Nasdaq: ELOQ

December 20, 2012 by Marc Hausman

My Initial Take on Oracle’s Acquisition of Eloqua: Dark Day for Marketing Automation

Larry Ellison, Oracle — Cheers, mate. I just bought Eloqua. (Image source: Cringely.com)

This morning Oracle announced its acquisitionof marketing automation software leader Eloqua in an all cash transaction valued at $871M. The $23.50/share price is a nice premium over where Eloqua has been trading since its IPO earlier this year.

Eloqua CEO Joe Payne paints a rosy picture of the deal for customers, partners and employees in this formal letter and in this blog post.

While this is a beneficial outcome for Eloqua’s management and shareholder, I’m not sold for a moment that being part of the Oracle family is good for anyone else.

My thoughts are based on Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) standing as an Eloqua referral partner, our work with the Eloqua platform on behalf of a half dozen clients and my 20+ years working in technology and enterprise software. I’ve seen lots of Oracle press releases over the years touting the company’s buys.

1. I don’t for a minute fault Eloqua’s Board, Payne or other members of management for blessing this transaction. They are stewards for the shareholders and Oracle’s purchase price represents an exceptional valuation. Congrats to them on a job well done!

2. In his blog post Payne offers us the following: “…we believe that together we can accelerate the pace of modern marketing.” Ah, not quite.

Eloqua now enters a process to be consumed by a glacially paced global organization. There will be no acceleration of anything during the closing period for the transaction and the awkward integration phase.

Plus, the instant Eloqua disappears into Oracle the prospect for innovation dims. Companies like Oracle, IBM, HP and Microsoft invest the majority of their operational resources to maintain existing product lines with incremental improvements in feature, functionality and support. They tend not to innovate which is why they are forced to find it through acquisition.

3. Payne’s letter assures customers and prospects that “Eloqua’s management team and employees are expected to join Oracle and continue their focus facilitating excellence in marketing.” I don’t believe that one either.

Yes, they’ll stick around through the integration and perhaps for a time afterwards. Yet, Eloqua’s culture remained entrepreneurial even after the IPO. (Anyone remember the flash mob at the Experience conference?) This is why the company successfully attracted such a highly innovative team.

Oracle is certainly populated with smart, hard working and effective managers. However, the culture and expectations of employees is different.

Make no mistake, the Eloquans who are not downsized will soon bolt for the door in search of a different professional experience.

I am happy for Eloqua, its management and its shareholders, and I believe the community of corporate marketers who use the platform will remain in place and vibrant.

This is a dark day though in the world of marketing automation. A hearty share of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit just left the building.

November 8, 2012 by Marc Hausman

3 Ways Eloqua’s CEO Wow’d with His Keynote

I have had the good fortune of seeing a number of exceptional corporate speakers.

Cisco’s John Chambers was polished, professional and personable during his keynote at a government conference a few years back. The way he graciously (and effectively) dismissed competitors like Juniper Networks and Tellabs was pure magic.

A keynote by Marc Benioff of Salesforce was equally compelling. His energized style captured the imagination and left the audience hungry to share and participate in the company’s vision.

And now I can add Eloqua’s Joe Payne to the list of must-see CEOs. Joe has had quite a year having led the company through a successful IPO. It would have been perfectly understandable for his keynote at Eloqua Experience (the company’s annual user conference) to have fallen flat.

It sure didn’t though. Joe’s presentation style was confident and charming, with a healthy and successful dash of humor.

Here are a few things during the keynote that played well:

1. Make an over the top entrance, yet tie it to your key theme. After showing a video of the Red Bull Stratos space jump, Joe arrived on stage in a space suit. The theme of innovation in modern marketing flowed from this memorable opening.

2. Engage the audience…make the presentation interactive. I’m not referring to the clichéd approach of asking the audience to raise their hand in response to a question. Rather, Joe called out specific customers in the audience for their successful use of Eloqua software, and rewarded them with praise and a gag gift.

3. Spread the wealth. At several points during the key note, Joe invited two of his colleagues on stage to demonstrate a new product feature of capability. This established credibility for the company’s management beyond the CEO, while also introducing different voices into the presentation.

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Disclosure: Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) is an Eloqua partner and I have a personal relationship with Joe Payne.

September 12, 2012 by Marc Hausman

Eloqua Cares: How Eloqua Experience 2012 Attendees Can Provide a Lending Hand

On November 6-8^th, corporate marketers from organizations all over the world will attend the highly anticipated Eloqua Experience 2012 conference in Orlando, Florida. The event is considered to be one of a kind as companies will be able to learn and share best practices in the field of marketing automation.

