Optimize B2B Relationships with the Sendoso & Eloqua Integration

If you’ve heard the phrase “Do more with less,” raise your hand. 🙋

Marketers have been tasked with generating a pipeline that converts, filling the lead funnel, creating engaging content, launching campaigns - the list goes on. At the same time, budgets are flat or shrinking, and time spent on any one project is at a premium.

So, how can you effectively accomplish all these goals while being efficient with time and money? We have one word for you: automation.

You might be thinking, “Sendoso, you’re all about the personal touch! Isn’t automation the complete opposite of that?” We’re here to tell you that you can have your automation and build personal relationships, too. We think of it as helping you send the right gift to the right person at the right time.

By integrating the tools you already have at your fingertips with Sendoso, you can build (and scale!) outreach programs that are personalized and effective without adding any additional workflows to your marketing or sales process. 

We’ve created this playbook to help you maximize our Eloqua integration. Real Sendoso customers have proven these strategies, so we know they work. Get ready to supercharge your marketing and sales processes and impress leadership with your team’s success.

Sendoso + Eloqua

Eloqua is a marketing automation tool that allows you to create email sequences that can be triggered off of criteria you map out in your campaign canvas. Using this playbook, you can:

• Engage buyers throughout their journey by building triggered sends right in the campaign canvas.
• Track direct mail campaign success by sending notification alerts to the sender or the Salesforce account owner.
• Easily add an Eloqua eGift link to any Eloqua email template.

Follow these steps to create programs to connect with the right person at the right time, with the right message and gift.

If you need help setting up an automated gifting campaign using Sendoso + Eloqua, click here for setup instructions.

Formula for Success

When using this playbook, follow this formula:

Campaigns in Eloqua are built using the campaign canvas. Here, you can visualize your flow and decide where to add components based on the journey your contact is taking.

Here’s a breakdown of how you can use this formula in Eloqua to build effective gifting campaigns.

Identify the signal: Eloqua uses Segments to group your contacts by attributes that you choose. You can build your segments using Filters to include or exclude things like your ICP criteria or actions a person has or has not taken.

Create the trigger: Once you have your Segment set up, you can begin building your flow. Your flow is the set of actions that occur when a contact fits the criteria in your Segment. This may be an email send confirming the registration for your webinar, or adding someone into a 1:many gifting campaign.

Complete the action: The action is what happens after the flow is executed. An email with a gift thanking them for registering for your webinar may be sent, or they’re put into an email sequence that ties into a gifting campaign.

Build Your Gifting Strategy

After you’ve identified the relevant data to track and set up your trigger, it’s time to consider your gifting campaigns. Personalization is key, and there are a few things to consider when building your plan.

Choosing the right gift

First and foremost, we know that one size doesn’t fit all. In any of your gifting campaigns, it's important to offer your recipient a few gifts to choose from in a range that touches on different interests or needs. For this, a Sendoso Choice campaign is the way to go.

The type of gifts you include in your outreach should correspond to the type of campaign you’re running. 

For a door-opener campaign targeting an account at the top of your funnel, starting with eGift cards is a great choice. Depending on how large your audience is, this helps avoid eating up your budget and gives you time to assess the campaign's success before going all-in on larger gifts.

Popular eGifts include gift cards for coffee, food delivery, and restaurants. 

When targeting specific personas at high-value accounts, you may want to splurge a little with physical gift options. Getting something delivered into your prospect's hands is super impactful and will definitely make an impression on them. 

With Sendoso’s Address Confirmation feature, you don’t need an address ahead of time. The recipient puts in their address when they accept the gift, and we never store any of their information. Convenient and secure!

You'll likely target two levels of contacts at your accounts: above-the-line buyers and below-the-line buyers. 

Above the Line buyers are typically C-suite or VP level and tend to be the primary decision-makers in the account. They usually aren’t the end user, so the pain point your product solves for likely isn’t apparent in their day-to-day. However, they are typically the people approving budgets and spending, so you’ll want to ensure they have a firm understanding of how your product benefits their team. A thoughtful gift can go a long way in making these busy executives pay attention to you.

The ideal budget for these personas is $100-$250. Sendoso has thousands of gifts in our marketplace, so picking out a few universally appealing items is easy. Here are some examples:

For the homebody: Loved & Found Cozy Night In Spirits box

For the fashion-forward: The Sustainable Watch Co.: The Oak Watch

For the note-taker: Dayspring Pens Noteworthy Leather Journal and Pen Set

Below the Line buyers are more likely to be your main point of contact and champion in the company. They are your product's end user and are looking to solve a real problem. Unlike Above the Line buyers, they are intimately familiar with the tools they’re using and can quickly identify their pain points and blockers. However, they typically aren’t in charge of spending or budget and will usually have to request approval or bring in decision-makers before the deal can close.

When you’ve identified your champion, you’ll want to build and cement that relationship quickly. Even though you’re spending less on these gifts, the action is no less valuable. The ideal price point for this group is $25-$50, but you can go as high as $75 if your budget allows. 

Here are some of our favorite gifts at this price point:

For the sweet tooth: Grove Cookie Company - Baker’s Choice Dozen Cookies

For those in need of a spa day: The Goodness Project Calm Wellness Letterbox Gift Box

For the one who just wants to have fun: Piñatagram

Use Cases

Gifting is a strategy you can incorporate into many aspects of your business, but for the purposes of this playbook, we worked with Eloqua experts to identify the most common and impactful use cases for this integration.

