM) to see what their Leads and Contacts have engaged with, when. ELQ's primary usage is marketing automation, combining email automation with landing pages, social engagement, etc. to serve as our de facto marketing database. We've also used it to automate significant portions of our previously re-source intensive on-boarding program, reducing the burden on the retention team, who juggles many accounts at one time.

By syncing Oracle Eloqua with our CRM, we maintain "one view of the truth" with our Sales peers to effectively gauge marketing performance at a campaign/program level, to easily attribute marketing contribution to overall pipeline and revenue.

Pros

  • Segmentation - There are many ways to slice and dice the data to ensure that you're targeting the right people with the right message at the right time.
  • Flexibility - Eloqua provides many ways to accomplish marketing tasks, so it is difficult to "out-think" its capabilities.
  • Scalability - Given its robust architecture, Eloqua can grow along with the maturity of your marketing model.

Cons

  • Complexity - ELQ is flexible and scalable, but does require a fair amount of care and feeding. Depending upon which systems you're integrating with, the programs required to do so aren't always set-it-and-forget-it.
  • Decision Rules - It would be great if there was an easier way for Users to make time-based decisions in Campaign Canvas (i.e., if submitting after 7 PM, do "x". If submitting during business hours, do "y"). It CAN be accomplished but could be simpler.
  • Reporting is clunky and isn't almost he most intuitive. The out of the box reports are helpful, but creating custom reports and dashboards can be a bit of a nightmare without training and a strong data background. Not a marketer-friendly component of the tool.
I've yet to be able to "out think" or "out grow" ELQ. In my current role, our installation is almost 10-years strong and we're still finding new ways to use the tool to optimize our marketing efforts.
  • In one case, Oracle Eloqua has reduced the number of tasks assigned to our Retention team from 7 / new account to 1. GIven that each Manager is assigned several hundred accounts through the year, the time- and resource-savings were incredible
I find ELQ to be the most well-rounded MAP on the market (without a lot of exposure to Marketo, which seems to be its one real opponent). In my opinion, Pardot and HubSpot offer similar, but less robust solutions that can be somewhat constricting.
Oracle Eloqua is a great marketing platform (the best I've used in my 10+ years in Marketing Operations), but it is not one-size-fits-all. While we've used it for some Sales and Finance outreach, I'd caution against it, as (in my opinion) it "muddies the waters" in terms of true marketing engagement.

Oracle Marketing Feature Ratings

WYSIWYG email editor
9
Dynamic content
6
Ability to test dynamic content
5
Landing pages
6
A/B testing
6
Mobile optimization
7
Email deliverability reporting
9
List management
7
Triggered drip sequences
8
Lead nurturing automation
9
Lead scoring and grading
8
Data quality management
6
Automated sales alerts and tasks
4
Calendaring
5
Event/webinar marketing
5
Social sharing and campaigns
5
Social profile integration
5
Dashboards
3
Standard reports
5
Custom reports
4
API
6
Role-based workflow & approvals
Not Rated
Customizability
9
Integration with Salesforce.com
Not Rated
Integration with Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Not Rated
Integration with SugarCRM
Not Rated

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