Integrating webinar platforms with Eloqua: Finding the functionality to help generate quality leads

February 24, 2021 Chuck Leddy

Due to COVID-19, 2020 was the year of the B2B webinar, with nearly all marketing budget outlays originally allocated to live events suddenly having to shift to online/virtual channels: a boom in webinars ensued. At a time of social distancing and everyone working from home, 91% of marketers feel the pandemic has made video more important for brands than ever, according to Wyzowl research. Moreover, webinars generate high quality leads: incredibly, 20 to 40% of webinar attendees turn into leads, according to Zoominfo.

The trend toward more “webinar-based engagement” seems likely to continue into 2021 and beyond, as B2B brands get better at channeling their subject-matter/product expertise and marketing messages into great content assets like webinars. But the recent growth of B2B webinars begs a larger question: How can webinar platforms like Zoom and ON24 be integrated into your Eloqua marketing automation platform? Assuming you are using B2B webinars to generate leads and nurture those leads (like everyone else is), how can you combine your chosen webinar platform with the customer engagement you’ve been driving via Eloqua?

During a recent Eloqua User Group meeting (yes, hosted on Zoom and leveraging Eloqua), Phil Boyden, Senior Marketing Automation Consultant at Sojourn Solutions, offered some great insights and answers.

Solutions for integrating webinar platforms and Eloqua

Eloqua, of course, doesn’t have a native integration with a webinar platform, but the app store is full of apps that facilitate integrations with the likes of webinar platforms ON24, Citrix GoToWebinar, Zoom, and many more. When you’re considering a webinar platform, you’ll need to look at how well it “plays with” Eloqua.

Boyden offered some “basic functionality in Eloqua” that you’ll want from any webinar platform integration, including:

  1. Registration step: push registrations to webinar platform;
  1. Registered decision rule: query webinar platform to see if a contact registered;
  1. Attended decision rule: query webinar platform to see if a contact  attended;
  1. Registered feeder: import registrants from webinar platform into Eloqua;
  1. Attended feeder: import attendees from webinar platform into Eloqua.

Eloqua User Group host Karin Pindle (Client Director at Sojourn Solutions) added that “you’ll want to ensure that, whatever webinar platform you ultimately use, when you automate the data coming into Eloqua, you also check its accuracy before you send any follow-up email.” Pindle noted that users sometimes make mistakes when filling out forms, and have even been known to play pranks by using fake names. So it’s best to do a manual double check of any data coming in before you use it for follow-up via Eloqua.

Setting up automated campaigns in Eloqua

Boyden demonstrated how B2B marketers can set up automated campaigns in Eloqua to send various emails related to their B2B webinars. For instance, when someone registers, you might automate the following “thank you for registering, plus instructions” email to go out instantly:

Dear [insert name of webinar registrant],

This is a confirmation that you are registered for the [insert name of webinar] on [insert date and time of webinar].

To view the webinar:

  • Browse to the registration site before the start time by using your personal log-in link: [insert “click here” and the relevant link]
  • From the home page, click “Watch Now” to open webinar/event platform.
  • Audio will broadcast through your computer speakers via Voice over IP (VoIP). Before the webinar, please confirm that your speakers are enabled and the volume is turned up.

Thank you for registering and we look forward to your attendance!

Best Wishes,

[insert Sponsor of Webinar]

Of course, noted Boyden, you could also leverage Eloqua to automate reminders (i.e., “the webinar is tomorrow at 1 pm” or “webinar starts in 2 hours”). For those who registered but failed to attend, you could automate an email saying, “we missed you, but here’s the on-demand recording of the webinar, which you can watch whenever you have the time.” Setting up campaign templates with emails like these is “quick and easy to run,” said Boyden, and can be tweaked and recycled for all of your B2B webinar messaging.

Besides looking for basic functionality (as listed above), Boyden recommends “optional extras” for an integration that include: (1) “poll and survey results from your webinar platform into an Eloqua Custom Object” and (2) “External Activity Cloud Action to add webinar registration or attendance activity to each Eloqua contact’s activity history.” These optional extras will allow your Sales teams to access relevant information for potential follow-up actions (i.e., converting leads into clients).

Next step: Explore your integration options

Pindle closed the Eloqua User Group presentation by laying out next steps: “You can go to Oracle’s app cloud to see all the available webinar integration apps. Some of them are free and some aren’t, but you should explore their functionality” and compare it to what you’re trying to achieve with B2B webinars. As always, you shouldn’t be afraid to try out (especially if they’re free) multiple apps in order to find what works best for your needs, Pindle suggested.

Interested in learning even more about integrating a webinar platform with your Eloqua platform to drive better customer engagement, generate more quality leads and boost marketing ROI? If so, reach out to us here.

The post Integrating webinar platforms with Eloqua: Finding the functionality to help generate quality leads appeared first on Sojourn Solutions.

 

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