Emoji, exclamation points and tone in business texts
How much personality is right for a business text? When emoji help, when they cost you money and trust, and how to match tone to your industry.
·4 min read
Texting is a casual medium, and customers often reply in a casual style. That invites businesses to relax, but tone choices still shape how professional you seem and, in the case of emoji, what a message costs.
The right amount of personality depends on your audience and your industry. These guidelines make the decision easier.
The hidden cost of emoji
A single emoji switches a message from standard encoding to Unicode. That reduces the characters in a segment from 160 to 70, so a message that fit in one segment can suddenly become three, and each segment is billed. On a large campaign, that can triple the cost of a message for the sake of one smiley face.
Match tone to the audience
A salon texting younger customers can use warmth and the occasional emoji. A law firm, a mortgage lender, or a medical office usually should not. For older audiences and sensitive subjects, plain, polite text reads as trustworthy. Think about how your customer would expect a person at your business to speak.
- ✓Casual and fun: salons, gyms, restaurants, retail
- ✓Warm and plain: insurance, home services, education
- ✓Formal and careful: legal, financial, medical
Exclamation points and capital letters
One exclamation point is friendly; three are shouting. ALL CAPS looks like spam and can trigger filters. Keep punctuation ordinary and save emphasis for the one thing that matters, such as a deadline.
Write like a person
Sound like a specific human at your business. Use contractions, short sentences, and the contact's first name. Avoid marketing phrases such as exclusive offer or act now, which both turn people off and attract filtering. Sign with a name so replies go to a person.
Test, then standardize
If you are unsure whether emoji help your audience, test one version with and one without on similar groups and compare reply rates, taking the extra cost into account. Once you know what works, write it down as a short style guide so everyone on the team sounds the same.
A one-page style guide
Once you know what works, write down a short style guide so everyone sounds the same. Decide a handful of things and put them on one page.
- ✓How to greet: first name, or Hi there
- ✓How to sign: first name and business name
- ✓Emoji policy: none, or a short approved list
- ✓Punctuation: at most one exclamation point
- ✓Phrases to avoid, such as act now or exclusive offer
- ✓How to reply when a customer uses emoji
Key takeaways
- →One emoji can drop a segment from 160 to 70 characters and raise cost.
- →Match tone to the audience and industry.
- →Use one exclamation point at most, and avoid all caps.
- →Write like a specific person and sign your name.
- →Test emoji on your audience, then write a short style guide.
Put this into practice with Text2Sale
Import leads, create follow-up campaigns, organize replies, and connect texting, calling, and appointments in one workspace.
Frequently asked questions
Do emoji make a text cost more?
They can. An emoji switches the message to Unicode, which allows only 70 characters per segment, so longer messages can split into more billed segments.
Are emoji unprofessional?
It depends on the industry and audience. They suit casual, consumer businesses, but are usually best avoided in legal, financial, and medical contexts.
Does ALL CAPS affect delivery?
It can. Shouty formatting looks like spam to both people and filters, so use normal capitalization.