Corporate newsletters increasingly feature subject lines with emojis. But do brands think about how readers perceive these emails, which undoubtedly stand out from the crowd? Our marketer Sonya translated a Nielsen Norman Group study on the impact of this method of attracting attention.
Kim Salazar, Nielsen Norman Group
Emojis first appeared in text messages, Emoji in email but soon evolved into a set of highly recognizable icons used across all digital channels, including email.
Text Smiley and Emoji
Many newsletters and marketing emails are sent with emojis in the subject line. Marketing groups recommend using them to draw attention to your newsletter in users’ overcrowded inboxes. But there is little research on how effective this tactic is and how emojis affect user perception.
To shed light on these issues, the Nielsen Norman Group conducted two studies.
We found out users’ attitudes towards email subjects with and without emoticons.
We found out whether email subjects with emojis make people want to open the email itself and read the message.
User attitudes towards emojis in emails
Methodology
We selected 13 real marketing emails (from online retailers) that had emojis in their subject lines. For each subject line, we created a corresponding version without the emoji, removing it or replacing it with an equivalent word (if the subject line became meaningless without the emoji).
Each email was presented as it would appear in an inbox, with the sender’s name, subject line, and preheader. All emails around the test subject were blurred to focus the participant’s attention on the subject of the study.
Participants had to complete two tasks:
Describe the letter by choosing three words from the list provided. There were 18 positive and 12 negative characteristics in the list.
Rate the letter’s trust level from 1 to 7.
All letters were presented in random order.
A promotional email from Lucky Brand with and without a smiley face at the beginning of the email was shown to two separate groups of respondents.
An email from Birch Lane with the subject line “gifts for dad” with the “shirt” emoji in the first case and without it in the second case was also shown to two different groups.
Participants
Respondents were divided into two groups. The emoji group consisted of 54 people, who saw only emails with emoji. The no-emoji group consisted of 53 people, who saw only versions of the emails without emoji. All participants used laptops or desktop devices.
Participants had to choose three descriptions for each of the proposed topics – they, Emoji in email of course, saw the words in a single, mixed list: both bad and good characteristics at once.
Messages with emojis received more negative emotions
Overall, participants selected more positive attributes and fewer negative attributes for emails without emoticons.
Both of these differences were statistically significant at a p value of < 0.005. Adding emoji to the subject line of an email increases negative sentiment toward that email by 26% , because negative sentiment toward an email without emoji is 0.81, while negative sentiment toward an email with emoji is 1.02.
It should be noted that the study used marketing mailings from online stores, which people often mistake for spam, which causes negative emotions, but this did not matter for the experiment.
Overall, adding emojis to email subject lines increases negative sentiment by 0.21. That may seem like a small number, but remember that participants could only use three traits for each email. That’s not enough to say that emojis in subject lines are a really bad idea, but it’s enough to make you think twice before using them.
Average percentage of users who selected each of these words to describe the subject line of the email in the emoji and no-emoji groups:
The negative characteristics “boring” and “stupid” were most often chosen for emails with emoji in the subject line. For emails without emoji, the characteristics “disappointing” and “confusing” were most often chosen. The most common positive characteristic, “honest,” was used for emails with a subject line without emoji. The difference between the other characteristic words was insignificant.
Emails without emojis seem more valuable
In a sample of 4 emails that were asked to describe value and credibility, emails without emoticons were rated as more valuable than emails with emoticons (2.45 vs. 2.64 on a scale of 1 to 7).
In other words, there is some evidence that emails without emojis are perceived as more valuable. But there was no statistically significant difference in how participants rated the trustworthiness of emails with or without emojis. Emails with emoji-containing subject lines received an average trust rating of 3.51, while emails without emojis received an average of 3.43.
How Emojis Affect How Users Select and Open Emails in Their Inbox
Methodology
Two inboxes were created, each displaying 16 lines of promotional email subject lines.
Each folder had two versions:
Emoji version. The folder contained eight topics with emoji: two for each retailer and eight topics without emoji.
Version without emoji. The themes remained the same, self employed database but all emoji were removed. Only those themes were chosen that did not lose their meaning without emoji.
Participants were shown two inboxes: one for large retailers and one for small retail stores. They were asked to select two emails that caught their attention and that they would like to open. They were also asked to provide a reason for why they chose these emails.
Participants
The emoji group consisted of 55 respondents who saw only the emoji version. The no-emoji group consisted of 58 respondents who saw only the non-emoji version. All participants used laptops or desktop devices.
Brand loyalty
To control for how brand awareness affected letter choice, tutorial completed – and now into the google search console the researchers first conducted a brand awareness survey with an even larger number of large and small retailers. This resulted in four retailers of each type that were similar in brand awareness.
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All things being equal, betting email list adding emoji to the subject line does not increase the likelihood of an email being selected.
To study this question, they looked at how often people pointed to the same email in their inboxes with and without emoji.
All other things being equal (store type, brand awareness, inbox position), adding emoji to the subject line does not increase the likelihood that people will open it. On average, each email with an emoji in the subject line was clicked 0.04% of the time, while the same email without emoji was clicked 0.03% of the time, an error rate of < 0.1%.
In a mixed folder, users are more likely to pay attention to emails with emojis
Although participants were asked to select two emails they would open, some participants chose neither, some chose only one, and 58% of the time, participants chose to choose nothing — the most popular choice. This high number is likely an artifact of the study, because all of the emails shown were marketing promotions , which many people consider spam.
The rest of the choice was heavily skewed towards emoji emails: 33% chose the option with emoji and only 9% without.
Emojis increase people’s attention to visuals
Participants were asked to explain why they chose each specific letter. As a result, two main categories emerged, which accounted for more than 75% of the responses.
Visuals : Participants said their choices were based on the visual characteristics of the letter (emoticons, color, capital letters, bold).
Meaning : Other participants said they were drawn to the meaning of the subject line (e.g., a big promotion).
Other reasons : A small proportion of participants cited factors such as brand recognition or the position of the letter in the folder.
Participants who saw the inbox with emoji relied more on visual aspects when choosing a specific email. Participants who saw the inbox without emoji were more likely to choose the subject line as the reason.
Reasons to Choose Emails with and without Emojis
Conclusions
Emails with emojis are perceived more negatively than emails without emojis.
Emails with emojis were perceived as less valuable , but there was no difference between them in terms of how participants rated the level of trust in all emails.
Adding emojis to the same subject line does not increase the likelihood of that email being selected.
Emojis attracted more attention in a balanced inbox, which randomly mixed emails with and without emoji subject lines.
Participants who saw an inbox with emoji relied more on visual aspects when choosing a specific email.
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Analysis of results
The third and fifth findings in the list above are somewhat contradictory. On the one hand, simply adding emoji to the subject line does not necessarily make people more likely to open those emails. On the other hand, in an inbox that contains an equal number of emails with and without emoji, emojis seem to attract more attention from users due to their visual qualities.
The study also suggests that the overall attitude toward emojis is negative and that such emails may be perceived as less valuable. In most cases, emojis are used solely for their bright colors and attention-grabbing properties. While users may indeed be drawn to these emails, they do not want to feel manipulated. It is also possible that emojis are associated with informal communication and therefore reduce the impression of professionalism.
