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Adobe Summit is one of the biggest annual events in digital marketing, bringing together industry leaders, innovators, and practitioners to explore the latest trends, tools, and technologies. It’s a hub for learning about AI, automation, customer experience, and data-driven strategies that are shaping the future of marketing. Whether you’re a CMO, Marketing Operations leader, or technology specialist, Adobe Summit offers insights and strategies to help you stay ahead of the curve and Adobe Summit 2025 was a powerhouse of insights. Our team was in attendance, soaking up the latest trends and strategies shaping the future of B2B marketing. From AI-driven personalization to optimizing complex buying journeys, here’s what stood out to us from a few of our favourite sessions: Cracking the code: building and scaling B2B buying groups B2B marketing isn’t just about convincing one decision-maker anymore - it’s about engaging entire buying groups. This session broke down how marketers can adapt to this shift. Our key takeaways: Buying groups are getting bigger and more complex, meaning one-size-fits-all marketing doesn’t cut it. Instead, businesses need to personalize outreach for multiple stakeholders with different priorities. Intent data and automation are game changers. By understanding where prospects are in their journey, marketing and sales teams can engage them at the right time with the right message. Seamless, multi-touch engagement is key. Consistency across channels helps build trust and keeps the buying group moving toward a decision. Structuring Marketo Engage for multiple teams and regions Managing Marketo Engage across different teams and locations can feel like herding cats. This session provided practical tips to make it all run smoothly. Our key takeaways: Organizing workspaces and partitions properly prevents chaos and ensures different teams can work effectively while maintaining clean data. A real-world example from Minto Homes showed how Marketo can support both B2B and B2C experiences - proving it’s not just about software, but how you structure it for success. The right integrations can take Marketo to the next level, making reporting and scalability much easier across different markets. Making AI work for your business AI isn’t a buzzword anymore - it’s actively reshaping B2B marketing. This session showed how businesses can harness its power. Our key takeaways: AI-driven predictive analytics help marketers anticipate customer needs before they even realize them, leading to more meaningful interactions. Automating lead scoring and nurturing at scale frees up valuable time, allowing teams to focus on high-value prospects. The session also touched on the ethics of AI, emphasizing that while automation is powerful, the human touch is still crucial in building relationships and trust. B2B reimagined: transforming go-to-market strategies With AI and automation becoming central to B2B marketing, businesses need to rethink how they go to market. Our key takeaways from this session included: Account-based marketing (ABM) is gaining momentum, shifting focus from broad campaigns to highly targeted, high-value account strategies. AI-driven insights are helping marketers refine their messaging, optimize touchpoints, and create more personalized experiences. Aligning sales and marketing teams is more important than ever—when both are working toward the same goal with unified messaging, conversions happen faster. Final thoughts Adobe Summit 2025 made one thing clear: the future of B2B marketing is all about AI, automation, and personalization. Companies that embrace these technologies - while keeping a human touch - will be the ones that thrive. If you’re looking for ways to put these strategies into action, Sojourn Solutions is here to help. Discover more about our AI services

By Chuck Leddy, B2B Brand Storyteller Sojourn partners with multiple martech vendors in order to expand our capacity to help our customers. We recently had a conversation with one of our partners, UK-based Instant Marketing, about when and why we partner.  Participants in this conversation included Sam Smith, Director of Instant Marketing, Carl Cooke, Customer Success Manager of Instant Marketing, and Charlotte Currie, Global Head of Customer Success at Sojourn Solutions. The following is an edited transcript of the discussion. What should people know about Instant Marketing? Smith:  We help our customers extend Eloqua out-of-the-box, Eloqua might cover half of a particular customer’s use cases. Of the remaining half, maybe 25% are use cases for which we have connectors for out of the box. Eloqua is great, but I wish it did more channels and ad targeting. The remaining 25% of use cases might call for custom solutions. An Eloqua user might have a requirement that's so unique that no one else has ever had it before. So we address two categories of requirements: (1) either the need for Eloqua extensions or (2) a unique need where we can build a customized Eloqua solution. Cooke:  We've seen numerous cases where Eloqua users come to us with an “impossible task” and are looking at Eloqua alternatives. The customer doesn't recognize that the “impossible” use case can actually be done within Eloqua. That's where we step in and help. How does Instant Marketing deliver value through partnering with Sojourn?  Smith:  We tend to work well with experts in the Eloqua space. Sojourn’s team is wonderful at both defining the vision for the project and for high-level, strategic, and hands-on implementation. But there's only so far that they can go because there's only so far that Eloqua can go “out-of-the-box.” So Sojourn might handle 75% of the client's implementation and then they’ll reach out to us when it comes to delivering new capabilities that may need custom development. Currie:  For us at Sojourn, the partnership is about having the shared goal of extending what our customers think is achievable within Eloqua. We're very much about understanding what the goals of our customers are, and then helping them achieve what they’re trying to achieve. Sam, Carl, and the Instant Marketing team work in exactly the same way. Our collaboration works because we’ve forged a partnership based upon going above and beyond for our customers. What’s the process of working with Sojourn on customer use cases? Smith: Our working relationship is founded on mutual respect and mutual competence. Sojourn is very good at what they do and we're quite good at what we do, which is the development of add-ons. It all comes down to the client making an ask to Sojourn, who will try to figure out if they can achieve the ask within Eloqua “as is.” If not, the next step would be requesting some kind of customization – and that’s where Instant Marketing excels. Cooke: The trust and transparency between us and Sojourn are key. We all communicate really well to understand and deliver on customer needs. Again, there's nobody passing the buck or avoiding accountability. We all own the challenges and take responsibility for developing the solutions for customers. Currie:  From Sojourn’s perspective, we know what we can do and we know what we cannot do, but we also know what we can do together, which is a more expansive approach to serving customer needs. Instant Marketing is an extension of our team and vice versa. We're not crossing over in terms of capabilities, and we know there are experts within both entities and in multiple subject areas who can come together and deliver significant and sometimes-unexpected business value for our customers.  What are the various use cases that Instant Marketing can address for customers? Smith:  A quick win would be adding new channels. So we let you orchestrate across more channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, web push app, push ad targeting, Google, Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. Direct mail postcards. A quick win might be to take your investment and leverage it in more channels.  A more complex win is achieving a weird, unique, but necessary requirement. That might mean a custom integration, it might mean some kind of custom logic. It might be calling out to AI, or using AI to generate unique content for each individual. So the simple use cases are around adding campaign channels, and the more complex ones are around unique customizations. Can you offer a specific example where partnership with Sojourn helped a customer resolve a challenging use case?   Smith:  One customer, a specialized publisher, wanted to take their vast amount of content published each day and let their users provide topic preferences. These content preferences were so granular that each user gets their own unique content subset based on pre-determined keywords or categories. So these were highly-personalized emails, but it would not have been possible to send this personalized content without the client’s use of our Advanced Email for Eloqua.  The impact was simply that Eloqua became viable because the customer needed to find a way to make it happen, and fast. If they couldn’t do the customized emails inside of Eloqua, then they just didn’t have a good plan B. It would've meant building some staggeringly complex tool from the ground up or migrating to a completely different marketing automation platform. What that looks like to a C-suite executive is a succession of rapid and potentially-costly migrations to different marketing tools because you just can't make it work within Eloqua. That would have been a massive headache on so many levels, which we helped them avoid. Any other customer use cases you want to highlight? Smith:  One of the most sophisticated customer use cases we’ve addressed was a home service client that used SMS to dispatch third-party service providers. The service client’s customer would get an SMS message saying, hey, we're sending the service engineer to your house at a specific time. And the service provider would text their customers just after the appointment to see if the service technician had showed up. So this customer was using the SMS channel operationally to hold their army of 3rd-party contractors to account. If you have a second channel, for instance, you can double or increase by a third the impact on revenues, while you're only increasing costs by 3 to 5%. You're also fostering better relationships with your customers. You're getting seen more. You're diversifying your portfolio of communications methods.  Any final thoughts on partnering with Sojourn? Smith:  Sojourn is   highly-competent and very organized, and they know what they're talking about. Their consultants are excellent. It's a team effort, but people like Charlotte have worked to develop the customer relationship in order to make us feel like we’re a seamless part of the team when we come in. We really do go beyond simply referrals – we actually work closely together with Sojourn on behalf of customers so they can achieve their business goals. Our combined approach can achieve a level of success that the customer just wouldn't have expected otherwise. When you're vetting your consultancies, you can go to Sojourn and say, “what does ‘good’ look like to you? You’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how good good can actually be with a combined approach to achieving customer success. Note:  Our partnerships are ultimately about doing whatever it takes to help our clients succeed. Learn more about how Sojourn Solutions and its vendor partnerships can help optimize your Marketing Operations . Feel free to reach out  to us today.

