Introduction
When it comes to managing influencer campaigns, you need a tool that can handle the workload and scale. If you’ve used spreadsheets in the past and haven’t had much success, it might be time to reconsider your approach. In this article, we’ll look at why using spreadsheets as part of an influencer marketing strategy isn’t something that should be done. We’ll explore what makes them ineffective (and how you can avoid making those mistakes), as well as some alternatives that will make sure your campaign runs smoothly from start to finish!
Spreadsheets are great and they serve a wide variety of marketing needs. However, you shouldn’t be using spreadsheets to manage influencer campaigns. Yes, even Google Sheets.
Spreadsheets are great and they serve a wide variety of marketing needs. However, you shouldn’t be using spreadsheets to manage influencer campaigns. Yes, even Google Sheets.
Spreadsheet software is great for simple tasks like budgeting or tracking expenses on your business card or expense report. But it lacks the features needed to manage influencer campaigns effectively:
● Data visualization: A spreadsheet doesn’t allow users to easily see data in tables or charts that tell them how their campaign is doing over time, who has been effective at reaching certain demographics (e.g., gender), etc…
● Collaborative workflows: Using spreadsheets alone doesn’t allow teams of people working together across departments to collaborate on the same document simultaneously without having multiple copies floating around on different devices (and eventually getting lost).
Here’s why:
There are a few reasons why you should not use spreadsheets to manage your influencer campaigns.
● They’re not designed for the task: Spreadsheets are great for keeping track of things like sales orders, inventory and expenses, but they’re not ideal for managing influencer marketing campaigns because they don’t have the right features built in. You need an influencer marketing platform that can give you all the data and analytics you need to make your decisions about what kind of content or strategy works best with each specific campaign.
● Manual Updating: The main disadvantage of using spreadsheets is that they require manual updates after every campaign—and if there’s one thing we know about social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube, it’s that daily updates are essential if you want your content seen by people who matter most (i.e., your followers). Using an online platform allows professionals at all levels of experience—from beginners who may only have basic computer skills up through experienced marketers who understand how technology works—to collaborate together on creating automated processes that ensure consistency across multiple campaigns over time without having any human intervention required.”
Start With the Biggest Spreadsheet Shortcomings
If you’re looking for a tool that will help you manage the most difficult influencer campaigns, then spreadsheets are not it. In fact, they’re not even close.
Despite their widespread use as a marketing tool and their popularity with marketers who work in Excel or Google Sheets (or both), there are many reasons why using spreadsheets to manage your influencer campaign is a bad idea:
● Spreadsheets are not designed for complex processes. When trying to build something complex out of lots of pieces that have been combined into one long process, like an influencer campaign plan or even just managing an existing one, it’s important that each step can be done by hand without having any kind of automation built into the process itself—and this isn’t always possible with spreadsheets.
● Spreadsheet collaboration isn’t seamless either! Collaboration between multiple people is essential when working on complex projects like these; however because everyone uses different software packages (Excel vs Google Sheets), there’s no way everyone will necessarily understand what another person has written down in their spreadsheet file at any given time during this process (which means less efficient communication).
Spreadsheet-Based Processes Fall Behind Rapidly
Spreadsheets are not designed for flexibility. They do not allow you to easily make changes to an existing spreadsheet, or add a new column without having to manually retype all of your data into a new spreadsheet. This means that if you have a campaign that is running and needs adjustments at any time during its course, it can be difficult to update spreadsheets on the fly.
Additionally, because the data in spreadsheets is stored in one place and cannot easily be moved across multiple screens (or even between computers), there’s no easy way for influencers or agencies who work with different people on different teams at different times of day/weekend/yearly (etc) when making decisions about which campaigns should move forward with funding or other resources.
Workflows Become Siloed and Disjointed
Workflows are not designed to be used by multiple people. This means that if you have a campaign manager and an influencer on the same spreadsheet, they might not be able to see each other’s changes or do anything else related to the campaign. Additionally, if there are multiple people involved in managing a campaign (like an agency and its clients), then workflows become disjointed as well—there won’t be one central place where all of these people can share information about their respective tasks.
Workflows can also become siloed because they rely on formulas which only allow for certain types of data input; this limits how much information gets shared between people within the organization systemically (e.g., it would be impossible for someone working at an agency to give feedback directly into a spreadsheet).
Inconsistent User Experience Leads to Errors and Human Errors
Spreadsheets do not provide a consistent and consistent user experience. When you have multiple people using spreadsheets, there are many opportunities for errors to occur. This can lead to human errors as well as software bugs that cause the spreadsheet program itself to malfunction.
When working on a campaign, I recommend using a tool like Excel or Google Sheets instead of a spreadsheet for several reasons:
● It’s easier for me to make sure all my data is stored in one location (and not scattered across dozens of different files). This makes it easier for me when I need access later down the line when I might want more information about some aspect of my campaign—for example: “How did we spend our budget?” Or maybe “What did we spend on Instagram ads?” Or maybe even just simple things like finding out who bought what product?
● Collaboration between people involved in running campaigns can be difficult when everyone has their own version of data stored within their own version.”
You Can’t Adapt to Change Easily
One of the biggest drawbacks of using a spreadsheet is that it’s easy to change the process. You can simply add or remove an influencer and their campaign, but there are other factors that need to be taken into account when creating campaigns. For example, if you have a new product launch coming up next week and want to promote it on social media again, you will need to edit your spreadsheet before editing the data in order for things like timing and budgeting purposes not get messed up.
It may take days or even weeks for someone else who isn’t familiar with how spreadsheets work could figure out what needs changing without getting frustrated by being unable make sense of information contained within them (something we’ve all been guilty of). If someone doesn’t know exactly what they’re doing when using them then they’re liable
to create chaos rather than orderliness! This means changes may have happened too late which could mean wasted time trying fix things after they’ve gone wrong due instead spend time planning ahead so everything runs smoothly instead.”
What to Use Instead? An Influencer Marketing Platform of Course!
Influencer marketing platforms are the best way to manage influencer campaigns. They have a ton of features that make it easy for you to track your performance and target ads at the right people, in real time.
If you’re looking for an influencer marketing platform that can help you manage your influencer campaigns, then check out CreatorPilot.
Don’t use spreadsheets to manage influencer campaigns.
If you’re going to manage influencer campaigns, it’s important that you use a tool. There are many tools out there that can help you track your influencer marketing campaigns and make sure they’re on track.
This way, not only will you know what type of content is being posted by each influencer, but also how much money is coming in from these posts (and whether or not it’s worth continuing).
Conclusion
In all, even though spreadsheets can be useful for certain kinds of workflows and many small tasks, they are far from ideal for managing influencer campaigns. If you’re looking for a more flexible and scalable way to manage influencer campaigns, an influencer marketing platform like CreatorPilot is the best choice!
