8 Powerful Marketing OKR Examples + How To Track Them

Udn Webber

Editorial Coordinator

On the lookout for some inspiring marketing OKRs?

The marketing process is full of unknowns.

Initially, you might now know who your ideal customers are, what they like, and which strategies work. But that can always change over time!

On the other hand, here’s something we do know:

Marketing OKRs can give a clear picture of where your team should direct their marketing efforts.

In this article, we’ll highlight what marketing OKRs are, eight great OKR examples, and the best tool to help you manage every company OKR.

Let’s jump right into it:

What Is A Marketing OKR?

Using Marketing OKRs is a goal setting framework that helps your business set, track, and achieve all its marketing goals :

What does OKR stand for?

Let’s break it down into its components:

In a nutshell, Objectives are ‘ what’ we want to achieve, and Key Results are ‘ how ’ we can do it.

Navigating the OKR framework is an art.

The ‘paint by numbers’ kind, and not the abstract kind!

Want to learn more? We’ve got an entire article dedicated to teaching you about OKRs.

How do you craft a marketing OKR?

Get your brushes ready (or, in this case, pens) because we’ll show you the not-so-secret formula of creating a really effective OKR:

‘I will: (team or individual objective )

As measured by: (a bunch of key results)’

Whether your measurable goal is for the long term, quarter, or even for the next month, this formula will help you make it happen.

What Are Some Examples Of Marketing OKRs?

Just like your first sketch, your initial team OKRs might not be perfect, and you might even feel like this:

But don’t worry!

We’ll showcase eight OKRs for marketing that can inspire you to write better ones.

Here are the different types of marketing OKRs:

Now, let’s take a closer look at every OKR example :

A. Product marketing OKRs

A product marketing OKR is used to track the success and growth of your product or service.

While it’s the responsibility of your SaaS marketing team to set and create these measurable milestones, they shouldn’t self-isolate themselves from other departments.

They’ll have to share them with the other digital marketing teams so that they can create their own team OKRs that can align and contribute to this main OKR.

Let’s take a look at a few of these product marketing OKR examples :

(Note: We’ll be specifically talking about SaaS (Software as a service) products in this article.)

You might have a lot of happy free users.

However, they might not directly contribute to your company’s sales goals .

Your product marketing team should try to persuade them to switch to paid plans.

When asking existing customers to go premium, here’s what you shouldn’t do:

Give them a valuable reason why they should choose you.

You can offer more customer support or release one feature every week !

Whichever incentive you choose, this product marketing OKR can help you boost your paid plan conversion rate:

Here’s what the OKR looks like:

I will: Get more paying customers for FY 2021-22

As measured by:

The most important love story of all time isn’t Romeo and Juliet (that would be a close second…) it’s that of the customer and your product!

No, that’s not what we meant!

The longer your customers are happy with your product, the longer they’ll stick with you.

And how can you keep them together forever? ❤️

Create digital marketing campaigns that show users how your product can provide value (or light up their life.)

This way, they might be compelled to engage with it every day or make it a part of their daily routine.

Here’s an OKR goal you can strive to achieve:

I will: Drive up customer engagement in 2021

As measured by:

B. Inbound marketing OKRs

Inbound marketing is the marketing version of a UNO reverse card!

Instead of actively seeking out potential leads, let them come to you (or, more specifically, your website.)

Here are a few tactical OKRS that can help do just that:

Offering free stuff is priceless for your brand’s reputation.

You can give away whitepapers, ebooks, and other stuff that you think your potential customers will find useful.

All they have to do is sign up for it with their email address.

This way, they get their stuff, and you gain a lead.

Here’s a good OKR that can help you aim for more leads:

I will: Drive inbound marketing leads

As measured by:

Inbound marketing is all about attracting the right audience to your brand and building meaningful relationships with them.

And who’s a better cupid for your business than an influencer? 💘

They usually are trusted industry experts and have a large audience that seeks out their opinions and recommendations.

Wouldn’t it be cool if they recommend your brand?

Here is an example OKR to motivate your team to build relationships with influencers:

I will: Boost our influencer marketing efforts

As measured by:

C. Content marketing & SEO OKRs

Another way of attracting an audience to your website is by SEO (Search Engine optimization.)

No matter what they search for on Google, your website should have helpful content (blog, ebook, etc.) that pops up on the front page.

That’s not all.

It should pique their interest so they click on it and learn more about your brand.

Let’s take a look at two content marketing OKR examples to help you out here:

How can you get more people to visit your wonderful website?

This OKR example can give you some ideas:

I will: Increase my Agile blog’s organic traffic to 10,000 daily visitors

As measured by:

Search engines are constantly looking at the web page’s quality and relevance to the customer.

You’ll have to optimize your blogs and web pages so your brand’s site is constantly #1 on the front page.

Here’s an OKR that can show how you can do that:

I will: improve on-page SEO for my digital marketing blog

As measured by:

D. Social media marketing OKRs

An average person spends almost a month each year browsing through social media news, ads, and, more importantly, memes!

