Setting clear goals is a part of every marketing process. In this ever-evolving digital world, Objectives and key results (OKRs) are a solid framework that can take your email marketing to the next level.
In this article, we will throw some light on leveraging OKRs, their impact, and how they are implemented in the industry. Besides, we will also talk about the best OKRs to focus on.
OKRs in email marketing
You need OKRs to improve focus, alignment, and achievement of your marketing goals. Objectives are the key goals your business needs to achieve, while the key results are actionable steps. In short, your objective is your final destination, and key results are your milestones.
You can use OKRs to define your email marketing goals and the steps needed to attain them. That is how you can split the whole strategy into measurable metrics. The accurate OKRs can help you create an actionable plan to boost your business.
What are the KPIs for email marketers?
Your email campaign’s real-time performance is determined by a few metrics. These metrics are also called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Your campaign’s KPI has close to none relation with your campaign’s effectiveness. However, they indicate how well your emails are performing and whether meeting your pre-determined benchmarks.
Click-through rates, open rates, bounce rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates are also part of email marketing KPIs. These analytics insights ensure the effectiveness of your email marketing software campaigns.
How are OKRs different from the KPIs?
| OKRs | KPIs |
| 1. Sets visionary objectives to drive email marketing campaigns. 2. Objectives and Key results have to align with your company’s objectives 3. OKRs have quantitative and qualitative components. 4. Long-term success is determined by OKRs. 5. You can alter the OKRs to adapt and meet the business requirements. | 1. Key Performance Indicators concentrate on real-time performance 2. They check to see if metrics meet the benchmarks 3. KPIs provide a strong emphasis on quantitative components 4. KPIs are concerned with immediate or present success 5. KPIs are rigorous and serve as performance benchmarks. |
Also, read | OKR vs KPI: Difference and Why Both are Critical in 2023?
5 reasons why you need OKRs for email marketing?
You can revamp your email marketing strategy using OKRs and an actionable plan. Here are the five reasons why you need OKR for your business:
- It improves your focus and helps you think clearly
OKRs can eliminate obscurity from your email marketing strategy. You get precise goals that your team understands.
- You can track the progress and take the critical steps
Having correct numbers helps you measure your email campaign’s effectiveness. OKR gives you tangible metrics to know the loopholes. Later, you can fill those gaps to enhance your email marketing strategy.
- You can align your email marketing effort
Most marketers know KPIs, but OKRs give you a direction. From content creation to segmenting an audience, OKR aligns all the elements. Your marketing team gets a common goal by having a strong sense of collaboration.
- OKRs are super flexible and adaptable
Unlike KPIs, OKRs are not rigid. Hence, you can change them when required. You can change your email marketing OKRs if you are changing your marketing strategy or business goals.
- It eases decision-making
When you get measurable outcomes, you can improve overall decision-making and build a data-driven marketing strategy. The right usage of OKRs can help you make informed decisions for your company.
OKR examples for email marketers
Email marketing is essential for digital growth and outreach. However, you can not achieve strategic goals with three weekly emails. To create an actionable plan, we have vetted a few objectives and key results, you can implement in your campaigns.
Increasing your email open rates
Objective:In Q3, your email campaign should have open rates increased by 10%.
Here’s how you can do it:
- You must perform A/B tests on different subject lines to grow open rate by 5%.
- By hyper-segmenting your email list, you can increase open rates by 3%.
- With email automation tools, you can use previous data to optimize send time for maximum reach.
Engaging your email audience
Objective: In Q4, your email engagement must exceed by 20%
Here are the key results:
- You can add a personal touch to emails using hyper-personalized subject lines
- Offer your audience a huge and limited-time discount to grow click-through rate (CTR) by 5%.
- You can use dynamic elements like customizable QR codes and tokens or gamify them to grow CTR by 5%.
Creating an unrivaled email subscriber list
Objective: By Q2’s end, your email subscriber list should extend by 25%.
This is what you can do:
- Use social media campaigns to increase 100 new subscribers every week.
- Add a “non-annoying” pop-up form on the website to increase 50 weekly email subscribers.
Making skyrocketing conversions for your brand
Objective: By the end of Q3, your email conversion rates should improve by 10%.
Here are the key results:
- Understand your subscriber’s habits and preferences to grow conversion rate by 5%.
- Create two CTA (Call-to-Action) buttons for A/B testing. Use the best of them to increase the conversion rate by 3%
- Create some urgency in your email offers to grow conversion rate by 2%.
Making it more personal
Objective: Increase 15% email engagement using personalized email content.
Here are the key results:
- Dividing email lists based on user behavior for smartly-tailored content.
- Using interactive elements in emails to create an engaging experience.
- Utilizing customers’ purchase history to recommend products, resulting in better CTR.
Improving your email deliverability
Objective: You must grow email deliverability rates to 98%.
Here are the key results:
- Clean your email lists regularly to eliminate inactive and invalid email addresses.
- Analyse spam complaints and unsubscribe rates to improve sender reputation.
What is email deliverability?
Email deliverability refers to how effectively you can deliver emails to recipient’s inbox. It is measured as a percentage of emails accepted by the Internet Service Provider (ISP). It also depends on the inbox placement – whether an email appears in the primary inbox, promotions tab, social tab, or spam folder.
Slicing your unsubscriber rates
Objective: You need to reduce unsubscribe rates by 20% in Q4
Here are the key results:
- If your emails are overloading subscribers’ inboxes, review and optimize your email frequency.
- Produce valuable and engaging email content from email templates to retain subscribers’ interest.
- Your unsubscribe buttons should have better visibility for a better user experience.
OKRs for email marketers: Key takeaways
Getting your desired results in the ever-changing email marketing realm takes work. OKRs help email marketers by providing clear goals and progress tracking.
When you align your email marketing strategies with OKRs, you can:
- Understand user’s behavior
- Improve email engagement
- Enrich conversions
- Build an unbeatable email list
- Take your email campaign to the next stage
OKRs for email marketers: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- How email marketers use OKRs in campaigns?
OKRs help email marketers set specific objectives and tangible outcomes. Thus, it drives more measurability, alignment, and focus to email marketing campaigns.
- Can you change OKRs during a campaign?
OKRs are flexible and based on real-time analytics and evolving circumstances. Hence, you can change OKRs depending on your campaign’s needs.
- Do you need different email marketing OKRs for distinct businesses?
Yes, email marketing OKRs vary from business-to-business. So, a startup might need different OKRs than a well-established organization.
- Should you review email marketing OKRs regularly?
Although regularly reviewing your email marketing OKRs is necessary. You must provide ample time to assess growth/degrowth, make changes, and ensure you’re on the right track. In most cases, quarterly reviews are enough to evaluate progress.
