Marketing OKRs stands for Objectives and Key Results. OKRs are an effective way to set, track, and accomplish your marketing goals. The strategy of identifying and working towards OKRs is one of the best ways to ensure you and your marketing team meet your objectives.
It can be daunting at first to know what are reasonable goals to set, what are reasonable timelines to expect, and what are reasonable outcomes to predict. Because we know this is tough for most teams, we’ve outlined our best practices below.
After a time, you and your customer marketing team will be so familiar with and amazing at OKRs that you’ll wonder what you ever did before them.
Key Takeaways
- Marketing OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are strategic tools used to set, track, and achieve marketing goals by focusing on attainable objectives that leverage the team’s strengths and setting clear, measurable key results to guide progress.
- OKRs differ from KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) by focusing on setting new goals and attempting new initiatives, whereas KPIs measure the success of existing processes, allowing both to be used concurrently for comprehensive performance tracking.
- To effectively implement OKRs, it’s crucial to avoid common pitfalls such as setting unrealistic goals, neglecting progress checks, overloading with too many OKRs, lacking detailed planning, and evading accountability, ensuring a balanced and realistic approach to achieving marketing objectives.
What are Good Marketing OKRs?
A good marketing OKR is one that you feel certain you can reach. Though you want to push yourself and/or your marketing team, you don’t want to set any unrealistic or unattainable goals. Good marketing OKRs utilize your team’s strengths and skillset to reach the desired result.
For example: if you want to increase social media engagement, try focusing on one specific platform when making your OKR. Then, identify a very specific objective that matches your teams’ abilities.
Once your objective is determined, you can infer three to four key results that will come from accomplishing your goal. Here’s an example:
Objective: Increase engagement on Twitter
Key Results:
- Increase posting frequency from 1x a day to 10x a day
- Interact with other accounts/threads 2x a day
- Send DMs to 5 active followers a day
How OKRs are Different from KPIs
KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator, and it references a measurement of performance over a set amount of time. KPIs differ from OKRs in that they measure the success of already existing processes or programs.
OKRs are to attempt new things, to reach new goals, and so on.
This means that the two can actually be used at the same time. While you’re setting OKRs to define future success and focus on measurable outcomes, you can create a KPI to monitor and measure your marketing success.
How to Set an Objective
Using the example above, let’s break down how we can get to a good objective for our OKR.
To start…
- What’s a recurring issue with your company?
- What’s a goal that you’ve always dreamed of?
- What’s something that you know will grow the company or increase engagement?
- What’s the next step?
Brainstorm a couple of ideas that are challenging but can be accomplished. Sticking with the Twitter example, let’s say you’re at a point with your marketing company where you have a following, some engagement, but you want to expand your base.
The logical next step is to increase social media engagement; this will bring more focus to your company on social media. This will also pique your existing base’s interest. This is also an attainable goal that is actionable and identifiable.
Because increasing social media marketing efforts are broad and probably more out of reach, focusing on one platform, in particular, is wise. The best place to start would be the platform with the most potential for growth and engagement. Twitter is a perfect example of this because of how users can reply to and interact with all of your posts.
So, to recap, you’ve now identified that increasing social media engagement is a necessary next step for you or your company. You then determined that Twitter is the best platform to start with.
Now, let’s get to our key results.
How to Set Key Results
Our key results will guide and monitor us as we get our main objective. Because the objective we chose is intentionally challenging, the key results have to be aggressive but manageable.
Key results should also be clear and direct, leaving no room for a so-so result. Time or quantity of intentions should be mentioned here. Each key result should also be a clear, direct way to achieve the ultimate objective.
As in the Twitter example above, quantity is mentioned in each key result. “Per day” is also setting a specific and direct time goal. We will examine one more OKR later that will set other key results with clear times.
Mentioning that DMs should increase or that posts per day should increase is not useful unless an identifiable quantity is mentioned. Otherwise, what does “increase” mean? And in what amount of time?
By explaining that each key result in the above example is meant to be accomplished in one single day on a recurring, daily basis, you and your marketing team will have a clear, actionable schedule to follow.
Eventually, the amalgamation of each of these key results being implemented well will result in accomplishing the original objective!
How to Achieve Marketing Goals
Now that you have your OKR written out and everyone is aware of it, how will you actually go about this? Let’s look at another example:
Objective: Revenue targets for the year must be met
Key Results:
- Increase monthly ‘trial’ to ‘paid’ conversions from 10% to 20%
- Increase monthly inbound sales from $10,000 to $20,000
- Start sales in 2 new countries before the year’s end
Above, we have three incredibly challenging and aggressive key results, but each is specific and time-limited, so it is not ambiguous in any way. This makes breaking each down into separate parts easier, which will, in turn, make achieving the original objective easier.
To start with the first key result, we have a month’s timeline to focus on. We know that we need to double ‘trial’ to ‘paid’ conversions – which will not be easy. But you and your marketing team will not set any key results that are completely unattainable, so we know that this is within your reach.