At Sojourn Solutions, we’re thrilled to congratulate Nicky Clarke, Head of Marketing Operations at Virgin Media O2 (VMO2) Business , on her recent Bronze award for B2B Marketer of the Year at the B2B Marketing Awards 2024 . This is a testament to Nicky’s leadership, adaptability, and strategic vision-qualities that have driven success in the face of enormous change. Since the Virgin Media and O2 joint venture in 2021, VMO2 has merged two iconic UK brands, creating a telecommunications powerhouse in mobile and broadband services. This merger required not only a united brand identity but also a streamlined marketing operations strategy. Nicky Clarke has been at the forefront of this transformation, leading a newly merged Marketing Operations team and managing an extensive consolidation of MarTech platforms, processes and workflows. Throughout, Nicky has proven herself a steady, inspiring leader, bringing her team’s capabilities to new heights despite resource and budget challenges. A 25-Year Journey of Dedication and Growth Nicky’s journey with the company spans 25 years, starting in 1998 with O2 in a project management role within customer service. Over the years, she steadily rose through the ranks, moving into Marketing Operations in 2011, and later, in 2021, becoming the Senior Marketing Ops Programme Manager as the VMO2 joint venture was announced. Now leading VMO2’s Marketing Operations, Nicky is known for nurturing her team and pushing for excellence in everything from MQL strategies to CRM integrations. Her day-to-day responsibilities include overseeing VMO2’s marketing automation platforms, driving MQL performance, and ensuring smooth integrations across CRM, CDP, the digital landscape and data systems. She keeps her team at the cutting edge of marketing operations, embracing the latest technology, including AI-driven solutions, to continuously enhance VMO2’s marketing efforts. Recent Milestones and Achievements In the last 24 months, Nicky has spearheaded a series of transformational changes. Under her guidance, VMO2 has consolidated and relaunched its MarTech stack, a process that included migrating everyone to their existing Oracle Eloqua instance, saving £31,000 annually. Altogether, her efforts have saved VMO2 over £150,000 in MarTech consolidation costs alone. She’s also automated over 20 previously manual data processes, saving 208 days of resource time and an additional £15,000. One of Nicky’s notable accomplishments was reducing lead-to-sales time by moving from a bi-weekly update process to a 15-minute automated program through Eloqua and Salesforce. This shift has significantly enhanced VMO2’s responsiveness, allowing the team to engage with prospects at precisely the right moments, strengthening the sales pipeline and positively impacting revenue. A Collaborative and Compassionate Leader Nicky’s impact extends beyond numbers - she fosters strong relationships within her team and across departments. She presents quarterly business reviews to highlight her team’s initiatives, providing transparency, driving engagement and reinforcing Marketing Operations’ value to the wider business. Her unwavering focus on her team’s well-being and professional growth has been especially vital during times of major organisational change. Testimonials Reflect Nicky’s Leadership Excellence Nicky’s colleagues describe her as a nurturing, grounded leader who inspires her team to succeed. Jeeten Mistry, Marketing Operations Manager, praised Nicky’s goal-setting skills and approachability: “ Her understanding of people’s needs is outstanding, so much so that everyone in the Ops team feels comfortable giving their input during challenging times. ” From her long-time collaborator Rebecca Le Grange, Managing Partner at Sojourn Solutions, Nicky has earned high praise for her deep technical knowledge and integrity: “ Nicky possesses deep knowledge of her team’s intricacies, including data utilisation and processes down to the individual field level. Her integrity shines through in the strong relationships she’s fostered internally and externally, earning her respect across the board. ” A Well-Deserved Win Nicky Clarke’s Bronze Award for B2B Marketer of the Year reflects her unwavering dedication, innovation, and leadership in one of the UK’s largest marketing transformations. Her success underscores the vital role that Marketing Operations plays in shaping and scaling complex, high-performing marketing ecosystems. For more than nine years, Sojourn Solutions has proudly partnered with VMO2, standing by their side through the many phases of transformation, growth, and change. From navigating the complexities of the Virgin Media and O2 joint venture, to adapting through organisational shifts and evolving market demands, Sojourn has provided steady support and expertise. Together, we have developed and implemented strategies to strengthen VMO2’s Marketing Operations, helping them maximise their MarTech investments, streamline processes, and empower their teams to achieve excellence. Congratulations, Nicky, from all of us at Sojourn Solutions. We’re proud to be your partner in this remarkable journey, and we look forward to many more milestones together!

By Chuck Leddy, B2B Brand Storyteller, and Charlotte Currie, Global Head of Customer Success at Sojourn Solutions Sojourn Solutions collaborates not only with our customers and their Marketing Operations teams to unlock business value, but we also work closely with leading martech vendors to enhance that value even further. Our team of experienced consultants, whom we proudly call Sojourners, bring deep expertise to every engagement. While we may not claim to have all the answers, our strong partnerships and continuous learning ensure we deliver the best possible outcomes for our customers .  When and who we partner with largely depends upon the specific needs of our customers, in terms of the use cases and needs they have, as well as on the capabilities of the martech vendors we partner with. “We collaborate with our partners to help our customers,” says Kristin Connell,  Global Head of Strategy & Innovation at Sojourn Solutions.   “We partner with Instant Marketing   because they help address and solve some important Eloqua use cases our customers have that Eloqua doesn’t support 'out-of-the-box.' IM has, for example, helped our customers save on licensing fees for other systems used for one-off edge cases. They've also help our customers deliver more personalized and timely engagement through Eloqua, with SMS for example. These benefit - saving money, improving customer experience, and driving more measurable business value - are top reasons why we've invested in our partnership ecosystem with companies like IM." Why We Partner: To Help Customers When our customers need help, they call on us. When we need help, we call on our partner ecosystem to bring in specialized martech or expertise. One of these partners is UK-based Instant Marketing  (IM, hereafter), a technology vendor that offers “instant extensions” for Oracle Eloqua, enabling Eloqua users to easily customize Eloqua features to support their campaigns.  Eloqua users can  decide to build new features and IM can instantly build them for the user. If a customer's Eloqua and/or MOPs team already has JavaScript skills, IM can support them with training, support and consultancy . We partner with Instant Marketing because they allow our MOPs customers to easily customize and build Eloqua apps and extensions that create business value. For example, IM allows Eloqua users to leverage things like: Direct Mail App & Web Push  Personalized Content and Emails Create Custom Apps Directly within Eloqua The synergy between Sojourn Solutions and Instant Marketing is simple. Sojourn is brought in to help MOPs teams work more efficiently, and Instant Marketing helps Eloqua users and MOPs teams by extending Eloqua and building customized solutions that drive business value.  “We tend to work best with people who are experts in the Eloqua space,” says Sam Smith, Director of Instant Marketing. “For example, Sojourn’s team is wonderful at high-level, strategic, and hands-on implementation. But there's only so far that they can go, because there's only so far that Eloqua can go “out-of-the-box.” So Sojourn might handle 75% of their customer's implementation and then they'll reach out and tag us in when it comes to delivering new capabilities that might need custom development.” Partnership in Action Let’s look at specific examples of partnership creating value for our customers. Instant Marketing provides a product called Advanced Email for Eloqua  that enables users to send personalized email messages from personal accounts while including cc, bcc, and attachments, all direct from the Eloqua canvas. When Sojourn worked with Citeline - the world’s leading provider of business intelligence in the pharmaceutical and medtech industry - the customer needed to quickly migrate its Salesforce Marketing Cloud to Eloqua. Citeline generated subscriber revenue by sending highly-customized emails to medical professionals looking for the latest trends and news within the fast-evolving pharmaceutical industry. Citeline, working with Sojourn, had to rapidly sunset its SFMC license and migrate to a single instance of Eloqua, migrating all its data, assets, configurations, processes, etc. to the new Eloqua instance. With new tech being implemented across the Citeline corporate structure (in the middle of a restructuring) and across Citeline’s customer journey, the pressure to maintain the quality and continuity of Citeline’s “Insights Email product” (and the business revenues associated with this flagship product) was enormous.  We knew Instant Marketing could help, so we brought them in. The Challenge  Citeline’s complex and highly-scripted email campaigns needed to run without disruption to either customers/subscribers or business revenues. Removing SFMC from the equation required replacing workflows and processes, and connecting a new App, i.e., Instant Marketing’s Advanced Email for Eloqua, that would allow Citeline to customize high-quality emails at scale. The Sojourn-Citeline project team collaborated with a development agency to ensure Salesforce Marketing Cloud emails could be created and run within the new Eloqua instance using RSS-type functionality, which would be delivered through IM’s Advanced Email for Eloqua. Project Success  The partnership worked: the use of IM’s Advanced Email for Eloqua was central to the success of the Eloqua migration project, and it delivered the following results for Citeline: 1. A single instance of Eloqua, with the ability to customize emails as enabled by Instant Marketing, was successfully put in place less than 6 months after the March project kick-off and well within Citeline’s desired timeline. 