In the business world, it’s always important to be in the know about the latest trends. Say for this week – Apple, the tech giant, reveals the news about 70 new emojis! To roll out together with the new iOS 12.1 update, the new emojis were made available for developer and public preview a few days ago.

Image from Apple.com

What are emojis anyway and why are we talking about them

Technically, emojis are the more sophisticated version of traditional smileys. For a more scholarly definition, Britannica defines emoji as pictographs of faces, objects, and symbols. They must not be confused with emoticons, which are punctuation marks, letters, and numbers used to demonstrate icons that denote emotion or a sentiment.

Included in Apple’s new roster of emojis are a cold face, a party face, a face with hearts, and a pleading face. There are also new emojis for people with red, grey, and curly hair – and even for bald people. Adding to the growing list of animal emojis are a kangaroo, a peacock, a parrot, a raccoon, a llama, and a lobster. For food choices, there are now emojis for moon cakes, mango, lettuce, and cupcakes! There are even iconic cultural emojis such as the red gift envelope and the Nazar amulet.

Some of these emojis were previewed during the World Emoji Day and are available on Apple platforms including iOS, macOS, and watchOS.

Why is this related to business, again?

This exclusive study released by AdWeek discovered that 92% of internet users are familiar with emojis. During these days of hyperconnectivity, smartphones playing a big role in most people’s daily lives. It pays to test what works best in communicating with your target customers.

This just proves that some campaigns work best with emojis! In a recent report from Hubspot, one study discovered that incorporating emojis in campaigns can increase Click-Through Rates, as well as increased in brand retention and customer engagement. By utilising emojis in chatting with customers, the study discovered that the brand came across as more friendly and helpful.

With emojis, brands become more humanized and relatable. According to falcon.io, even campaigns on Facebook receive 57% more likes and 33% more shares when the posts come with emojis. In twitter, there is a 25% increase in post engagement when the tweets are made more interesting with emojis.

Though, slow down on the emojis

As mentioned, the success of incorporating emojis in your campaigns depend greatly on your brand, your customers, and the campaign itself. With experienced social media managers, you can make the most of emojis without going way overboard. There is always that sweet spot between what is just appropriate, adorable, and funny — and what is just plain emoji overload. For brands falling across the risk of the latter, this might spell more bad news than good. Instead of an opportunity to connect with customers, they can be put off.

Quick notes on marketing with emojis

Know which ones resonate with your customers. Do heavy research on social media platforms and see what emojis they are using. Always ensure that you are communicating the right messages! Some emojis might have other meanings that you may not be familiar with – and that might just backfire on your campaign. Here’s a useful guide in decoding what each emoji means. It is completely legal to use emojis in your digital marketing campaign. Although when implemented on branded merchandise, it is best to talk with emoji.com for licensing or search for custom emojis free for public and commercial use.

To know more about emojis and how they can be used for effective marketing – check out this post from visme.co!

Bonus: Just check out this Domino’s pizza campaign

And of course, pizza IS pizza. But the world needs taco as well and this campaign by Taco Bell was a huge success.