Which words are most effective in encouraging consumers to click on mobile push notifications?

To find out, Leanplum examined more than 2.6 billion mobile push notifications sent by brands between January 1 and December 31, 2016.

Each word in the dataset was isolated and assigned an engagement score based on how it affected open rates across different campaigns.

The researchers found that the words with the highest engagement scores fell into four main groupings: words that convey urgency (alert, pending, critical, etc.); words that convey exclusivity (accepted, eligible, limited, etc.); words that convey emotion (dream, epic, warning, etc.); and words that convey value (bargains, deals, sale, etc.).

The most effective words in push notifications vary somewhat by industry, the analysis found.

For example, in the travel vertical, certain destinations (Miami, Bali, etc.) and trip terms (map, seat, booked, etc.) have higher open rates than average.

About the research: The report was based on an analysis of more than 2.6 billion mobile push notifications sent by brands between January 1 and December 31, 2016. Each word in the dataset was isolated and assigned an engagement score based on how it affected open rates across different campaigns.