Using Emojis and symbols in your email subject lines!

When it comes to using emojis, people tend to think it’s not ‘professional’ to use them in business emails – but the stats say they work! Research* says that using an emoji in your subject lines increases your open and click rates, as well as a sense of friendliness.

Why should I use emojis?

Here are a few quick reasons why you should be using emojis in your business subject lines:

• Email inboxes are crowded places! Having an emoji in your subject line will make your email stand out compared to others
• They lead to a higher response rate compared to a traditional subject line
• They help your subject lines fit better on mobile devices

Top tips for using emojis in your subject lines:

• Know your content – If your email has a more serious tone and you don’t think using an emoji is appropriate, it’s worth knowing that there are a range of conservative emojis like ™️, ©️, ®️, ?, ?, ?, ✉️ and so on. They aren’t all yellow or based on monkey’s faces!
• Keep it relevant – Emojis work the best when they relate to the words in your subject line ie ‘Our delicious new menu is launching tomorrow! ?’
• Convey an Emotion – Use face emojis – there’s so many to choose from including smiley faces, love heart eyes and even the cool sunglasses emoji. Using these types of emojis set the tone of your email and make it clear for the reader.
• Emphasise your keywords – Place an emoji after your keyword in your subject line for impact. Adding them before can make it difficult to read. The subject line reads more smoothly if the emoji is at the end. Here’s an example ‘Win a bottle of prosecco ? throughout the summer ☀️’
• One that relates to your brand – You could use an emoji that relates to your brand for example Burger King could use a burger. Using brand related emojis acts a natural extension of your branding. Plus it makes your emails easy to spot in your customer’s inbox!

Where to find emojis…

Our favourite resource for emojis is https://emojipedia.org/. But there are alternatives such as https://coolsymbol.com/. You can also add an extension to your Google Chrome called ‘Emoji Keyboard’ here’s the link: http://bit.ly/2Y8cSaH.

MailChimp, the very popular email marketing platform, has emojis within their platform so you can easily insert something. However, there isn’t as much choice as the other sites. But you can take an emoji from emojipedia and add it to MailChimp.

Mailchimp says “Different operating systems render different versions of emojis, so it’s important to test. Use Inbox Preview to see how it’ll look to different subscribers.”

Things to remember…

There are lots to choose from, but not all of them show up properly on every mobile device and computer inbox. If you use an emoji that is not supported your customer’s will end up seeing ▢ or even just the word ‘emoji’ which no one wants.

Keep in mind what platforms your customers are using such as Outlook, Gmail, Apple Mail etc. They don’t all show emails in the same way.

Remember to test any emoji in your email subject lines to avoid them not working in your clients inbox.

Overall

Using emojis in your subject lines can be an effective technique to increase your email open rates and engagement in your campaigns. For your next email campaign why not try using an emoji? Don’t forget to compare your previous results.

If you’re thinking of starting a monthly newsletter (link to email marketing), we’d love to help! Whether that’s writing the newsletter (link to outsourced marketing) or training (link to training page) you on how to use MailChimp. Why not contact us to see how we can help your business?

*Research reference: https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/using-emojis-and-symbols-in-email-marketing/.