These icons really do have the power to break down barriers: by engaging with your target market in the way that they communicate, you can truly humanise your brand and show your customers that you aren’t afraid to speak to them on a more personal level. Who doesn’t feel better about asking someone to do something when they can add a smiley face? Plus, let’s be fair, it’s also much quicker to respond to a message with a thumbs up, especially when you are on the move. They can also help avoid conflict or misunderstandings, because they help convey a tone. An emoji in an email just feels “friendlier”. Words alone don’t cut it anymore, as they don’t reflect the language changes of customers.Įmojis add a whole new layer to text, communicating emotion, tone, and feeling. For generation Z, who have grown up in a digitised world, emojis have always formed an integral part of their written communication.īut businesses are always slower than consumers - normally to their detriment. Today, people send billions of emojis every day across social media and messaging platforms. After all, they only hit the mainstream in 2012 when Apple released iOS 6, and iPhone owners discovered the emoji keyboard. Given this, why do some marketers still feel that these modern-day hieroglyphics are a formality fail, especially in a business setting?Įmoji usage by businesses is still relatively new. Emails with an emoji in the subject line have better click-throughs, and social media posts with images get more responses. There is a clear rule of thumb in the world of marketing: emojis equal engagement. (Photo by EVA HAMBACH / AFP) (Photo by EVA HAMBACH/AFP via Getty Images) Their study drew on data from nearly 2,500 languages, including large ones with millions of speakers to small ones with thousands, and was published in the journal Science on December 19, 2019. – Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History have used a new tool in comparative linguistics to examine emotional concepts across the world, finding the way we think of things like anger, fear, and joy depends on our language. This photo illustration shows a selection of emojis and stickers displayed on smart phones in Washington, DC on December 19, 2019.