That’s why you must supercharge your social media marketing strategies to meet your audience on every social media platform.

Here are a few digital marketing OKRs to help grow your social media presence:

You know what gives social media marketers nightmares ?

This:

Here’s why:

The more that people follow your page, the more they’ll be able to be aware of your brand’s existence. And greater awareness means more people will be checking out your products.

So here’s a relevant OKR example your team should follow so that your brand becomes (Instagram) famous:

I will: Increase my social media followers in 2021

As measured by:

While it’s nice to have tons of followers on every social media platform, that’s not enough to smash your marketing goals.

Let’s imagine you own a store, and 100,000 potential customers come rushing in:

Chaotic but profitable, right?

Not really.

What if only ten customers look at your products, only one buys something, and thousands just leave without even saying ‘Hi?’

That’s what happens if your social media page has a low engagement rate.

Instead of getting only more followers , you should try to get quality followers that interact (like, comment, and share) with your brand on every social media platform.

A large number of engaged users results in an increased chance that your post will show up on your followers’ social media feeds.

Let’s take a look at a marketing OKR example to create an engaged audience:

I will: Boost social media engagement

As measured by:

How Do You Track Marketing OKRs Effectively?

Turns out there are only two steps to setting up a useful OKR framework.

Let’s take a look at them:

1. Follow the right OKRs

Let’s suppose you’re following a random treasure map. 🏴‍☠️

After reaching the ❌ indicated on the map, you dig it up, and you find…nothing!

This is what happens when you follow an ineffective OKR that doesn’t align with your overall goals.

Fortunately, here’s a checklist that can be your compass to finding an effective OKR:

Whether you’ll be using an OKR template or creating one from scratch, you’re sure to sail to success if you follow this checklist.

2. Use an OKR tool

You can’t sculpt a masterpiece without using the right equipment, right?

To craft the perfect OKR, you must have the right tools .

With an OKR tool like UDN Task Manager , you can set goals, track your progress and gain insight into the overall performance of your business.

Here’s how UDN Task Manager can help:

Goals are high-level containers that can be broken down into smaller, measurable Targets.

Basically, this means that:

Here’s how you can set your OKRs in UDN Task Manager :

Go to “ Goals ” in UDN Task Manager and add a new Goal by clicking the “ + New Goal ” button.

You have to set then add details about:

To set your key results, all you need to do is click on the “ Add Target ” button. Once that’s done, you’ll find our Target underneath your Goal.

And you can edit your Targets too.

You can change:

Now that your Goals (objectives) and Targets (key results) are ready and set, you can begin tracking your Goal progress! 🏁

You can track:

1. Your progress for each Target ( key result )

For example, if your Target is to sell seven paintings by the 1st of March 2021, you can track how many you’ve sold so far.

Okay, but are you buying it, Homer?

We’ve got a Target to reach! 🎯

2. How your Target progress has contributed to your Goal’s ( objective ) progress For example, if you’ve completed almost half of all your Targets so far, your OKR Goal progress will be 48%. This way, you’ll always know how close you are to achieving your OKRs.

So you now have a list of effective OKRs.

But how do you track them?

Dashboards give you a high-level overview of your workspace so you can see how well your company is doing in just a (tiny) glance.

Marketing Dashboards help you with your marketing planning , tracking and assessing your Goal and OKR progress through completed Targets, Tasks, and other metrics.

Paint your marketing Dashboard the way you want by adding Custom Widgets to them.

This way, you’ll get detailed insight into Tasks, Sprints, People, and Projects.

Here’s just a few colorful Widgets you can choose from:

Bonus: Check out this guide for examples of product OKRs!

FAQs About OKRs

Still confused about how OKRs work?

Here are a few things you must know:

1. What’s the difference between a smart goal, OKR, and KPI?

Here’s a table of differences between SMART goals , OKRs, and KPIs to settle this debate:

Want the long version? Check our detailed guide on OKR vs. KPI .

2. What are the different types of OKRs?

Here are the three main different types of OKRs:

1. Aspirational OKR

An aspirational OKR is a “reach for the moon” type of goal you want to achieve, but you know you might not get there completely. 🌑

These are the grand goals that need to be there to lead us to a higher level of performance.

2. Committed OKR

A committed OKR is a reasonable target that you’re expected to reach. These are the OKRs that your team or company has agreed on achieving, and your company resources should be allocated to such a goal.

3. Personal OKR

Unlike the two OKRs above, Personal OKRs can be used to set and track life goals. This individual OKR a great way to ensure that you stick to your new year resolutions…maybe at least longer than you did last year. 😛

Your Ticket To A Successful Marketing Journey

While there are tons of different marketing OKRs, they all have all one thing in common.

They show you exactly how your marketing team can set and crush goals.

All they have to do is focus on getting key results, and in no time, they’ll be able to reach their destination.

However, you’ll need a trusty marketing management software like UDN Task Manager that reminds you of your Objectives and Key Results and shows you how you’re progressing towards them.

Get UDN Task Manager for free , and take the first step towards marketing success!