For Eloqua users the idea of Custom Data Objects can be daunting and even outright scary, however they are a powerful tool very worth learning and using. Custom Data Objects (CDOs) are used to store data that may be related to a Contact or Company's record. CDOs allow you to store extra information without using precious (and limited) custom fields on your contact and company records. There are plenty of great tutorials on Topliners to help you get started with CDOs, a good starting point is http://topliners.eloqua.com/community/do_it/blog/2012/07/30/custom-data-objects.
Some of the typical uses for CDOs are:
-Purchase History
-Extra segmentation information from CRM
-Events (E9 and E10 have an actual Event CDO)
-Surveys (E9 has a Survey CDO, E10 doesn’t but you could just as easily store survey data on CDOs)
-Warranty expiration information for purchased products
There are a lot of other interesting ways to use CDOs, here are a few we have seen and helped implement:
-Extended Campaign Membership information, storing historical information and other data points. With customization of the membership object in CRM (SFDC) you can then leverage the CDOs to bring relevant data points over for both segmentation and historical reporting purposes.
-Storage of UTM data, everyone using web analytics should be storing UTM codes and analytics tags from their various campaigns inside Eloqua for more robust reporting.
-Cloud Connector Data, depending on cloud connectors you are using or may want to use you can (and sometimes have to) store the data on CDOs.
-Opportunity Data (beyond just stage and closed won/lost) for nurturing, sometimes having the stage data just isn’t enough to properly nurture your open or stuck opportunities, bringing over relevant information (like who else is up for the same deal, how long the deal has been open, etc.) will help you better nurture and push people along the buyers journey.
What creative ways are you using CDOs today?