Use emojis in your email subject lines
Use emojis in your email subject lines
1. Use one to two emojis in the subject line - less is more.
Emojis will grab people’s attention, but too many will make you come across as spam. One is often enough, but two to three can be acceptable if they are relevant to your message. Good: We’ve Got Great News Bad: We’ve Got Great News ( )
2. Pick emojis that are relevant to your business, offering, and messaging.
Emojis will grab your prospect’s attention, so don’t confuse them by mixing your messaging. Use emojis that support and enhance the clarity of your message. Good: Celebrate New Years With Style! Bad: Our Kitchenware Line is 20% Off!
3. Test your emojis thoroughly across multiple inboxes and devices, using a tool like Litmus.
Most email marketing platforms will allow you to test the emojis on different email clients; each will display them differently. Test variations of your emoji subject line; sometimes the best emoji isn’t the most obvious one, and some can even hurt your open rates. A study by Return Path tested the effectiveness of emojis in subject lines: The average open rate for a New Year’s campaign is around 18%. Subject lines that included the Champagne bottle or the confetti ball saw an average open rate of 22%. But subject lines that included the clinking glasses had an average open rate of only 9%.
4. Evaluate your audience to see who will respond better to a subject line with emoji.
Young people tend to respond better than older people; women tend to respond better than men. If your business is B2B, emojis may have the opposite effect on engagement due to their informality. If in doubt, test. Testing remains the best tool in any marketers’ arsenal.
5. Test new emojis before sending as they may not render.
Every year new emojis are added, but email clients may not be updated for some time. The latest emojis might fail to display on some email clients.