The art of emoji: Is it time to utilise emojis in your marketing?

Emojis are everywhere, in texts, in Facebook posts and even in the Oxford dictionary and now with more and more brands jumping on the emoji bandwagon, now could be the time to incorporate emojis into marketing.

Emojis aren’t a new thing by any means, introduced in 1999, these tiny images, ranging from smiley faces to flags to food, have well and truly come into their own in recent years, going beyond the world of texting teenagers to being used across many different platforms and many different age groups.

It’s important that brands fully understand emojis, what seems like the simple addition of funny little pictures to a post or email, could actually backfire hugely, still looking at you House of Fraser.

What can emojis do for marketing? 

Now a mainstream part of communication, emojis offer a number of benefits for your marketing campaigns and when done correctly can be a great way of humanising your brand. Given that most people use emojis in day to day life, including them in your posts can make your brand look more relatable.

Often, less is more, it’s not uncommon for brands to use limited word counts to get their message across and what better way to convey a message in a quick and short manner than with emojis. One simple image could be a powerful tool in sharing a message.

Used around the world, emojis cross language barriers meaning you can reach out to a number of audiences across the world, without even need to speak the language, increasing your customers and generating more business.  

How can I use emojis in marketing?

You can use your emojis in a range of ways, although emojis are particularly useful when it comes to your social media pages. A well timed tweet featuring a few emojis can create much more engagement than a long precomposed message, which is something to bear in mind when using your social media accounts.

There’s no reason not to include emojis on a variety of platforms, including Instagram, whilst it’s beneficial to include a caption with words, whilst it’s important to not do this with every post, adding one or two emojis instead of text can get the message across clearer than words really could.

Dos and don’ts 

Don’t go crazy with the emojis. It’s all well and good featuring a number of emojis in your posts but don’t overdo it. Make sure you feature a mixture of both text, images, videos and emojis, there’s nothing more off-putting than seeing nothing but emojis covering a brands social media, not only does it look childish but it can also look unprofessional and pretty tacky.

Know your emojis, emojis that might seem harmless may actually carry a totally different meaning to what you might believe.  Make sure you familiarise yourself with what’s popular and what they mean, you don’t want to offend anyone without realising.

Don’t write in an emoji code. The idea is to use emojis as well as words, if your audience needs to decipher a message then you’re overcomplicating things, keep your message simple, your audience should be able to glance over the post and get the message without having to study it. 

Test your emoji marketing. Some industries just won’t be able to make emojis work for them, it’s important you start small and test what does work for your company.

As seen in recent years, emojis have become a major part of both day to day and marketing vocabulary. With brands across the world utilising emojis in their marketing, it’s time for you to make the most of them and keep ahead of your competition.