How to use exclamation points in emails

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📝 Context

Topic: Messaging & Copy
For: Both B2C and B2B
Research date: August 2025
Universities: State University, George Washington University, University of Southern California

Have you ever wanted to add a “!” to your email, but deleted it because you were worried it might seem unprofessional? 

Turns out, you should probably add that exclamation point back in. Science says it’ll make you look friendlier and more enthusiastic, with little downside - most of the time.

P.S.: You can also use emojis to make your copy more engaging. But be careful, they should always complement, not substitute words (e.g. “The best coffee ☕ in the city!”, not “the best ☕ in the city!”)

📈 Recommendation

Use exclamation points to be perceived as friendlier and more likable. Ensure it sounds natural, friendly, and fits the context (e.g. “Looking forward to it!”, not “My condolences!”). 

Don’t use exclamation points if you’re being assertive (e.g. giving deadlines), or when what you’re talking about is analytical (e.g. sending a data report, explaining the progress of a campaign).

People will perceive you as warmer, and just as competent.

🎓 Findings

• When a topic is friendly (e.g. arranging a call), people see senders using exclamation points as friendlier, and like them more. But when the topic is analytical (e.g. explaining research results) or relates to assignments (e.g. assigning tasks), senders using exclamation points are seen as less analytical and powerful.

• Across 5 experiments with over 2,000 participants, analysis of real messages from online discussion forums and simulated email and group chat scenarios, people consistently perceived senders who used exclamation points:

  • As 14.8% warmer and 3.5% more positively overall when following up on an end of year report 

  • 13.5% more positively and 21.3% warmer when requesting to meet

  • 9.7% less powerful and 12% less analytical

• The effect works equally for women and men senders, however:

  • Women felt a 9.7% stronger expectation that they should use exclamation points

  • Men felt a 17.1% stronger expectation that they should not use them

🧠 Why it works

• We see exclamation points as a way to highlight sincere excitement and emotions (e.g. when we speak louder in real life).

• Because exclamation points are associated with our emotions, we see people using them as even warmer and friendlier.

• But the higher emotions shown can also make the person using them look less analytical and powerful.

• Moreover, because we see exclamation points as informal, they also make the sender look less assertive.

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✋ Limitations

• In very formal contexts (e.g. emails from an attorney), using exclamation points might backfire even for friendly and positive communication, making the sender look less professional (e.g. you’ve got the trademark!), but this wasn’t tested.

• The study focused on US participants. It’s unclear how people from countries with strong social hierarchies and relationships (e.g. Japan) might respond differently to exclamation points.

• Only work-related communication were tested, it is likely that the effect would be similar for different communications (e.g. company statements, email marketing, personal communication).

👀 Real-life example

Beehiv, a SaaS for newsletter management, often sends emails from a staff account or their CEO “Tyler from Beehiv” to communicate new features and general updates. Their emails are friendly, but they miss opportunities to be even more engaging.

❌ Issue: While they use emojis and visuals, they make no use of exclamation points, and other small changes that could improve their emails.

✅ Solution: There are a few simple tweaks they could implement straight away, for example:

• Use exclamation points in the very first paragraph to reinforce their excitement about what they’re communicating (e.g. In the example image “Early beta users loved it!”)

• Since the email is coming from a personal account, they could use “I” instead of “we” (e.g. “I’m excited to say…”) this will increase satisfaction and eventually sales.

• Continue using emojis correctly, as they are on the right track. They currently use emojis to complement words (e.g. “We’re launching 🚀 a new product” and not “we’re 🚀 a new product”), which makes the content more engaging.

🔍 Study type

Lab and online experiments.

📖 Research

"Nice to Meet You (!) Gendered Norms in Punctuation Usage." Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (August 2025)

🏫 Researchers

• Yidan Yin, Pennsylvania State University

• Gil Appel, George Washington University

• Cheryl Jan Wakslak, University of Southern California

Remember: This is a new scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

🎁 Bonus: Trivia

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