Marketing automation tool mixes new channels with old

Eloqua's move comes as consumers and businesses alike continue to alteration where and how they buy merchandise.

"We find the selling organization is involved throughout the purchasing process. What our application helps our marketers do is engage with prospects throughout that cycle, not just at the top of the funnel shape," said Mike Zavershnik, Eloqua's senior product director.

In add-on to electronic mail and directly mail, existing channels that Eloqua serves includes chat, Web forms, ads, and keywords.

A sec component to the merchandise roll-out is a political campaign composer. "We know that marketers think in terms of campaigns," said Zavershnik. "A political campaign for a seller isn't just a single thing; it's a combination of maneuver. A seller can create a figure of plus."

Working on the same theme or political campaign, marketers can create and execute communications through multiple transmission channel. While the political campaign can span multiple channels, and even encompass online and offline touchpoints including direct mail, electronic mail, and RSS, marketers can associate all pieces as part of the same political campaign. "You can comparison activity and role them up, and can see how you've done across those plus," said Zavershnik.

Each transmission channel or asset is categorized as a pail. Marketers can set parametric quantity to collect data such as time time period, channel, client, or event. Eloqua is a software system as a service (SAS) solution.

Sybase, Inquira, Taleo, and Forex have signed on for the new release of Eloqua's services. Existing Eloqua clients include VeriSign, USAA, Procuri, National Instruments, FairIsaac, Citrix, and Captaris.