This data has been released in conjunction with the recent launch of Touchstone, which is the latest innovation by Alchemy Worx and the only subject line tool that predicts the results of email campaigns

Data from Touchstone, the new subject line analysis tool from Alchemy Worx, has revealed the words that result in a higher open rate when used within the email subject line, as well as those that could potentially harm campaign performance.

The data shows that ‘content’, ‘offer’, ‘benefits’ and ‘premium’ are four of the top five words brands can use to increase consumer opens, while ‘Friday’, ‘Monday’ and ‘Double’ are three of the worst performing.

Whether you’re a retailer, travel, media and entertainment or financial services business, the data reveals that first impressions are always important and in the case of the email subject line, some words are certainly better than others.

For example, the difference between ‘holiday’ and ‘vacation’ for a travel company could be as much as an eight per cent swing in people opening that email.

The data comes from the Touchstones database of over 21 billion emails across a variety of sectors, and currently being used by 2,500 email marketers to optimise their subject lines.

The figures also revealed that consumers are also discerning when it comes to the symbols that brands incorporate into their subject lines to stand out in the inbox, with a snowman having a markedly positive effect on open rates but pointing the finger having a negative impact (up 66 per cent and down ten per cent compared to average open rates respectively).

Alchemy Worx founder Dela Quist explained: “The subject line is the most important part of an email and the data from Touchstone analysed the subject line in its entirety to show that a single word or symbol can make a dramatic difference.

“We are lucky to have always had access to a huge amount of data, allowing us to analyse the most effective way to engage with target audiences, but couldn’t use proprietary client data to help other marketers.

“So we created Touchstone.

“While existing tools focus on individual words to compare performance, Touchstone is unique in its study of both words and the full subject lines in order to give a more accurate prediction of performance.”

Touchstone uses a proprietary algorithm to instantly predict the open, click and bounce rates of a given subject line by studying the past performance of similar lines.