Emoji in Email: Professional Guide to Using Emoji in Business and Personal Emails

The Great Emoji-in-Email Debate

Few topics in digital communication spark as much debate as using emoji in emails. Traditionalists say emoji have no place in professional correspondence. Modernists counter that emoji add warmth to what is often a cold, ambiguous medium. The answer — as with most things — is "it depends, and also please stop using 😂 in emails to your CFO."

The data tells a conflicting story. Experian's 2012 email benchmark report found that subject lines with emoji symbols had 56% higher unique open rates. Meanwhile, a 2017 study from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Glikson et al., "Does a smiley make you competent?", published in *Social Psychological and Personality Science*) found that including smiley faces in initial work emails made the sender appear *less* competent and did not increase warmth. Both findings are valid. The difference lies in context, relationship, and whether you're selling something or asking for a raise.

When Emoji Help Your Emails

Subject Lines and Open Rates

Email subject lines are where emoji deliver the most measurable impact. In a crowded inbox, a well-placed emoji creates visual contrast that catches the eye. Campaign Monitor's analysis of 24 billion emails found emoji subject lines outperformed plain text across most industries, with the biggest lifts in retail and entertainment.

Some effective patterns:

• "Your weekly digest is here 📬" — The mailbox emoji reinforces the content
• "Last chance: 50% off ends tonight 🔥" — Fire creates urgency without feeling pushy
• "New feature launch 🚀" — Rocket is universally understood as "launch"
• "Happy holidays from our team ❄️🎄" — Seasonal emoji set a festive tone

The key is relevance. An emoji that reinforces the subject line message helps. A random emoji that has no connection to the content looks like spam.

Building Rapport in Established Relationships

Once you have an established working relationship with someone, emoji can strengthen the connection. A thumbs up 👍 at the end of a confirmation email feels warmer than just "Confirmed." A celebration emoji 🎉 when congratulating a colleague on an achievement adds genuine feeling.

The rule is simple: mirror your recipient. If they use emoji in their emails to you, feel free to use them back. If their communication style is strictly formal, keep yours formal too.

Internal Team Communication

Team emails and workplace chat-adjacent messages are generally emoji-friendly. When your team already communicates via Slack or Teams where emoji are the norm, extending that style to internal emails feels natural rather than forced.

Project update emails benefit from emoji as visual markers:

• ✅ Completed tasks
• 🔄 In progress
• ⚠️ Needs attention
• ❌ Blocked
• 📅 Upcoming deadlines

These emoji-based status markers are faster to scan than text-only lists and have become standard in many organizations.

Newsletter and Marketing Emails

For newsletters and marketing, emoji are almost expected. They humanize the brand, improve open rates, and break up text-heavy content. Most email marketing platforms actively recommend emoji in subject lines as a best practice.

When Emoji Hurt Your Emails

First Contact with Clients or Partners

The first email to a new client, partner, or business contact should almost always be emoji-free. You do not yet know their communication preferences, and the risk of appearing unprofessional outweighs the potential benefit of seeming approachable.

This is especially true cross-culturally. What reads as friendly in American business culture might read as trivial in Japanese or German contexts. In South Korea, excessive emoji from a junior employee to a senior one can be seen as disrespectful. When in doubt, default to formality. (See our emoji cultural differences guide for more.)

Legal, Financial, and Formal Communications

Contracts, legal notices, financial reports, and other formal documents should never include emoji. These communications require precision that emoji undermine. This isn't hypothetical: in 2023, a Canadian court ruled that a 👍 emoji sent in response to a contract photo constituted acceptance, costing the sender $82,000 (*South West Terminal Ltd. v. Achter Land & Cattle*). An Israeli court similarly interpreted emoji as evidence of intent to rent an apartment. Keep emoji out of anything that might end up in front of a judge.

Communicating Bad News

Delivering bad news via email is already hard. Adding emoji makes it worse. No emoji combination appropriately cushions "We're reducing your budget by 30%" or "Your position is being eliminated." I have seen someone end a layoff email with 🙏. Don't be that person.

Emails to Senior Leadership

Unless your company culture is exceptionally casual, emails to senior executives and board members should err on the side of formality. Even in companies with relaxed cultures, the safest approach is to match the communication style you receive from leadership.

