Campaign Approvals

Note: Campaign Approval functionality is included with Eloqua Standard and Eloqua Enterprise trims. Contact your account representative if you are interested in campaign approval functionality with the Eloqua Basic trim.

Campaigns provide the modern marketer with powerful tools to reaching and nurturing prospective and current customers.  Campaigns can be activated by the owner (creator) of the Campaign or anyone with the corresponding access rights to activate it.  However, often it is important to validate the content of the Emails, Landing Pages and other content that are included in a Campaign, therefore it is now possible to configure an approval process prior to being able to activate the Campaign.  As an Eloqua administrator, you have the ability to select the users at your organization who can approve the Campaign content, through a series of steps that you create and control.  Once all Campaign phases (steps) have been approved, the Campaign can be activated, but not until that time.

Prerequisites

1. You must be a member of a Security Group that has access to the Approvals feature.  To access the Security Group settings:

• Navigate to Setup> Users and select the Groups tab in the left-hand (tree) pane.
• Click the down-arrow next to the name of the Security Group that requires Approvals access.
• Click Security Group Details.
• On the right-hand pane, select Interface Access from the list of options that can be configured.
• Click Edit to edit the settings for your group.
• Scroll to Setup, and expand the option by clicking on the arrow to the left.
• Click the arrow next to Assets.
• Make sure the checkbox is enabled next to Approvals.
• Click Save to save your settings.

Using Campaign Approvals

Important Note: The Campaign Approvals Workflow is a global Workflow for all Campaigns in your Eloqua instance.  You cannot create separate workflows for individual Campaigns.

1. Once the steps in the Prerequisites section above have been confirmed, navigate to Setup area of the application.  There is a new icon under the Assets heading, labeled Approvals:
2. To begin setting up Approvals, click the Approvals icon (located in the Assets section).  The Campaign Approvals Workflow dialog box opens.  This is where you configure the steps (stages) in your Approvals process.
   
3. Click the + icon to add the first Review (approval) stage.  The Add Review dialog box opens.
   
4. Enter the name of the first step in the Name field, followed by a description (optional).  For example, the first step in your Approvals process might be a review of the content in your Email and Landing Page.  The description only appears when editing the Stage, it will not be shown on the list of steps when viewing the approval process.
5. The next field, Reviewer(s) is where you specify the name(s) of any user within your Eloqua instance who is permitted (required) to approve this stage before the process can move to the next stage, and before the campaign can be activated.  This field is a type-ahead search, and returns any users in your User List for this instance who have that letter in their user name, not only whose user names begin with that letter.  For example, in the following screenshot, typing "M" displays a list of users whose names contain that letter:
   
6. To add someone as an Approver, click on their name.  Important: The person(s) you have selected will NOT be added to the list of approvers until you click the + icon to the right of the field containing their name.
7. Once you click the + sign, the user is added to the list of possible approvers for this Stage:
   
8. To remove a user from the list of Reviewers, click the - sign next to their name and they are removed from the list of Approvers.  Continue adding more Reviewers, as necessary, until you have all Reviewers added for each Stage in your Approval Process.  Here is what your approval process might look like after all Stages have been configured:
   
9. To edit a Stage (step), click the first button in the right-hand column and the Edit Stage dialog box opens, from which you can rename, change the description, or modify the names of Approvers (Reviewers) for this Stage.  Similarly, to delete a Stage (step), click the - button to the right of the Reviewers column:
   
10. To add another Step, click the plus sign in the bottom-left corner of the Campaign Approvals Workflow dialog box.
    
11. Important: Once all steps have been configured, click Save in the bottom-right corner of the Campaign Approvals Workflow dialog box.
12. To reorder Stages (steps) in your Workflow, hover your mouse cursor over the Stage number in the Workflow list and a double-ended cursor appears.  Holding down your left mouse button, drag-and-drop the Stage to the correct position and click Save to save your
    chages:
    

NOTE: Once any Campaign in your Eloqua instance is in Active status, you cannot add, remove or edit any of the Approvers (Reviewers) in the Workflow.  You must deactivate any and all active Campaigns in your Eloqua instance before being able to modify or add/remove Reviewers.

