Emoji or eNOji? Does emojis work in email marketing?

I heard this question a lot from our users at Automizy.

About a year ago I started experimenting with emojis in our social posts and on sites like GrowthHackers and here on Medium.

I thought that they are great for standing out on text-heavy interfaces, like an inbox.

So I asked myself what about using emojis in email marketing.

There so much controversy and buzz around emojis I thought it’s worth having a good hard look at the subject.

So, I buckled down, did some research, asked 10 experts and wrote this guide.

Here the whole guide really condensed:

Emoji History

Emoji is the first language born in the digital world. They give people the ability to add emotion to otherwise flat text.

The first emojis were created in 1999 by Japanese artist Shigetaka Kurita. He worked for DOCOMO, the main mobile carrier of Japan. Kurita wanted to create an interface to transfer information in a brief and simple way. He designed the small images for things like the weather, traffic, technology, food.

Emojis in Email

Emoji has grown and evolved a lot in recent years. It gained tremendous traction in both personal and professional communication.

But, in professional circumstances, you’ll have to be a bit more cautious. Depending on your industry and work environment it might be wise to avoid emojis.

Emojis in Email Marketing

The battle for the inbox is real! Email marketers have to keep up with new trends to get results.

One of these new trends is using emojis in emails, especially in subject lines.

In fact, an Email Marketing Daily article by Jess Nelson says that emoji use by companies in email campaigns has risen 609% year-over-year.

So email marketers take advantage of what emojis have to offer. Research conducted by Phrasee found that about 5% of global subject lines in 2017 included one or more emojis. Of that 5% of subject lines, about 1500 different emojis were used.

Okay, so emoji use in subject lines is gaining ground. But does it improve the performance of them?

“I know I’m seeing a lot more emojis in subject lines. Intuitively I understand why it seems it would increase CTR from the inbox to the email (emojis stand out more), but I wonder if there’s any data on this.”

— Mark Lindquist, Marketing Strategist at Web Profits Inc

Yes, it does. Well, it’s not that simple, nothing ever is. The research found that emojis work “about 60% of the time”. When they work they increase open rates by about 25% of a standard deviation.

An emoji won’t make or break your subject line. An emoji can either:

1. make a bad subject line worse,
2. or make a good subject line better.

Context is key factor you’ll have to take into account when using emojis. Don’t use emojis just for the sake of it. Based on your content you can figure out whether to use them or not.

Apply common sense! If you email your clients about a server malfunction putting a shrugging emoji in the subject line will probably piss your the recipients off. On the other hand, emailing your subscribers about a Valentine’s Day promotion with a heart in the subject line can increase your open and click rates.

Some Emojinspiration

I reached out to Amal Rafeeq. He is a digital marketing consultant and he was kind enough to share some subject lines that increased the open rates of their campaigns. Along with the subject lines he provided some insights why the subject lines with the emojis perform better.

Jon Buchan, cold email maestro, owner of the Charm Offensive Facebook Group and all around awesome dude ran some split tests in July 2017 with different emojis in the subject lines.

You can find the results of these test in the full guide about emojis in emailalong with:

• Which operating systems, devices and email clients support emojis and how they display them
• How should you test emojis to make sure they show up the way you’d like them in inboxes
• How can you put emojis into your subject lines and emails

The experts featured in the guide include: Lisa Sicard, Jon Buchan, Amal Rafeeq, Carlo Borja, Jon McCullough, Megan Mosley, Lucia Fontaina-Powell, Mark Lindquist, Olga Rabo and Will Walker.

Thank you all so much for your contribution and insights!

What about you?
What do you think about using emojis in your marketing emails?
Do you use them?

Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear your opinion. (: