The use of “Thanks” or “Thank you” isn’t just polite, it’s also good business.

A study of 875 million messages from marketing automation provider Eloqua found that the use of those words resulted in a higher open rate – 14.29 percent higher in fact – and a higher (by 1.93 percent) click-through rate too. The downside? Email marketers say “thanks” less than one percent of the time.

While the use of the word “thanks” typically indicates some action has already been taken by the user (such as requesting a demo or downloading a white paper, etc.) and the messages are expected or even necessary to open to confirm for recipients, squeezing in a thank you here and there might really benefit your next email send. Something to consider.