Understanding the Use of OKR in Marketing

OKRs provide a way for organizations to focus their marketing efforts (OKR in marketing) around the same important initiative. This alignment is a core concept to OKR in marketing. In fact, it is the golden ticket to OKR success. But alignment isn’t something you can set and forget. You must make sure OKRs are aligned up front and stay aligned throughout the quarter.

When we talk about OKR alignment, we’re referring to the notion that all of an organization’s OKRs support the achievement of the same overarching goal. If the business is a ship, then it will only get to its destination if everyone is rowing in the same direction. OKRs ensure that everyone is rowing in the same direction; that is, that they are working on what matters most to the organization. Alignment is critical. Just one person rowing in the wrong direction can steer the entire ship off course.

From legendary investor John Doerr, Measure What Matters makes the case for ambitious goal setting and meticulous execution. How would you break down the KPIs for an OKR like “make some noise on social media”?This question is meant as commentary on the way many marketing objectives are broad in nature and seemingly difficult to measure. But that’s where key results come in. Individual units of measurement such as reporting, cadence, or followers all contribute to more overarching objectives such as “build press buzz” or “optimize the blog.”