When it comes to copywriting, every word matters.

Two words can have similar denotations — that’s the dictionary definition, basically — but totally different connotations, calling to mind totally different implicit associations that color how someone feels when they read your copy.

And how they feel is important.

Even in B2B marketing, where numbers, data, and analytical reasoning reign supreme, there’s always a component of emotion. Emotionality is deep-seated, and it’s something that moves people in really fundamental ways.

But it’s not just about evoking emotion through your copy.

It’s about how you use emotional language.

And this can vary quite a bit depending on what exactly it is that you’re selling.

What works for a cosmetics line might not gel with a legal consulting firm. A travel blog isn’t going to appeal to the same things as an oncology practice.

So what kind of emotions should you be mindful of as you’re writing your copy?

Negative or positive? Fear, joy, anger, sorrow, the “aww” factor you get when you see a cute puppy?

In a recent post, Hubspot took an innovative approach to exploring the impact of emotional language on landing page conversion rates.

They used machine learning to analyze the impact of language that evokes the eight basic emotions that human beings experience: anger, anticipation, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise, and trust.

Here’s what they found.

Fear mongering doesn’t lead to more conversions (most of the time)

Words associated with fear often had a negative impact on conversions, particularly in Health, Legal and Travel.

Data from The Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report

In Business Consulting, however, we found that filling between 1% to 2% of your copy with words that create a deep-seated sense of fear and unease can actually help conversion rates.

So, certainly don’t be liberal with the scary words, but you might see improvement with a little peppering here and there.

Trust Words Work in Some Industries … But Not Others

Using words that subconsciously evoke feelings of trust can lead to higher conversion rates in the Travel and Business Services industries.

In Credit & Lending, however, trust words can hurt conversions:

Data from The Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report

The study showed that words which reinforce a sense of trust should be used strategically and sparingly — for up to 3% of your copy. Anything beyond that resulted in up to 10% lower conversion rates.

Among the common words associated with trust in Credit & Lending were “advice,” “pay,” “cash,” “lender,” “law,” “fixed” and “council.”

Joy Isn’t Always a Conversion Booster

Although joy had a positive impact on conversion rates for the Higher Education industry, having too many words associated with joy is correlated with fewer conversions in the Legal and Home Improvement industries.

Data from The Unbounce Conversion Benchmark Report

In Home Improvement in particular, the best converting pages tend to have less than 1% of their copy communicating joyful concepts. Words associated with joy for Home Improvement included sun, perfect, satisfied, money, pay, special, safe, happy and more.

You can check out the other key takeaways from the study over at the Hubspot Blog. They’ve also got a link where you can download a PDF of the full report.