Goodbye LOL; Emoji Marketing is Here

It is often difficult to express your thoughts in words, especially when it involves emotions. So then why not use Emojis?

Yes, by Emojis I mean those small animated pictures that you often use while messaging and texting.  These tiny, fun images have become a huge thing in the world of online marketing today.

Did you know 92% of the online population uses Emojis while texting and creating social media posts?

No matter what language they speak and which culture they come from, they all understand the language of Emojis. Emojis make it easier for Brands to communicate with their target audience.

When compared to 2015, 2016 has seen a 777% increase in the use of Emojis in branding campaigns across the world.

59% of the top 500 brands have started using Emojis in their Tweets

40% are making use of them while putting up posts on Facebook

The Click-Through Rates in case of Emoji-related ads are 20% higher than the Industry Standards

Many Brands have started realizing the importance of using Emojis in their marketing messages. Some do it to add a personal touch, while others do it to enhance the appeal of their messages.

For instance, Dominos came up with its Emoji-related campaign recently, in which it encouraged its customers to order Pizza on Twitter by using the relevant emoji. All that they had to do was sign up through the Domino’s website and enable the “Order Through Twitter” option. Once done, they could place an instant order by publishing a simple Tweet using the Pizza Emoji. The sheer simplicity of this campaign was enough to transform most of its target audience into its customers.

This is an excellent example of how Emoji marketing can affect conversions. There are more…

In its efforts to announce the return of its Chicken Fries Products, Burger King created an entire collection of Chicken Wings Emojis, GIFs and Stickers and distributed them amongst the various messaging applications. Apart from 925 thousand shares of brand content, the campaign also led to 3.5 million branded conversations.

It is not only about campaigns; Chevrolet issued an entire press release in Emojis to announce the arrival of its Chevy Cruze. While stating that the new 2016 Chevrolet Cruze can’t be described only in words, it also challenged people to decode the message by issuing this press release. While it is tough to say whether it worked or not, it did create a huge buzz around the Cruze itself.

The first ever brand to create its own paid brand emoji was Coca-Cola. The cute emoji of two coke bottles about to be clinked together would appear upon typing the hashtag #shareacoke on Twitter. This was a one-of-a-kind paid ad placement that was created by Coca-Cola after teaming up with Twitter and a creative agency called Wieden + Kennedy. Many brands such as Starbucks, Disney, Dominos and PepsiCo followed suit later by spending over a million dollars to immortalize their brands using Emojis.

While emoji marketing comes with its own set of benefits, not every Brand may be able to use this to its advantage, especially if it is a B2B brand. Hence, it is very important to test the efficiency of the campaign thoroughly before launching it online.

The use of Emojis in marketing largely depends upon your target audience, the relevance of these Emojis and how often you use them.

Here are a few Dos and Don’ts you need to keep in mind before using Emojis in your marketing campaigns:

Don’t overdo it

Stuffing your ads or Marketing Tweets with Emojis, only to connect to your target audience, can lead to Emoji fatigue, which may not go well with your Brand reputation.

Be Prepared at All Times

Your idea may be clever and your campaign might be interesting; but you need to make sure you are prepared to face the consequences. You will have to live up to your statements whether you make them in words or Emojis. Your target audience needs to understand your message and be able to accept it. If not your Emoji marketing campaign may do more harm than benefit.

Don’t be obsessed with Emojis

Yes, it is easy to get obsessed with Emojis; but this may not be good for your campaign. You will have to monitor the latest trends of marketing and analyze the reactions of your target audience to understand their expectations from your Brand. Only then should you come up with the right Emojis that you can use in your marketing campaigns.

By using Emojis in the right way, you as a Brand will be able to boost engagement on your social media ads. You should be able to fit easily into customer conversations. You should be able to understand their requirements and preferences. However the question is this…

Do you need to have your own Brand emoji?

You can do anything you want using Emojis. However, you won’t be able to use your logo or your brand name as an official Emoji. What you can do instead is create customized stickers. You need to remember that stickers unlike Emojis are not considered as a standardized language. Nevertheless, they can be distributed across many messaging platforms.

A better way to use Emojis in marketing is to make use of any of the thousands of approved Emojis in your social media posts and tweets. By doing so, you will be able to create a new dimension to your social media communication.

Do some research and use your creativity to take your Brand Advertising towards greater levels of success.

The key is to start slow and limit your usage of Emojis. You will have to get your audience used to this kind of messaging before you take steps to scale up your Emoji Marketing.

Also, it is about reaching the right audience as not all customers may appreciate or even understand Emoji messaging. Segment your audience and send your emoji campaigns to those who actually respond to them.

It is still not known if this is all a Fad. Nevertheless, marketers all over the world are of the opinion that Emojis are going to stay for a long time to come.

All said the best uses of Emoji are still awaited!

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