diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b214872..3a9e8d7 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -69,8 +69,11 @@ find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
 target_link_libraries(oxenmq PRIVATE Threads::Threads)
 
 
-if(TARGET oxenc)
-    target_link_libraries(oxenmq PUBLIC oxenc)
+if(TARGET oxenc::oxenc)
+    add_library(_oxenmq_external_oxenc INTERFACE IMPORTED)
+    target_link_libraries(_oxenmq_external_oxenc INTERFACE oxenc::oxenc)
+    target_link_libraries(oxenmq INTERFACE _oxenmq_external_oxenc)
+    message(STATUS "using pre-existing oxenc::oxenc target")
 elseif(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
     include(FindPkgConfig)
     pkg_check_modules(oxenc liboxenc IMPORTED_TARGET)
@@ -82,11 +85,11 @@ elseif(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS)
         endif()
     else()
         add_subdirectory(oxen-encoding)
-        target_link_libraries(oxenmq PUBLIC oxenc)
+        target_link_libraries(oxenmq PUBLIC oxenc::oxenc)
     endif()
 else()
     add_subdirectory(oxen-encoding)
-    target_link_libraries(oxenmq PUBLIC oxenc)
+    target_link_libraries(oxenmq PUBLIC oxenc::oxenc)
 endif()
 
 # libzmq is nearly impossible to link statically from a system-installed static library: it depends