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 friendsâthey 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 âfriendly face,â 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 barriersâa 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. Weâve found that emoji use can be appropriate for almost any business in almost any industryâŚand if you donât 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 engagementâŚbut 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
đ¤ how many emojis is the right amount of emojis?
There is no hard-and-fast rule, but 3â4 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.
đ¤ use emojis to create a personal connection with your audience
By using emojis in your social media posts, you can better connect with your audienceâimagery 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.
đĄď¸ use emojis to build trust with your audience
No, emojis wonât 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 brandâ on a human level.
đĽ 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 emojisâcalendar icon, clock icon, computer icon, etc.âto 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:Â
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:Â
đŚđ At Birdhouse Marketing & Design, our team works hard to design and implement đ data-driven (yet highly creative đ¨) 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 weâre fun (and fun to work with).
Give emoji marketing a try in your content, and let us know how it impacts your engagement! If youâd like to chat with a member of our team about your social media marketing strategy, just complete the brief form below, and weâll reach out to schedule a time to talk!