While corporate marketers and Eloqua employees will have the chance to attend several sessions and discussions at the event, they will also have an opportunity to volunteer and give back to the community. “Eloqua Cares” is an exciting program that allows volunteers to team up with Ronald McDonald House Charities® of Central Florida (RMHCCF) to make a difference in the lives of families.

We recently had the pleasure of connecting with Shawn Cook, Senior Director of North American SMB Sales and Service Team Coordinator for “Eloqua Cares”. Shawn was able to provide insight on the exciting volunteer event on November 6th, the impact it will have on the community and how attendees can take part:

Can you provide us a little background on this exciting opportunity?

Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) is a great organization to volunteer with as they help alleviate the burden for families with sick or injured children. To help these families feel as if they are “home away from home” is truly an incredible experience, which is why we’re excited to help out during Eloqua Experience 2012 in Orlando.

Volunteers will prepare, cook and serve lunch on this special day for families in need. We will also take donations for just about anything, including toiletries. And for Eloqua employees, we will have a special gift card drive to raise $5,000 with $2,500 to be matched by Eloqua headquarters on the $2,500 we raise.

Can anyone attending Eloqua Experience 2012 volunteer?

Absolutely. In fact, we encourage corporate marketers to provide a helping hand as there will be shuttle’s from the Rosen Shingle Creek hotel to provide transportation to both campuses—the Arnold Palmer Medical Center and the Florida Hospital for Children.

We realize there will be exciting discussions and breakout sessions on the first day of the event. However, if there is a particular session that will not take place until later, then come on out and help. The more volunteers that come out and help, the merrier. If there are too many cooks in the kitchen, then volunteers can interact with families to make them feel more comfortable.

Volunteers will even have the chance to take a tour of the great facilities and will receive a nice surprise at the end.

Participating in the RMHCCF volunteer event will be a pleasant experience and will have a great impact on the Orlando community. At Eloqua, we always strive to take care of our customers, as their success equates to our success. The same holds true within the communities where we volunteer and have an impact. We want to let these communities know that Eloqua Cares.

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For those interested in helping families in need at Eloqua Experience 2012, or for more information about the RMH of Orlando’s Share-A-Meal program, visit the registration page.

September 5, 2012 by Marc Hausman

Eloqua’s Joe Payne Previews ‘Experience’ Excitement

Eloqua CEO Joe Payne

As the editors at “All About Experience” ramp up for Eloqua’s highly anticipated user conference in November, we wanted a chance to get a sneak peek of what’s in store for this year’s conference, which grows larger every year. And who better to offer a preview of this year’s conference than Eloqua CEO, Joe Payne?

Each year, Eloqua Experience gets larger with more speakers, sessions, content and attendees. What’s new that Eloqua has planned for the North American conference in Orlando in November?

The most obvious “new thing” is the change of location. We had to move the conference to Orlando because we basically outgrew San Francisco. Only a couple of hotels could accommodate our size (and we would be too small for Moscone) and those hotels were booked a year in advance. We have already booked San Francisco for 2013, but this year, modern marketers will simply have to fly to Orlando to enjoy the Eloqua Experience. I’m hoping that plenty of our customers and friends will be thrilled to soak in the sun of Orlando in November.

And yes, we are getting bigger and better every year. For instance, we’ll have two guest keynotes this year instead of one. Jeffrey Hayzlett, former Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Eastman Kodak, will talk about how to drive change within your organization, and Charlene Li, of Altimeter Group, will help us take stock of where the market currently is and plot where it’s heading.

We have also listened to customer feedback and added 20 new education sessions, many of which dive deeper into the product than ever before. We’re also adding a Camp Eloqua, which is designed for those in the early stages of the Eloqua journey. We’ll host an executive session with the Corporate Executive Board so those at the C-level will be able to hear about the trends that are shaping modern marketing. In other words, the days will be jam packed no matter your title or experience.

Oh, and we’re throwing the Markies after-party at the Hard Rock Live, so you can plan on the best celebration yet.

What should an attendee expect to come away with after attending Eloqua Experience? Best practices and approaches? Better understanding of the platform’s technical functionality? New industry contacts?

All of the above. We’re covering all the modern marketing bases. The new “Push It” track we’re adding will give advanced clients a chance to swim in the deep end of the pool, while Camp Eloqua will focus on the basics. Plus, we’ll discuss the most important topics hitting marketers today: content, privacy regulations, customer service, impressing the CFO—the list goes on and on.

What excites me most is how many of these talks will be led by customers. Brands like McAfee, NetApp and LinkedIn will all share their own experiences. It goes beyond networking, because you’ll not only have a chance to shake hands and swap stories with some of most respected marketers in the world, but also hear practical knowledge you can put in practice when you get back to the office.

