If all of your current web forms are not integrated with Eloqua, you are 'driving blind' missing some valuable intelligence about your site visitors. In this article we will discuss how to connect an existing form on your website with Eloqua.
Eloqua has to have a receptacle for all of the data on your web form. Thankfully there's an easy way to make this happen!
To get started in Eloqua10, go to Assets > Forms and press Integrate following the Wizard. However, we do suggest watching this Eloqua Power Hour Session.
In Eloqua9, to begin, go to Automate > Forms > Forms (tab) > Manage Forms (menu) > New Form. Enter a Display Name for your form and place it in a folder if you wish. Leave the two radio buttons on Yes and click Create Form.
Scroll down to the Field Definition section and enter the full URL of the page where your form is currently located, then click Capture Form Fields.
You will see all of the fields on your form. You must select which fields you want to add into Eloqua. The easiest thing to do is to click the top checkbox in the first column which will then check all of the lower boxes.
Click Create Fields at the bottom of the field listing, then click Close. Click Save. You are done!
What to send to your Webmaster
Your webmaster will need to make some edits to the form on the website in order to point it to Eloqua.
RECOMMENDED: Ask your webmaster to make a copy of the current form and place it on a web page that is not linked to anywhere else. You can use this form for testing, then when everything works correctly you can copy the code to the real web page.
In Eloqua10 this will be presented at the end of the wizard. In Eloqua9, on the Form Details page click the Integration Details button.
You need to send the following items to your webmaster: the two lines in the first box (Form Integration Fields); the action line in the second box (Form Integration Destination). Note: If you do not have Eloqua tracking scripts on your website or if you are reposting from a 3rd party, you will also need the code on the lower half of the page, although this is rare.
Form Processing Steps
All of the work of a form happens in the Processing Steps. We have linked to a more definitive list and explanation of all of the possible processing steps. We will cover a couple of basics here to get started.
- Save to Contact Table OR Update Contact: Every form needs to have this step. It places the email address of the submitter into the Eloqua database and in Eloqua10 will allow you to map your standard fields, such as First Name, Last Name, Phone ,etc.. In Eloqua9, do not add any additional parameters to this step.
- Update Existing Record OR Update Contact - Custom: Almost all forms have this step. In Eloqua9 this will include standard form fields as well as custom, whereas in Eloqua10 this will only map custom field values. These mappings from form fields into Eloqua fields will then ultimately pass to your CRM system (if the two are integrated).
- Add to Program Builder: Use this step if you want to have all of your form submission data go into your CRM update program and then on to your CRM system.
Eloqua9:Form Processing Steps - Complete Definition
Eloqua10:Form Processing Steps - Complete Definition
Verifying the Integration
In order to verify that you have correctly integrated your form, use the Form Data report to view the form submissions, in Eloqua10 by the Gear menu or in Eloqua9 by the drop down arrow next to the form name in the left-hand tree column.