Why and How to Use Emojis in WhatsApp Marketing Campaigns

Ever read a message more attentively if an emoji is there? Within a text, if you encounter Emoji your eyes certainly stops there - this happens in Marketing Campaigns as well. In this article, we will talk about Why, Where and How to use Emojis in your WhatsApp Marketing campaigns.

How much would emotions and emoting help your marketing? If statistics are to be believed, emojis can 3x the engagement rate on your campaigns, and drive 13% more conversions.

Lively and eye-catching presentation with personality will surely make for a more appealing marketing strategy. And when you are a WhatsApp businessperson “trying to make it in a modern world” what is better than the ready-to-go cute and quirky emojis at the tip of your hands waiting for you to pull the trigger!

WhatsApp Emojis are for the young and the old and everyone in between. And they can make a lot happen for your business on WhatsApp.

“How?” you ask! Well, let’s start from the basics then.

What are Emojis?

Emojis are basically pixels or tiny images depicting faces or objects that convey emotions, activities, etc. Today emojis are very popular on all kinds of social media and have become an essential in mainstream popular culture.

From the emoticons of the ‘80s, the “The Original Smiley Face” connection and its cute Japanese name, emojis have a rich history. It was developed in Japan in the ‘90s and took its name from “e” meaning picture and “moji” meaning character.

So if you think emoji came from the word “emotions” then you, like many of us, were wrong all this time!

Emojis had more expression and personality than its ancestors, the emoticons and by 2011 it became the permanent part of smartphone keyboards.

Why use Emojis in WhatsApp Marketing?

Having established that emojis are darn cute, you might wonder what they can do in terms of enhancing your business on WhatsApp.

Truth is, it can do wonders on many levels. Let us show you why we say that:

Emojis are Beyond Words

Emojis can convey certain things that words cannot quite express. Emojis can’t replace words but they are more potent in effectively conveying the overall gist of your message. Let’s look at an example:

“Good morning” is just “Good morning”. Now to add excitement you would stick an exclamation mark at the end like this “Good Morning!” But if that level of excitement is inadequate for you and you need to really translate the goodness of the morning well over to the receiver, you can say “Good Morning 😊”

To sum up; emojis can really emphasize and strengthen the meaning of your message, making it more impactful in your marketing.

Emojis Boost Engagement

Emojis are necessarily engagement wizards. They have been proven to increase engagement significantly, bringing more opening rates and click-through rates. And that is, irrespective of age groups.

In most social media, emails and messages emojis have helped in driving engagement more effectively. Think about the last time you read through a long social media post caption simply because it was sprinkled with the right emojis.

Emojis Build Brand Personality

Brands need personality because they are more than just businesses that sell stuff. They need to stay unique and have character so customers can connect with them.
Using emojis in WhatsApp marketing will help you build a unique personality and identity that can stand out among other brands.

Define yourself as you see fit with the right emojis to strengthen your personality as a brand. This is great marketing and building your peculiar character will seem appealing to your audiences.

Emojis makes for Natural Conversation

WhatsApp is fundamentally a Chat App and we are naturally more inclined to use it for a naturally flowing easy conversation. Using emojis for marketing will fit in well with this casual free-flow nature of WhatsApp.

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Emoji Marketing Statistics

-> 92% of all internet users have used emojis or are using emojis

-> Overall emoji usage on WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram rose to 58% after 2020

-> As of 2021 we have over 3633 emojis in Unicode Standard

-> One in every five tweets contains emojis

-> 5 Billion emojis are sent on average in Facebook Messenger each day

-> Subject lines with emojis see 56% increased open rate compared to plain and simple subject lines

-> Push notifications that contain emojis are 85% more likely to be opened and conversion rates go up by 9%

-> “Loudly Crying Face-😭 ” is the most used emoji followed by “Face With Tears Of Joy- 😂”

Examples of Emojis in WhatsApp Marketing

Abandoned Cart messages

Send strategic messages with emojis to recover lost abandoned carts and call back customers to complete their purchase.

Emojis in WhatsApp marketing serves the purpose of cuteness and being relatable. And these two qualities can help highlight your message and convince the buyer to complete a buy.

Here are a few emoji marketing examples for you:

“Hey {Name}😀!!  Your {product} is waiting for you in the cart. Complete your order before the sale ends⌛!”

