In the highly dynamic marketing automation space, Quaero is both a partner of leading tool providers—incorporating software for dialog management within multichannel marketing environments that we build and support for our clients—and a user of such tools as part of our own client acquisition efforts.
There is a vast difference between our clients’ data and transactional requirements (think Big Data and B2C) and the world we operate in as a customer engagement agency with a very narrow B2B focus. So we necessarily utilize different tools internally and always look for ways to elevate our game.
It’s a truism that when marketing automation is done well, it improves the quality of interactions—driving timely, relevant communications—and when done poorly, it reveals a lack of insight and drives disinterest. This makes it essential to rally around best practices.
Eloqua is a company that, over the years, has continued to distinguish itself with the quality of its platform and as a thought leader in aligning marketing with sales. They enable effective engagement at all stages of the buyer’s journey and maintain consistent focus on revenue attainment—supporting detailed analysis of success factors so they can be replicated.
In the Road to Revenue Tour, Eloqua provides an opportunity for its clients to
spend a day learning how local peers utilize the application to increase marketing efficiency and sales performance, get updates on software enhancements, and network with other Eloquans from newbies to super-users.
On a recent stop in Austin, Texas, the Tour included a presentation by Jennifer Horton, Revenue Performance Management (RPM) Program Director. Eloqua describes RPM as “a systematic approach to identifying the drivers and impediments to revenue, rigorously measuring them, and then pulling the economic levers that will optimize top line growth.” Jennifer is also a product manager for analytics, which provides a good vantage point on upcoming enhancements in Eloqua 10.
One of the more interesting features for marketing organizations aspiring to best in class is the Benchmark Dashboard. Drawing on aggregate data from Eloqua clients across 13 industry segments, Eloqua users can now analyze key metrics for contacts, campaigns and lead management, relative to other organizations similar to their own.
Index constituents are chosen for being consistent users of a significant feature set of the application for the past 6 months or more, and are re-evaluated for inclusion every 3 months. Eloqua does not divulge names of constituent members. The number of members varies by industry with an average of 50 members per index. The benchmarks are recalculated on a daily basis and users can do comparisons for the current month, previous month, and current quarter. Users can also compare against their own performance over the same periods.
By increasing marketers’ visibility of their own performance and that of their industry peers, Eloqua is raising the bar on marketing effectiveness. This has been a consistent theme from the company over the years and an example of their thought leadership in the space.
Interesting idea. Sort of like, building and engaging a community, offline.