Using Approvals in your Campaigns

Now that you have configured and set up the Stages and Reviewers for your Eloqua Campaigns, you can begin to use the workflow to ensure your Campaigns meet all your requirements before activation.

To set up your Approval Workflow:

1. Click Campaigns from the navigation toolbar.  Select Open an Existing Campaign from the Launchpad.
2. In the Campaign Chooser, select (highlight) the name of the Campaign and click Choose.
3. In the top-right corner of the Campaign Canvas window, click Approvals.
4. The Approvals modal drops down from the top of the Canvas window, and the Status tab is selected.
   
5. All Stages (steps) you configured in the section above are shown, in the order in which they were created for your workflow.  By default, no approvers (reviewers) are initially shown on this tab, as this is where you will select the approvers for this Campaign from the list of available reviewers.
6. To add a valid reviewer (approver) to each step, click in the field below the Step name and begin typing a letter contained in the approver's name.  The list of available names includes only those who were added when you created the Stage as shown in step 8 in the beginning of this document:
   
7. Once you select the approver(s), click the + icon to add them to the Stage (neglecting to do this will prevent you from successfully saving the Approvals).
   
   The approver(s) you have selected appear above the field where you entered their names once you click +.
8. If you neglect to add an approver (reviewer) to one or more of the Stages and click the Save button, an error message is displayed:
   
9. Continue adding available approvers to each step and click Save to save the Workflow.

Beginning the Approvals Process

Once everything is configured successfully in all the steps shown in the sections up to this point, you are ready to set the approval process in motion.

To begin the approvals process:

1. If you are not using the Campaign that you have created above, click Open an Existing Campaign from the Campaign Launchpad.  Search for the Campaign and select Choose.
2. From the Action Menu (gear icon) in the top-right corner of the Campaign Canvas, select Approvals.  The Approvals modal (drop-down) window open as in the preceding section.
3. Click Request Approval in the bottom-right corner.
   
4. An Email containing the request for the approver(s) in step 1 to review the content assigned to them (the same Email is sent to all reviewers) with the subject line ACTION - Approval Request forname of Campaign where name of Campaign is substituted by the actual name of your Campaign.  The sender of the Email is shown as Eloqua Notifier.  In the following example, the name of the Campaign is Midwest Meet and Greet:
   
5. The following information is included in the Approval Request Email:
   a.  The name of the person requesting Approval.
   b.  The Stage in the Approval Process for which Approval is being requested.
   c.  The name of the Campaign.
   d.  The name of the Segment for the first step in the Approval Process.
   e.  If it is a Segment that is being reviewed for approval, the total number of contacts included in that Segment.
6. Click View Campaign to review the content for which you are being asked to approve or reject.  Note: If you are not currently logged in to Eloqua when you click View Campaign, you will be directed to the Eloqua login screen.  Once logged in you will need to manually open the Campaign by clicking Campaigns from the navigation menu, selecting Open an Existing Campaign from the Campaign Launchpad, searching for the Campaign and clicking Choose.
7. Once in the Campaign Canvas for the affected Campaign, each reviewer clicks the Approvals button in the top-right corner of the Canvas window.  The Approvals modal appears:
   
8. As an approver (reviewer), once you have reviewed the appropriate content, click either Reject or Approve to provide your decision.
9. If you click Approve, the Confirm Approval dialog box opens, where you must enter a comment regarding your approval, then click Confirm.  The Approvals Workflow moves to the next Step and the approver(s) responsible for that step are notified that their Approval is required:
   
10. The Status tab is updated to show that approval has been granted via a green checkmark.  Click the History tab to view the name of the Stage, the name of the person who approved the content, the time and date of the approval, the comment that was entered and the status for that step:
    
