Marketing automation service provider Eloqua held its first user conference this week in a very sunny Las Vegas. Visit the Experience Web page and you’ll find that the show was “sold out” (…though I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a marketing ploy…). With over 430 attendees, and an impressive list of sponsors, from tech vendors to research firms, Eloqua certainly did well on its first try. It also didn’t hurt that, according to its end-of-the-conference poll, 96 percent of remaining attendees voted in favor of Eloqua hosting another event next year.

Opening up the second day of the conference, Eloqua’s Chief Marketing Officer Brian Kardon promised that if Eloqua’s not easier to use by next year, they’re going to put Chief Executive Officer Joe Payne in a [magician's] box and the audience can saw him in half. Although he noted one commenter who brought up the point that if Eloqua’s not easier to use next year, there may not be enough of the CEO to saw in half.

With still a fair number of attendees holding out until the end, Eloqua concluded the conference with its product roadmap. After all, Payne said, “we wanted [it] to be about you.”

Andre Yee, senior vice president of product development, joined Eloqua six months ago and it seems he’s got his work cut out for him.

It’s all about making marketing easier for the marketer and the company plans on unleashing a few features that aim to do just that:

- Secure SSL Hypersites to ensure that marketers are abiding by credibility standards and regulations around compliance.
- Customizable and flexible reporting.
- A solution that is both powerful and simple, which features:

conceptual unity (i.e., an interface that’s uniform throughout the application);
simplified terminology (i.e., terms defined by the marketer, not the technician);
progressive disclosure (i.e., software that doesn’t intimidate you out of using it);
navigational consistency (i.e., better search, again, based on the language and functions familiar to the marketer); and
establishing guardrails (i.e., bumpers to make sure you don’t go into the gutter).

- Portable Eloqua widgets for CRM that link marketing data directly into sales data to further bring the two worlds in alignment.
- Campaign summary dashboard that’s easy on the eyes.
- Campaign design feature that functions like a blank canvas to promote the intuitive nature of campaign creation.
- Integrate search engine marketing capabilities such that marketers can purchase keywords through Eloqua and manage/test/analyze their effectiveness through the solution.

“We want to make you heroes,” Yee said, “…to drive growth in your organization. The future of Eloqua is about you.”

Inspirational, but it will be the customer who can judge its validity.