How to Start Influencer Marketing

The first influencer campaign is the one most likely to go wrong: the wrong creators, outreach that gets ignored, a handshake deal with no contract, and disclosure mistakes that invite an FTC letter. None of that is hard to avoid — it just isn’t obvious the first time.

These guides are the fundamentals. How to find creators whose audience actually matches your buyers. How to write outreach a creator answers instead of archives. What every influencer contract needs in writing. And how to keep the whole thing FTC-compliant so a successful campaign doesn’t turn into a liability.

Start here, get the basics right, then move to the strategy guides for the decisions that scale a program.