“🎉Hurray!🎉  We are giving you a 30% Off for the products on your cart! Use {PROMO CODE} and complete the order right away!!”

Ready to use WhatsApp for abandoned cart recovery? Install the QuickReply.ai app today.

Customer Support

Providing good customer support is very crucial for winning loyal customers. It's not just about a descriptive presentation, rather how catchy it can be. Using WhatsApp Emojis in your customer support messages provides a more personalized and communicative appeal to the customer’s service experience. Brand loyalty is too precious and emojis will help you hold onto it.

Without overdoing it, place clever and relevant emojis in your customer service message that could click with your customers. Take a look at these examples:

“Dear {Name}! We are happy to announce that we are taking COD orders now🚀! Happy Shopping😄!”

“Hey {Name}. Thank you for reaching out to us with your query. Kindly wait a few minutes as we resolve the issue and get back to you.😉👍”

Also read: How to use WhatsApp for customer support

Ready to use WhatsApp for customer support and service? Install the QuickReply.ai app today.

Order Status Alert

Use emojis along with the message to notify your customers about the status of their order. Here too, make sure the emojis are relevant to the message. Who said order status alerts can’t be cute?

Here are two examples:

“Great news🥳! Your {Product} is out for Delivery. It will reach you in no time.”

“Congratulations {Name}! You have successfully placed your order for {Product}. Have a wonderful day✨!”

Ready to send automated WhatsApp order status alerts on WhatsApp? Install the QuickReply.ai app today.  

WhatsApp Broadcast Messages

Broadcast messages are an integral part for your eCommerce store to reach your customers and pull in more sales. So personalizing these messages should be a priority. Creatively personalized messages are always better than plain text.

Using emojis in your broadcast messages, you can personalize them and hopefully see better opening rates and responses.

Look at these for example:

“Wohooo🥳🥳🥳! This festive season bringing you 30% Off on all orders above Rs.1599!”

“New year Goodies are here🎉🎇! Upto 50% Off on all Winter Products for the next 3 days!”

Also note: Everything you need to know about WhatsApp broadcast marketing

Ready to send your first WhatsApp broadcast marketing campaign? Install the QuickReply.ai WhatsApp marketing app today.  

New Product Announcement

As you add new products and restock your business, you will need a dope way to announce them, managing to sell and popularize your products. After updating your catalogs, the next step is to make your product known.

Like all the other messages we have seen so far, here too emojis can really strengthen how you announce and present your product.

“Sneaker Season Alert👟❕ We present to you the Latest and Meanest {Brand Name} sneakers Ever! Check them out right away!”

“Check out our Brand new {Product} hot out of the oven🔥!”

On-going and Upcoming Sales Announcement

Like the previous examples, you can apply emojis when announcing Sale events as well. Communicate the whole context and highlights of the event with emojis serving the words. This will add a tinge of humor if that’s what you are going for, or even a little sense of urgency to motivate your buyers.

“We hear Christmas Bells🎄! The Winter Sale is here and with it your favorite brands too with amazing discounts. Season Greetings🎅!”

“Black Friday sale is On! Enjoy 10% Off on all orders and Up to 40% Off on your favorite brands. Sale ends at midnight⏰!”

The Best Emojis to use in WhatsApp Marketing

Some emojis have enjoyed more popularity than the others and enjoy a kind of celebrity status among average emoji using marketers all over the world. And some less popular emojis have been known to have divine Marketing powers. Let’s have a look at the list.

Top Ten Most Popular Emojis

According to HubSpot, these are the 10 most popular emojis among most of the platforms. These include some evergreens like the “pointing finger” and “winking” while others like the Christmas tree are seasonal and contextual.

👉
👇
😉
🎉
🤔
👏
🚀
🔥
🎄
👀

Top Ten Emojis Most Likely to Increase Engagement

The novelty factor of not using usually popular emojis will likely increase engagement. These are the list of emojis used by marketers that has in the past helped in driving engagement.  You will notice that only a few face emojis are in this list.

🙆
🍒
🐠
💃
🌤
💘
😔
💕
😢
💓

Top Ten Emojis Most Likely to Encourage Click-Through

These emojis are also least popular in terms of their use in every-day conversations but could serve clear purposes in marketing. The reason why these show more click-through rate could be the randomness that attracts people.

