Program Builder step options

Note: The program builder is an application separate from the Program Canvas. Program Canvas is an easy to use, drag-and-drop whiteboard that allows you to transform data within Oracle Eloqua in real-time.

Much like with decision rules, program steps are at the heart of an automated marketing program. When the program is represented in flowchart form (diagram view), program steps are represented by the light green rectangles. Each program step represents a processing action that occurs in the program.

The data entity type determines the list of actions available in a program step. The following data entity types can be used in a program.

• Contacts: Individuals; must have an email address.
• Prospects: Individuals; usually without email address.
• Companies: Companies or accounts.
• Custom Object Records: Typically tied to a contact and can be used to assign more than one individual to a single email address.

Program Builder Steps & Editing/Viewing Action

Step Breakdown

There are several ways that you can view or edit parameters in a program step. You can click on one of the buttons in the step or click the drop-down arrow on the step and select from a long list of options.

Note: Not all elements shown are part of every program step.

Step Options

Besides Edit Step Default Action and View members in this step, a number of other options are shown on the menu for a Program step.

These options include the following:

• Edit Step Details
• Edit Step Default Action
• Edit Step Alternative Actions
• Set Agent Alert
• Add members to this step
• View members in this step
• Run Ownership Rule
• Edit Step Path
• Delete This Step

Edit Step Details

Opens the Step Details dialog box. This is the same dialog box that opens when creating the first step of a program.

You can set details such as the Step Name, a Step Description (if required), the types of Data Entities (companies, contacts, prospects, or custom object records), whether the agent will manually execute step actions, and whether or not the step is currently disabled. Click Save when the parameters are set. Note that if a data entity is used in a Program Feeder, then it's selected and greyed out in the window (you can't deselect it without removing the Feeder).

Note: If you select "Agent will execute step actions," the step is shown in the program flowchart with a dotted-line border to show that it is to be executed by the Agent.



If you select "Disabled," the step is shown in gray in the flowchart.

Edit Step Default Action

Opens the Edit Action Details dialog box.

Edit Step Alternative Actions

Note: This option only appears if you have set the Step Details to "Agent will execute step actions."

This option allows you to define alternative Actions to the main Action for the Program Step. Alternative Actions are used to set other action possibilities for the Agent who will execute the Action. In execution, the Agent is presented with a list of alternative Actions for this Step. Note: You cannot set up alternative Actions for Steps that are executed automatically. you must select Agent will execute step actions in the Edit Step Details dialog box to set more than one possible Action. Note that a Step using a Condition can also not be executed by an Agent.

To create or edit an alternative Action:

1. Click the drop-down arrow next to the step name, then click Edit Step Alternative Actions.

   

   The Edit Alternative Action window opens.
2. Click New Alternative Action.
3. Provide an Action Name and select an Action.
4. Set any additional parameters required for the action.
5. Click Save and Close to save the alternative action step.
6. Open the Edit Alternative Actions window again. You will see the Action Name listed. You can edit or delete the action from the menu next to it in the table.
   
7. Repeat steps 2 through 5 to add any additional alternative steps as needed. Repeat until you have added all the required alternative actions to make available to the agent executing this step.

Set Agent Alert

Note: This option only appears if you have set the Step Details to "Agent will execute step actions."

This option allows you to set email alerts to be sent to owner of the member when members enter this step. The alert can be set to send an alert for each member that enters the step or a single alert for the entire group that enters the step. The step owner can also accept or reject each member.

To set the agent alert:

1. Click the drop-down arrow next to the step name, then click Set Agent Alert.

   

2. Specify the type of alert from the picklist to email the step owner.
   • once per member and prompt to Accept/Reject: Allows the agent to accept or reject each members coming into the program step
   • once per member in step: Alerts the agent each time a member is added
   • when new step activity occurs: Alerts the agent whenever any step activity takes place
3. Click Save and Close.

The agent alert is set up to send alerts under the specified conditions.

Add members to this step

Allows you to add members directly into the program step. See adding feeders for more information.

View members in this step

Allows you to view all the members that are included in this program step.

Run Ownership Rule

You can run an ownership rule to set ownership for a step based on particular criteria. For example, you may want to set ownership to different salespeople based on the City value in the member's contact record.

Note: The step must have members in it for you to run an ownership rule against it, because it's the ownership of the members that you are determining.

Edit Step Path

Allows you to set the next destination step in the flowchart for members that have completed the current step.

