In the two previous articles in this series, we have talked about how to be resilient in your marketing campaign and how to build a marketing strategy. In this article we discuss the principles you should take into account when designing a marketing plan, especially when you have to discuss this plan with your company's top management. 

The managers of a company need to know how the market is changing so that the marketing plans are as close as possible to the reality and the business needs of the firm. Therefore, it is important that the marketing manager of a firm knows the changes and needs the company needs, and gives proactive advice on how the marketing plans can respond to those needs.

Here we summarize 5 principles to design your marketing plan: 

1. Marketing managers must have access to sensitive and relevant communications between managers and have the opportunity to provide creative solutions to firm change.
2. Produce regular reports on projects and campaigns to ensure that changes in the company are objectively detected, as well as the issues to be improved.
3. Manage the expectations on the performance indicators of the marketing campaigns.
4. Share the data used to prioritise and decide commercial actions, so that expectations about the date of completion of projects can be monitored and managed.
5. Communicate the indicators on commitment, SEO and customer behaviour change that should influence a wider commercial strategy.