The Truth Behind Emojis and Email Open Rates

by Victor Green
3 mins read
Four people holding emojis

When it comes to email marketing, one of the most important indicators of success is how many people are actually opening your emails. An email that is never opened has zero impact on its recipient, and so it is essential to get your contacts interested enough in your content to want to open it. Even if they don’t click through or respond to your campaign, tracking email opens allows you to see how many people your content was able to reach.There are only so many tips and strategies that can be used to boost your open rates, since you simply can’t force recipients to be interested in your content. A marketer has some flexibility on their address lines, names of recipients, email summaries and most importantly, on their email subject line.An email subject line acts as the call to action of your content and has the most influence on getting someone to open and engage with your email. This means that marketers need to leverage this opportunity as best they can to ensure increased email open rates. Since an email subject line can only use so many words, it can sometimes be best to use emojis in their place. In this article, we explore how using emojis can improve your email campaign success.

People on phones

Boost Open Rates With Emoji Appeal

“The most important reason for using emojis in your email subject lines is the increase in open rates that have been reported. According to Experian, 56% of brands that used emojis in their emails subject lines saw a higher open rate,” reports Richard Larson, contributor of Business2Community.There is strong evidence supporting the success of emoji application in email subject lines and its ability to boost email open rates. The higher your open rates, the more people that engage with your content, and the better your chance for increasing sales.

Why Do Emojis Boost Open Rates?

So what is the basis behind this growing trend and why are recipients more likely to open an email when there is an emoji in the subject line? Successful email marketers recognize these top explanations as to why emojis boost open rates.

People talking around a table

More Efficient Communication

“The old saying of ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ applies, in short order, to emojis,” Larson says. “You can save space with an emoji and shorter subject lines are usually more effective. Especially when it comes to mobile, saving space is a priority.”Since subject lines are recommended to be around only seven words, it can be difficult to say exactly what you want to draw in your target audience. Emojis are capable of grabbing someone’s attention and explaining a big idea in a short amount of time. This is vital for subject lines that are created to entice people to open.

Evoke An Emotional Response

“Emojis can convey emotion. So, in addition to saving space, they can also quickly convey an emotion to your email recipients,” Larson says. “It is sometimes hard for companies to convey emotion or find that emotional connection with customers, emojis can show the lighter side. Emojis can make your company appear more personable.”This is an important tactic for boosting open rates because readers are much more likely to click into your email if your subject line evokes an emotional response. Ideally, this can also carry them through your content and get them to respond to your call to action button, whether that means to subscribe, purchase your product or service or donate.

One pink pencil amongst many white pencils

Be Different

“Emojis can help your email stand out in the inbox. One of the reasons for the higher open rate can be how much those emojis stand out against all the text that usually fills the inbox,” Larson says.Standing out amongst other emails is so important for boosting open rates as people are constantly bombarded with emails all of the time. Anything you can do to differentiate your email from others will make people notice you and cause them to be much more curious when they receive an email from you.

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