2. Significant costs (associated with licenses and development needs) related to continuing with the legacy SFMC platform were avoided, including an 88% savings on licensing-related costs, as SFMC was sunset and the new customized Eloqua solution (with Advanced Email for Eloqua) was brought online. 3. Existing SFMC data, journeys and campaigns were successfully migrated and running 'as is’ in Eloqua using IM’s Advanced Email for Eloqua, including 1.6 million emails per month with up to 20 pieces of content each (dynamic content where each recipient can receive different news articles direct from the website).  4. Because of the low code and no code nature of the Instant Marketing solution, software complexity was reduced and Citeline no longer needed a dedicated developer. Marketers saved about half of their time and were able to manage the work with user-friendly functions such as “drag-and-drop.” Again, the convenience of having an Eloqua email customization at scale made possible by Instant Marketing and their Advanced Email for Eloqua helped with the speed and effectiveness of the solution. Because Sojourn already had an existing relationship with Instant Marketing, it knew precisely what business value IM could bring to the table for the benefit of Citeline.  Other Customer Use Cases for IM Sojourn and Instant Marketing have partnered to help other customers as well: A telecommunications customer of Sojourn is considering using Instant Marketing plug-ins to support omni-channel communication with their customers, including the use of SMS/text messaging with customers from Eloqua.  That same telecomm customer is considering using the Instant Messaging API to send out service communications based on billings and product data, without having to bring the data into Eloqua. Again, IM is supporting convenience and expanding customer capabilities within Eloqua. A healthcare customer of Sojourn is considering leveraging Instant Marketing’s SMS plug-in to increase communication and attendance at their live events. As these customer use cases show, our partnerships are ultimately about doing whatever it takes to help customers succeed. Learn more about how Sojourn Solutions and its vendor partnerships can help improve your Marketing Operations . Feel free to reach out  to us today.

Editor's Note: Steve McConnell is a Marketing Automation Consultant at Sojourn Solutions with seven years of Eloqua experience. He has 10 years of Marketing experience specializing in Marketing Operations, Sales Enablement, CRM Integration, and System and Data Management. Steve is a certified Oracle Eloqua B2B Implementation Specialist, and loves training and empowering Eloqua users to do new and exciting things, ie, "... likes making Eloqua do backflips."  Citeline is a pharmaceutical, biomedical and medtech information service company. Within the Citeline organization, there are multiple brands and hundreds of products, spanning from business intelligence platforms to curated editorial and news alerts via several publishing brands. Part of Norstella, a FTSE 250 organization, Citeline’s marketing and product teams send thousands of automated emails, internal and external marketing campaigns, and run lead management processes across several brands. Their technology stack includes multiple instances of Salesforce CRM and multiple Marketing Automation Platforms (Oracle Eloqua and Salesforce Marketing Cloud), which Citeline was trying to streamline down to a more manageable technology landscape. The Reporting Challenge  “We needed a way for all of our brands to speak the same language when it comes to reporting,” says Kevin Sowden, Eloqua Product Owner on the Citeline team. “We obviously want to allow freedom and flexibility when it comes to how each brand measures success. At the same time, ensuring that campaigns are named the same so that they can easily be compared and contrasted when it comes to our reporting capabilities." Sowden explains that this was actually critical before as they were using both Eloqua and SFMC for email. "Sojourn [Solutions] helped us to streamline that stack by moving all of our SFMC functionality into Eloqua," he shares, "and were also able to migrate much of our reporting from Tableau to native Eloqua reports. This again massively reduced the overall complexity of our landscape." However, Sowden states, "it’s still really important for us to be able to take campaign data and blend it together with other data in our reporting systems.”  “The solution we landed on was abiding by a campaign naming convention, which we were enforcing using a spreadsheet before we migrated,” he continues. “This worked great when it was used correctly, but it was liable to human error, and difficult to enforce." Why? Sowden says, "We had no way of having the system ensure that people used the names in the correct ways. We also had real challenges with communicating with the Sales team about campaign results, as the campaign names were just a string of characters rather than a meaningful friendly name which the sales team can understand.” It might sound like a simple problem, but had deep ramifications within the business. “If a campaign is not named correctly it’s a real problem should we need to blend our Eloqua and Salesforce data together,” Sowden explains. “Our reports and dashboards rely on the naming convention to show the correct information – if a campaign is named incorrectly it could be attributed to the wrong brand, or drop out of the reporting altogether. It affects our ability to plan and measure results and just made things much more complex overall." The Solution “It was an interesting requirement,” says Steve McConnell, Marketing Automation Consultant at Sojourn Solutions. "It’s not just enforcing the naming convention and producing a string of characters – you’ve also got the challenge that Sales doesn't actually know how to interpret that information (and would rather have a friendly name)." So, McConnell shares, "We actually wanted something where we could have two different campaign names for the same campaign; with no external spreadsheets to work with; and fully automated and 100% reliable so that if people forget about the naming convention, there’s a way for it be enforced by the system.”  The solution they ended up implementing revolves around using Eloqua campaign fields. McConnell says, "When a campaign is created in Eloqua, it’s really easy to put drop-down controlled mandatory picklist fields on it, which the marketer has to fill out before the campaign can be activated." That takes care of the issue of marketers forgetting the process or not using the correct values." "Everything in Eloqua is made mandatory and picklist-controlled so that there’s no way you can get your email to send without going through these quick steps first,” McConnell explains. “We also maintained the ability for marketers to add a friendly name by simply using the initial Eloqua campaign name as the friendly name. So when they’re setting up their campaign, they don’t have to think about the naming convention at all – just put in your friendly name and fill out the campaign fields.”  “After the campaign is created, Citeline’s Eloqua/SFDC integration kicks in, takes those field values the user selected on the campaign, and turns that into a string," says McConnell. That gives the naming convention which is then sent into Salesforce. "We then have a simple automation running to take that string and pull it back into Eloqua, replacing the campaign name," McConnell shares. "We also retain the original friendly name that the Campaign was created with. That’s then used as the Salesforce campaign name, so the Sales team see a nice friendly name instead of a complicated string.”  The Impact  “The team loves it," Sowden says when asked about the reception from the marketing team. “We’re lucky to have some really digital-savvy and experienced Eloqua users in our team who are very tech-oriented. But the best feedback we’ve had has been from some of our less technical users who were never that happy with the original spreadsheet solution,” he explains." “Hearing from those team members that this is saving them time and effort is obviously great on its own, but it also represents a real efficiency savings which contributes to better ROI from marketing overall." Having to use spreadsheets and even calculators on occasion to get the correct name was a pain before - "and this has completely removed that step from the marketer’s processes,” says Sowden. “We’re also seeing much better use of our Sales Enablement tools and processes such as Eloqua Profiler – having a friendly name on the Salesforce side, instead of a complex string of characters, is helping our sales development representatives dig deeper into where our Leads came from which is setting them up for better success rates on their calls,” Sowden continues. And finally, "We’re able to measure the results of that in terms of conversion rates more reliably due to the process being automated." "The removal of any human error from the process and the fact that it’s automated in Eloqua helps us build trust in our reporting data which we use to make key strategic decisions," states Sowden. "We were basically able to build everything we wanted into this process without having to compromise, even with requirements that felt contradictory like wanting different names for the same campaign in two different systems. It’s worked great so far and laid the foundations for us to deepen our attribution and results measurement in the future,” Sowden concludes. _______________ FYI... Interested in learning more about the above solution? Register  for our virtual Eloqua User Group meeting on Thursday, November 16, for Steve McConnell's live presentation! Check out our Marketing Automation Consulting Services  for more use cases and examples of automations that could help your business. Or, contact us  to discover how your organization can get the most out of your Eloqua platform.

