TL;DR

People buy from brands and people they like. Customer stories, relatable testimonials, and authentic brand personality build the liking that drives loyalty and word-of-mouth growth.

Key Points

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One of Cialdini's six universal principles of persuasion, rooted in decades of social psychology research.

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Similarity is the strongest driver of liking in B2B contexts — 'this brand understands my exact problem.'

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Familiarity increases liking: repeated exposure to a brand (retargeting, content marketing) builds positive affect even without direct interaction.

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Customer [[testimonial|testimonials]] work partly through liking — readers identify with the person in the story and transfer that liking to the brand.

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Authentic, human brand voices consistently outperform corporate-polished ones because they feel more likeable.

Why People Buy From Brands They Like

Purchasing decisions are rarely purely rational — they are emotional first and logical second. When a prospect feels a brand 'gets them,' mirrors their values, or reminds them of people they admire, the cognitive barriers to purchase drop dramatically. Cialdini's research on liking showed that even superficial similarity — sharing a name, a hometown, or an aesthetic — measurably increases compliance and sales ^[1]. In SaaS, liking often manifests as brand voice: a product with a warm, direct, human tone in its marketing will generate more trial sign-ups than an identical product with cold, corporate copy. This is why founder-led marketing, authentic social content, and personal customer success stories work so well — they make the brand feel like a person you would actually want to work with.

Building Likeability With Customer Stories

The most scalable way to build liking at volume is through the voices of customers who already embody it. A Testimonial from a founder who describes exactly the pain they felt before finding your product creates instant identification in every similar founder who reads it. Video testimonials are especially powerful because facial expressions, tone of voice, and authentic emotion create parasocial liking — viewers feel they know and trust the reviewer. Word-of-Mouth Marketing is essentially liking at scale: when a customer recommends your product to a colleague, they transfer their personal credibility and liking to your brand. ShowTrust's testimonial collection tools make it easy to capture these genuine, story-rich reviews that build liking far more effectively than any marketing copy you write about yourself.

Sources & References

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion — Robert Cialdini (1984)

Last updated: June 9, 2026

Related Terms

Social Proof

Social proof is the psychological phenomenon where people copy the actions of others in ambiguous situations, assuming those actions reflect correct behavior. First articulated by Robert Cialdini in his 1984 book *Influence*, it is one of the most powerful forces driving purchasing decisions online.

Testimonial

A testimonial is a statement from a satisfied customer that endorses a product, service, or brand based on their personal experience. It serves as first-person social proof that reduces buyer uncertainty and builds trust with prospective customers.

Authenticity

Authenticity, in the context of testimonials and brand communications, is the quality of being genuine, unscripted, and transparent — where content reflects real customer experiences rather than curated or fabricated narratives. Authentic testimonials and reviews are more persuasive precisely because they contain the imperfections, specific details, and emotional honesty that staged content lacks.

Brand Trust

Brand trust is the level of confidence and reliability that consumers place in a brand, built through consistent positive experiences, transparent communication, and perceived alignment of values. It is one of the most durable competitive advantages a business can build, directly influencing purchase intent, loyalty, and willingness to recommend.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Word-of-mouth marketing (WOMM) is marketing driven by satisfied customers voluntarily recommending a product or service to others — through personal conversations, online reviews, social posts, or direct referrals — without paid promotion. It is widely regarded as the most trusted and cost-effective form of marketing because the endorser has no financial incentive and speaks from genuine personal experience.

Collect testimonials that build trust

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Liking Principle

Key Points

Why People Buy From Brands They Like

Building Likeability With Customer Stories

Related Terms

Collect testimonials that build trust