Emoji. Is it a dance move? Is it a marketing platform for companies to use? Neither!
In 1998, emojis were created to represent the first language born to the digital world, designed to add an emotional nuance to otherwise flat text. We all see them, and most likely use them, every day to communicate. With 92% of the world’s online population using emojis, it's critical that marketers are using them to communicate with potential and current customers. So, let’s dive in and learn how you can use emojis!
What is an emoji?
Emojis are small digital icons representing people, emotions, objects, weather, animals, countries, etc. used for communicating visually! As of March 2020, there are a total of 3,304 emojis in the Unicode Standard. And that number keeps growing with new emojis being released regularly! Emojis provide us with a way to express our thoughts, visually communicate with others, and provide a sense of emotions when we speak.
Let’s start by trying to translate this emoji generated sentence below.
👋ðŸ½ðŸŽ…ðŸ»ðŸ‘ðŸŽðŸŽ„
How did you translate the message? It could read, “Hi Santa, I want presents for Christmas,” “Hi Santa, I see presents and a Christmas tree,” or “Hi Santa, I want presents under the Christmas tree.”
There is an endless amount of emojis to choose from and numerous different ways to use them to communicate. Just ask a Millennial or the five-year-old on the phone at the table next to you; I’m sure they are using emojis. 😂
Now, why are emojis important in the digital marketing world?
Emojis allow companies to connect with their audience on a more personal level. Emojis aren't just icons to text friends; they are a business marketing tool as well. 📈🧰
According to a study by WordStream, using an emoji in a Tweet can increase engagement by 25% compared to messages without emoji. Using an emoji in your Facebook posts can increase shares by 33% and interactions with your post by 57%.
In this article, we will address 5 reasons why marketers should use emojis when communicating with their target audience.
1. Boost Engagement
Do you ever post on social platforms and wonder why you aren't getting much engagement? You aren’t using emojis! 🤦ðŸ¼â™‚ï¸
The use of emojis will provide your company with a tremendous amount of engagement. The best thing is that it is quick, simple, and fun!
It sounds weird, we know, but emojis have been proven to boost engagement levels, click-through rates, and open rates. ðŸ‘ðŸ¿
Social Media Examiner has shown that on Twitter, emojis result in 25.4% more engagement. On Facebook, adding emojis result in 57% more likes, 33% more comments, and 33% more shares. And on Instagram, nearly 50% of all comments and captions contain emojis.
Digital marketing is about connecting your business with your target audience. The use of emojis will help reach your customers and create a connection between them and your company. Human brains react to emoji’s faces as human interaction, and we tend to feel and connect with the emotion in the emoji we see. Whether it’s celebratory, joking, or just adding an element like a fruit, the colors, images, and connection to the meaning of the emojis grab our attention more now than ever.
2. Improve Tone
Are you not intriguing your customers with your subject lines in emails or captions on social posts? Wonder why? I’ll give you a minute to think about it. â³
Emojis supply your customers with a specific tone within a message. You’re not only portraying your company as trendy, but you are coming across as friendly, emotional, and funny. For instance, if you receive a text from your boss that says “Meeting, my office, tomorrow morning" vs. "👋ðŸ½Meeting, my office, tomorrow morning 😎.” Both of these messages have the same text, but the tone is different. The tone in the first message comes off as somewhat intense. But, the tone in the second message is friendly and not as terrifying. All because it includes emojis!
The tone is crucial when communicating with customers because if they hear or read a tone they don’t like, they will turn and run the opposite way. Emojis make your brand more fun and approachable. They can help bring in those leads that have just been lingering around.
3. Universal Language
Not able to communicate with all your audiences with the same content? Don't worry; Emojis have your back. 🙌ðŸ»
Emojis are completely universal 🌎 (except for a few that have different meanings). A marketer’s dream come true!
A marketing team that crushed the universal use of emojis and marketing combo was the Deadpool marketing team. On January 12, 2016, Deadpool billboards were released with just emojis on it. 🤔 Sounds crazy, right? But, this creative, funny, and incredible marketing technique went viral. And yes, this billboard was released 4 years ago, but it’s still the best one yet.
Marketing can be difficult when you have a wide range of audiences. Without creating different content for each language in your audiences, the use of emojis can help pull in all languages and combine your audience. Get creative! Deadpool's team took a risk, and it was worth it. Think of different ways you can incorporate emojis into your advertising. Find your lucky emojis and go viral too. ðŸ€
4. Create Leads through the Sales Funnel
Sales emails, chats, and posts from companies can be boring to read and create. Adding emojis into your content can make it fun for both ends of the party. Making that unique connection with your customers through the sales process helps make a happy and loyal customer.
Domino’s is making it pretty difficult for any other company to beat them because of their innovative way of ordering a pizza with ONLY a pizza emoji. 🕠What in the world! Domino’s made it possible to order a pizza from Google Home, Alexa, Slack, your car, Messenger, Zero Click, Text, Tweet, Smart TV, Voice, SmartWatch. I repeat… what in the world! 😲
Making the sales process exciting for a customer makes them want to come back again and even share the experience with their friends. That’s how you gain loyal customers! As marketers, we know how important it is to have loyal customers. Work with your team on how you can use emojis in your sales funnel tactics. Simply adding emojis into your approach will help convert top of the funnel leads to customers.
5. Create Real-time Engagement
I'm a customer, and you're a customer, we are all customers! Don’t you feel a little uneasy when companies, or even people, don’t have social media platforms or share a human interaction on their accounts? 34.7% of people unfollow companies on social media for not having any personality on their profiles, and 24.7% unfollow for not replying to a message sent to the company. Nowadays, customers want to interact and feel connected with who they are working with and buying from. ðŸ¤
On Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, you can show your customers that there is a human side to your company. Engaging with your customers in real-time, with emojis, sparks positive responses, and keeps the conversation alive.
For instance, Starbucks releases real-time engagement continuously with their new drinks, conversations with customers, and polls almost every single day. On June 21st, Starbucks tweeted out a poll saying, “Summer is officially here! What’s your signature summer sip? ” The options to choose from included emojis that coordinated with the drink flavor. It was creative and allowed their customers to react and give their company feedback in a fun, new way. Starbucks not only had many interactions with the poll, but they also commented back to their customers and used emojis.
So, Emojis are useful for Marketing?
Yes, very! Adding emoji icons into your marketing content, or just making it all emojis like 💀💩L did will increase your engagement, customer loyalty, click-throughs, and conversation rates. Marketers are always looking for new techniques to improve their marketing campaigns, and emojis will help you reach that goal. Start small by just throwing an emoji or two into some tweets, Instagram posts, and Facebook ads. Sit back and see how your audience engages. If there’s engagement (which there will be), respond back with other emojis too. Like it or not, emojis are here to stay. Add some personality and humanize your brand with a dash of emojis.
Updated on July 16, 2020