Citeline/Norstella is a $5 billion business with more than 1,000 employees that delivers high-quality content (pharma intelligence) to a target market of life science professionals. The editorial team at Citeline, made up of 65+ journalists and hundreds of analysts, produces the best email newsletter in the pharmaceutical industry.  Citeline powers a full suite of complementary business intelligence offerings to meet the needs of pharma/life science professionals, supporting their work in accelerating patient treatments and therapies. Citeline’s daily and weekly email newsletters are sent out according to the subscriber’s pre-defined preferences for content. Citeline wanted to migrate to a single Eloqua instance for sending its personalized emails to subscribers. The project described below produced a powerful and unique synergistic effect (combining Citeline’s editorial and marketing teams), while exceeding the project’s goals around reduced license-related costs, increased operational efficiency, increased email reach and engagement, and operational continuity. Eloqua Migration: Project Goals and Challenges  The project objectives, as detailed by Citeline, were as follows: (1) to significantly reduce license-related costs (e.g., sunsetting Salesforce Marketing Cloud), (2) to maintain continuity of Citeline’s personalized Insights email product, and (3) to increase the reach and engagement of personalized Insight emails, all while migrating to a single Eloqua instance that leveraged the Instant Marketing (IM) app.  The new approach as developed by Citeline, in partnership with Sojourn Solutions and Instant Marketing, would: Send out highly-personalized, best-in-market pharmaceutical news stories via email to subscribers, with dynamic content pulled from its news website, while allowing Citeline marketers to maintain the system without relying heavily on technical coders/developers. Automate the generation of email content in Eloqua based on preferences and content selections pre-determined by email subscribers in Sitecore, which had been happening in SFMC prior to the Eloqua migration. Among the challenges the project confronted were: Creating newsletters from complex RSS feeds, many assembled uniquely for each subscriber based on their preferences. This was an extremely complex automation, which was being done using SFMC’s legacy “AMPScript” code language, which was difficult for marketers to work with. Managing subscriber preferences and content selections across different platforms (Sitecore, Salesforce) and integrating them into a new Eloqua instance, without disruption to subscribers as emails went out daily and weekly. Ensuring dynamic population of email content for each recipient while maintaining performance and avoiding email bounce issues. On average, 1.6 million emails went out per month, each with up to 20 articles depending on user preferences. Handling different email variations and branding requirements across multiple use cases and brands. Building logic to pull and format content from external sources (RSS feeds) and incorporating them into emails. Managing data complexity and potential limitations in querying and processing large datasets from Salesforce/Eloqua CDO. Implementing a new Eloqua instance within a tight 3-6 month timeframe, while working with multiple teams across two different companies as Citeline was breaking away from Informa and integrating with Norstella. Project Strategy  The Sojourn team determined that if Citeline was migrating to Eloqua, it didn't need to continue using the SFMC platform. The legacy approach leveraged a lot of complex code and processes, but the Citeline team lacked sufficient documentation and support around the code and related processes. While Eloqua would support Citeline’s business needs and existing architecture, it didn't have an out-of-the box solution for accommodating personalized Insight emails, so an Instant Marketing app was built and added onto Eloqua to enable personalized emails.  Eloqua + IM App Sojourn brought in partner Instant Marketing  (IM), knowing it would be able to help build a solution. The Instant Marketing app plugged into Eloqua and had the capabilities of doing the RSS feed function and intelligence required to produce the Insight emails on time and to a high standard.  Removing SFMC reduced license-related costs, as well as complex coding and manual processes that brought high risks of operational failure. The legacy Eloqua + SFDC approach lacked sufficient documentation and also required a dedicated coder to help. Reporting was also difficult. The new approach replaced legacy SFMC AMScript with low-code and no-code components: Eloqua drag & drop tools removed the need for a lot of the code, providing a simple visual interface. What code remained was migrated from AMPScript to Instant Marketing’s Custom Actions, enabling users to write modern server-side JavaScript directly from inside Eloqua itself. A huge amount of complex, unwieldy AMScript was thus reduced to a tiny fraction of modern, type-safe TypesScript written, maintained and monitored directly from Eloqua. The new Eloqua + IM solution was implemented in such a seamless way that no customer realized that Citeline was migrating away from SFMC to a new Eloqua instance.  Project Execution The specifics of the solution, all achieved within a tight project timeframe of 3-6 months and without any disruption to Citeline’s email subscribers, were as follows: Development of an Instant Marketing app to query and filter preferences stored in Salesforce and Eloqua CDO for each email recipient. Email content was dynamically populated based on subscriber’s saved searches, My View preferences, and daily email requirements. Implementation of the logic to pull content from external RSS feeds and incorporate them into email templates. Brand-specific styling and customization were ensured for each email variation. Mechanisms for email tracking, click-through, and handling ad blocks as per brand requirements were set up. Email deliverability was monitored using inbox replacement, list validation, and sender score reputation. Deployment of extensive IP warming to control the ramp up to large volume sends on the new Eloqua instance. Project Results: Exceeding Expectations Achievements of the new Eloqua + Instant Marketing app approach included: Sunsetting the SFMC license reduced license-related fees by 88%. Continuity of personalized email delivery, at a volume of 1.6 million emails per month, with 40% increase in reach vs. legacy. Implementation of dynamic content population based on user preferences and real-time data. The low-code/no-code approach streamlined operations, saved hours of work each month, and made for a better marketer/user experience. Time to create actionable insights from reporting reduced by 50%. More than doubled the click-thru rate: Eloqua average of 4.19% vs. SFMC average of 1.9%. Compliance with branding and styling requirements for each brand's email variations. Agency monitored emails that were sent out and ensured more emails were actually reaching their intended recipient's inbox. Tracking email performance and reporting capabilities hadn’t happened with SFMC.  Due to enhanced monitoring and reporting, these deliverability metrics are now continually improving: Delivered rate  of 83.84% (Eloqua) vs. 79% (SFMC) Soft bounce rate  of 16.15% vs. 25%+ (SFMC) Hard bounce rate  of 0.6% vs. 0.92% before Oct. of '23 Reporting of email delivery and engagement at an account and user level will add significant value for Citeline’s commercial/sales teams. The ability to quickly take up new requirements (e.g.,  separating free and paid users) will be an ongoing benefit. Key Project Takeaways The speed of doing the project in 3-6 months and without disruption to Citeline’s email subscriber base was mission-critical, especially as Citeline was in the middle of integrating into Norstella. Another indicator of project success is that a similar project is now on Citeline’s roadmap for their other product team.  The project improved the experience of internal marketers who were managing the solution (improved employee experience), due to easier workflows/processes related to low-code/no-code, and also lays the groundwork for ongoing improvement of the experience of Citeline’s email subscribers (improved customer experience). A Final Word from Citeline Julia Seto, Product Manager, Insights and Platforms, at Citeline, shared the following perspective on the Eloqua migration project: Switching from Salesforce Marketing Cloud to Eloqua was a massive undertaking, which we had to do in a short time-frame as we moved from Informa to Norstella. The team had not initially grasped how complicated the backend solutions were. Getting everything set up, including the IP warming, was all very compressed because we had so many things happening at once.  So from the perspective of degree of difficulty, and our goal of not disrupting product continuity, this was a very challenging and, in the end, a highly successful project. Citeline’s project was recently entered into the 2024 ANA Business Marketing B2 Awards, in the “Integrated Marketing Program: Large Enterprise” category. Contact us  learn more about how Sojourn Solutions can help your marketing organization improve its marketing operations.