Perhaps this means a promotion, perhaps this means more aggressive marketing, and perhaps this means offering more or better content in the ‘paid’ portion. Whatever it may look like, you know that you must accomplish this each month.
The same can be said for the second key result. Monthly inbound sales need to double, and to accomplish that, you may need to amp up your marketing and promotions, similar to the first point. Because again, you only have one month to accomplish this, maybe it is wise to combine the two. Focusing on this set, smaller piece of time, and consolidating work will help to make achieving the original objective much smoother.
And lastly, for the third key result, you have a year’s timeline. Starting sales in 2 new countries is a daunting task, but the quantity and schedule are already outlined for you, so you know what and where you need to focus your efforts.
What Not to Do When Making OKRs
There are some pitfalls to consider when making OKRs. Without taking the time and care necessary to create useful, effective OKRs, you could run into some issues. Namely, watch out for the following few:
- While you want to challenge yourself and your team, it is in no one’s best interest to set wild expectations that will be almost impossible to reach. Make sure you’re setting reasonable objectives.
- Don’t set and forget. Perhaps you’re in a busy quarter or just not used to checking in on things like OKRs. Whatever the reason, try to avoid neglecting to check in on and monitor the progress of OKRs.
- Engaging with too many OKRs at one time is not wise, either. When you have too many objectives to reach and not enough time or staff, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
- OKRs cannot be blindly implemented; there needs to be quite a bit of planning and/or brainstorming before they can be put into effect. Setting an OKR without planning how and when your team will accomplish the objective is a recipe for disaster.
- Lastly, be sure you and your team are not dodging accountability and responsibility. The OKR should be a team effort, and everyone should have a fairly equal and important role in accomplishing the main goal. It will not end well for anyone on your team if responsibility is not clearly outlined or accountability is not taken by any one member of the team.
Marketing OKRs Examples
We’ve compiled a few more examples, including those used above, of successful OKRs as reference points for you and your marketing team. Each covers a different type of objective.
Social Media Marketing
Objective: Increase engagement on Twitter
Key Results:
- Increase posting frequency from 1x a day to 10x a day
- Interact with other accounts/threads 2x a day
- Send DMs to 5 active followers a day
Inbound Marketing
Objective: Improve online lead generation
Key Results:
- Increase weekly newsletter sign-ups from 100 to 200
- Monthly qualified lead to deal ratio increase from 5% to 10%
- Increase weekly website clicks from 1000 to 2000
Pays Per Click (PPC) Marketing
Objective: Improve PPC campaign
Key Results:
- Decrease CPC from $10 to $8
- Increase monthly conversion rate for paid traffic from 2% to 4%
- Increase monthly paid new visitors from 1000 to 2000
Strategic Marketing
Objective: Increase relevant presence online
Key Results:
- Appear in two online news publications in the next year
- Implement two new blogs to post content in the next six months
- Begin a weekly newsletter within the next six months
Search Engine Optimization
Objective: Increase SEO ranking
Key Results:
- Increase total keywords by 50% in the next year
- Update 10 pieces of decaying content in the next month
- Increase the number of backlinks from 500 to 1000 in the next month
Product Marketing
Objective: Clarify product messaging and presentation
Key Results:
- Run 5 on-site user-testing sessions monthly
- Receive 1000 online responses to customer surveys monthly
- Run 10 social media ads monthly and measure reception
Frequently Asked Questions
Even with the examples and guidance above, OKRs can be confusing. Below, we’ve answered a couple of the most common questions in regards to OKRs.
OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. As we’ve now learned, these OKRs are like game plans of what needs to be accomplished and how.
The Objectives are goals that your marketing team wants or needs to accomplish, and the Key Results are the clear, specific, aggressive means by which the Objectives can be successfully reached.
Examples can be found above, but we’ve included one more fun one here:
Objective: Run a marathon next year
Key Results:
Go for a 10-mile run at least once a week.
Purchase new, high-quality running shoes by the end of the month.
Join a runners’ club by the end of the month.
Sign up for the race online and pay the fee within two months.
OKRs work best when taking into consideration every person on a team’s abilities. It is best to set the content for your OKR as a team and agree mutually on how you will get there.
OKR Guide
Objective: Brainstorm either alone or with your team about goals that will help the company. Identify existing problems and/or predict future problems. Use the Objective portion of your OKR to address the goals or problems you have identified. Be sure to choose only one actionable item.
Key Results: List anywhere from 2 to 5 means by which you will achieve your designated Objective. Be as clear, direct, and aggressive as possible. Make sure each has a time or a quantity expectation attached to it.
Summary
In all, OKRs are an excellent way to track your goals. Identifying a concrete objective and then listing 2 to 5 clear ways you can accomplish that objective will make goal setting, tracking, and achieving much easier.
OKRs are collaborative and quantifiable, leaving no grey area or room for doubt. They require extra time and attention but bring overall strong results for their users.
How will you and your team use the guide and examples above to accomplish your goals?
