By Chuck Leddy
Synergy is the idea that by combining two or more parts, the results can be larger than the sum of those parts. In other words, 1 + 1 can actually be more than 2. B2B marketers have seen synergy in practice when they combine different martech tools into their stack, for instance when they integrate their CRM system with their MAP to enable more targeted customer engagement and thus improve marketing ROI.
For Oracle Marketing Cloud (OMC), as we’ll explain in this post, that synergistic, martech formula is “1 + 1 + 1 is more than 3.”
Marketing’s perennial challenge: Who is our customer and what do they want (and when)?
Oracle Marketing Cloud has been helping B2B marketers solve their biggest challenges around data-fueled customer engagement for a long time, through multiple martech tools and offerings. OMC’s Beau Christensen, Regional Sales Director, Oracle CX Marketing, says that “marketers are always telling us ‘we don’t know our customers and prospects well enough, so we can’t deliver them great experiences.’” Customer data can become old and unusable fast, and marketers who leverage “old” data to engage with their customers tend to generate more disengagement (not to mention embarrassment) and less ROI.
OMC has stepped up and offered marketers tools for getting to know their customers better, keep customer data current and actionable, and improve marketing ROI. As Christensen explained in a recent webinar hosted by Sojourn Solutions Senior Marketing Consultant Karin Pindle, OMC provides marketers with the capabilities to pull in customer data in real-time, analyze it, transform that data into actionable intelligence, and then act upon that intelligence by engaging customers with relevant content sent via automation at the right time.
Both Christensen and Pindle explained how a 3-in-1 combination from OMC, made up of DataFox, Infinity and Eloqua can deliver massive benefits for B2B marketers, resolving classic marketing challenges around accessing and leveraging customer data to fuel better marketing ROI. These 3 parts of OMC, says Christensen, when working in combination, create a powerful revenue engine, “helping marketers get to know their customers better through AI and real-time data, which help them deliver delightful customer experiences.”
Accessing and leveraging customer data via OMC: What success looks like
All B2B marketers are familiar with the challenges around accessing and leveraging customer data — especially since these challenges sometimes keep them up at night. As Karin Pindle explains, B2B marketers need solutions that enable them to do the following functions:
- Fill in missing data for your key segmentation criteria and automate keeping data current, so you can target and score customers and accounts appropriately.
- Collect data related to your customers’ interests and make it easier to use that data in real-time to convert buying signals into revenues.
- Automate nurturing processes to take immediate action to provide useful content to customers wherever they are in their buying journey.
The OMC solution: 1 + 1 + 1 > 3
Pindle described 3 OMC solutions that, when working in combination, “are even more powerful in solving marketing challenges around customer data.” Let’s examine each OMC tool individually before exploring how they combine synergistically to offer value far beyond the sum of their parts.
OMC DataFox: This is Oracle’s solution for providing B2B marketers, especially those who use account-based marketing (ABM), with AI-driven and human-verified account data, account scoring, account prioritization, and real-time email alerts of account signals and news, such as when a company buys another company, announces an earnings report, or makes public a shift in strategic direction.
As Pindle explains it, “DataFox allows sales and marketing to have a single source of data about their accounts, helping drive alignment.” The tool helps Sales in targeting and scoring accounts, saving them untold research time and freeing Sales up to take revenue-driving, more targeted follow-up actions. For marketing, says Pindle, “DataFox helps enrich contact data, as well as helping marketers score, prioritize and route leads based on real-time account data.” In terms of targeting, segmenting and scoring within B2B marketing, especially within an ABM approach, DataFox is pure gold.
OMC Infinity: This is Oracle’s solution for tracking leads/individual customers across multiple digital channels (i.e., websites, mobile, etc.) along their buying journey. Infinity offers real-time data streaming and analytics that securely collects, processes and delivers actionable customer intelligence, which can be shared with and used within Eloqua and your CRM.
The real-time customer data that Infinity offers has multiple benefits and use cases, as Pindle explains:
- “Infinity offers real-time data for personalization and scoring;
- It offers content engagement data for leads and accounts for ABM; and
- It goes beyond simple, event-based triggers for remarketing.”
Oracle Eloqua: a marketing automation platform that orchestrates your customer communications via multiple channels and also enables Sales by sharing Marketing tracked activities. As Pindle explains, Eloqua offers many big benefits: (1) “it helps with customer targeting based on online behavior and profile data,” (2) “it helps Sales with scoring” and also (3) “automates the sending of targeted content.” Perhaps most importantly, Eloqua “measures B2B marketing performance to optimize marketing tactics and strategy,” says Pindle.
The many benefits of a “3-in-1” combo
Each of the 3 Oracle tools described above offers unique, specific functions and benefits for B2B marketers, but they work best in combination to unlock synergistic value. DataFox, for instance, allows account-based marketers to segment and score company-level accounts with real-time company data. With this real-time data, Marketing and Sales teams can respond to “real-time signals” and then prioritize outreach at the right times with the right, most relevant messaging. DataFox also keeps account data in Eloqua enriched and up-to-date.
Infinity works on the individual level, letting marketers know (again, in real-time) what a specific person, perhaps a decision-maker or influencer within a particular B2B account, might be interested in at any time (based on their online behavior/signals). Accounts are obviously multidimensional — what impacts the company might impact individuals within the company in different ways. Savvy, effective B2B marketers need to tailor their messaging both at the account level and to different individuals within an account (i.e., the individual level). DataFox and Infinity, working in tandem, enable B2B marketers to do exactly that, helping with segmentation and scoring too.
Eloqua comes to the fore on the execution side, automating personalized communication in real-time, saving marketers hours of research (at the account and individual level) and allowing targeted, relevant messaging to happen in a timely manner via the contact’s and/or account’s preferred channels. Once DataFox and Infinity have provided the actionable intelligence marketers need, Eloqua enables the action (i.e., messaging) to happen quickly and conveniently through its MAP automation.
Overview of “3-in-1” synergies
The most important takeaways here are about how the 3 Oracle tools described above work together seamlessly to improve your marketing ROI by:
- Helping you know your customers better so that you can create better customer experiences;
- Improving your campaign results through actionable customer and account insights/intelligence that drive relevant messaging;
- Increasing your marketing qualified leads/ MQLs; and
- Increasing your marketing ROI (it’s no accident that this bottom-line metric is at the end).
Want to learn more about the synergies offered by OMC’s 3-in-1 combo? Check out our latest webinar on the topic with Oracle Marketing Cloud “Excel your marketing performance with AI and real-time interest data,” find more details regarding our services here, or simply contact us.
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