Frequently Asked Questions

Expanding Oracle Eloqua to New Business Units

What is the recommended checklist for expanding Oracle Eloqua to new business units?

The recommended checklist includes evaluating contact overlap, subscription management, integrations, campaign response definitions, branding requirements, reporting needs, asset templates, and data quality standards. Following this checklist ensures a smooth onboarding process and minimizes disruption to existing users. Source

How should organizations handle overlapping contacts when expanding Eloqua?

If business units share contacts, using the existing Eloqua instance allows for better email frequency monitoring and prevents email fatigue. The total contact count, which affects Oracle Eloqua costs, is calculated across all instances, regardless of duplication. Source

What should be considered if contacts do not overlap between business units?

If contacts do not overlap, organizations may need to implement Contact Level Security to restrict access to contact records. If this is not already set up, it should be configured in the existing instance. Source

How does subscription management affect the decision to use an existing or new Eloqua instance?

If subscription management is the same for both business units, the existing instance can be used. If it differs, modifications may be needed to allow each unit to manage subscriptions separately, such as creating unique preference management pages. Contacts globally unsubscribed may need to be re-subscribed and preferences updated at the email group level. Source

What integration considerations are important when onboarding a new business unit to Eloqua?

If the new business unit uses the same CRM system and lead creation processes, existing integrations can be leveraged. If substantial changes are required, setting up a new instance and integration may be necessary. Account linkage is important if using different CRM systems and overlapping contacts. Non-CRM integrations, such as webinar platforms or SFTP imports, must be set up in either instance. Source

How do third-party apps impact the expansion of Eloqua to new business units?

If third-party apps in the existing instance require licensing for a new instance, organizations should consider the additional costs involved. Source

What are the implications of campaign response definitions when expanding Eloqua?

If campaign response definitions are the same, the existing instance can be used. If they differ, a new instance may be needed, as Eloqua response rules apply to all activities in an instance and cannot be modified per business unit. Organizations may need to change how campaign responses are sent to the CRM system if definitions differ. Source

How do branding requirements affect the decision to use an existing or new Eloqua instance?

If the new business unit has specific branding requirements, such as separate subdomains for landing pages, branding, deliverability, and subscription management, a new instance may be needed. If not, the existing instance can be used. Source

What is IP warming and why is it important when setting up a new Eloqua instance?

IP warming is the process of gradually increasing email volume sent from new dedicated IPs to build sender reputation. This process should take up to 4 weeks before sending large volumes of emails from a new Eloqua instance. Source

How do reporting requirements influence the choice between existing and new Eloqua instances?

If reporting requirements are similar, standard dashboards and custom campaign fields can be used for granular reporting. If requirements differ, organizations may need to configure new reports or dashboards. Most Insight reports are configurable for specific asset metrics. Source

Can asset templates be leveraged when onboarding a new business unit to Eloqua?

If asset templates (email, form, landing page, campaign) exist in the current instance, they can be reused to save time. If not, similar effort is required to create new templates in either the existing or new instance. Source

How do data quality standards affect the expansion of Eloqua?

If data standards such as country-to-region, job title-to-role, or level are the same, organizations can use existing lookup tables and automation, reducing effort. If not, new standards and automation may need to be developed. Source

What services does 4Thought Marketing offer for expanding Oracle Eloqua?

4Thought Marketing offers Marketing Automation and Privacy Compliance Software Implementation, Integration, Customization, Consulting, and Service. Their Eloqua SmartStart covers many steps for onboarding new business units. Source

How can 4Thought Marketing help with choosing the best path forward for Eloqua expansion?

4Thought Marketing has deep experience helping companies evaluate options when adding new business units to Eloqua. Their specialists can discuss requirements and provide guidance. Source

What is the role of a qualified partner in Eloqua SmartStart?

A qualified partner, such as 4Thought Marketing, can guide organizations through many steps of the Eloqua SmartStart process, ensuring a successful deployment and addressing unique challenges early in the project. Source

What are the main factors influencing the choice between using an existing or new Eloqua instance?

The main factors include similarity or difference in customer data, sales processes, contact overlap, subscription management, integrations, branding, reporting, asset templates, and data quality standards. Source

How does Oracle Eloqua determine the cost based on contact count?

Oracle Eloqua determines cost based on the total number of contact records across all instances, regardless of duplication. Source

What is the importance of aligning business and legal objectives in marketing automation?

Aligning business and legal objectives ensures strategies produce results while maintaining privacy compliance. 4Thought Marketing specializes in translating these objectives into actionable strategies. Source

What is the benefit of using existing asset templates in Eloqua?

