Emojis have made the email subject lines a lot more expressive. Emojis are not just a tool that helps add some flair to your emails, but including it in your subject lines also helps you boost your email open rates.
The use of emojis in subject lines is one of the best ways to stand out in the inbox. But it is only possible when you make the right use of these emojis. And they are like free email templates: Free to use but require skills to ace. This article will provide you with all the information regarding best practices of using emojis in subject lines. But before moving on to that topic, we need to know some basic things about using emojis.
What Does Research Say About Using Emojis In Subject Lines?
A study of 2016 states that subject lines with emojis have successfully increased 777% than last year and similar studies keep surfacing every now and then. Moreover, it also concluded that the use of emojis does not affect the click-through rate.
Another study finds that emails which had emojis in their subject lines achieved 56% more open rates. Return Path also tested various emojis which are tied to certain events. They gave two conclusions after conducting the test – emails having regular emojis were bumped up to almost 20% open rates, and emails that came with top-notch emojis had achieved 25% higher open rates.
You will have to use emojis in the correct way if you want to make your emails perform well. However, a test of emoji usage is very important to ensure that you will get a positive result.
Basic Tips Regarding How To Use Emoji In Subject Lines
Emoji is a unique way that helps the marketer to connect with the recipients. When you add an emoji in a subject line, it gives your email a friendly tone, draws attention easily, and helps to boost up the open rate. But, if you overuse these emojis, then your mail will lose its value. Hence, it is very important to know how to use emojis correctly.
- Make sure that the emoji you are using is somehow related to the subject line. When the emoji you are using is relevant to the content, your email will have a different impact on the recipient. There are many emojis that show objects, actions, emotions, signs, etc., and you can utilize them to become creative while drafting an email.
- You can make use of the emoticons to show a certain emotion. These emoticons will make the tone of your email very clear as they can convey the hidden emotion that words alone cannot.
- If the email you create has a very serious tone, you can add an emoji to make it sound a little friendly. And trust me, the audience of all generations often loves such emails.
- In case you aren’t sure if the emoji you are using is ideal for your audience or not, you can take a subject line A/B test to clear all your doubts. The A/B test will show how the emoji affects your open rates.
What Are The Advantages Of Adding Emojis?
Let us now check out the advantages of adding emojis in a subject line:
- Use of emojis makes you sound friendlier and easily approachable. We are all aware of the fact that digital communication is a very crucial process. When you use emojis in a formal conversation, the audience does not hesitate to approach you.
- Emojis help your email to stand out and attract subscribers. Our inboxes are usually covered with more text-based emails, and hence, emails with emojis in their subject lines will easily draw the recipients’ attention.
- Making use of the emojis also helps to save some space in the subject lines. Nowadays, we mostly check all the emails on our smartphones; therefore, you will have to optimize the subject lines. When you correctly use emojis, it helps to provide more information about the topic using very few characters.
- Emojis also help you in the personalization of your emails which directly enhances brand awareness. When you add some emojis to your email, it helps to humanize the brand and gives it a unique personality.
Best Practices Of Using Emojis In A Subject Line
Here’s a quick list of the emoji usage best practices curated for email subject lines:
#1 Do Not Overuse The Emojis
Emojis provide you with a lot of advantages but only when you know where to stop. Overusing these emojis may turn your email into spam. If you unnecessarily use a lot of emojis, your audience will feel irritated, and they will start avoiding your emails. Make a proper strategy and accurately place the emojis.
#2 Make Sure That Your Emojis Are Relevant To The Content
You need to keep in mind that the emojis you use have a purpose and are related to the content of the email. For example, emojis are used to boost open rates, but that does not mean you will have to add emojis in every email you create.
For example, we see that many shopping apps or eCommerce platforms use the lightning bolt emoji whenever they announce a flash sale, as it somehow matches with the content.
#3 Do Not Try To Replace Words With Emojis
Never commit the mistake of replacing your words with emojis. Always remember that emojis are just used as a complement to the words. Replacing words with emojis will annoy your audience, and it will turn into a great disadvantage for your email marketing strategy.
#4 Take The A/B Test
Do not forget that emojis appear differently in various email clients and devices. Moreover, there are some outdated email clients or devices where emojis do not even appear properly. For example, the emoji you use in your email will appear differently on Apple and Samsung or Gmail and Yahoo.
If you want to avoid those issues when emojis do not render properly, then make sure that you test your subject lines in various email clients and devices before sending them to the audience.
Wrap Up
If you are into email marketing, start using emojis in your subject lines right away because it will help you increase the open rates of your email. Moreover, you should try to get creative by using emojis if they suit your targeted audience. Emails are better with emotions, and emotions are always better with emojis!
Author: Kevin George is the head of marketing at Email Uplers, that specializes in crafting Professional Email Templates, PSD to Email conversion, and Mailchimp Templates. Kevin loves gadgets, bikes & jazz, and he breathes email marketing. He enjoys sharing his insights and thoughts on email marketing best practices on email marketing blog.