Thomson Reuters  is a global AI and technology company that provides trusted data and information/business intelligence to professionals across 3 different industries: (1) Legal; (2) Tax and Accounting; and (3) News & Media. In business since 1851, the company currently has over 25,000 employees worldwide. In 2023, Thomson Reuters (TR) and Sojourn Solutions (Sojourn) began an ambitious project to optimize the Thomson Reuters marketing technology stack, seeking to create an effective, efficient, and centralized operating model for long-term stack management.  The roots of the change go back to 2021, when TR recognized the need to build a consolidated marketing operations group. Prior to that, TR’s marketing operations were embedded within each of its different business units, which led to a fragmented martech stack that nobody had centralized management and control over.  A Difficult-to-Manage Martech Stack   The legacy TR martech ecosystem was complex, vast, and difficult to manage and/or map. It was made up of 125 + apps and platforms, and was managed via 4 databases across multiple teams, preventing visibility into TR’s complete stack and stack investment.  TR had different silos of people, processes, and martech tools across its three main business units, with each having martech specialists embedded within them. TR’s different teams were using its primary marketing automation platform (MAP) in very different ways and for different use cases. Besides challenges around stack scale and visibility, other major martech stack challenges included: 1. Lack of detailed, centralized reporting,  especially re: data flows, integrations, and technology performance, meaning that gaining necessary visibility into stack capabilities and costs was difficult-to-near-impossible. 2. Limited visibility into stack-related costs.  A fragmented tech stack made it difficult for TR to determine ROI and track software costs as business units funded platforms from their own (separate) budgets. 3. Manual updates of the ecosystem were time-consuming and prone to errors,  causing problems around data quality that often went unrecognized/unreported for long periods of time, negatively impacting stack performance and costs.  4. Lack of comprehensive integration maps for the entire martech ecosystem,  making it harder to recommend new martech because redundancies and/or gaps in capabilities and tools might go unrecognized. Defining Success TR knew it had to eliminate its siloes and different reporting structures in order to get on the same page. Related to that, it had to have standardized tools that would also be flexible enough to accommodate differing needs and use cases.  After evaluating the challenges, TR and Sojourn developed some key goals for the transformation project. including: 1. A Need to Gain Greater Visibility:  TR wanted to construct an accessible, shared directory of martech capabilities, applications, integrations, spend and renewals to support stakeholders across the Thomson Reuters organization. The objective here was to introduce transparency and efficiency into a process of martech acquisition, implementation, and management that had previously been fragmented. 2. A Need to Streamline its Stack:  TR wanted to better assess platform performance and leverage those assessments to streamline and optimize the number of martech products/tools it was using, thus helping to better manage costs and drive stack capabilities. 3. A Need to Develop New Approaches to Workflows and Resource Allocations:  TR wanted to find a new way to objectively assess the martech it was using, and rethink internal workflows and resource allocations to optimize its stack. Defining the Solution Sojourn collaborated with the TR team to design and implement a solution to the challenges above. The major components of that solution were: Deploying an organizing platform.  TR and Sojourn decided to deploy CabinetM , a user friendly, automated martech management platform. In implementing the solution, Sojourn supplied strategic support and its expertise around marketing operations in order to develop a Platform Performance Scorecard and martech governance recommendations (more specifics on those below). The CabinetM platform organized TR’s stack and apps/tools in one place, increased organizational visibility, and documented their entire martech ecosystem, as well as clearly defining and delineating technology owners, integrations, and contracts. These assets had previously been spread out across multiple spreadsheets and in different databases.  Creating cross-functional alignment around the stack.  To make the newly-organized structure work effectively, TR collaborated across multiple departments and functions to track, optimize, and report on TR’s martech infrastructure, expense, renewals, adoption, and strategy.  Gaining visibility and streamlining its martech stack.  In the end, this collaborative process pulled together martech tools (CabinetM), people, and new processes/workflows. TR gained the ability to strategically streamline its martech, while developing new methods and tools to understand and track tech capability/functionality. Working across its 125+ technologies, and 5+ stakeholders, TR was able to create a one-stop shop for their martech assets within CabinetM. They gained full visibility across the organization to support better decision-making around martech stack performance and investments. Results of the Project 1. TR built a visual directory of martech capabilities, applications, integrations, spend and renewals.  This martech directory listed over 175 martech platforms that were either active, under consideration, or retired. In addition, TR:  Established its stack mechanics, architecture and martech landscape layer categories. Determined and established baseline product attributes and incorporated pertinent information. Captured integration connections and details. Captured and created details as they’re forming to capture its capability models. Built a historical record of all platforms and activities regardless of status for future use. 2. TR shifted to a capability model.  TR moved from managing its martech tools under the umbrella of its separate business units to a model that now assigns managers based on the capabilities that a particular platform might support. For example, it has a manager who supports the Web Operations team and the tools they need. TR has another manager who supports the demand generation team and the tools they need. So in theory, two people are managing one platform, but they're managing it to drive optimal value for the stakeholders who use it and for the specific use cases of those stakeholders.  3. TR and Sojourn developed a Platform Performance Scorecard  to enable TR’s central team to support their technology review process across all its platforms.  The Performance Scorecard described the top business use cases each tool addressed, as well as ratings for how well the tool was actually addressing those specific use cases. The Scorecard also provides relevant information about the vendor, levels of user support, contract/renewal information, as well as the vendor’s future roadmap for the tool/platform.  The Platform Performance Scorecard helps fuel better, more informed discussions within TR when decisions need to be made about its  martech stack. 4. Sojourn recommended an improved Martech Request structure  for TR including a consolidated, automated new martech request / renewal request process using Workfront, an existing tool in their stack. The existing request process was scattered across teams and sources, and Sojourn saw an opportunity to improve it using an existing tool to centralize the net new requests, pilots, and renewals as applicable. In addition to workflow effectiveness, a centralized model provides better reporting and actionable insights for improved decision-making.  Reaction from Thomson Reuters Here’s some final words on the project from Thomson Reuters: The solutions and the new, consolidated structure we’ve built is going to allow us to expand, grow, and keep infusing other areas like AI, where Thomson Reuters is currently putting lots of emphasis. – Kim Kraetzner, Thomson Reuters’ Marketing Operations & Technology Manager. It's great to now see our Martech SMEs having the time to concept TR's “tomorrow position.” Because of our streamlined management model and process, they can focus on higher value activities – and we can pivot a lot easier than we used to. – Carol Mendenhall, Thomson Reuters’ Senior Director of Marketing Operations P.S. The Project described above has been submitted as a presentation topic at The Martech Weekly’s World Martech Forum  this August in San Francisco. (Fingers-crossed!) In addition, the Project was submitted for a The Stackies 2024: Marketing Tech Stack Awards . See TR’s submission here , and explore TR’s martech stack  yourself!  Last, but certainly not least, TR’s Carol Mendenhall  shared her expertise at the 2024 Martech Conference  in a session titled “How MOps should prepare their stacks and teams for customer experience-based AI. Watch it on-demand now . Learn more  about how Sojourn Solutions can help take your Marketing Operations team martech management and performance to the next level. Questions? Contact us  today.

