Crystal Clear Communications Blog

Language and symbols evolve over time. We continually create new words and symbols and new uses for old words. For example, when I was a child, emojis didn’t exist. The Oxford Dictionaries named an emoji the “word” of the year in 2015.

Today, emojis are everywhere – even in business-to-business (B2B) marketing materials. But just because a word or symbol exists doesn’t mean you should use it in your marketing, especially B2B marketing.

A client of mine recently asked me why she was seeing so many emojis in marketing emails. “These are businesses marketing to a grown woman, not consumer companies marketing to teens,” she said. “It makes me think my vendors are hiring young, inexperienced people who haven’t read my buyer persona.”

And as my friend and colleague Valeri Oliver, managing editor, content strategy at Avnet puts it, “I’ve had a (largely ignored) rule about exclamation points for years. A rule for emojis in marketing content could be similar, and it will likely be largely ignored as well.

“The exclamation point rule is this: If the building is on fire, you may use an exclamation point in your communication. Otherwise, you are granted one per year. Use it with care.”

“We could draft a rule for emojis like this: If your company is the world’s most profitable, use as many emojis as you like. Until then, you are granted one per year. Use it with care.”

I agree with her. I’ve long said that to do marketing well, you need to know your audience. Are they expecting or enjoying emojis (or exclamation points) in your content? Is what’s important to you truly important to them?

Before you use an emoji in your marketing content, do these three things:

• Review your brand voice and tone. Does emoji use fit with your brand? If you have a more formal brand, avoiding emojis may be your best option.
• Take a fresh look at your buyer personas. Does that middle-aged business decision-maker want to see a lot of emojis? Maybe they do, but remember this: A lack of emojis won’t turn off your audience, but using too many or inappropriate emojis just might.
• Test emoji use with your target audiences. Always consider feedback from your target audience when gauging whether to use emojis in your marketing content. Many emojis carry double meanings. Here’s a directory that defines many of them.

While I expect emojis will continue to get more use over time, I plan to err on the side of caution and follow Valeri’s rule.

Have questions about marketing and communications? Get answers weekly or email me at ariana@crystalclearcomms.com.