Eloqua Releases New Version of its Integrated Demand-Generation Platform for Business-to-Business Marketers

Toronto, Canada - May 9th, 2005

Eloqua Corporation, the leading supplier of automated demand-generation technology and services, today unveiled the Spring 2005 edition of the Eloqua Conversion Suite™, the company’s award-winning demand-generation platform for business-to-business (BtoB) marketers who need to generate a continuous flow of qualified leads for their sales teams.

Adding deeper, real-time integration with salesforce.com, plus a lead-scoring capability and a target list-building module, the Spring 2005 Eloqua Conversion Suite now automates and integrates every step of complex marketing campaigns. From initial prospecting, through multi-channel marketing efforts, to supplying critical prospect information to salespeople for calls and closing, the Eloqua Conversion Suite delivers what Eloqua calls “real-time, right-time selling.”

“BtoB customers buy at their own speed. Rather than fight this, as so many others have tried, Eloqua works with it. The company’s demand-generation technology, the Eloqua Conversion Suite, gives marketing and sales pros real-time visibility into prospects’ buying behavior so that they can move at the exact moment when prospects are ready to buy, and close the deal. That’s invaluable,” said Denis Pombriant, managing principal of Beagle Research Group.

Companies already using the Eloqua Conversion Suite to target, qualify and close highly qualified sales prospects include Akamai, Administaff, JBoss, Sybase, Seagate, Marriott, and Nokia.

"Eloqua's integration with salesforce.com lets Sybase globally route qualified prospects to the appropriate inside sales and field sales teams. We have seen the value in Eloqua and are deploying this solution worldwide,” says Ann Ruckstuhl, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Sybase, Inc.

The Eloqua Conversion Suite automates and integrates workflow across key sales and marketing functions such as direct marketing, website marketing and analytics, lead generation and sales force automation to drive demand and cultivate the prospect information needed for closing a sale. The net result is that Eloqua’s on-demand software solution improves the quality and quantity of sales leads, eliminating waste and accelerating the entire selling process.

The Spring 2005 edition of the Eloqua Conversion Suite adds:

Deeper CRM integration with salesforce.com

A new level of integration with salesforce.com now enables two-way synchronization and real-time tracking of Eloqua demand-generation campaigns within salesforce.com. As prospects are identified by Eloqua as “ready to buy,” they are immediately promoted from Eloqua into salesforce.com so that sales people can begin to convert the prospects into customers. The bi-directional synchronization between Eloqua and salesforce.com assures consistency across sales and marketing efforts with every prospect and eliminates good prospects “falling through the cracks.” Campaign-level integration lets marketers and salespeople track campaign results all the way through to revenue generation.

Lead-scoring capability

Eloqua program automation can score each prospect’s readiness to buy based on their website behavior, responses to campaigns, their company, title or any other available criteria. Prospects scored as ready to buy can automatically be moved to salesforce.com, complete with a complete prospect history, for a sales call and close.

Prospect list-building

Eloqua Prospector verifies and cleans new or existing prospect lists, and can produce opted-in email addresses for immediate campaign targeting. Proprietary technology and Eloqua’s own call center services perform verification, permission acquisition and data scrubbing to build a focused, valid list of opted-in, qualified contacts with mail and email addresses.

Real-time, right-time selling

Integrating the Eloqua Conversion Suite with all their marketing channels, Eloqua’s customers drive prospects to their websites. Through real-time tracking of all visitor activity, reporting and program automation, Eloqua follows up with customized and personalized email, direct mail and individualized website landing pages. Inside sales teams often use the Eloqua platform to help qualify and inform interested prospects by phone. As prospects demonstrate buying interest with their activity, Eloqua moves them through the selling process, finally setting up sales calls using CRM solutions like salesforce.com and Salesnet. For prospects who are not yet ready to buy, Eloqua’s continuous marketing campaigns keep them informed, moving them toward the right time to buy.

“The biggest boost to effective demand generation is in having systematic process across sales and marketing. That’s where Eloqua comes in. We’re the only company that supplies the demand-generation platform and advisory services for tying sales and marketing together. With our Spring 2005 product release, we continue to add technology and services to help our customers grow their revenue,” noted Mark Organ, CEO and co-founder of Eloqua.