EFL teachers’ perceptions of teacherpreneurs’ persuasive techniques on Instagram

This study examined Iranian EFL teachers’ perceptions of persuasive techniques implemented by entrepreneurial teachers in Instagram advertisements, with a focus on what makes these appeals effective from the audience’s perspective. Employing a qualitative research design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 40 purposively selected Iranian English teachers who shared their perspectives on ten highly viewed Instagram clips produced by prominent entrepreneurial teachers. MAXQDA (version 2022) was used to thematically code the interview data. The results indicated that speaker credibility, emotional appeals, and varied sentence structures significantly influenced the success of advertisements. Key factors affecting audience engagement included teacher credibility, clarity of message delivery, and authentic, believable presentation. The thematic analysis of this study identified five main themes: audience engagement strategies, the link between marketing and education, authenticity and effective communication, teacher credibility in the eyes of the audience, and educational effectiveness.