Course description

Customers trust the people they follow. A walker, a home cook or a crafter who genuinely likes your products can introduce them to people who would never have found you. This course shows UK small business owners and marketing assistants how to find suitable creators, brief them clearly, agree fair deals and measure what happens, while staying within UK advertising rules.

You start with how influencer marketing works and whether it suits your business, then set a clear goal and a realistic budget before you look at a single creator. You learn how to find creators close to home, check their audience and comments, spot bought followers, and score them fairly. Then come outreach messages, fees, gifting, paid posts and affiliate deals, creative briefs and plain agreements. A full section covers the UK rules for brands: when creator content is an ad, why gifts count, labelling with Ad at the start, and checking posts, from the ASA and CAP influencers' guide and the CMA's guidance. You also learn about claims and fake reviews, reusing customers' photos with permission, running a free prize draw properly, personal data, and measuring results with codes, links and a simple tracker.

There are 10 sections and 50 written lessons. Each lesson has a worked example, common slips, questions people often ask and a short exercise to try, and each section ends with a short quiz. You follow Azucena, who runs a small hand-printed textiles shop in Whitby, and her part-time assistant Ayse, from a gifting pilot to a paid round, an affiliate deal, a prize draw and an autumn ambassador arrangement, mistakes included. In the final lessons you plan a full creator campaign for a made-up framing shop, with worked answers. Every section has a practice pack with exercise sheets, answer keys and cheat sheets, plus a glossary, a campaign outline and budget planner, a creator vetting scorecard spreadsheet, outreach templates, a creative brief template, an agreement checklist, a disclosure do and don't sheet, a prize draw checklist, a permission request template, a campaign tracker spreadsheet with made-up figures and final project files.

What you'll learn

• How influencer marketing works: what working with creators involves and what it isn't, when it suits a small business, nano, micro and larger accounts compared, and the UK rules in outline.
• Goals and budget: a clear goal with five parts, choosing what to measure before anyone posts, a budget with made-up figures, the costs people forget and a one-page campaign outline.
• Finding and vetting creators: finding creators close to home, checking product fit and audience location, reading comments, spotting bought followers, brand safety and a vetting scorecard.
• Outreach and deals: a first message that gets read, following up politely, talking about fees, gifting, paid posts and affiliate deals compared, and agreeing a deal or saying no kindly.
• Briefs and agreements: what a creative brief is for, writing one step by step, agreements in plain terms, usage rights, approval and cancellation, and an agreement checklist.
• UK ad rules for brands: when creator content counts as an ad under the CAP Code and consumer law, who is responsible, labelling with Ad at the start, gifts, affiliate links and codes, and checking posts.
• Claims, reviews and working well together: claims you can back up, what the CMA says about fake reviews, feedback and approvals, protecting the creator's voice and fixing problems calmly.
• Customer content, giveaways and data: asking permission to reuse customers' photos, free prize draws the CAP Code way, what the Gambling Commission says, and handling personal data with care.
• Measuring results: what you can and can't count, tracked links and discount codes, a simple campaign tracker, cost per order and cost per click, and a one-page review.
• Longer relationships and your campaign plan: keeping good creators, ambassador arrangements, and a final project: a full campaign plan for a made-up framing shop, with worked answers.

Who it's for

UK small business owners and marketing assistants who want to work with creators for the first time, or more carefully. No marketing experience is needed: just products or a service you're proud of, a small budget you could afford to lose, and a few hours a month.

What this course is, and isn't

This is a practical beginner course. It isn't legal, tax or financial advice, and it makes no promises about results, which vary. It gives no typical reach, fees or sales figures: every figure is made up for the story or for practice, and labelled as such. The rules come from official pages on GOV.UK and the ASA, CAP, CMA, Gambling Commission and ICO websites, read on 2 November 2026. Rules and guidance change, so check the official pages before you rely on a detail. Platforms are named only where needed, and agencies, tools and real creators are never named. Azucena, Ayse, Eskander and every other person and business in the course are fictional.

What will I learn?

• Explain what influencer marketing is, when it suits a small business, and how nano, micro and larger accounts differ
• Set a clear goal with five parts, choose what to measure before anyone posts, and build a budget that includes the costs people forget
• Find creators close to home, check their audience and comments, spot signs of bought followers and score them on a vetting scorecard
• Write outreach messages and follow-ups, talk about fees, and choose between gifting, paid posts and affiliate deals
• Write a one-page creative brief and agree deliverables, dates, payment, usage rights, approval and cancellation in writing
• Apply UK ad rules for brands: when creator content is an ad, why gifts count, labelling with Ad at the start, and checking posts
• Keep claims true, avoid fake and cherry-picked reviews, give clear feedback and protect the creator's own voice
• Reuse customer content with permission, run a free prize draw properly and handle personal data with care
• Track each creator with their own code and link, work out cost per order and cost per click, and write a one-page review
• Plan a full creator campaign for a small business, from goal and budget to brief, agreement, disclosure plan and tracking sheet

Frequently asked questions