Popular, Email Marketing · 6 min read · Feb 06, 2021

Our emoji keyboard is available for all subject line fields. If you want to quickly add emojis to your email content in the newsletter editor, install an add-on like Emoji Keyboard (Chrome and Firefox) or Joypixels (Chrome and Opera). This way you’ll always have an emoji keyboard available in your browser.

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Open Mail on the Mac From any Mail compose window (new email, reply, forward), look in the mail windows titlebar for the smiley face icon and click on that smile button Select the Emoji you want to place into the email. Repeat as desired to add more Emoji, otherwise send the email as usual. When considering the use of emojis (or emoticons) in subject lines or email content, the main concern is how reliably they will display across popular email clients. If a character you use isn't supported in the email client of your recipient, the recipient will see a ☐ character instead. To find an emoji, you can either scroll through the list, use the category icons at the bottom of the emoji picker, or type the word for the emoji you want. For example, typing the word present filters the available emoji for you. Then simply click the one you want to insert it into your email.

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With the rise of instant messages, emojis have taken roots in our lives. Be it a message to your mom or office chat on Slack – emojis have taken quite a significant part in our everyday communication.

By January 2021, more than 3300 different emojis have been released, and the number keeps increasing. Emojis initially represented emotions, but the collection of small icons, as well as their use-cases, is continuously expanding.

With good reason: emojis play on a visual way for people to quickly understand and interpret messages online. That’s why they’ve become more and more popular for brands to use with their customers. Let’s take a look at emoji pros and cons and how beneficial it can be to start using emojis in email subject lines and preheaders.

1. The Benefits Of Using Emojis for Email Subject Lines

First of all, take a look at my inbox from the ordinary day in October. Which of the subject lines grabs your attention first?

Am I wrong saying that the one with pumpkins? Perhaps that could be the first of the benefits of using emojis.

Benefit #1. Increases Email Open Rate

Emojis make a subject line stand out in a subscriber’s inbox. The better a reader sees your email subject line, the bigger the chance it will be opened. According to Experian, 56% of brands that use emojis in subject lines see increased open rates.

Though this data was announced some time ago, the positive results of using email emoticons have also been noticed in later, independent tests. Swiftpage, for example, says their newsletter has a 3.29% higher open rate when there is an emoji in the subject line.

Also, you may find handy this monthly guide to emojis by ReturnPath. These guys are strong emojis for emails advocates and provide some great insights. See below what they have for December.

Benefit #2. Email Emoticon Symbols Help Increase Your Brand Awareness

Believe it or not, being noticed in an inbox can also increase brand awareness. This is true even if the email is not opened. AlchemyWorx studied the impact of unopened emails on sales.

According to their research, it is the Nudge Effect: “Sending an email communication featuring your brand name, and a subject line[…] can still influence a purchase decision.”

I highly recommend reading the entire article: How to create emails that sell – even unopened.

Benefit #3. Emojis in Subject Lines Save Space

Currently, more than half of all emails are being opened on mobile devices. The subject lines usually don’t fit on the mobile screen entirely: only the first 50 characters can be seen.

Emoji for outlook email subject line machinery

Although the main words of your subject lines shouldn’t be replaced with emojis, they definitely can help you be more informative and deliver the right emotion. See the example below.

2. How to Effectively Use Emojis In Email Marketing

Every stick has two ends, so don’t dash headlong into the emoji world and use them everywhere. First, consider the following.

#1. Do Emojis Fit Your Brand?

Emojis don’t fit every brand due to several factors: customer age and attitude, your communication tone, and the way you approach your customers.

Emojis are fun, cute, playful, youthful. If your brand is nothing like this, they are probably not for you.

For example, if you sell luxurious leather cases and your customers are middle-aged businessmen, it is contrary to your brand identity to use emojis in your emails. Using funny emojis can even damage your image in this case.

On the other hand, if you sell mostly to millennials and Gen Z, and you think emojis fit your tone and would be something your customers will enjoy, go for it.

The right way of validating whether the use of emojis for email will have a positive impact on your results is to test them.

2. Don’t Overdose With Email Subject Icons

Placing emojis in your subject line can have a direct benefit on open rates and overall campaign engagement. However, you can also overdose on it—fast.

The goal is to stand out in the inbox, but that doesn’t mean screaming symbols in the email after email. Use them only when it makes sense or enhances the subject line’s impact.

#3. Displaying Emojis On Different Devices

Will all of your subscribers be able to see emojis equally?

The short answer is NO. Email-safe emojis/ totally email-friendly emojis don’t exist.

All email clients (Gmail, iOS Mail, Outlook, etc.) show emojis slightly differently. In addition to this, some emojis are not supported in Outlook old versions and are rendered as a blank square ▢, or just the word ‘emoji’ instead of your intended icon. In some older articles, you may find it written that iPhone/iPad had issues with rendering emojis, but after major iOS updates in 2019, that issue is already outdated.

Outlook 2003 does not support emojis. However, this Outlook version is really old. Additionally, according to Litmus, in 2021 Outlook makes 8% of the total market share. And only less than 1% of those users still use Outlook 2003. That’s a small fraction of your intended audience, so I don’t think that should stop you from using emojis. But make sure that your subject line still makes sense if the email client doesn’t happen to support the emoji display.

What else you should know and be ready for when using emojis is a different style of the same emojis on different devices. Although all emojis have their codes, different platforms display them slightly differently.

What to expect, see the example below:

3. A Holiday Emoji List For Email Subject Lines

Although one of the most popular emojis are ❤️ , 😂, 😍, 👍, 🔥, during the holiday season, emojis significantly change to more holiday-oriented icons.

During November-December of 2018, 18% of all promotional emails sent via Omnisend had one or more emoji included. From that number, most of the emojis were the following:

4. Tips on Using Emojis

Emoji For Outlook Email Subject Line Macbook Pro

Tip #1. 👉 Always test emojis.

We have already discussed the issues that might happen with emojis on different email clients. So without saying more, it’s crucial to test before sending your bulk campaign. Make sure that your subject line makes sense even if the email client doesn’t support the emoji display.

Analyze and improve your subject lines with our free tester before sending out your next campaign.

Tip #2. 👉 Do not replace an actual word with an emoji.

How to put emoji in email subject: since some Outlook users cannot see the emojis the same way other email client users can, I would suggest putting emojis as extra to the subject line, without replacing critical words with emoji email symbols. That way, it won’t be a big deal if the emoji doesn’t show up or if it doesn’t render correctly. Don’t take the risk that a fancy-looking subject line could sacrifice its readability.

Tip #3. 👉 Use the emoji at the beginning of the subject line.

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