How do I make sure my form responses are flowing into Salesforce? Will the responses make sense to the sales team?
There are three steps to get your form responses into Salesforce for your sales team to use:
Start your form name with SFDC (example: “SFDC – Enter to Win”). This is what the data feed looks for to bring submissions over.
In your processing steps (Processing button on the top right of the screen), make sure you have the “Update Contacts – With Form Data” step set up and the email address is mapped. This allows Eloqua to associate the responses with the contact who submitted it, which is needed to bring the data into Salesforce.
Update the HTML name of each question, as this is what is displayed in Salesforce. Eloqua defaults the HTML names to things like Checkbox1, so change that to something like “TicketQuantity” so your sales team clearly understands the form responses.
What are processing steps and do I need them?
Processing steps are the most important part of the form and are absolutely necessary! They dictate what Eloqua does with the data submitted. Always include the Update Contacts – With Form Data step and map the email address. This makes sure each response is tied to the contact who submitted it.
Other helpful steps are the Redirect to Webpage step to bring the contact to a specific page or website after they press submit, the Send Submitter an Email step to automatically send a follow up email to contacts once they submit the form, and the Send Notification Email step to send an internal notification with the responses once the form has been submitted.
If people not currently in your database may submit the form, be sure to include a subscription disclaimer on your landing page so you can include the Email – Subscribe Contacts Globally step to subscribe submitters to future emails.
Should I use field merges to prepopulate the contact fields?
If your form will be publicly accessible (hosted on your website, shared on social media, etc.), we recommend not using field merges. It can be startling for someone visiting your website to stumble across a form displaying all their contact information. Additionally, field merges rely on cookies to display those values so the form may display someone else’s information if they are cookied as another user.
If your form is only being distributed via email, field merges may be okay. Most contacts understand that if you have their email address, you also have their name and possibly other contact information. Since contacts are cookied through an email click, there is less chance of cookie confusion when the form is only accessible through email.
How do a I make a form live?
For a form to be “live”, it needs to be on an Eloqua landing page. In your Landing Page Settings tab, select your branded Microsite, add a Vanity URL and Browser Title, and save. Then the URL can be used as a live landing page that hosts your form.
If you are sharing the form via Eloqua email, be sure to use the Landing Page link type in the Hyperlink Properties! This will ensure that any field merges – hidden or active – tie back properly to the correct contact. If you are distributing via any other platform, you can use the URL on its own.
Landing page URLs can also be embedded on external websites via iframe code. Work with your Marketing Automation rep to ensure your iframe code is configured properly.
Note that Eloqua labels all forms and landing pages as “Draft” or “Active”. These labels indicate whether or not the form or landing page is part of an active campaign; if they are not currently tied to a live campaign, they will say Draft. The Draft/Active status does not have any impact on the form’s ability to accept submissions or the landing page’s ability to be shared so feel free to use your forms and landing pages even when they say Draft.