Citeline , the world’s leading provider of business intelligence in the pharmaceutical and medtech industry, had to set up a completely new Martech infrastructure/Tech stack which involved a new Eloqua marketing automation platform (MAP). What catalyzed the change was Citeline’s being sold by its parent company Informa in 2022. Citeline, formerly Pharma Intelligence, was ultimately acquired by business intelligence giant Norstella, forming a $5 billion global firm. Citeline had to rebrand, becoming one of five brands under the Norstella umbrella. Citeline needed to rapidly de-couple its infrastructure away from Informa. During the transition phase, the Citeline team quickly understood that if it moved forward with both Eloqua and Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC), its legacy platforms, it would incur substantial implementation and maintenance costs, hindering the firm’s progress moving forward. The Big Question The big question Citeline confronted, and which Sojourn helped them answer in the affirmative, was: “Could Citeline manage its operations and continue to effectively run its business without the license costs and complexity associated with SFMC, by leveraging Eloqua alone?” Citeline decided to sunset its SFMC license and migrate to a single instance of Eloqua, migrating all its data, assets, configurations, processes, etc. to the new instance. With new tech being implemented across the Citeline corporate structure and across Citeline’s customer/CX journey, the pressure for Marketing to rapidly launch a new Eloqua instance and seamlessly migrate from its existing/legacy systems was high. Citeline wanted the entire Eloqua migration project completed within an aggressive timeline of 6 months, with the overarching goal of ensuring minimal business impact/revenue disruption. Timing was also important because Citeline faced contractual penalties that would get triggered if it continued to depend upon its legacy infrastructure from Informa. Challenges to Project Success This Eloqua migration initiative marked a significant shift in Citeline's tech architecture, encompassing a new Sales CRM, MAP instance (Eloqua), and Website.  Some challenges Citeline faced in migrating to the new Eloqua instance included: No flexibility on program milestones due to the entire Citeline technology stack being switched at the same time. Failure to switch on time would have resulted in massive costs. Implementing new technology, including a single instance of Eloqua, involved extensive data migration and integration of third-party apps/platforms. All legacy processes and workflows needed to be brought into alignment with the capabilities of the new Eloqua instance. Complex (highly scripted) email campaigns needed to run without disruption to either customers/subscribers or business revenues. Removing SFMC meant replacing workflows and processes, and connecting a new App (Instant Marketing) to Eloqua. Ensuring that all agencies/partners worked well together in order to minimize internal disruption for the Citeline team, which needed to: (1) continue performing their day jobs and (2) prove to their new Norstella investors that they could still generate revenue as this massive transformation was happening. The Citeline team needed to be rapidly trained and enabled to work in the new Eloqua framework, ensuring seamless operational continuity. First Steps: Designing a Customized Eloqua/MAP Solution Citeline brought in Sojourn Solutions as a project partner. In collaboration with the Citeline team, Sojourn swiftly organized and facilitated discovery sessions to create a streamlined blueprint/project framework for an Eloqua roll-out, crafting related timelines and project priorities. High among the project priorities was ensuring flexibility within any planned martech solution in order to accommodate potential new requirements in a fast-moving, rapidly-evolving program. Sojourn, for example, provided deep technical expertise around architecting new ways of delivering Citeline campaigns and integrating with the new CRM and website.   Implementing the Solution The Citeline-Sojourn partnership successfully implemented the new Eloqua instance. In order to minimize disruption to Citeline’s revenue-generating Insights email product, the project team worked successfully to eliminate email deliverability challenges. This ensured email reach and customer engagement, not to mention business/revenue continuity for the critically-important Insights email product.  Citeline’s Insight email was driven by customized content preferences pre-defined by email subscribers. So, the project team collaborated with a development agency to ensure Salesforce Marketing Cloud emails could be created and run within the new Eloqua instance using RSS-type functionality. This would now be delivered through the Instant Marketing app/add-on. Sojourn also provided additional development support to standardize data and support field value updates. Project Deliverables Project deliverables were focused on data migration, asset migration, app/platform integration, new processes and templates launched, as well as user enablement. Here’s a brief summary: 1. All relevant data was migrated from Citeline’s legacy systems into the new Eloqua instance in a timely and accurate fashion.  2. The following Citeline assets were migrated into a new Eloqua framework: 8 ‘always on’ forms including Landing Pages 14 ‘always on’ Campaign Canvases and approximately 35 inflight Campaign Canvases 100 ‘always on’ Emails and approximately 95 inflight Emails 3. The following processes were built: Forms and Lead Score to Salesforce Bi-directional syncs Cleansing processes 4. The following templates were created: 4 key Form templates 12 Campaign Canvas templates 50 Email templates 5. Other deliverables: Users were trained and enabled (see details below) IP warming was completed to ensure quality and business continuity + Preference Center for email subscribers to personalize content Documentation was provided Enabling People and Processes In order to ensure project success and maintain the new platform after its go-live date, Sojourn trained the internal Citeline team on new processes and workflows. It also supported Citeline’s Product Marketing and Campaign teams after go-live by providing hypercare. This included daily platform monitoring to proactively manage any potential problems/issues that might arise and potentially disrupt business continuity. Hypercare also involved daily calls with the project team, including Citeline’s internal people as well as relevant external agencies. Even after the go-live date and in order to support Citeline’s full operational continuity, Sojourn helped support ongoing Eloqua technical and integration requirements. It also delivered hands-on campaign reporting and analysis to Citeline as a way to ease the pressure on Marketing during go-live. KPIs of Project Success: Outcomes The success of the Eloqua migration project was indicated by the following: 1. A single instance of Eloqua was successfully put in place by early July 2023, less than 6 months after the March project kick-off and well within Citeline’s desired timeline. Significant costs (related to licenses and development needs) related to continuing with the legacy SFMC platform were avoided, including an 88% savings on licensing-related costs, as SFMC was sunsetted. 2. Existing SFMC data, journeys and campaigns were successfully migrated and running 'as is’ in Eloqua by June 28, 2023, including 1.6 million emails per month with up to 20 pieces of content each (dynamic content where each recipient can receive different news articles direct from the website). 3.The project developed a Citeline-owned Eloqua instance and migrated it from Informa business systems so Citeline could transition its corporate structure from Informa to Norstella. 4. The project team coordinated the migration with Salesforce workstreams to successfully minimize disruption for Citeline’s commercial team and customers. 5. Because of the low code and no code nature of the solution, software complexity was reduced and Citeline no longer needed a dedicated developer. Marketers saved about half of their time and were able to manage the work with user-friendly functions such as “drag-and-drop.” A Word from Citeline Chris Fowles, Citeline’s Sr Director Technology, Sales & Marketing Business Partner, explained the benefits of the Eloqua migration project this way:   The project goals were achieved, which included getting Citeline away from Informa as well as having us be in control of our own infrastructure and destiny. The initiative was about keeping our business up and running at a time of rapid change. We wanted to avoid having any operational downtime, keeping leads and revenue flowing. We were also hoping not to take a hit to our revenues as we moved our infrastructure away from Informa. Delays would have cost us. Commercially, we actually grew our revenues last year as the project happened, and our number of leads generated have only continued to grow. Regarding the process of working with Sojourn, Fowles said:  Where Sojourn stands above the rest of our partners is in their flexibility. When the project requirements and timelines shifted, Sojourn never made managing these new requirements seem inconvenient to them, although we knew it was indeed inconvenient. At the end of the day, I still don’t know how we managed to do it all in time and within budget, but Sojourn was a big part of that success.  Learn more about how Sojourn Solutions can help improve your Marketing Automation - as well as your Marketing Operations - or feel free to reach out to us today.

Since the joint venture between Virgin Media and O2 in 2021, the combined company, VMO2, has been on a transformative journey. At Sojourn Solutions, we have had the privilege of working alongside their Marketing Operations team to support this transformation - helping to streamline operations, optimise costs, and strengthen in-house capabilities. The result? A high-performing, data-driven digital marketing engine that’s helping VMO2 Business deliver measurable results and drive continuous improvement. From the outset, the focus was clear: create a unified brand and marketing strategy across the combined Virgin Media and O2 business customer base. Central to this was the consolidation of marketing operations, bringing together disparate systems, teams, and technologies. Working closely with VMO2, we helped define a target operating model that would enable the business to shift from reliance on external agencies, to an in-house team with deep expertise across paid media, SEO, and data analytics. As Pedro Da Silva, Head of Digital Media & Marketing Operations at VMO2 , noted: “ By in-housing these key capabilities, we’ve not only reduced costs but gained greater control over our digital marketing efforts. We can now act with agility, responding in real-time to insights and delivering more targeted, efficient campaigns .” A critical aspect of this transformation was ensuring the right MarTech foundation. The consolidation of customer and prospect data, alongside the integration of CRM, MAP, and analytics systems, laid the groundwork for a robust and scalable marketing operation. With the support of Sojourn Solutions, VMO2 implemented a comprehensive tagging and tracking strategy, enabling the team to capture and leverage data across channels more effectively. “ Getting the right foundations in place was key, ” said Da Silva. “ 2023 was about consolidating and optimising our data and processes. Now, in 2024, we’re seeing the impact of that work come to life, with integrated, data-driven strategies that allow us to engage more meaningfully with our audience. ” In addition to optimising digital media and marketing technology, VMO2 introduced new tools such as Rev.Up for business intelligence and Visitor Intelligence for lead tracking. This enabled deeper insights into customer behaviour and allowed for more precise targeting. The shift from a campaign-specific approach to a holistic, always-on strategy has made a significant difference. “ We are building a performance marketing team that is not only data-informed but data-driven. This shift has moved us from being seen as a support function to a strategic partner within the organisation, ” Da Silva added. “ And the work never stops—continuous optimisation and improvement are now part of our DNA. ” At Sojourn Solutions, we are proud to have supported VMO2 Business on this journey, helping them to consolidate, standardise, and elevate their digital marketing and MOPs capabilities. The results speak for themselves: improved cost efficiency, reduced reliance on external agencies, and a performance marketing team that is driving significant business impact.

