Expressing with Emoji in Marketing Industry?

It is said that an image amounts to a thousand words. Using pictures allows us to express several different forms of emotions at a glance. Today we can express the same amount of emotions with just the push of a keyboard button, and this is possible through emojis

If your targeted audiences are young digital natives who are up-to-date with the internet, then emojis can play a major role in your marketing platform.

Emojis bring a new level of self-expression to online interactions. Apple made emoji a permanent part of its iOS 5 keyboards in 2011 and began to highlight the little faces. In 2017 Apple introduced Animoji that uses a face ID camera and recreates popular emoji characters that mimic your facial expressions.

Let us explore what emojis are, where did they come from, and how they can be used in all facets of the marketing camps.

What on earth are emojis?

Although they gained popularity over the past decade, emojis have been existent since the 1990s.  Emojis were developed by Shigetaka Kurita, for the Japanese telecom giant NTT DoCoMo. They were used as standard typographic emoticons, which were very common on the web at the time.

The word emoji is derived from Japanese – (‘e’ picture, ‘mo’ write, and ‘Ji’ character)

Emoji vs. Emoticons

Emoticons of the 90s contributed to the emoji concept, but the two words depict two separate character sets. Emoticons make use of keyboard characteristics to form a face that adds emotion. Emojis go beyond emoticons giving them more depth and realism. A variety of skin tones, hair colors, and textures can also be personalized for an Emoji.

How to use emoji for marketing purposes?

If you follow prominent social media platforms, you will find the elaborate use of emojis in their messaging and branding applications.

The usage of emoji in tweets can grow engagement by 25 % according to the word stream report. Usage of emoji in Facebook posts can grow engagement by 33% and post interactions by 57%. Besides these stats, emoji can also help make your brand more visible. Adding context to your message and draw the audiences’ emotions at a deeper level.

Enhance the brand

Using emoji in your messages can add to the brand’s personality and relevance, you can humanize the brand and engage your audience with emoji.

Using emoji on more technical sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram Twitter, etc. can help your brand stand out in a sea of text messages.

Get to know your main audience and who you are targeting before putting a bunch of emoji in your post. Emoji is a great way to humanize your brand; but if you do not do proper research, it can also get rid of your audience.

Audience Engagement

Why do people use emoji to connect with friends and families?

They are fun and captivating! If used properly, Emoji will create a huge engagement boost for your brand. It is obvious that an emoji makes you want to connect because you stand out from plain old texts and it lets you have a fun-filled atmosphere.

Many social media platforms support emojis, so much that they have become more common than video and pictures. They also allow users and advertisers including hashtags to tap into conversations through emojis.

Push alerts that include emojis get up to 85 % engagement, they are more accessible and get up to 9 % more conversions. Any platform with the right emoji will improve communication and enhance the conversion rate.

Add context to the content

You can also add an extra context to your message by using emoji in your marketing copy. Like an exclusive point, an emoji may alter the sound of your message. So, if you feel that you cannot convey something with words alone, emojis can do a better job.  Social media emojis cannot replace a good copy, but they can work with each other to give words more depth and meaning.

In platforms like Twitter, where you have limited character count, you cannot use extra phrases, use emoji to add more meaning and emotion to your message. Emoji names are also recited aloud when the audience uses a screen reader to read these tweets.

Tips for effective use of emoji in marketing

You may be eager to rewrite all your emoji message but to make sure you address emoji use in the best way it is necessary to consider your audience. Knowing how and when you can use emoji in your ads can play a huge role.

Your demographics in the audience will play a major role in using emoji in your campaigns. Demographics can also impact emoji styles that fit well for your target audience. Reach the public through research and analysis to ensure that enhanced emojis message meets its social needs

Your use of emojis can also influence the marketing platforms you use. Type like spacing or the line input used to change posts view between your devices. Each mobile family has the same emoji interface style on different devices.

Check to make sure your message displays as you wish and, on all devices, and platforms without any errors.

Social Media Emoji

Emoji and social media are complementary to each other. Users spice up their content in social media every day and engage with posts from their friends and networks. Your brand can’t do the same thing for no reason. When you use emoji in your social media posts, Do it with commitment in mind.

Use Emoji to add more meaning to your message or to make the text more relevant in your post.

A simple way to promote interaction is to ask your followers to connect with your post using an emoji. It can be as easy as asking your followers to agree or disagree with a comment using ?? or ?? emoji.

You can ask a more direct question, such as what is your favorite animal? and let them use emojis to make their response creative

The use of emojis in your social media posts will drive engagement on its own. Asking your followers to engage with your posts would only improve your prospect engagement.

Conclusion

Once you add emoji to your marketing plan, ask yourself whether it suits the brand’s tone. Before using them, make sure that you study the gestures of different emoji. The last thing you expect is that you promote safe good by recognizing different emojis.

It is crucial to know who your audience is and how to react to emoji marketing. Only because you see another brand using emoji does not mean the same approach works for you.

Think about the behavior of your audience and how they interact with your existing work. This information allows you to build an emoji marketing plan which is relevant. Learn all about social media interactions and which platforms better suit your brand.