11. An Approval Email is sent to the person who requested your Approval, with the subject line Approved - Approval Request for name of Campaign (where name of Campaign is substituted with the actual name of your Campaign) and whatever comment(s) were provided at the time of approval:
    
    
12. As soon as you initiate the approvals process, the status button of your Campaign changes to the name of the current step in the workflow.  For example, in the following screenshot, the Campaign is at the CONTENT REVIEW stage:
    
13. In steps that have more than one reviewer, the step is considered either approved or rejected after the first person submits his or her approval or rejection.  In other words, all approvers in a step are not required to give their responses in order for the process to proceed to the next step (or, if rejected, the status of the Campaign is returned to DRAFT status).
14. Once a step is Approved, the Status tab reflects that the approval workflow process has moved to the next step:
    
15. However, if an approver at any point during the workflow process clicks Reject, the process is stopped and the Campaign reverts to DRAFT mode (as shown in the upper-left corner of the Campaign Canvas).  The approver enters the reason for rejection in the Confirm Rejection dialog box:
    
    and the reason for rejection is captured on the History Tab, based on what the reviewer entered:
    
    and an Email is generated to the person(s) who requested approval for that step (the Subject line shown as Rejected - Approval Request for name of campaign (where name of campaign is substituted with the name of the actual Campaign):
    
16. Once a Stage has been rejected, the Campaign is put back into DRAFT status and can be edited as if it were being set up for the first time (although the History is saved):
    
17. The Approve and Reject buttons next to a Stage are no longer visible.  You must reinitiate the approvals process from the beginning by clicking the Request Approval button in the lower-right corner and an Email notification will be sent to the approver(s) in the first step.
18. Once all steps have been approved, the Campaign can be activated.  The Approvals button in the top-right corner of the Canvas changes to Activate.  Note: you must have Activate permissions in your User Profile in order to be able to activate a Campaign.  To verify (or change) the ability for your User or Security Group to be able to activate Campaigns, navigate to Setup> Users and make sure the Groups tab is selected.  Click on the down-arrow next to the name of the Group and select Security Group Details.  On the right-hand pane, click Default Asset Permissions.  Click the Edit button.  On the Campaigns tab, make sure the checkbox is enabled for your User and anyone else at your organization who should be able to activate Campaigns, otherwise he or she will not be able to perform that action:
    
19. If Activate is not selected and Approvals are enabled in your Eloqua instance, a user who does not have the Activate permission enabled will be required to through the Approvals process before a Campaign can be activated.
20. If a user hasActivate permission on a Campaign, he or she can save the Campaign as a DRAFT, then activate the Campaign without having to go through the Approvals process.
21. Click Activate to activate the Campaign.  You cannot make any changes to the Approval Process (steps, approvers, etc.) while the Campaign (or any other Campaign) is active; you must first deactivate the Campaign in order to have that functionality.
22. If at any time you (or any Eloqua user who is listed as an Approver in your instance) wish to see an overview of all Approval steps awaiting your action, click My Approvals from the Campaigns Launchpad:
    

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: I am not listed as an approver for a Stage of the Approval Process, yet I see both the Approve and Reject buttons next to the name of the current Stage (step).  Why?

A: In order to prevent all users from being able to Approve or Reject a stage in the Approvals workflow, if you have Customer Administrator rights, you can approve or reject any stage (step) in the process.

Q: Is there a limit to the number of stages in an Approvals workflow?

A: While there is no enforced limit, it is recommended to keep the number of stages to a reasonable level.

Q: Can a non-Eloqua user be an approver?

A: No.  All approvers (reviewers) must be users in your Eloqua instance.

Q: Can a Security Group be used as a reviewer (approver)?

A: No, you can only select individual Eloqua users as reviewers.

Q: Is there a way to easily view the status of the Approvals Process for a specific Campaign(s) without having to open it?

A: Yes.  From the Campaigns Launchpad, select Open an Existing Campaign.  In the Campaign Chooser, the Status column will indicate what step in the Approvals Process the Campaign is currently located.