Looking for ways to add visual content to your social messages and email campaigns? It’s easy to ❤ the personality emojis and gifs can bring to your brand, but they aren’t meant for everyone…or every situation.
Before you turn yourself into a marketing unicorn, read our tips on incorporating visual content into your messaging—without overwhelming your audience.
Here’s how:
?Understand Your Audience
This is probably the #1 rule to remember when it comes to using visual content in your everyday marketing strategy. Understanding your audience should help you determine whether or not certain visual content will resonate with your intended targets. For example, emojis might not be as popular with older demographics than they are with millennials, so be sure to always keep in mind who your intended audience is. Context helps, too—is this a secure banking message? A crisis communication? Neither are likely a good fit for an emoji.
✍Test Using Various Emojis
If you are still on the fence about whether emojis might be a good fit for you and your brand, then try out some A/B testing. For example, send out the same email to two different segments. Use an emoji in the subject line of subject A, but not in subject B. See which of the subject lines performed better in order to get an idea of whether or not your audience responds to emojis. Below are just a few examples that I was able to find of emojis being used in subject lines. I’m sure you if you quickly skimmed through your inbox you may be surprised at how many different brands have jumped on the emoji bandwagon.
Show off Your Brand Personality (in Gifs)
Visual content can be a great way to have a little fun and show off a little more of your brand’s unique voice and personality. At times, verbal or written communication can be misinterpreted, so the inclusion of visuals can help alleviate any confusion and better set the tone for the message you are trying to send out to your audience. A great place to try out gifs is on social media, where you can either select pre-loaded gifs (thanks, Twitter!) or do what Southwest Airlines does and create a gif library of your own.
❌ Be Careful not to go Overboard
Moderation is key when it comes to using certain types of visual content to communicate with your audience. While it is fun to mix it up every once in a while and incorporate visual content into your marketing strategy, you still want to make sure you aren’t overdoing it. I believe that there is a right time and place to use visual content in your marketing tactics, so make sure you are not being too overzealous when it comes to your emoji usage.
Way to go, you! ?