Your keynote address is Wednesday morning, November 7. Can you preview any themes or messages from your presentation?

I don’t want to give too much away, but expect to hear about what drives modern marketing success. My focus—the whole company’s focus—is always on making our customers successful. And success today requires a growing set of skills, particularly layering social intelligence across sales and marketing.

For the past couple of years everyone has been talking about social, but largely from an outreach perspective. We’re exploring how to turn the social media attributes we use to communicate externally into internal tools, collaborating in real-time so marketing touches every aspect of the organization. I suspect that will come up in my talk.

And, of course, I will try to make it fun! I hope to see you and all your readers in Orlando.

August 28, 2012 by Marc Hausman

Heather Foeh, Director of Customer Culture at Eloqua Discusses Topliners

As we discussed in a previous post, it takes a lot of effort for a company to build an interactive online community to produce results. However, for marketing automation pioneer Eloqua, building and maintaining their own community called Topliners continues to be a fruitful experience for both community members and the company.

We recently had the pleasure of connecting with Heather Foeh, Director of Customer Culture at Eloqua. Heather was an Eloqua customer before joining the ranks and becoming an Eloquan in 2008. She truly enjoys helping customers achieve success and receive the recognition they deserve with the use of the Eloqua program.

In our Q&A below, Heather discusses the Topliners community in more detail, the benefits that members walk away with and examples of educating and engaging content that continue to draw in a crowd:

Can you provide us a little background on Topliners?

Topliners was created as a platform to help identify and increase “top-line” revenue for marketers and sales reps. It was developed around years of interacting with customers and learning how marketers think.

When we first launched, our original plan had three sections – Imagine It, See It and Do It. These sections continue to have a focus on inspiring creative marketing or sales campaigns, encouraging the community on what fellow members are doing, and obtaining details on putting ideas into practice.

As the community evolved, we added on the Code It section, where developers can effectively work with one another to build and deploy applications to connect with Eloqua.

Topliners was launched in January 2011 and we now have 6500 members and growing. Each day there are more conversations, more comments, more peer-to-peer assistance, and heck, more fun!

How is Topliners different from other social media communities such as LinkedIn or Twitter?

I would say that we have a very tight community where people can get to know each other on a personal level.

The immediate sense of camaraderie where members can connect and interact with one another by asking and answering questions, sharing success and even funny stories is what helps to educate and engage our members to come back.

We recently had a discussion featured a couple weeks ago titled, “How do you pronounce your name? EE12.” This particular thread did a great job of getting members to interact and schedule to meet one another in person at the upcoming Eloqua Experience 2012 conference in November.

Overall I feel that our customers are able to connect quickly with each other because they already have something in common – the Eloqua platform — and they experience the same common hurdles and questions.

What are some of the benefits for Eloqua users (and non-users) who are involved in the Topliners community?

For Eloqua users, the interaction with fellow peers sharing their tribal knowledge, previous mistakes and workarounds is extremely beneficial. Often times customers can see how one person performed a function one way, yet found another way to make the function work more efficiently instead.

A good example was recently posted in our Do It section titled, “What would you do differently if you got a clean instance of Eloqua and could start from scratch?” This discussion continues to draw in a vast amount of replies with some helpful answers provided by members who continue to climb the ranks in earning points and badges.

For non-users of Eloqua, future customers often take a look at the community and join to get a better idea of the Eloqua platform and the success stories that users are experiencing. We often find that many prospects actually join Topliners first before becoming an Eloqua customer.

What do you want Topliner participants to walk away with?

I hope that our customers are able to get their jobs done more efficiently and more successfully because of the conversations and resources on Topliners.

On a personal level, I want everyone to have a delightful experience and enjoy doing business with Eloqua. Maybe even have a laugh or two before they go back to their busy day. By accomplishing this we’re able to help others do their jobs better, which in turn, results in customers continuing their relationship with us.

Are there plans to extend content from the highly anticipated Eloqua Experience 2012 event on Topliners?

Yes, currently we have active discussions leading up to the event. Following the event, we plan to post presentations of speakers sharing their stories of success and struggles in our Eloqua Insiders Group, a group exclusive to Eloqua customers on Topliners.

Of course, we anticipate some discussions to be created organically for non Eloqua members to view some highlights. We will also extend the highlights on our It’s All About Revenue blog and YouTube channel.

Eloqua Cares: How Eloqua Experience 2012 Attendees Can Provide a Lending Hand

Eloqua’s Joe Payne Previews ‘Experience’ Excitement

Heather Foeh, Director of Customer Culture at Eloqua Discusses Topliners

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