Kerui Huang

Storytelling as a Strategic Tool in Influencer Marketing: Impact on Engagement, Authenticity and Purchase Intent

Introduction

Storytelling as a strategic tool in influencer marketing: impact on engagement, authenticity and purchase intent. Explore how storytelling in influencer marketing drives engagement, authenticity, and purchase intent. This study analyzes Instagram & TikTok strategies, revealing effective narrative modes for marketers.

Abstract

Storytelling has become an important strategic tool in influencer marketing and transformed how engagement, authenticity and purchase-intent is perceived among audiences. This study investigated how influencers on Instagram and TikTok narratively integrate products into personal, brand-related, or lifestyle storylines. Utilizing Narrative Transportation Theory and Source Credibility Theory, the study used a qualitative thematic analysis of six influencers in fashion, lifestyle, technology and financial spaces. Results indicate three archetypal modes of storytelling. Storytelling based upon personal experience encourages consumers to become involved and perceive emotionally, and this resonates with narrative transportation, as well as means of supply that are personal and relatable. Brand-focused story-telling highlights competence and credibility, increasing trust and inviting questions on the purchase side. Life-integrated narrating places products in the story-rich contexts of aspirational practices and identity work, fostering parasocial closeness and everyday authenticity. Cross-platform comparison shows that identical narrative strategies produce different engagement cues, depending on the affordances of the platform. This work contributes to theoretical research by illustrating that also micro-narratives can induce transportation and credibility effects and by refining the boundary conditions of these theories in influencer settings. Contributions include explication of the connections between narrative modes and dimensions of credibility and the medium specific operation of persuasion. These findings highlight the importance for marketers to employ personalized storytelling tactics that combine narrative immersion and perceived authenticity to enhance consumer responses and intention to purchase.

Review

This study critically examines the strategic application of storytelling in influencer marketing, exploring its profound impact on audience engagement, perceived authenticity, and purchase intent. Leveraging Narrative Transportation Theory and Source Credibility Theory, the authors conduct a qualitative thematic analysis of content from six influencers across Instagram and TikTok, dissecting how products are integrated into personal, brand-related, or lifestyle narratives. The research identifies three distinct archetypal modes of storytelling and highlights the significant finding that identical narrative strategies can produce varied engagement cues based on the specific affordances of each platform. This timely investigation offers valuable initial insights into the evolving dynamics of digital persuasion and the complex interplay between narrative structure, source perception, and medium. A particular strength of this work lies in its detailed explication of the three archetypal storytelling modes: personal experience, brand-focused, and life-integrated narrating. The study adeptly links these modes to specific psychological outcomes, demonstrating how they cultivate emotional involvement, enhance perceptions of competence and credibility, and foster parasocial closeness and everyday authenticity, respectively. Theoretically, the paper makes important contributions by illustrating that even micro-narratives in an influencer context can induce transportation and credibility effects, thus refining the boundary conditions of these established theories. Furthermore, the cross-platform comparison provides a nuanced understanding of how medium-specific characteristics shape persuasive outcomes, offering practical and actionable insights for marketers aiming to optimize storytelling tactics for enhanced consumer responses and purchase intent. While offering compelling and insightful contributions, the study's methodological approach, specifically the qualitative thematic analysis of only six influencers, inherently limits the generalizability of its findings. This small sample size, while conducive to rich qualitative data, necessitates caution when extrapolating results to the broader, diverse landscape of influencer marketing. Future research would benefit significantly from building upon these foundational insights by employing larger-scale quantitative methodologies to validate the identified storytelling archetypes and empirically measure their precise impact across a wider range of influencers, platforms, and demographic segments. Despite this limitation, the paper provides a robust conceptual framework and serves as an excellent starting point for understanding the intricate power of narrative in contemporary digital marketing.

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