If you are responsible for managing a marketing team, then it’s time that you familiarize yourself with the concept of OKRs. OKR stands for Objectives and Key Results. It is a form of collaborative management methodology, which is used to help marketing teams become more efficient, and set, track, and achieve their goals.
If you are considering using OKRs in your marketing team, then it is a good idea to first do some more research into them and figure out how using them will benefit your company. This post will simplify that research for you by telling you about all of the key benefits of OKRs right here.
Corporate Goals
One of the most challenging aspects of managing a team of employees is connecting them with a company’s corporate goals. However, if you are able to successfully connect employees to your company’s corporate goals, you can improve their performance significantly. One very effective way of ensuring that employees are more in tune with your company’s corporate goals is to utilize marketing OKRs since they outline your company’s objectives and desired results. When you are developing OKRs, it is a good idea to sit down with your employees and explain the concept to them. If this is not possible, then you should give an employee the task of going around to different departments and telling all staff about your company’s OKRs.
Clear Direction
OKRs help companies determine where they are going. A clear direction is absolutely essential for companies. If a company doesn’t have a clear direction, then it will struggle to organize itself, and different departments won’t work together harmoniously. In order for a company to be a success, all departments need to be aligned and moving in the same direction. When your entire company knows what its mission is, they can work together better. OKRs also create a focus for your company, giving them something to work toward that’s actually measurable. Employees without direction have nothing to work toward, which can leave them disinterested and unconnected.
Increase Productivity
As mentioned in the previous section, OKRs create a focus for your entire company. If your company’s employees do not have anything to focus on, then they will not be able to increase their productivity and performance. It can be very hard to work without anything to focus on—or anything to drive you. With OKRs in place, employees can focus on real things, and work toward increasing their total productivity and performance. Staff who are more productive naturally perform better, which can in turn increase your company’s profitability. You should keep your staff in the loop by emailing them and giving them updates, explaining what’s going on with your company and how it is progressing.
Track Performance
OKRs give you the ability to track your marketing team’s performance. Marketing is a very fast-paced department. It can be very hard to track a marketing team since they tend to travel a mile a minute. Marketers are involved in many different forms of marketing, from social media to flyers and local radio. You can measure your marketing team’s performance using OKRs, which will then give you the opportunity to make suggestions about how they can improve or reward them if their performance is very good.
Better Decisions
When your marketing team is actually able to track its performance and see how it has been doing, it is easier for them to make important decisions, and also develop strategies. If something that they have been doing has not been working well, then they will be able to cut it out and develop another strategy. Similarly, if something that they have been doing has been working well, then they will be able to double down on it and begin using it more. If your marketing team is able to make better decisions, your company’s marketing effort will naturally be more successful, which will increase your exposure, and hopefully profitability.
Achieve Transparency
Transparency is something that your marketing team needs to have. The reason that transparency is so important is so that you can monitor what’s going on with them at all times. Because marketing can be a complex and confusing area, a lot of company owners feel left out and disconnected from what’s going on inside their marketing teams. OKRs will make it possible for you to monitor your marketing team’s progress, and understand what’s going on with them, how they are coming along, and what improvements need to be made.
OKRs are very powerful tools. If your company has a marketing team, then OKRs can help them to become more transparent, in addition to helping them to perform better. Incorporating OKRs isn’t difficult as there are a lot of online resources explaining what they are and how companies can use them.