AI has shaken the marketing world, changing the way businesses connect with customers, optimize campaigns, and drive growth. But while the buzz around AI is everywhere, the real question is - are your Marketing Operations actually ready to use it effectively? AI isn’t just another shiny new tool you can plug in and expect magic. It requires strong processes, clean data, and a team that knows how to work with it. So, is your Marketing Operations team set up for success with AI? Let’s break down what it really takes to be AI-ready, the common roadblocks businesses face, and how you can set yourself up to embrace AI. How AI is changing Marketing Operations AI isn’t just a trend - it’s becoming a must-have in modern Marketing Operations. It’s changing how teams work by automating tasks, providing deep insights, and delivering hyper-personalized customer experiences. Here’s how AI is already making an impact: Personalization at scale  – AI helps you understand your customers better, predicting what they need before they even know it. Smarter decision-making  – AI analyzes massive amounts of data instantly, helping marketers make better, data-driven choices. Efficiency boost  – Say goodbye to repetitive tasks. AI automates them so your team can focus on strategy and creativity. Better insights  – AI doesn’t just track metrics; it finds patterns and trends that humans might miss. AI-Powered chatbots & assistants  – These tools can answer customer questions, generate leads, and even guide prospects through the sales funnel. While all of this sounds great, AI isn’t a plug-and-play solution. It needs the right foundation to work effectively. Are you AI-ready? Key areas to assess Before diving into AI, take a step back and assess whether your Marketing Operations are actually ready. Here are the major areas to consider: 1. How structured are your marketing processes? AI thrives in organized environments. If your marketing workflows are all over the place, AI won’t be able to do its job properly. Ask yourself: Are your campaigns well-documented and structured? Do you have a clear lead management process? Is customer journey mapping already a part of your strategy? How are you measuring performance? 2. Is your tech stack AI-friendly? AI works best when it integrates seamlessly with your existing marketing tools. If your tech stack is outdated or fragmented, AI won’t be able to deliver its full potential. Consider: Are your current tools compatible with AI-driven features? Can your systems integrate with AI-powered analytics and automation platforms? Are you already using AI capabilities within your martech tools? 3. Is your data clean and well-managed? AI runs on data - but if your data is messy, you’ll get messy results. Many businesses struggle with outdated, inaccurate, or siloed data. To get AI-ready, you need: Clean, well-organized customer and marketing data Clear data governance policies Compliance with data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA, etc.) 4. Does your team have the right skills? AI doesn’t replace people - it enhances their work. But your team needs to understand how to use it effectively. Ask: Do your marketers have basic AI and data analytics skills? Have they been trained on AI-powered tools? Is there a culture of data-driven decision-making? 5. Are you already leveraging automation? AI isn’t a replacement for marketing automation - it builds on it. If you’re still handling things manually, AI will be harder to implement. Consider: Are your email, ad, and content workflows automated? Do you use predictive analytics for lead scoring? Is customer journey automation already in place? The common challenges in adopting AI Even if you tick all the boxes above, integrating AI into your Marketing Operations comes with its own challenges. Here are a few common ones: 1. No clear AI strategy Many businesses jump into AI without a roadmap. AI needs to be aligned with your marketing goals - otherwise, it’s just an expensive experiment. 2. Bad data Data silos, duplicate records, and poor labelling can render AI useless. AI can’t make good decisions if the data feeding it is flawed. 3. Resistance to change Let’s be honest - AI can feel intimidating. Some team members may fear job loss, while others may struggle to adapt to AI-driven workflows. Change management is key. 4. Unrealistic expectations AI isn’t a silver bullet. It takes time to implement, fine-tune, and optimize. Companies that expect immediate results are getting frustrated and giving up too soon. How to get your Marketing Operations AI-ready If your Marketing Operations aren’t quite ready for AI yet, don’t panic. There are concrete steps you can take to get there: 1. Run an AI readiness audit Before diving in, take stock of where you stand. Evaluate: Your Marketing Operational maturity Your marketing processes and workflows The quality of your data Your existing tech stack Your team’s AI skillset 2. Clean and unify your data Make sure your data is structured, accessible, and free of duplicates. This will be crucial for AI-powered insights. 3. Invest in training AI is only as good as the people using it. Provide your team with training on AI tools, data literacy, and automation best practices. 4. Start small with pilot projects Rather than trying to overhaul everything at once, test AI with a small project first. Track its impact, refine your approach, and scale up from there. 5. Align AI with business goals AI should enhance your existing strategies, not replace them. Make sure your AI initiatives support your broader marketing objectives. Our AI Readiness Assessment: Your roadmap to AI success Not sure if your Marketing Operations are ready for AI? That’s where our AI Readiness Assessment Service  comes in. We help businesses assess their AI readiness by evaluating: Your marketing processes and operational maturity The strength of your existing tech stack Your team’s AI skillset and overall readiness The quality and structure of your data Your current automation capabilities With our AI Readiness Assessment, you’ll get clear insights to prepare your business for AI-powered marketing success and we can work with to develop a roadmap for platform selection and implementation. Ready to take the next step? Let’s assess your AI readiness and build a strategy for smarter, more efficient marketing. Discover our AI in Marketing Operations Services Download our FREE whitepaper

Smurfit Westrock , which operates in 40 countries with 100,000+ employees, is a global leader in sustainable paper and packaging solutions. The B2B company has grown over the years both organically and by acquisition. While Sojourn Solutions has been helping Smurfit Westrock transform its marketing operations since 2017, a primary focus of the last 3 years has been on lead management. We recently spoke with Hee Suk Ko , Director of Enterprise Marketing for Smurfit Westrock, about the company’s lead management challenges, and how they were tackled. What follows is an excerpted version of that conversation:  What were the biggest challenges Smurfit Westrock faced around lead management? Ko: Our primary challenge was limited visibility into lead progression through the funnel. Previously, leads would be handed off to sales without a unified process for follow-up or optimization of the lead-to-conversion process. While certain divisions and teams may have had more mature processes, holisitically, we lacked comprehensive visibility to share learnings and improve our lead quality, lead velocity and closed/won deals.  What was the impact of that previous lead management process on (1) the relationship between marketing and sales, and (2) the customer experience?  Ko: The lack of visibility resulted in inconsistency in both the relationship between marketing and sales and in the customer experience. Some sales team members were eager to receive leads regardless of quality, while others might disregard leads they deemed insufficient. This disparity created misalignment in the customer experience where marketing communications often failed to align with the actual buyer journey and sales interactions. What needed to change?  Ko: We needed to standardize our approach and definitions regarding lead quality and scoring across the organization. Despite having a unified CRM, its usage and data quality were inconsistent. We had to develop a formal framework for lead quality and scoring and streamline the process for sales to follow up on leads, ensuring we – both marketing and sales – could track whether leads were accepted or not as well as their dispositions.  How did you go about working with Sojourn to gain more visibility into the customer journey? Ko: We began by consolidating data from our CRM and marketing automation platform to create initial enterprise marketing attribution dashboards. We then focused on standardizing the definition of a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and tracking key metrics such as MQL acceptance rates, contact rates, and conversion opportunities with each business unit and corresponding sales leaders.  This process evolved into a more holistic approach, incorporating data from additional sources like our web analytics platform and internal financial systems to enrich our understanding of our prospects and customers.  Note from Sojourn:   Smurfit Westrock’s Eloqua-Salesforce integration was updated to match its current business needs (each campaign response would create a new Lead (MQL) in Salesforce.).  The work included changing the lead model, lead assignments, and adding new fields for Lead/Opportunity objects to the integration, and adjusting the sync'd campaign fields.  Overall, these changes meant giving Sales greater context into Leads, and more rich data being available for Marketing to use in segmentation and scoring.  How did these changes impact how marketing and sales worked together? Ko: The improved visibility has fostered a more collaborative approach between marketing and sales. We’re now more intentional and data-driven in our resource allocation for external activities such as trade shows and campaigns. Collectively, we have a better understanding of our customers’ buying journeys, which allows us to identify gaps, improve channel performance, and optimize our targeting. This improved visibility ultimately drives better orchestration, engagement, and conversion rates.  