The Ultimate Guide to Using Emojis for Marketing

Emojis can be a fun and effective way to add color, depth, and show emotion within a post. One can use emojis to simply convey a feeling, a thought, or add a bit of color to catch a viewers attention. The use of emojis here and there throughout emails, social media postings, or even advertisements can be a great way to turn a boring piece into something immersed with personality.

Emojis can be a great tool to increase click-through rates, open rates, and general engagement levels. Who knew, right? 😲 This can certainly be the game changer for many brands and their own identity. With this ultimate emoji guide we will go through what many of the most popular emojis are in reference to and give some examples of how one might want to use them to convey their message. Keep reading to see how you can turn your marketing strategy from 😩 to 💪!

For many younger generations this is an obvious or even silly question to ask. Many of the up and coming generations have been using emojis since the day they received their own cell phone, but for those who are used to standard text, emojis might seem a bit unusual or even far fetched for their technological capabilities.

Thankfully most emojis are fairly cut-and-dry when it comes to their underlying meanings and usage. Emojis are simply small icons that have been developed by Unicode Standard. They were once used mainly throughout text messaging, but are now a huge part of websites, emails, and other digital communications.

The word "emoji" originally comes from e (絵, “picture”) and moji (文字, "character"). Although they are very common today, emojis have not actually been around for that long. Just twenty years ago they were created by a coder who worked for a Japanese mobile service provider called NTT DoCoMo in 1999. They were started after the well-known smiley faces and from there they branched out to become common objects such as food, animals, weather, etc.

In later years, in 2010, emojis were formatted by Unicode to advance them for use outside of Japan. The next six years following this change, several thousands of emoji characters became an edition to the "language" of emojis. These included figures such as, places of worship, variations of skin color, sports equipment, and Zodiac signs.

Now in 2018, there are almost 3,000 emojis that are on the Unicode Standard list. Almost 200 of those have been created this year.

So, emojis are fun and all, but why should I bother using them throughout my digital postings? Wouldn't it be easier to simply type out what I am trying to convey or express to my readers? 🧐

Good question. I am glad you asked.

Here are some important statistics 📈 that prove why emojis should be used within a marketing strategy in order to boost engagement on

Twitterthere was over 25% more engagement with the use of emojis among user’s tweets. On Facebookthere was over 57% more likes, 33% more comments, and 33% more shared posts.

Recently, there was a studythat proved emojis within the subject line of an email had 50% more opened then those with just plain text.

With the use of emojis, push notificationssaw an increase of open rates as much as 85% and an increase in conversions by 9%.

When a text or other digital message is sent with a sentence that is intended to show excitement or other emotions ends with a period, the receiver might interpret the message as something completely different. When the message includes an exclamation point at the end, the receiver might have a easier time understanding that the sender was trying to convey their excitement. What if the message ends with a 😁 emoji? Without any questions asked, this can be a great way to accurately show that the person sending the message is in fact excited.

For example: "Looking forward to it." vs "Looking forward to it!" vs "Looking forward to it 😁"

Each message can give off a different chord from the next. Although the sentiment is the same, the vibe the receiver gets can vary greatly.

Brands can sometimes get lost in the long list of those advertising their message among the never ending amount of competition they face. Although behind each brand their are real human beings that live and breathe and their lives are not too different from yours or mine, they often are not defined by their personality or charm, but rather by their latest sale or newest release.

Give your brand a depth and unique character that will stand out from the next by simply integrating emojis within your next communication. By using emojis you can communicate that your brand is captivating, fun, witty, or fresh. Stand out and define your brand through the usage of emojis to further your brand awareness and create your own persona. Fun brands = known brands.

Now that you understand where emojis first originated and why you should immerse them in your brand, we are going to explain which ones a brand should use and how they should use them.

The 😂 is the most frequently used emoji on Twitter, according to EmojiTracker. Also, based on Apple's data, the laughing face emoji is now officially named, "Face With Tears of Joy." Often this emoji is used to coincide a humorous post.

The next emoji that is most frequently used is the heart ❤️ emoji. This one has been officially named the "Red Heart". The Red Heart expresses love and affection. Although the red colored heart is the most popular heart emoji, it is also available in a multitude of shades and various shapes.

The third most used emoji is the crying face 😭 emoji, according to Apple. According to EmojiTracker, it is the sixth most used on it's database. It has been officially named the "Loudly Crying Face", but it is one that can have more than one meaning behind it. It is usually used to convey a sad or negative emotion, but it can also mean that someone is so happy they are crying.

According to both Apple and EmojiTracker the heart eyes 😍 emoji is the fourth most frequently used emoji. This one is known as the "Smiling Face With Heart-shaped Eyes". Typically it is used when some is happy or likes what they are seeing.

This emoji is actually not ranked on Apple of EmojiTracker, but we feel it is still important to include. The thumbs up 👍🏼 emoji as well as an actual thumbs up in person, universally means "Okay." Often this emoji is used as a confirmation that they received a message or agree with the sender.

When it comes to the use of emojis within a brand’s marketing, their are endless amounts of characters that can be utilized. According to HubSpotthere are certain emojis that have proven to be more effective then others when marketing. Check out this list of emojis that can really come in handy for your next digital posting and see what can work best for your brand's personality and ongoing message.

🙆(Person Gesturing Okay Emoji)

🍒(Cherries Emoji)

🐠(Tropical Fish Emoji)

💃(Woman Dancing Emoji)

🌤(Sun Behind Small Cloud Emoji)

🐙(Octopus Emoji)

🐴(Horse Face Emoji)

👖(Jeans Emoji)

🍒(Cherries Emoji)

🚂(Locomotive Emoji)

Next time you decide to send a text, an email, or post on social media, or other digital platforms consider using an emoji. They are an interesting and simple way to sneak in some personality within your message. From a device of your choosing you can add an emoji to your message to express your brand’s fun, sassy, or colorful side. It can be a great way to remind your audience that their are real people with real emotions behind your brand.