Emojis can be a fun and creative way to communicate emotions without using words. 

While some research shows that using emojis in email marketing can increase the open rate by over 50%, professional emails remain largely devoid of emojis. This is probably because adding emojis in an email makes a brand seem warm but incompetent.

Although some marketers believe success is mostly based on which email marketing company they use, emojis also play a role worth discussing. The problem is that they denote a playful tone. Thus, their excessive use in corporate messages can appear unprofessional and informal – making them detrimental to your brand image.

Join us as we explore the disadvantages of using emojis in email communication for brands that want to remain serious and professional. 

1. Emojis Look Unprofessional

While 33% of marketers add emojis to email correspondence, 60% believe that using emojis in work-related emails is simply not professional. This is why leading companies and brands avoid using them for business correspondence and other formal exchanges, especially in the B2B environment.

For instance, if your goal is to create a proposal email, it is important to keep it short and get to the point right away. Adding emojis to the message can, in some cases, communicate the wrong idea to the recipient and affect the communication negatively.

There is no denying that emojis add a touch of fun and humor to the conversation, but that is often considered unsuitable for a corporate discussion.

2. Emojis Can Cause Miscommunication

Every emoji has an underlying meaning. The problem is that some emojis have multiple.

For example, the fire emoji can either mean “great job” or denote that something is on fire. It is not hard to see how that can lead to miscommunication, especially in international communications where things like hand signs (which are denoted as emojis) can have different connotations – creating a possibility for damaging relationships with prospective clients.

Send an ‘OK’ emoji to a Brazilian client and then wonder why they stopped talking to you.  

3. Emojis May Put Off Older Recipients

Using emojis in business emails is still a relatively new concept. If you want to increase sales with email marketing but your target demographic is an older clientele, using text-based emails would be more effective. This is supported by the Office Teams survey which states that 39% of senior managers consider using emojis in official communications very unprofessional.

In fact, only 37% of people over the age of 65, prefer communicating using gifs and emojis. Older generations are unfamiliar with the emoji language, and they cannot grasp the accurate meaning of each character/emoticon. This often puts them in difficult situations and broadens the communication gap.

4. Emojis Don’t Work In Certain Industries

Healthcare, law, and government institutions are the most apparent industries where employees encounter serious situations daily. These are the scenarios where using emojis to clarify the tone or lighten the mood is wildly inappropriate or unnecessary. 

Emojis convey an informal tone. Therefore, keeping your email messages textual and concise is best if your business targets financial, healthcare, or corporate sectors. 

5. Using Emojis In Marketing Can Be a Daunting Task

Adding emojis to an email campaign may sound like a fun thing to try out, but it may not be as fruitful as you think. If you want to convert your email subscribers, make sure you use the appropriate language. In some cases, that means staying far away from emojis.

Below are additional facts you should consider:

Adding Emojis Is Time Consuming

There are over 3,633 emojis in the Unicode standard. Therefore, choosing the right emoji or the number of emojis per email can be difficult. It requires continuous and thorough research to ensure you are using the correct and appropriate ones. 

Emojis Decrease Email Visibility and Deliverability

Emojis in emails are known to trigger spam filters, which can harm your deliverability. Adding to many of them – and especially in the subject lines – can land your emails in the spam folder, which will have an adverse effect on your open and click-through rates.

If the emails that your company sends out are important notices or essential information for your partners or clients, emojis can not only take away the professionalism from your email copy but can hurt your deliverability as well.

If the reader is not familiar with your brand/business, your emails can come across as a standard/mass marketing campaign.

Emojis May Harm Your Brand Image

As emojis are considered unprofessional, your brand can suffer a backlash from using them. Every brand has a distinct image in the customers’ minds, and emojis don’t go well with a brand that has a serious depiction. If forced, they may look improper and harm your brand image. 

Also, emojis may look different on different devices or may not even open correctly because of rendering problems. This irks customers and hurts the brand image.

Therefore, emojis aren’t suitable for every brand. Use them only if you have a younger audience, and it suits the overall perception of your brand.

Wrapping Up

Emojis can make you appear unprofessional and less competent when used in business communication, ruining your brand reputation as a qualified professional. Even if the emoticons might be apt at the moment, they don’t consistently deliver the message as intended.

If your email marketing campaign targets other businesses and professionals, or you are communicating with a business for the first time, avoid using emojis altogether. 

Crafting text-based emails will make sure you appear qualified in front of clients and colleagues.