Definition
The liking principle, identified by psychologist Robert Cialdini, states that people are more easily persuaded by individuals they like. In email marketing, liking is built through personal tone, relatable stories, shared values, compliments, and genuine human connection.
The liking principle is particularly relevant to email because email is a personal channel. Subscribers open emails from senders they feel connected to. Brands that feel like people generate higher engagement than brands that feel like corporations.
Factors That Drive Liking in Email
| Factor | Email Application | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Similarity | Use language and references your audience relates to | +15-25% engagement |
| Compliments | Praise subscriber behaviour or choices | +10-20% reply rate |
| Familiarity | Consistent sender, regular schedule | +20-30% open rate |
| Personal tone | Write as one person to one person | +15-25% click rate |
| Shared values | Express beliefs your audience shares | +10-20% loyalty |
| Vulnerability | Share struggles and lessons, not just wins | +5-15% reply rate |
| Humour | Appropriate, tasteful humour | +10-20% forward rate |
How to Build Liking in Email
- Write like a person not a brand: Use "I" and "we," share personal stories, and avoid corporate jargon. Emails that read like they are from a person significantly outperform brand-voice emails.
- Be consistent and familiar: Use the same sender name and email address for ongoing sequences. Subscribers develop familiarity and trust with consistent senders.
- Find common ground: Reference shared experiences, challenges, or interests. "If you are like most email marketers, you have struggled with low open rates" creates an immediate sense of similarity.
- Show appreciation: Thank subscribers for their engagement, loyalty, or feedback. Genuine appreciation triggers reciprocal liking.
- Be appropriately vulnerable: Sharing lessons from failures or challenges humanises your brand and makes you more likeable than perfection does.
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Related Glossary Terms
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AI Content Detection
AI content detection refers to the growing ability of email clients, spam filters and consumers to identify machine-generated email copy. It matters for deliverability, trust and engagement in an era of mass-produced AI marketing email.
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An AI email summary is a short, machine-generated overview of an email's key points, shown by Gmail, Outlook and Apple Mail before a recipient opens the message. It is reshaping how email marketers think about subject lines, preview text and open rates.
AI-Generated Content in Email
AI-generated content in email is copy, images, code or subject lines produced by artificial intelligence tools to speed up campaign production and testing.
AI Inbox Summary
An AI inbox summary is an AI-generated digest that condenses unread email — often highlighting news, actions and senders — changing how clearly your marketing email reaches and engages subscribers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. B2B buying decisions are made by people, not organisations. Personal connection between the sender and recipient influences B2B decisions significantly, perhaps even more than B2C because the stakes are higher.
Liking does not mean being unprofessional. It means being human. Professionalism and personal connection are not mutually exclusive. Many of the most successful B2B newsletters use a highly personal, conversational tone that builds liking while maintaining credibility.
Yes, but it requires deliberate copywriting. Automated sequences can use personal stories, consistent tone, and shared-value language to build liking even though each email is part of a pre-written sequence.
Personal stories from the sender are the most effective liking technique. A founder sharing a lesson learned, a mistake made, or a personal insight creates genuine human connection that corporate tone cannot replicate.
Track reply rate (subscribers who respond are showing liking), forward rate (subscribers share emails they feel connected to), and engagement trends over time. Subscriber retention and loyalty are the ultimate measures of a likeable email programme.