Eloqua forms

Forms are our main vehicle for collecting user information on our website, but they’re also the end-user’s tool to access gated content, register for upcoming events and to speak to experts.

That being said, it is really important that we acknowledge the end-user’s needs and intent, so we can provide a more thoughtful and intuitive experience for him/her.

Use cases tend to be formed around the following factors:

• User expectations
• User's stage in the buyer journey
• Types of content being promoted
• Support of in-person/virtual events
• Routing requirements

To find out more about each of these use cases you can read the form use case blog post on the hub.

Eloqua forms on the DMP are designed with the following six features:

1. Improved tracking (i.e. marketing channel, asset and campaign tracking)
2. Progressive profiling
3. Pre-population
4. Dynamic fields
5. Privacy statement
6. Explicit opt-in consent

These features not only enhance the user experience by reducing the amount of form field filling out that the user is expected to do, but builds trust through proper disclosure of privacy policies, improving our ability to analyze form submissions.

To find out more about each of these features you can read the form features blog post on the hub.

Feature support

Below is feature support organized by use case.

Based on the use cases, there is generally broad support except for progressive profiling in registration and "contact us" forms. Based on research we’ve decided that progressive profiling adds more to the gated content form than the other use cases, so it is only available there.

When to gate content

• Some offers always need to be gated, like registration for an event, or access to contact an expert.
• Understand your value exchange and ask yourself, is this piece of content worth gating?
• Understand where the form sits in the buyer’s journey. If the content is more "epiphany" you may consider not gating, and gate more in the "awareness" or "consideration" phases.
• If your campaign goals are more focused on generating leads than reaching a large audience, you should consider gating some content. You often successfully promote open access (ungated) and gated content together for a best-of-both-worlds scenario.

There is more information, including visuals in the when to gate content blog post on the hub, if you're interested to learn more.

What form fields to include?

• We require that all forms at a minimum ask for five fields (first name, last name, email address, job title and company name).
• When promoting across country borders we recommend that you include a country field.
• Do not ask for personal health or condition information. We are not able to store that information in Eloqua.
• Questions you ask in forms should be relevant to the experience the end user is trying to take part in. There are different thresholds for number of fields a user is willing to fill for gated content, registration and contact us forms before a user will abandon.
• Questions asked in forms should be easily and reliably answered. This generally means only asking questions about the individual and his/her role as appropriate, in alignment with the end user's expectations about the experience.

There is much more information and considerations in the what form fields to ask blog post on the hub, if you're interested to learn more.

Data we collect on standard forms

• All forms should ask for the five basic fields: First name, last name, email address, job title and account. Collecting these fields enables us to segment these contacts for more relevant promotions.
• Forms have built-in hidden fields for tracking the Eloqua campaign, the asset being downloaded or accessed, and the marketing channel from which the user came.
• Forms have built-in hidden fields for tracking the page referrer, the submission URL and the page the user is redirected to post-form submission.
• Our standard forms ask for country in addition to the five minimum required fields for compliance with variations in regional privacy laws. So, in addition to what country the user is in, the form will also capture the end-user’s explicit consent declaration.

There is more information in the standard form data blog post on the hub, if you're interested to learn more.

All about progressive profiling and prepopulation on our gated content form.

Progressive profiling refers to the passive aggregation of data for top-of-funnel web site visitors. Here's how it works: We ask for 8-12 form fields over the course of 2-3 visits to our website. Visitors do not need to provide the same fields twice while submitting filling out fewer fields per session — which is great for them — but, at the same time, with every form submission we learn more about these form submitters and are better able to target them with more relevant promotions.

• Both progressive profiling and pre-population offer better experiences for the end user because the user is expected to fill out fewer form fields.
• Once the contact has completed the necessary progressive form stages, they essentially no longer need to fill out forms which user progressive forms. Gated content forms historically were 50% of the forms on our site so that is a tremendous amount of access you can obtain with just three form submissions.

There is more information, including visuals,in the progressive profiling and prepopulation blog post on the hub, if you're interested to learn more.