• by Ray Schultz , January 27, 2023

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: 

1. announcement
2. re: 
3. dropped
4. scored
5. confirmed 

Least-performing words:

1. don’t 
2. chance 
3. save
4. miss 
5. great

“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.