Emojis, also known as emoticons or smileys, are fast becoming an integral part of text based messaging. Especially true for younger generations, however they are now finding their way into mainstream interaction both personally and professionally. In essence, emojis are used to quickly convey an emotion, to set a scene or add a bit of humour to messages. They’re nothing new, people have been using symbols to add emotion to their messages since the invention of the internet and text based messaging, from the early days of MSN messenger to the first emails. Companies are now going to the next level—recognising a new demographic that responds well to these added bits of fun. Using emojis in your marketing messages can create a special moment for your customers, triggering a smile or a positive emotion that they will then associate to your brand. Of course, emojis have a time and a place. You should definitely think about your audience and the type of brand you are and want to be. If you’re a serious brand, maybe avoid the emoji, or if your target demographic is more mature, again, it’s probably not going to work as well. If, however, your audience are younger and/or your brand has a bit more of an approachable, friendly and relaxed image, then an emoji can be just the right thing to strengthen the connection you have to your customers.
How can you add Emojis to SMS marketing message?
With Esendex, adding emojis is pretty easy.
- Prepare your message as normal via the Esendex platform
- Go to this website: http://emojipedia.org/ and search for the emoji you’re after. They even have a page for Christmas related emojis http://emojipedia.org/christmas/
- Copy the emoji, the version that is next to the title i.e. , and paste it into your message
- Now you need to click on the second drop down box which will show This send will use X message credits (below the scheduling box) labelled 1 in the picture below.
- Tick the box to “Send as Unicode SMS”, labelled 2 in the picture below. This option will only appear if there is an emoji (or Unicode character) in the message box.
It might be worth testing the message to your own phone before sending out to customers, just to make sure everything is working correctly.Once you’ve mastered the emoji, you can start sending more interesting messages to your customers.If you have any questions on how to do this, call us on 1300 764 946 and we can help you out.
