You know them, you love them, you overuse them! Emojis! Brands everywhere are flooding timelines with hearts, flames, and faces. Before you toss every single emoji in your arsenal into your campaign, hear us out.
Do emojis actually boost engagement? Short answer: YES.
However, you need to know how, where, and when to use them. Let’s look at where brands tend to misuse emojis and what the data says about it.
🤔😊🚀💍? 🩳📝:👌
Emojis CAN Work
The numbers show it.
According to a Sprout Social study, emojis in tweets can increase engagement by 25.4%, and email subject lines with emojis can boost open rates by up to 56%. Mailchimp and others report similar findings, emojis can make content feel more human and emotionally charged.
Adopting emojis in SMS campaigns gets results. In one test, adding just two emojis to a retail SMS increased click-through rates by over 10%.
So yes, emojis can absolutely work for brand engagement. But remember, context is everything.
🦹♂️📝 = 🚨🚨
Not Every Brand Should Be Using Emojis Everywhere
What most reports do not talk about, the risk of diluting your message.
Too many brands treat emojis as a quick fix for an approach that is bland and uninteresting but overusing them can backfire especially in professional industries. A 2017 peer-reviewed study published in Social Psychological and Personality Science found that using emojis in formal work emails reduced the sender’s perceived competence. (Yes, even when the message was friendly.)
If it can do that in a workplace, imagine what it might do in a serious campaign meant to build credibility.
👔❌👎📉📉
Emojis Are Visual Punctuation. Use Them Strategically.
Here is some advice we usually give our clients:
- Know your audience. Gen Z expects emojis. C suite professionals? Maybe not.
- Less is more. A single, well-placed emoji is more powerful than five random ones.
- Match your tone. If your brand voice is clean, calm, and professional, don’t throw in a little wink ( 😜) for “personality.”
Remember, Emojis enhance your message but should not replace it.
Happy World Emoji Day! 🤗😊
Emojis work. But only when they align with your audience, platform, and brand voice. On this special World Emoji Day, don’t just join the noise. Use visual language with intention and just don’t try too hard, it shows eventually.