🐙
🐴
👖
🍒
🚂
🏳
🌉
🆓
👇
🎟

While the study suggests that the above emojis are more effective in terms of popular preferences in marketing, you should keep in mind that these are subjective. Experiment more and find the emojis that serve your purpose better.

Best practices for using emojis in WhatsApp marketing

So far we have tried to convince you how WhatsApp Marketing with emojis will help your business to take up character and personality, along with examples intended to inspire.

At this point, you will need to know a few “Dos” and “Don’ts” of emoji marketing, so you will be well prepared to experiment with emojis on your own.

Here are a few good practices to keep in mind as you venture into Emoji Marketing on WhatsApp:

-> Use emojis to emphasize and strengthen a particular point so it stands out and makes an impact on the audience. Consider the weight and tone of an emoji so it fits well with the text.

-> Never, I repeat, NEVER use emojis to replace texts. This is always a tremendously stupid idea and you could end up losing customers. Sometimes what needs to be said/written ought to be said/written. Hence emojis should never be substituted for words in your messages.

-> Try to limit emoji usage in a message below five. Five is already a huge number for messages with fewer words. Make sure, it doesn’t appear like all that your message has are emojis.

-> Use emojis suitable to the given context that you will be using it in. Based on the situation or task at hand, particular emojis will work better than others.

-> Familiarize yourself and understand the meanings of emojis so you can turn to them knowing the right kind to use at the right time.

Where can you find Emojis?

There are tons of places to access emojis, explore and finally find your favorites for marketing. Here are three popular Emoji resources out there that we found to be very helpful.

-> Emojipedia: Emojipedia like the name suggests is the ultimate encyclopedia for everything emoji. Every emoji, their codes and their looks in various OS’s, and includes everything you will need to know about emojis.

-> Emojisaurus: Emojisaurus converts words and phrases into emoji grams. This is especially helpful when sending emoji sentences to your followers to decode.

-> Get Emoji: Similar to Emojipedia you can copy-paste emojis that will work on all social media from operating systems like ios, Mac, Windows and Android. It’s a great alternative to the traditional emoji keyboard on your device.

Know the Difference between Emojis and Emoticons

Having reached here, you will be all set to start using emojis for WhatsApp marketing. But before you move forward, you should understand the major differences between Emojis and Emoticons.

It is true that the inspiration for emojis come from emoticons that were popular in the 90’s. But the two words emojis and emoticons now stand for two very different sets of characters.

Emoticons are characters created by using special keyboard characters. Some examples are:  
: - )     :’(       : /     :’)    

Emojis are small pixelated images that depict faces or objects. They gave the emotions of their ancestors, the emoticons more depth, realism and meaning, and eventually it expanded to what it is today.

Popular emojis can range from anything to anything, from a crying face to an airplane. Here are some more examples: 👌😇😊🎯🎮🏀🎃😝🙈🙉🙊.

Yes or No, to using Emojis in WhatsApp Marketing

Emojis are so common in our everyday communication that they are an indispensable part of our internet language. Everyone relates to emojis and by using them in business, you will be using the language of your customers. You will be becoming closer than you were in terms of connecting and communicating with your audiences.

So should you or should you not use emojis in WhatsApp Marketing? You definitely should!  You have seen the vast advantages that they provide your business with.

The potential Emoji Marketing provides at your hands should be properly put into action for the growth of your business. We at QuickReply.ai have found that emojis do have a very positive impact on WhatsApp Marketing campaigns.

FAQ-

Q1. Why are emojis popular on WhatsApp?

Ans: Emojis were first developed as a way to symbolically express various emotions. They are used in text-based communication to indicate emotion, such as sarcasm or humor, and to replace body language and voice tone, much like punctuation.

Q2. How may emojis be used in marketing?

Ans: Emojis can give your brand a bit more personality and relatability in your messaging. By using the emoji your audience uses frequently in text messaging, chat, and private social media posts, you can humanize your business and connect with them.

Q3. What advantage does posting with emojis offer?

Ans: Emojis have a clearer message when used. As images provide a way to convey complexity and emotion, which helps people process and express themselves more effectively than simple words, so Emojis can bring a creative touch to your interactions and help you communicate your idea clearly. Choose the right ones to utilize in your copy.

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