Tests Show Emojis Don't Work In B2B Subject Lines

Some marketers believe emojis work in B2B emails.

They’re wrong. A new report by Outreach shows that emojis don’t lead to an increase in the reply rate — in fact, they hurt it.

The findings contradict other reports, including a 2017 study by Swiftpage that reported a 29% boost in unique opens, a 28% increase in click rates, and a 93% increase in click-through rates when emojis were used, Outreach says.  

The company concludes: “The emoji tide may be turning.”

Outreach, the provider of a sales engagement platform, conducted a four-week A/B test on different subject lines using emojis. It tested seven different sales sequences for the initial outreach to a cold prospect and a second attempt to prospects that had been tried but had never responded.

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The company focused on emails in the middle or the end of the emoji test sequence. Reps had already tried a few ways to get prospects to respond before sending the test sequence.

Outreach described the sequence as follows: Step 5, Step 9, Step 15, and Step 17. In the end, the firm accumulated 2,000 samples for each subject line.  

The subject lines tested were as follows:

  • Quick call next week? (with a clock emoji).
  • Quick call next week? (with a timer).
  • Shameless last attempt (with a woman shrugging her shoulders). 
  • Shameless last attempt (with a puppy and a kitten). 
  • Shameless last attempt (with an umbrella and greenbacks).
  • What if your sales people were as persistent as me? (with a rocket, a money bag and two hands touching by the thumbs). 
  • What if your sales people were as persistent as me (with many money bags).

Outreach found that when combined across all seven test variations, there was a 42% decline in the reply rate when emojis were featured in the subject line.

 

 

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