Note: You will probably not see all of the options shown in the following procedure for any program step. Which ones appear depend on your program and whether you have orphaned (unconnected) steps in the program.

Delete This Step

Click this item to permanently delete the step from the program.

Notes

• The dependency check is run so that you can edit or delete all dependencies on this step. Once this is done, a separate confirmation dialog box opens to confirm that you want to delete the step. Click OK to permanently delete the program Step.
• All steps and decision rules (paths) below the deleted step in the program flowchart will become orphaned, will not be connected to the program, and will not process members. If there are steps that will be orphaned, you will see a warning to this effect. If any members are in the steps of an orphaned path, they should be moved to a step that is still connected to the program, or the orphaned path should be reconnected to the program after you delete this step by selecting Edit Step Path, then the first orphaned step, from the previous step in the program flowchart.

Step Actions & Parameters

The following table shows the Actions that can be configured within a Program Step.

Notes

• A number of these services require you to engage specific Eloqua products or services, so all options may not be available to you. Contact your customer success manager for more information
• Any action related to a specific data entity will only appear in a program in which that data entity (for example, a contact, prospect or company) is allowed.

Icon	Action	Description	Member Type
	No Action - Pass Through Step	No action is carried out in this step. It is used as a placeholder or terminal point in the program.	All
	No Action - Wait Specified Time	No action is carried out, but execution of the following step is delayed by the amount of time specified in this step.	All
	Move to Program Canvas	With this step, a program owner can move contacts to a program canvas from program builder. This action requires that there is a listener step in the Program Canvas. Note that the contacts will be removed from the Program Builder following this action. You can use this step to help you migrate to the Program Canvas.	Contact
	Add to Program Canvas	With this step, a program owner can add contacts to a program canvas from program builder. This action requires that there is a listener step in the Program Canvas. You can use this step to help you migrate to the Program Canvas.	Contact
	Add Contacts to a Contact Group	The program owner can add contacts in a program step to a selected contact group.	Contact
	Add to Another Program	The program owner can add the members in a program step to a specific step in another automated marketing program in program builder for additional processing. Note: If you do not want the members to also remain in the original program, use the process action named "Move to Another Program" instead.	All
	Remove Contacts from a Contact Group	Removes contacts from a contact group.	Contacts
	Remove from Program	The program owner can remove the members in the program step from the program to prevent any further processing.	All
	Run a Match / Deduplication Rule	The program owner can run the Eloqua Dedupe tool to identify duplicate members using one or many fields within a list, between two lists, or between a specific list and the entire marketing database. The tool can be run for one or multiple contacts. The results should be reviewed and corrected (if required) by the program owner, another user, or the process owner.	Contacts, Companies
	Run a Validation Rule	The program owner can run a configured validation rule (filter) on program members in the current step to identify or cleanse invalid data.	Contacts, Companies
	Run D&B Append Chargeable Web Service	The program owner can run D&B append to add additional field-level information to data records for members in the Step.	Contacts, Companies
	Run Integration Event	The program owner can fire a custom event for the members in the step to update their data in an integrated CRM system.	All
	Run Integration Rule Collection	The program owner can fire a group of custom events for the members in the Step to update their data in an integrated CRM system.	All
	Run Lead Stage Rule	The program owner can run a configured lead stage rule to rank the contacts, prospects, or companies in a program step based on the rule.	Contacts, Companies
	Send Batch Email	The program owner can create and send an email batch to the members in the step, and also organize how the email will be distributed, where emails subject to errors, bounces, unsubscribes and excludes will end up, and which signature to use.	Contacts, Custom Objects
	Send Campaign Information to CRM System	The program owner can update CRM campaign information for members in the step.	Contacts, Companies
	Send Process Member Report to Owner	The Program owner can send defined Reports to users in Eloqua® who have been assigned members in the Program, or to other specified users.	All
	Send Quicksend Email	The program owner can send email templates to members in the step. The appropriate signature configurations can also be selected.	Contacts
	Subscribe to Campaign	The program owner can subscribe contacts to a particular email group, subscribe them at a site level, or both.	Contacts
	UnSubscribe from Campaign	The program owner can unsubscribe members in the step from a particular email group, unsubscribe them at a site level, or both.	Contacts
	Update Contact / Prospect / Company Data	The program owner can update contact, prospect, or company records with defined update rules to update field information.	Contacts, Companies

Learn more

Program Builder

Knowledge Base: How To Add, Update, or Remove a Contact Security Labels (CLS)