Action: Capture Prospects Who Engage With Your Content

With so many sellers competing for your prospect’s attention, meaningfully engaging them as soon as they show interest is top priority.

Identify the signal: A prospect downloads an ebook or whitepaper, or signs up to watch an on-demand webinar.

Create the trigger: Set up a Segment with a filter to catch anyone who fills out the form for the asset, including filters to narrow down to your ICP and other attributes that you consider important.

Complete the action: Set up a party link in Sendoso, and choose a small gift - a $5 or $10 coffee card is a great pick. Add this link to your triggered follow up email send when someone downloads a piece of content, and voila! Now, your prospect is getting a small token of appreciation for engaging with your content, and you have a touchpoint for someone on the team to reach out to if they redeem it.

Action: Connect with Webinar and Virtual Event Attendees

Virtual events and webinars are great opportunities to connect with your audience on a larger scale. But that doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice a personalized experience just because you won’t be in the same room. Using automatic triggers from Eloqua, you can grow attendee numbers without breaking a sweat.

Identify the signal: A lead or contact signs up for a webinar or virtual event.

Create the trigger: Set up your Segment with a filter for anyone who signs up for your webinar or virtual event - this can be done when they fill out the registration form, or receive an email confirming their attendance.

Consider layering on filters identifying if they are an active contact or net new lead, where they fall in your ICP, and if they’re connected to any of your high-value target accounts.

Complete the action: Create an email thanking them for signing up for the event. Offering a well thought-out gift along with their registration confirmation can build excitement and influence their attendance.

Offering to buy coffee or lunch for your attendee to enjoy while watching the event is always a solid choice, but you can also get creative with your campaign, like a themed gift. Is your webinar scheduled the week of Valentine’s Day? Offer a small box of cookies with a note saying, “It would be sweet to have you join us!”. Is your topic very tactical with a lot of takeaways? Send a mini notebook and new pen so folks can “take notes”. Experiment and get as creative as you want - you may surprise yourself!

Action: Meaningfully Make Use of Engagement Scores

Use Eloqua's lead scoring system to automatically trigger a gift to a lead who reaches a certain score threshold. Based on how you score your lead’s actions, you can send a small gift when their engagement with your site or content peaks, encouraging them to interact with your team. 

Identify the trigger: A lead or contact passes your engagement score threshold by visiting the site multiple times over a certain period of time or executing specified actions.

Create the trigger: Work with your marketing operations team (or the owner of your lead scoring system) to set a threshold for engagement scores and determining the scores for different actions. 

For a simplified example, you may want to put someone who has an engagement score of 100% into your gifting campaign. They’ve reached a score of 100% by both signing up for your newsletter (scored at 50%) and attending a webinar (scored at 50%).

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Action: Keep Customers Engaged Throughout Their Lifecycle

Gifting isn’t just relegated to the sales cycle - it can be implemented across Account Managers and Customer Success teams, too! Stay top of mind and keep building relationships with your customers by recognizing milestones during their lifecycle.

Identify the signal: There are several signals you can use on the customer side of things, such as onboarding completion, welcoming a new member to their team, reaching the goals they outlined during onboarding, or their anniversary. For this example, we’ll focus on their anniversary celebration.

Create the trigger: Set up a campaign with your Segment filters identifying the attribute connected to your customer’s official start date. 

Complete the action: In the flow of your campaign, add an email letting them know you’re celebrating their anniversary with your company, and include a Party Link to their gift offer.

Definitely get creative with this one - you don’t have to settle for the traditional “celebration” gifts like champagne or treats. Something a little more out of ordinary like a DIY or “make your own” kit, a cozy blanket, or a leather-bound journal are all great options.

Analyze Your Results

Once you’ve implemented your campaigns using Demandbase and Sendoso, you’ll want to track and analyze your results to determine your success. You can look at the data in a few different ways.

Engagement increase: Keep track of the engagement levels of the prospects you’re reaching out to. Are they trending upward or downward? This is a good first indication of the effectiveness of your messaging.

Gift acceptance: Are your gifts being accepted or going unnoticed? A high acceptance rate means that your prospects are at least reading your emails and are interested enough to redeem their gift offer. Periodically looking at what gifts are accepted the most can help determine which items are the best choices for your campaigns.

Meetings booked: Compare the number of meetings booked from these campaigns to your typical benchmark. Is it higher or lower? This is a good indicator of effective messaging.

Meetings booked to show rate: Are your prospects attending the meetings they’ve booked with you? Compare your benchmark show rate to those of your campaigns. If it’s missing the mark, you may consider changing your messaging or the signals you’re targeting.

Opportunity Win Rate: How are your campaigns influencing won deals? Tracking the progress of your account lists through the sales cycle is another helpful indicator of your timing, messaging, and gift resonating with your prospects.

Send It!

With Sendoso and Eloqua, you can spice up your outreach efforts and make every interaction count. It’s all about working smarter, not harder. 

By following the playbook and employing smart automation, you can build stronger relationships with both prospects and existing customers, driving significant improvements in engagement and conversion rates. Let Sendoso and Eloqua be your partners in not just reaching but resonating with your audience at every step of their journey.

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