Persado, which calls itself a generative AI company, has determined the words that drive the highest email engagement.
The firm analyzed 21.6 billion emails, comprising 8.6 billion permutations, sent between January 1-December 15, 2022. It found:
Top-performing words:
Least-performing words:
“In 2022, we saw customers engage most when messages promised something tangible,” says Lisa Spira, vice president of content intelligence at Persado. “For example, ‘re:’ indicates a specific item or topic and past-tense language — such as ‘dropped’ or ‘scored’ — speaks to concreteness.”
Spira continues, “On the flip side, language that focused on a negative emotion — such as ‘miss,‘ which speaks of regret — fell flat. While context is always important, this data indicates that consumer sentiment post-COVID generally favored the sure thing.”
The study spanned industries, with the heaviest concentration in retail.