Using existing asset templates saves time and reduces effort when onboarding new business units, as templates for emails, forms, landing pages, and campaigns can be reused. Source

Features & Capabilities

What products does 4Thought Marketing offer for marketing automation and privacy compliance?

4Thought Marketing offers products such as 4Comply (privacy compliance software), Cloud Apps (innovative solutions for marketing automation platforms), 4Preferences (centralized preference management), 4Segments (visual segmentation for marketers), and 4Bridge (integration solutions for Eloqua, Marketo, CRM, and other systems). Source

What is the String Deleter Cloud App and how does it improve data quality?

The String Deleter Cloud App surgically removes unwanted character strings from data, such as honorifics, name prefixes or suffixes, company suffixes, or special characters, improving data quality in marketing automation platforms. Source

How does the Append Fields Cloud App work?

The Append Fields Cloud App combines two fields plus text and stores the result in another field, streamlining data management for marketers. Source

What is the Contact CO Deleter Cloud App?

The Contact CO Deleter Cloud App removes mapped custom object records from a contact in a contact program or campaign canvas, helping maintain clean data in Eloqua. Source

What is the CO to Contact Updater (CO Based) Cloud App?

The CO to Contact Updater (CO Based) Cloud App enhances Eloqua program canvas functionality by allowing easy modification of contacts from linked custom object records. Source

What is 4Comply and how does it help with privacy compliance?

4Comply is software designed to maximize marketing while ensuring privacy compliance, helping organizations align marketing activities with privacy laws and regulations. Source

What is 4Preferences and how does it support preference management?

4Preferences centralizes preference management across an organization, enabling efficient handling of subscription and communication preferences. Source

What is 4Segments and how does it help marketers?

4Segments provides visual segmentation tools for marketers, allowing them to create and manage audience segments more effectively. Source

What is 4Bridge and what integration solutions does it provide?

4Bridge offers integration solutions for Eloqua, Marketo, CRM, and other systems, enabling seamless data flow and process automation across platforms. Source

Use Cases & Benefits

Who can benefit from expanding Oracle Eloqua to new business units?

Large organizations, companies undergoing mergers or acquisitions, and businesses with multiple units seeking unified marketing automation and compliance can benefit from expanding Oracle Eloqua. Source

What problems does 4Thought Marketing solve for organizations expanding Eloqua?

4Thought Marketing helps organizations address challenges such as contact overlap, subscription management, integration complexity, campaign response alignment, branding, reporting, asset reuse, and data quality standards during Eloqua expansion. Source

Is 4Thought Marketing suitable for organizations needing privacy compliance?

Yes, 4Thought Marketing specializes in privacy compliance software and consulting, helping organizations ensure compliance with privacy laws and regulations. Source

How does 4Thought Marketing support marketing teams with documentation and knowledge preservation?

4Thought Marketing emphasizes strategic B2B marketing documentation before, during, and after projects to reduce cognitive load, accelerate execution, and preserve institutional knowledge. Source

How does 4Thought Marketing help prevent technical debt in Eloqua?

Regular Eloqua health checks by 4Thought Marketing prevent technical debt, protect deliverability, and ensure maximum ROI through proactive platform optimization. Source

How does 4Thought Marketing support sales and marketing alignment?

4Thought Marketing helps build sales trust with high-value response signals, accelerating deal closure when sales and marketing are aligned. Source

How does 4Thought Marketing help organizations improve email deliverability?

4Thought Marketing offers campaign production services, including email, form, and landing page execution, deliverability, and reporting, to enhance email impact and deliverability. Source

What training services does 4Thought Marketing provide?

4Thought Marketing provides custom online training and videos to improve skills and increase productivity for Eloqua and Marketo users. Source

How does 4Thought Marketing support system integration?

4Thought Marketing offers system integration options using connectors and custom APIs, enabling seamless integration between marketing automation platforms and other systems. Source

What web and app development services does 4Thought Marketing offer?

4Thought Marketing provides custom cloud apps, HTML templates, JavaScript, and responsive email development services. Source

How does 4Thought Marketing help organizations measure results and plan improvements?

4Thought Marketing offers reporting and analytics services to help organizations measure results and plan improvements for their marketing automation initiatives. Source

What data services does 4Thought Marketing provide?

4Thought Marketing provides data management and stewardship services to ensure high-quality data for marketing automation platforms. Source

Checklist for Expanding Oracle Eloqua to New Business Units
By 4Thought Marketing

checklist for expanding

Checklist for Expanding Oracle Eloqua to New Business Units

For many large organizations, they implement Oracle Eloqua phases. Or they may acquire a company and eventually need to move them into Eloqua. When it’s time to onboard a new business unit, a plan is essential to ensure everyone is on the same page. It’s also an opportunity to address the organization’s unique challenges and address potential issues early in the project.

