Influencer Marketing Strategy: A Step-by-Step Guide for 2027

October 3, 2026

An influencer marketing strategy is a plan for how a brand uses creators and well-known personalities to reach a business goal. The core steps are: set a clear goal, define the audience, choose platforms, decide the mix of influencer tiers (from micro-influencers to celebrities), select and vet talent, write a brief that leaves room for creativity, plan organic and paid distribution, make sure ad labelling is correct and measure the results. Brands that follow a structured process get more predictable results than those that buy posts one at a time.

There is room for improvement in the market. In HubSpot’s 2025 research among social media marketers, 85 percent rated influencer marketing as effective – yet in HubSpot’s latest State of Marketing report, only 21.2 percent of marketers said their brand is using it. Here is a practical, step-by-step guide to building a strategy that works.

What changes in influencer marketing strategy for 2027?

The basics in this guide still apply in 2027, but three shifts are worth building into next year’s plan already now. They are based on rules and reports published recently.

AI transparency becomes part of every brief. The transparency rules in Article 50 of the EU AI Act already apply, and the last technical marking requirements follow on 2 February 2027. If a campaign uses AI to create or alter a person’s image or voice, plan for clear disclosure from the start.
Creator content is planned for paid media from day one. According to CreatorIQ’s Creator-Powered Funnel report, creator content already makes up 44 percent of brands’ paid media creative. In 2027, negotiate usage rights and whitelisting in the original agreement rather than afterwards.
Labelling is checked more closely. Konsumentverket’s latest report shows continued major shortcomings in influencer marketing. Make correct advertising labelling – “reklam” or “annons”, visible at first glance – a fixed step in your approval process.

Our recommendation for 2027: fewer, longer partnerships with well-known profiles and creators your audience already trusts, combined with paid amplification and measurement that follows business results – not just views.

Step 1: What should your influencer marketing achieve?

Everything starts with the goal, because it decides who you work with, which formats you choose and how you measure. The most common goals are the same across markets: in the IAB’s 2025 creator economy report, brand awareness (43 percent), reaching new audiences (41 percent), enhancing reputation and trust (35 percent) and driving online sales (32 percent) topped the list. Pick one primary goal per campaign and define what success means in numbers before you start.

Step 2: Who is your target audience?

Describe the audience in detail – age, interests, life situation, where they spend time online and whom they already follow. In Sweden, platform use varies greatly by age. According to Internetstiftelsen’s Svenskarna och internet 2025, Swedes born 2000–2009 mainly use Snapchat (79 percent daily), Instagram (65 percent), TikTok (53 percent) and YouTube (48 percent), while those born in the 1900s mainly use Facebook (59 percent daily) and Instagram (48 percent).

Step 3: Which platforms should you choose?

Choose platforms based on the audience and the format your message needs. Instagram remains the most used platform for creator marketing – 85 percent of brands say so in CreatorIQ’s 2025 research – while TikTok is the top investment priority for 31 percent of marketers in Influencer Marketing Hub’s latest Benchmark Report. YouTube is strong for longer, in-depth content. Influencer Marketing Hub also found that 83 percent rank long-form video and 80 percent short-form video among their three most effective formats.

Step 4: Micro, macro or celebrity – which influencers should you use?

Influencers are often divided into tiers by audience size. Common definitions are nano (under 10,000 followers), micro (10,000–100,000), macro (100,000–1 million) and mega or celebrity (over 1 million or widely known outside social media). The tiers do different jobs:

Nano and micro: close relationships with niche communities, often high engagement and lower cost per collaboration. Good for volume, niche targeting and authentic product testing.
Macro: a balance of reach and closeness. Good for campaigns that need both scale and credibility within a category.
Celebrities: broad reach, instant recognition and cultural impact. Good for launches, brand building and campaigns aimed at wide audiences across generations.

What does the data say? In HubSpot’s latest State of Marketing report, marketers most often named micro-influencers (32.4 percent) and macro-influencers (30.2 percent) as their most successful tier, followed by mega-influencers (13.1 percent). Influencer Marketing Hub found that about half of brands plan to expand their use of nano and micro creators, while plans for macro creators are evenly split between expansion and contraction. But tier is not destiny: the right choice depends on the goal. For awareness and launches, a well-known personality often creates an impact that dozens of small creators cannot match – and the most effective approach is frequently a combination.

Step 5: How do you choose and vet the right influencers?

Selection is one of the hardest parts: one third of brands named creator selection as their biggest challenge in the IAB’s 2025 report, and the top criteria were creator reputation (58 percent) and audience alignment (56 percent). In CreatorIQ’s 2025 research, brand suitability had become the leading factor, while follower count was cited by only 8 percent. Check:

Audience data: age, gender, location and interests of the followers.
Engagement quality: comments and conversations, not just likes.
Authenticity: signs of bought followers or engagement – fake or bot followers make up the majority of fraud and quality issues reported in Influencer Marketing Hub’s latest Benchmark Report.
Previous collaborations: how often the person does paid posts and with which brands.
Values and tone: does the brand fit naturally into the person’s everyday content?

Step 6: How do you write a good influencer brief?

A good brief is clear about the goal, the key message, mandatory elements and the rules – and leaves the rest to the creator. Sprout Social’s research shows that creators want to be involved in creative strategy early rather than follow rigid scripts. Include the goal and audience, the key message (one, not five), mandatory elements such as product, link or code, the dos and don’ts, ad labelling instructions, deadlines and approval process, and usage rights.

