OKR Examples for Chief Marketing Officers

Read on to get an introduction to OKRs as a method, understand the responsibilities of a Chief Marketing Officer, and get inspired by OKR examples for CMOs that can be applied to your own company.

Who is the Chief Marketing Officer?

The CMO, short for Chief Marketing Officer, is head of marketing in the organization. This position oversees the development and execution of a company’s marketing and advertising initiatives. The CMO uses market research and analysis to direct marketing strategy and planning, oversees the production of all promotional materials and marketing campaigns, and reports marketing and sales results to senior executives. The role of the CMO varies depending on the industry and the size of the company, but their primary responsibility is to manage the brand’s image, lead marketing campaigns, and optimize the company’s market performance. The CMO may also be in charge of new business development, product development, and distribution channel management. The CMO is a senior role, often working alongside the CEO, COO, and other top executives. In a typical organizational setup, various marketing teams, such as content, digital marketing, PR, and brand management, report to the CMO.

Meaningful change for CMOs

OKRs are about creating results towards a meaningful change, so what could be some good examples of this? Here are some common areas we’ve found:

• Improving brand recognition and reputation
• Increasing customer engagement and loyalty
• Optimizing marketing campaign effectiveness

Useful metrics of meaningful change include:

• Brand awareness and brand sentiment
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)
• Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI)
• Website traffic and engagement metrics

Of course, there are many other metrics for this role, but the above are some good examples of metrics that signal meaningful change and hence make out a good starting point for developing OKRs.

Setting OKRs for CMOs

When you set out to create a role-specific OKR, knowing what the role is responsible for driving for the company as well as how that meaningful change is measured is a good starting point. Hence the two previous headlines. But you need something more. You need a current state. Think about the current state of things, from the perspective of your role + the company. Ask yourself – what brings business value? We use the OKR Canvas as it lets you list the impact that you see you can achieve during the coming period, but also the blockers that are plausible and that you need to address. Sometimes, the impact is to remove a blocker. Check out the OKR Canvas to learn more.

OKR Examples for Chief Marketing Officers

As stated above, OKRs should be used to drive meaningful change. Here comes a set of examples, with a corresponding introduction to the underlying reasoning behind the OKR (developed with the OKR Canvas):