Emoticons, affectionately referred to as emojis, rose to popularity in the mid-1990s. Based on symbols often seen in popular culture, such as logos, and Manga cartoons, early emoticons were mostly used in mobile messaging in Japan, until they were picked up by Apple and subsequently Android in the mid-2000s. Today, emojis are an integral part of contemporary culture.
With messaging apps replacing text with emojis, the cute smiley faces so often associated with teenagers texting one another are now changing the way we communicate with one another.
Emojis have provided marketers with a welcome opportunity to interact and connect with a new generation of consumers that expect more meaningful and creative engagement. For businesses, learning to work with emojis has been an essential part of adapting to changing market expectations, and learning how to use them correctly can greatly improve your marketing efforts in the long term.
Personalize your marketing campaigns
No matter what industry you are working in, your marketing efforts need to be personalized. Intuitive technologies, such as chatbots and targeted advertisements have created a new standard for marketing communication, which demands more meaningful and personalized content. Emojis add a bit of personal flavor to marketing efforts, whether it’s an email campaign or Facebook post. Some of the main reasons use emojis effectively grab consumer attention:
- Consumers are more likely to react positively to familiar images, such as smiling faces that convey emotions that we can relate to on a human level
- Emojis release marketing campaigns from stiff formal framework of marketing by making content lighthearted without compromising quality
Using Emojis to compliment your content, not define it, adds a personal touch to your content, which makes your brand more memorable and unique in the long run.
Help you build deeper relationships with consumers
Not so long ago, emojis have gone from being seen as somewhat juvenile, to being considered a legitimate way to build consumer relationships. In a recent poll from Appboy showed that brands have increased their inclusion of emojis in marketing by 777% since the beginning of 2015. The survey highlighted that leveraged emotional content through the use of emojis did twice as well as rational content, while also allowing brands to gain a deeper understanding of their customer's needs:
- Using Emojis can help build consumer trust as their presence can make consumers feel more comfortable and willing to engage
- Emojis give consumers a wider vocabulary to express their feelings, helping business websites get a deeper sense of what types of content are working well and where there is room for improvement
To optimize customer feedback once you start using emojis, using data analysis can help you translate consumer interactions into usable information that can be used to improve your marketing efforts in the long run.
Increase consumer engagement
Adding emoticons to your content can help boost consumer engagement, especially when used on social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram. They can be used to boost a call to action, grabbing users attention and giving you more room to engage with your customers:
- Emojis can be used to engage your social media fans in a conversation, encouraging users to interact with their own emoji responses, creating room for your consumers to interact with you in a more organic and lighthearted way
- Brands can grab consumer’s attention by implementing emojis into promotional content, asking users to share and respond to receive unique offers
Whether your brand is releasing a new product, of celebrating a milestone, emojis can be used to galvanize consumer engagement.
When using emojis for the first time, it’s important that you don’t overdo it and be sure to choose your emojis based on the context of your marketing content. Using Emojis in a meaningful fashion is an effective way to boost brand awareness while creating more creative means of communicating with consumers.