What changes were made with your technology infrastructure and data? Ko: We enhanced our existing CRM-marketing automation platform integration to provide sales with more comprehensive and up-to-date lead information relevant to their division and end market segments. We implemented a contact validation tool and a thorough data cleanup process. Additionally, we optimized our form fields to ensure sales had sufficient information to effectively evaluate and follow up on leads. While we have made great improvements, we recognize that this is an iterative process as we introduce new data sources, technologies, and teams.  Note from Sojourn:  We created dashboards to analyze marketing's influence on revenue, while allowing analysis of channel, buyer role, and buyer journey.  All analysis is split by division giving insight into regional/solution and product differences. Sojourn's recommendations have covered:  (1) optimization of targeting by buyer role in the buying group, (2) optimization of segmentation, including earlier identification of contacts and increasing use of automation to manage contacts across the buying group, (3) optimization of channels, including which channels to prioritize because of their impact on pipeline and revenue. What have been the main benefits of the transformation? Ko: Tangibly, we’ve achieved significant cost and time savings that will compound over time. We now have greater visibility into the buyer journey and marketing influence, all while tracking conversion rates by division to have more informed decision-making conversations with our sales leaders. This improved visibility has also built trust in our data as well as within marketing and sales relationships, both of which were previously lacking and/or inconsistent across teams.  Marketing and sales teams now engage in data-informed conversations about lead prioritization and lead allocation. There’s been a cultural shift, with a heightened appreciation for lead management and tracking capabilities. The ability to have a 360-degree view of customers has become increasingly valuable, especially as we continue our focus on first-party data and consider factors beyond just closing deals, such as payment behavior and cross-selling opportunities. Note from Sojourn: $250K cost savings in FY24 when compared to implementing a productized attribution tool. 85% reduction in event data processing time (7 days reduced to 24 hours), thus speeding up follow-up emails and sending more timely, relevant communications. Open and click through rates improved 14.78% and 17.80% respectively, showing a positive trend in email engagement. What capabilities has Sojourn contributed to Smurfit Westrock? Ko: Sojourn brings two critical areas of expertise: 1. technical knowledge of our tools, integrations, and backend systems and 2. a strategic partnership that understands the nuances of our organization. Our day-to-day partners at Sojourn have been able to adapt to our needs, provide best practices, and offer insights from their consultative experiences while recognizing our unique challenges and requirements at Smurfit Westrock to build authentic relationships internally with sales and externally with our customers.  Learn more about how Sojourn Solutions can help improve your   Marketing Operations  - or feel free to   reach out  to us today.

Understanding how marketing efforts influence buyer behavior is critical in today’s complex B2B landscape. For Smurfit Westrock, a global packaging leader, the challenge lay in accurately tracking marketing performance and justifying budget allocations. Historical decisions and anecdotal feedback drove marketing investments, leaving significant gaps in data-driven decision-making. This article covers how Sojourn’s tailored marketing attribution solution transformed their approach. The challenge: Bridging the attribution gap Smurfit Westrock faced several hurdles in their marketing attribution journey. A significant issue was the inability to validate the impact of marketing campaigns on revenue generation. Without robust tools and processes, the marketing team struggled to connect specific campaigns and channels to tangible business outcomes. This lack of visibility made it difficult to allocate budgets effectively or prioritize initiatives. Additionally, siloed and inefficient systems exacerbated the problem. Salesforce, for instance, was underutilized, with poor contact role usage against opportunities. Meanwhile, Eloqua’s Contact-Level Reporting (CLR) introduced blind spots in data, further limiting insights into channel performance. These systemic issues resulted in marketing strategies that relied heavily on anecdotal evidence rather than data-driven insights. To make matters even more challenging, the sales and marketing teams were not operating in harmony. The large, decentralized sales organization functioned independently - limiting marketing’s ability to influence outcomes and optimize strategies. The absence of actionable insights compounded the difficulty, leaving key metrics like channel ROI and campaign influence unmeasured and unoptimized. Our solution: A tailored marketing attribution framework To address these challenges, Sojourn developed and implemented a comprehensive marketing attribution solution tailored specifically to Smurfit Westrock’s needs. The first step was integrating data from multiple sources, including website tracking, offline events, marketing automation identity resolution, and CRM order data. This integration created a unified attribution database that provided a more complete view of the buying journey and marketing performance. Custom channel definitions were established to ensure accurate tracking and reporting. UTM parameters had been optimized for some time and now were categorized to align with Smurfit Westrock’s unique requirements. This customization allowed for greater precision in measuring the performance of individual channels and subchannels. In addition to these technical solutions, Sojourn introduced advanced analytics and delivered a monthly service to analyze marketing performance across various buying stages for each division. These insights informed strategic recommendations, enabling Smurfit Westrock to focus on high-impact areas and implement a roadmap for continuous improvement. Visualization was a critical component of the solution, with dashboards built in Looker Studio. These dashboards provided an accessible way for teams to interpret data, identify performance gaps, and take targeted action. Example dashboards Key results and outcomes The impact of this tailored solution was significant: Identified marketing gaps by division : Insights revealed opportunities to improve channel performance, target buying group members earlier in their journeys, and refine segmentation strategies. Cost savings : Smurfit Westrock realized savings of $250,000 in FY24. This was achieved by implementing a customized attribution solution rather than investing in a productized tool, which would have required additional implementation costs and a dedicated data analyst. Enhanced buyer journey understanding : The solution provided a deeper understanding of the buyer journey, allowing Smurfit Westrock to align marketing strategies with revenue goals more effectively. Actionable dashboards : The introduction of accessible dashboards empowered various marketing teams to collaborate more closely, fostering a shared understanding of performance metrics and strategic priorities. Insights for continuous improvement Throughout the project, several key learnings emerged. One critical insight was the importance of evolving attribution reporting to address blind spots and meet changing business needs. Regular engagement with stakeholders was essential in ensuring that the solution remained relevant and actionable. Another lesson was the necessity of pairing attribution solutions with ongoing analytics support. Attribution alone cannot drive results; it must be complemented by expert analysis to translate data into strategic actions. Cultural and understanding challenges also had to be addressed. Establishing a shared understanding of key metrics, such as the distinction between lead-level and touchpoint reporting, required consistent communication and education. The project also highlighted the value of visualization in gaining stakeholder buy-in. Visual representations of the buyer journey proved instrumental in helping both strategic and operational stakeholders understand and support the attribution solution. For detail-oriented team members, an architecture diagram and glossary were essential tools for clarity and alignment. Future enhancements: A path forward While the solution delivered significant improvements, opportunities for further refinement remain. Funnel optimization dashboards could provide deeper insights into conversion rates, equipping sales and marketing teams with tools to collaborate on improving performance. Advanced forecasting tools could help predict the impact of customer journey gaps on future pipeline and revenue metrics. Updating end-market dashboards to track engagement and audience growth is another potential enhancement. These updates would ensure that the solution continues to evolve alongside Smurfit Westrock’s needs, delivering sustained value over time. A collaborative success story This Smurfit Westrock case exemplifies the transformative power of a tailored marketing attribution solution. By addressing specific challenges and integrating data across systems, Sojourn enabled the company to transition from anecdotal decision-making to a data-driven strategy. The cost savings, improved insights, and enhanced collaboration between divisional marketing teams underscore the solution’s effectiveness. For businesses looking to optimize their marketing efforts and align strategies with measurable outcomes, a customized attribution framework is a game-changer. Smurfit Westrock’s success story serves as a compelling example of what’s possible with the right approach to marketing attribution. The benefits of integrating AI with your Marketing Operations