Step 7: How do you combine organic and paid distribution?

Organic posts reach the influencer’s audience; paid media takes the best content further. CreatorIQ’s Creator-Powered Funnel report found that creator content now makes up 44 percent of brands’ paid media creative on average. Agree usage rights for paid media in the contract and plan budget for amplification from the start. When Collabri ran the Swedish launch of Fazer Domino, creators on TikTok and Instagram were combined with a paid strategy, and the campaign reached more than 3.5 million views and 14,000 interactions.

Step 8: How do you make sure the campaign follows the rules?

In Sweden, influencer collaborations must be clearly labelled as advertising under the Marketing Act – visible at first glance, using words like “reklam” or “annons”. The brand has the main responsibility, and serious violations can lead to a market disruption fee of up to four percent of annual turnover. Konsumentverket’s latest report shows that major shortcomings remain in the industry, so build labelling into every brief and review.

Step 9: How do you measure and improve?

Choose KPIs that match the goal: reach and brand lift for awareness, engagement and traffic for consideration, tracked sales for conversion. Use promo codes, tracked links and platform shop features – the most common tracking methods according to Influencer Marketing Hub – and remember that they underestimate the total effect. Evaluate after each campaign: which talents, formats and messages worked best, and what should you do differently next time?

Should you do it in-house or with an agency?

Both models exist. In Influencer Marketing Hub’s latest Benchmark Report, 66 percent of respondents run their programs entirely in-house. Among larger brands, agencies are common: Linqia found that 49 percent of enterprise marketers partner with specialist influencer agencies, citing creative strategy as the top differentiator, and Digiday reported that reliance on influencer agencies among multinational brands surveyed by the WFA had risen to almost 74 percent. An agency adds the most value when you need access to well-known talent, creative concepts, production and paid media in one place.

Key takeaways

Start with one clear goal and define success before the campaign starts.
Choose platforms by audience – usage varies greatly by age in Sweden.
Combine tiers: celebrities for reach and recognition, micro-influencers for depth and volume.
Select talent based on fit and credibility, not follower count.
Plan organic and paid together, label correctly and measure against the goal.

Frequently asked questions

What is the first step in an influencer marketing strategy?

Setting a clear goal. Whether you want awareness, a launch, trust or sales determines everything from talent selection to measurement.

Are micro-influencers better than macro-influencers?

Neither is better in general. Micro-influencers are strong for niche audiences and volume, while macro-influencers and celebrities are strong for reach and recognition. Many campaigns use a mix.

How many influencers should a campaign include?

It depends on the goal and budget. A launch might combine one well-known personality with a group of creators, while a niche campaign might use several micro-influencers.

How long does it take to see results from influencer marketing?

Reach and engagement are visible immediately; sales often come with a delay, and brand effects build over months. Long-term partnerships usually give stronger effects than one-off posts.

Want help building an influencer marketing strategy – with Sweden’s best-known personalities, creators and paid media in one plan? Contact Collabri at info@collabri.se.

Sources

HubSpot – 2026 State of Marketing (2026): https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/hubspot-blog-marketing-industry-trends-report
IAB – Creator Economy Ad Spend to Reach $37 Billion in 2025, Growing 4x Faster than Total Media Industry (2025): https://www.iab.com/news/creator-economy-ad-spend-to-reach-37-billion-in-2025-growing-4x-faster-than-total-media-industry-according-to-iab/
Internetstiftelsen – Svenskarna och internet 2025: Sociala medier (2025): https://svenskarnaochinternet.se/rapporter/svenskarna-och-internet-2025/sociala-medier/
CreatorIQ – Creator Marketing Enters the Era of Efficacy (2025): https://www.creatoriq.com/press/releases/creator-marketing-enters-the-era-of-efficacy-brands-demand-scalable-roi-as-creator-budgets-surge-171-creatoriq-report-finds
CreatorIQ – Creator Content Now Powers 44% of Paid Media Creative (2026): https://www.creatoriq.com/press/releases/creator-powered-funnel-report-2026
Influencer Marketing Hub – Influencer Marketing Benchmark Report 2026 (2026): https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-benchmark-report/
Influencer Marketing Hub – Influencer Marketing Statistics on Budgets, ROI, AI, and Platforms (2026): https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/
Sprout Social – 32 Influencer marketing statistics to know in 2026 (2026): https://sproutsocial.com/insights/influencer-marketing-statistics/
Linqia – 2026 State of Influencer Marketing (2026): https://www.linqia.com/2026-state-of-influencer-marketing/
Digiday – WFA sees 54% of multinational brands boosting influencer spending – with more relying on agencies to find creators (2025): https://digiday.com/marketing/wfa-sees-54-of-multinational-brands-boosting-influencer-spending-with-more-relying-on-agencies-to-find-creators/
Konsumentverket – Influencers reklaminlägg – regler för företag: https://www.konsumentverket.se/marknadsratt-foretag/influencers-reklaminlagg-regler-for-foretag/
Konsumentverket – Fortsatt stora brister i marknadsföring som sker genom influencers (2026): https://www.konsumentverket.se/nyhet/fortsatt-stora-brister-i-marknadsforing-som-sker-genom-influencers/
Paul, Weiss – EU Finalises Transparency Rules for AI-Generated Content (2026): https://www.paulweiss.com/insights/client-memos/eu-finalises-transparency-rules-for-ai-generated-content
HubSpot – What will influencer marketing look like in 2025? Expert predictions + new data (2025): https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-work-with-influencers