Using emojis in marketing: 👍 or 👎?
By Rohan Xavier, Mar 8 2021
😍 them or 😠 them, emojis are here to stay.
Emojis are a tool that can help to modernise your brand, as well as make your messaging more interactive and responsive.
But, what’s the correct way to use emojis in marketing?
A brief history of emojis
They are more than just a novel way to decorate messages. They are a complex and robust form of new digital language that continues to evolve.
The tiny, emotive characters represent the first language of the current digital world, designed to add emotion and tone to flat text.
Emojis have been popular since they first appeared on mobile phones in the late ’90s, with that trend ramping up in 2011 when Apple iOS added an emoji keyboard.
Usage rates soared even higher when Android followed suit two years later. There are now 3,136 different emojis currently in circulation with this number is expected to grow in 2021.
Using emojis correctly
Emojis can humanise your brand and make it more relatable as their use becomes more commonplace in everyday life.
But don’t force their use as it can be counterproductive and make a brand look too informal in some contexts.
Be aware that they can be easily misinterpreted, such as in a message that uses 😂 instead of 😭 to express sadness. Don’t leave room for ambiguity – and definitely avoid eggplants and peaches!
A good strategy is to see if a co-worker can correctly interpret what you’re trying to convey with your emojis before putting your communications out to the public.
Using emojis for formatting
Some marketing channels are more emoji-friendly than others – think Instagram and Twitter – but regardless of the medium, using too many emojis is ill-advised.
If appropriate, long strings of text can be broken up with emojis to make sentences easier to comprehend.
Punctuating a sentence using a relevant emoji works well for opening and closing sentences, but don’t overdo it!
While emojis can’t always replace words, they can provide context and additional meaning when used correctly 👊
Emojis to boost engagement
According to recent statistics, Tweets that contain emojis saw 25% more engagement.
On Facebook, posts with emojis result in 57% more likes, 33% more comments, and 33% more shares!
In addition, data shows that push notifications with emojis saw an 85% increase in open rates and a 9% bump in conversions.
Google reintroduced emojis in search results in 2017 after previously removing them. Since then, there has been a notable increase in the use of emojis to make search engine listings stand out, drawing attention in a sea of text-based results.
This decision by the world’s biggest search engine shows that emojis aren’t a fad but a long-term trend that’ll become more widely used in the SEO world.
If you’ve been looking for ways to incorporate more emotion or humanise your brand, emojis can be the way to go 🙌🏼 💃 👌 😎 💪 ❤️ just don’t overuse them 😉
And if you’re unsure, just give us a 📞 and we’d be happy to help!