The History Behind Emojis

Emojis began in Japan in the 1990s, thanks to a man named Shigetaka Kurita and the company he worked for, Docomo (a predominant mobile phone operator in Japan). Emojis can actually be translated to ‘image character’.

They appeared on Japanese mobile phones in the late ‘90s, and over the years have become a part of everyday life as a way to communicate through social media, text messages, articles, even emails!

What are Emojis?

Emojis are a visual representation of a range of things, including emotions, objects and symbols. It isn’t just limited to facial expressions and you can find an emoji for almost anything.

Fun fact

There have been over 1,985,167,00 emojis sent through iOS

Using Social Media in Marketing

Emojis can help you to engage and relate with your audience, especially through social media platforms. 

A study by Hubspot found that emojis can even increase the engagement of posts and the click-through rate.

The Top Ten Emojis Most Likely to Increase Engagement (Hubspot)

  • 1. 🙆
  • 2. 🍒
  • 3. 🐠
  • 4. 💃
  • 5. 🌤
  • 6. 💘
  • 7. 😔
  • 8. 💕
  • 9. 😢
  • 10. 💓

Other Advantages of Emoji Marketing

1. Emojis grab the attention of your subscribers and increase open rate

For email marketing, clever use of emojis in the subject title can make your email strange out from the crowd. When looking at the above example, which one stands out first? For most, it will be the middle one from Forever 21.

2.  Emojis help you save space

Emails are now opened more on mobile than desktop (eMailmonday) and more people are using mobile to access social media platforms. In fact, 85% of the time users spend on Twitter is on a mobile device.

People on mobile want faster access to information, which means they don’t want full paragraphs of text. They want things explained simply and shortly. Emojis are great for this because they will save space and allow you to express things through small images rather than text. It’s also more visually appealing and will keep the readers engaged.

Not only that, it helps when you’re limited on characters such as in social media bios or when you’re making a tweet. For example, look at how this shortens information compared to when you don’t use emojis:

Location: Devonshire St N, Manchester

Phone: 0161 474 7603

Email: [email protected]

📍 Devonshire St N, Manchester

📞 0161 474 7603

📧 [email protected]

Disadvantages of Using Emojis in Marketing

1. It may not fit with your brand

Have a look at your target audience and ask yourself, do emojis suit my brand? Brands with a younger audience are usually more suited to emoji marketing, as well as brands that have a fun personality to them, such as a creative agency.

On the other hand, if you are targeting an older demographic, you may want to lay off the emojis. For example, a funeral director probably wouldn’t want to use emojis in their marketing strategy – 😬.

2. They can be misunderstood

Studies have shown that emojis can be misunderstood, and mistaken for something completely different from what they actually mean. Here are some of the most common misunderstood emojis:

1) Face With Steam From Nose 😤

In a survey conducted last year, 69% of the people asked perceived this to mean ‘very angry/in a huff’. It actually means ‘expressing triumph after great frustration’.

2) Tired Face 😫

The ‘tired face’ emoji looks similar to the ‘weary face’, which can cause a lot of confusion. Many people interpret it as a frustrated face.

3) Hushed Face 😯

This emoji is actually meant to be used for someone who should be kept quiet, but it is often mistaken for a surprised or astonished face.

4) Person with Folded Hands 🙏

This looks like a person praying, and that’s what everyone assumes it is. It’s actually a person with folded hands, which is a common gesture used in japan to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.

Examples of Companies Using Emojis in Marketing

1. Deadpool

When Deadpool was announced, they placed advertisements on billboards which cleverly used emojis. Decoding the emojis gave the word ‘Deadpool’ and it was an engaging advert that everyone loved.

2. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

To build hype for their new Star Wars release, Disney teamed with Lucasfilm and created hashtag-generated emojis.

3. Ordering Dominos on Twitter

Dominos had the clever idea of allowing you to order dominos just by tweeting the 🍕 emoji. There is some initial signup behind it but it’s a unique idea that impressed many people!

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