Emoji is the fundamental tool for expressing emotions on social media platforms. Nowadays, it has started a new stage of its life cycle, and email marketing specialists use it as an instrument of grabbing customers' attention.

Emoticons increase the open rate up to 70%, but at that same time, only 6.9% of subject lines include them. Why don't companies use such a powerful tool?

First, uncertainty about how even an ordinary smiley face will appear on users' screens. Windows 7 or macOS Catalina 10.15? Android or IOS 14? These operating systems display emojis differently, and the older platforms might replace them with empty black squares.

Secondly, email specialists are afraid of risk. They acknowledge voice assistants such as Siri and Alexa that verbalize the emojis meanings. As you know, some titles are weird.

Why do emoji increase open rates?
People are social creatures. We communicate, express our emotions, and use body language to clarify our attitude to the event or situation.

We find it challenging to show our feelings while typing heartless black letters on a white screen. But human emotion is a vital part of communication with another person, and emojis come to aid here.

How to use emoji in email marketing?
Marketing leverages psychology to understand customers better and make an impact. Albert Mehrabian's rule says that when it comes to personal communication, words account only for 7%. The non-verbal elements are the key players here. 55% of the transmission of feelings happens with body language. The movements of the small muscles around the eyes have meaningful roles as they transmit shock, doubt, or disgust. Hence, email marketers use smiley faces to display the mood of black and white symbols.

Emoji to shorten the text
If a subject line is too long, replace the word with emojis. This way, your subject line will fit the limitations and display fully on smartphone screens.

Emoji to express the mood
Diversify the subject line with emoticons to show what mood you want to communicate to the recipient.

Emoji to depict the goal of the email
Emphasize the purpose, importance, and awesomeness of your message by selecting the appropriate emoji.

How to choose the right emoji?
At Sendios, we try to incorporate the latest trends into our newsletters and test them asap. We have prepared three questions you should answer before sending subject lines with emojis:

Do they reflect the meaning of the text?
Do not insert emoticons just to attract attention. They should have a purpose and be relevant to the topic.

Do they match my interpretation?
A little reminder: voice assistants verbalize emoticons’ meaning, so they should match your interpretation and help users understand the text better.

Do they match my target audience?
How to find out what your users prefer? Do an experiment:

1️⃣analyze the audience and divide the segments by age;
2️⃣create 3-5 subject lines and send them out;
3️⃣check which option brings the best performance;
4️⃣update subject lines using new insights.

Our A/B tests show that an audience aged 35-55 years prefers standard topics or personalized with their name. But, young people (18-34 years old) open emails with emoji in the subject more often.

Emoji is an easy-in-use and affordable tool that will help you improve your open rate. Start now and see the results tomorrow.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact us. We are always ready to help!