One way to ensure a successful deployment is following a checklist to confirm you ask and answer all the relevant questions.  In this article, we’ll explore many of the planning steps and discuss the various tasks involved.  An Eloqua SmartStart from a qualified partner also covers many but not all of these steps.

Key Considerations

Depending on your Oracle Eloqua license, you may have the option of using an existing or creating a new Oracle Eloqua instance. There are many factors when making this decision, but the key is minimizing disruption to existing users and setting the new business unit up for success. The following are a series of questions that will uncover the best approach for your unique business case.

Contacts

• Are there overlapping contacts within the two business units?
• Does the new business unit share a large number of contacts with existing business units

Yes, share contacts – Having them use the existing instance will allow for better email frequency monitoring to prevent email fatigue. And your total contact count (which Oracle Eloqua uses to determine the cost) will not increase substantially. The contact count is performed across all Eloqua instances and counts the total number of contact records, regardless of duplication across all instances.

No, contacts do not overlap – Does access to contact records need to be restricted using Contact Level Security? If yes, and this is not already set up in the existing instance, consider this an additional piece to configure.

Subscription Management

  • How is subscription management configured in the existing instance, and would it be different for the new business unit?

Same subscription management – use existing

Different – To use the existing instance, you may need to make modifications that allow each business unit to manage their subscriptions separately, i.e., create unique preference management pages. Contacts previously globally unsubscribed may need to be re-subscribed and preferences updated on the email group level, especially if contacts are shared mainly with the new business unit.

Integrations

  • Are there additional integrations required by the new business unit, or can they leverage existing integrations?
  • Do they use the same CRM system, and if so, are the lead creation processes similar?

Yes — You eliminate the need to set up a new integration by using the existing instance.
No — evaluate how the existing CRM integration would need to be modified. If integrations require substantial changes, there may be no benefit to using the current instance. The level of effort to configure the integration may be the same as setting up a new instance and different integration.

Another consideration if using a different CRM system and overlapping contacts is how to implement Account Linkage.

Whether or not there are non-CRM integrations shouldn’t impact the decision, as new integrations, whether it’s a webinar platform or SFTP import, need to be set up in the existing in a new instance. There may even be existing non-CRM integrations that can be leveraged by the new business unit in the current instance.

Third-Party App

Are there any third-party apps in the existing instance that require licensing for a new instance? If so, consider the additional costs.

Campaign Responses

  • Does the new business unit define campaign responses the same way as the existing business units?

Yes – The same Instance

No – New instance. Response Rules in Eloqua apply for ALL activities in the instance, and you cannot modify them for each business unit. You may need to evaluate how campaign responses are currently sent to the CRM system and change the process if the new business unit has different definitions.

Branding

  • Does the new business unit have specific branding requirements? For example, will they require separate subdomains to host landing pages, branding & deliverability, and out-of-the-box subscription management?

Yes – consider creating a new instance for a separately branded send, image, and apps domain.
No – existing instance

Additional Considerations
IP Warming

If leaning towards setting up a new instance, remember you must first warm up the new dedicated IPs before sending large volumes of emails, a process that can and should take up to 4 weeks.

Reporting

  • Are the reporting requirements similar, or are they very different?

Many standard dashboards query the entire database, such as Campaign Analysis Overview. Some campaign dashboards display metrics based on a custom campaign field, such as Business Unit, to allow more granular reporting for each business unit. Most Insight reports are also configurable for specific asset metrics.

Asset Templates

  • Are there asset templates (email/form/landing page/campaign) in the existing instance that can be leveraged by the new business unit?

Yes – save time recreating asset templates by using the existing inst
No – Similar level of effort is required to create new templates in the existing instance or new instance.

Data Quality and Processes

  • Are your data standards such as country to region, job title to a job role, or level the same?

Yes – reduce effort by using existing lookup tables and automation without rebuilding them.

Conclusion

When adding new business units to your Oracle Eloqua CX Marketing platform, carefully consider your options when choosing to use an existing or creating a new Eloqua instance. Following a checklist can help ensure you ask and answer all the relevant questions during the decision-making process. While there are many factors, the choice is mainly dependent on how similar, or different the customer data and sales processes are between the respective business units

Get the Help you Need

Need help choosing the best path forward? 4Thought Marketing has deep experience helping companies consider their options carefully when adding a new business unit. Contact us to discuss your requirements with one of our specialists.

About 4Thought Marketing

4Thought Marketing is a software development and privacy compliance company founded in 2008. We help customers align business and legal objectives, translating them into strategies that produce results. Our services include Marketing Automation and Privacy Compliance Software Implementation, Integration, Customization, Consulting, and Service.

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