fbpx
Emoji Marketing: The Stats Behind the Smileys 📈😁
emoji marketing

Emojis are fun, plain and simple. In personal conversations, they add levity and lightheartedness, and can help convey feelings that may not come through clearly with text alone. Adding an eye roll emoji makes sarcasm more obvious, or adding a smiley face to the end of a direct statement ensures it will be received without any passive-aggressive undertones.

But emojis are more than just fun characters to bat around with our friends—they actually play an important role in social media and email marketing. And there is some science to this: when people see an emoji, their brain responds the same way as when they look at a real, live human being. You can think about emojis as a “friendly face,” greeting your customers online.

Some other benefits of incorporating emojis in your digital marketing efforts are:

  • Reinforcing a casual or approachable brand image
  • Cut back on character count, which is especially important on X or in email subject lines
  • They transcend language barriers—a smiley face means happy, no matter what your primary language is!
  • They draw the eye in to email subject lines and social media content

At Birdhouse Marketing, we work with clients in many different industries. We’ve found that emoji use can be appropriate for almost any business in almost any industry…and if you don’t believe us, consider some of these emoji engagement statistics from Hubspot:

  • 25.4% of tweets with emojis generate better engagement
  • 57% of Facebook posts that use emojis get more likes
  • 50% of brands saw an increase in email open rates when they used emojis in their subject lines
  • 92% of internet users use emojis in their daily lives

Clearly, emoji marketing is good for engagement…but please resist the urge to replace every other word with an emoji. There is a fine line between using emojis strategically to attract more attention and drive engagement, and making your content look like a child wrote it.

how & why to use emojis in social media & email marketing

A

🤔 how many emojis is the right amount of emojis?

There is no hard-and-fast rule, but 3–4 carefully-selected emojis is a safe bet. We recommend starting with an emoji to draw the eye in, and keep the first sentence of your post short. Pro tip: add a line break after the opening sentence to create some eye-catching white space.

branding and color psychology

🤝 use emojis to create a personal connection with your audience

By using emojis in your social media posts, you can better connect with your audience—imagery is more universal than words. Focus on using emojis that add personality, or that help convey tone. You can also use emojis to create a sense of urgency, for example, if you have an upcoming event, or a time-sensitive promotion.

choosing a primary color for your logo

🛡️ use emojis to build trust with your audience

No, emojis won’t all-of-a-sudden make consumers trust your brand, but they do add a human-element to your content. This makes your audience feel more connected to your brand— on a human level.

choosing a primary color for your logo

💥 use emojis to drive action!

Using emojis alongside a call-to-action is like a one-two punch. By including directional symbols, time-related icons, and bold exclamation marks, users are more likely to focus on the different parts of your message. For example, if you are promoting registration for an upcoming webinar, all the details can be broken down into bullet points with corresponding emojis—calendar icon, clock icon, computer icon, etc.—to make the information more digestible, and more eye-catching!

putting it to the test

Take a look at the following messages. Which message are you more attracted to?

Option 1: 
At Birdhouse Marketing & Design, our team works hard to design and implement data-driven (yet highly creative) digital marketing strategies that help you do more of whatever it is you do.

Option 2: 
🦜🏠 At Birdhouse Marketing & Design, our team works hard to design and implement 📊 data-driven (yet highly creative 🎨) digital marketing strategies that help you do more of whatever it is you do.

The first option is straight to the point, but lacks character. The second option is more likely to garner attention, and also showcases our personality! By using emojis, we can express that we’re fun (and fun to work with).

Give emoji marketing a try in your content, and let us know how it impacts your engagement! If you’d like to chat with a member of our team about your social media marketing strategy, just complete the brief form below, and we’ll reach out to schedule a time to talk!

You May Also Like…

Your Everything-But-the-Kitchen-Sink Guide to Social Media in 2024

We get it, social media can be a lot. There are multiple platforms—Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads and Pinterest, just to name a few—and each platform requires individualized attention. As a digital marketing agency, we’ve been active on pretty much every major platform, for clients in a wide range of industries. We decided to put all of our social media marketing knowledge into one definitive source. You’re welcome 😉

New Year, New Digital Marketing Trends: Key Marketing Considerations for 2024

It seems a bit schtick-y to write about emerging digital marketing trends at the beginning of a new year. After all, digital marketing changes constantly, so it’s not like—boom!—all of a sudden these trends and considerations have become a thing. However, it’s never a bad idea to step back and take a good look at the marketing landscape…particularly because we’re seeing some stormy-looking clouds on the horizon, and we want to make sure you’re prepared for whatever inclement weather is about to roll in.

Written by Genevieve Bregoli

Genevieve is the Chief Administrative Officer at Birdhouse Marketing & Design. She enjoys supporting her colleagues and learning several aspects of the business. Outside of work, you can find her reading a good book, adventuring in the mountains, and planning her next vacation.


November 3, 2023

If You Liked This Article, We've Got Great News for You

We have so much more where this came from! Subscribe to our email list for marketing tips, tricks, and advice—straight from our experts to your inbox.

You've successfully subscribed to our email list!