2 Simplified Data Routing Tools within Eloqua: A Basic Introduction

June 26, 2023June 27, 2023 Stan

Eloqua is a powerful tool that has many processes to accomplish the same goal in your marketing strategy. Arguably one of the most important processes is data routing – what’s the use of gathering and storing data in your CRM without being able to put it to use to help you better understand your audience and communicate with them better.

You may have noticed that there are a couple of different tools to update, cleanse and organize the data that you collect from your contacts, and each different tool has strengths and weaknesses for the journeys your data must take to become useful.

Data Routing with Form Processing

The most obvious tool is the form processing steps that you can configure in the Processing area (found in the top right corner of the screen). You’ll find some basic routing options there that are useful for the first steps of any data routing you might need for a given campaign. Some available steps are things like “Update the Contact Record with Form Data,” “Update a CDO with Form Data” and “Add Time Stamp.” All these options allow you to start storing data outside the form submission data, which is only useful for temporary data storage for, say, an in-person event where you need to collect dietary preference.

Once you start storing data outside of the form, it becomes a more permanent part of your overall segmentation and data strategy that you can pull from again and again.

Power of Program and Campaign Canvases

While the form processing steps can be extremely useful for collecting and storing data that was given by the contact, that data given is not always in a friendly format for easy segmentation and reporting. That’s where our next set of tools for data routing come in. Not only can you use form processing steps to route information, but you can also use them to send contacts to a program or campaign canvas where there are other options available to process and update contacts’ data. On the campaign canvas you will find Action options like “Add to Shared List.” “Update Rules” and “Add to Program.”

These steps, while they may seem like some of the same options available in the form processing steps, allow you to set the timing of each action using wait steps on the canvas. Say you have contacts filling out a hand raiser form and you need to update their contact records with an approved or not approved status based on information they provide in their form submission data. You can send each contact to the campaign canvas where you can use data rules to check their submission data, and based on certain responses can update the contact with the new status. Then, once their new status is written to the record, you can add them to a shared list to be used in segmentation to send nurture emails or other communication, all on the same canvas. Plus, you can control the timing of when the contact will get updated and how long between their form submission to the date of their first communication.

The beauty of the campaign and program canvases for data routing is that the updates and appending can be as simple or as complex as you need for each project, and you can keep the canvases running indefinitely.

While Eloqua provides even more options for data routing, these two tools alone are powerful enough to accomplish most needs for even complex marketing strategies. All it takes is a little thought and imagination and you can keep your database organized, clean, and you can improve the personalization of your messaging, resulting in greater engagement and ultimately, more successful marketing.

Looking to dive deeper into your data routing steps? Or maybe you need assurance your current programs are set up correctly. Whatever it is, we are here to help. Contact us today!

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