Just Sent an Emoji, What’s the Issue?
Emojis seem like an innocent way to communicate with people. According to Statista, 5 billion emojis are used every day on Facebook. That’s why it seems that using emojis for marketing communication is an effective way to engage with customers. In some way, yes.
Image Source: Canva
Benefits
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Customer Engagement: Messages and social content with emojis attract people’s
attention and involve them. - Brand Personality: Taco Bell has posted a tweet to get public opinion about #TacoEmoji. This strategy helps to create an interactive way to build a relationship.
However, incorporating emojis may create uncertainty and result in potential miscommunication. Emojis may be interpreted differently by receivers. Sender’s intention might differ from the receiver’s interpretation. In that complex communication process, sending emojis may cause mixed interpretations.
Risks
Despite common sense, emojis are not universal except for some emojis. People decode the emojis the way they interpret. According to Andrea Lehr, individuals bring their personal experience to how they interpret an emoji. Cultural differences and professionalism can be an issue. If your target audience is not familiar with digital communication, emojis look meaningless.
What Marketers Should Do
- To avoid miscommunication problems by using emojis, know your audience.
- Select emojis that reflect the right meaning of your message.
- Don’t assume that your receiver will interpret your message the way you intended!
- Try A/B testing with and without emojis and track the results.
Today’s world, emojis can strengthen customer engagement but need to avoid
misunderstanding.
Note: used AI for proofreading
Dilanur Pekgil