Email Client Emoji Rendering Issues

A practical concern that people overlook: emoji look different across email clients. The 😊 you carefully chose on your iPhone might arrive as a flat, black-and-white glyph in Outlook 2016. We cover this rendering problem in depth in our cross-platform differences article.

Common rendering problems:

• Outlook desktop (Win32): Uses Segoe UI Emoji, which renders some emoji as monochrome outlines. The 2024 "New Outlook" finally uses color emoji, but many enterprises still run the old version.
• Corporate email gateways: Some strip emoji entirely during transit, leaving blank spaces or question marks.
• Gmail web vs. Gmail on iOS: Same email, different emoji — Google emoji on the web, Apple emoji on iPhone. Your 🙃 has different vibes on each.
• Outlook.com / Microsoft 365 web: Uses Fluent Emoji (3D-style), which can look cartoonish compared to Apple's polished designs.

For anything important, assume your recipient might see something completely different from what you sent.

Best Practices for Emoji in Professional Email

One emoji per email (maximum two). Using a single, well-placed emoji adds subtle warmth. Using multiple emoji throughout an email makes it read like a text message rather than professional correspondence. Place emoji at the end of sentences, not the beginning. "Great job on the presentation 🎉" reads naturally. "🎉 Great job on the presentation" feels like a notification, not a personal message. Use universally understood emoji. Stick to emoji with clear, unambiguous meanings: 👍 (approval), ✅ (confirmation), 📎 (attachment), 📅 (schedule). Avoid emoji with culturally variable meanings or emoji that could be misinterpreted. Never replace words with emoji. "See you at the 🏢 at 3 📅" is hard to read and looks unprofessional. Use emoji as supplements to text, never as substitutes. Match your industry norms. Creative agencies, tech startups, and media companies tend to be more emoji-friendly. Law firms, financial institutions, and government agencies tend to be more conservative. Adapt to your industry's expectations. Check your emoji on multiple platforms. If you are sending an important email with an emoji, check how it renders on the major email clients. The "Emoji Rendering" sites can show you how a specific emoji looks across platforms.

Emoji in Email Signatures

Adding emoji to your email signature is increasingly common but still polarizing. Some professionals include a subtle emoji that reflects their personality or role — a 🎨 for a designer, a 📊 for an analyst, or a ☕ for "let's chat."

If you do use emoji in your signature, keep it to one, and make sure it renders properly as a text emoji rather than an image that might get blocked by corporate email filters. Also consider that your signature appears on every email, including formal ones — the emoji should be appropriate for all contexts.

Subject Line Emoji Data

Some specifics on emoji performance in subject lines, drawn from Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, and Return Path studies:

High performers: 🔥 (urgency), ❗ (attention), 🎁 (offers), ⏰ (time-sensitive), ✅ (achievement), 🆕 (new content), ⭐ (ratings). These work because they reinforce the subject line's message rather than decorating it. Spam magnets: 💰 (money), 🤑 (money face), 💵 (cash), 🎰 (gambling). These are so heavily associated with spam that email filters flag messages containing them. Return Path's deliverability data showed emails with money emoji had significantly higher spam folder placement rates. The diminishing returns curve: One emoji boosts open rates. Two have a smaller positive effect. Three or more *decrease* open rates — partly spam filters, partly the "this looks like junk mail" instinct kicking in. Stick to one.

The Generational Factor

Email emoji usage correlates strongly with age:

• Gen Z and younger millennials use emoji freely in virtually all email, including professional
• Older millennials and Gen X use emoji selectively, primarily in internal and casual email
• Baby Boomers generally avoid emoji in professional email, though personal email is more relaxed

If you are emailing across generational lines, consider your recipient's likely comfort level. A Gen Z employee emailing a Baby Boomer executive should lean formal. An executive emailing their younger team can include an occasional emoji to build rapport.

Mobile vs Desktop Email Composition

People compose emails differently on mobile versus desktop. Mobile emails tend to be shorter and more casual, and emoji usage is higher because the emoji keyboard is easily accessible. Desktop emails tend to be more formal and longer, with fewer emoji.

This creates an interesting phenomenon where the same person might write "Sounds good 👍" from their phone but "Sounds good. I will proceed with the plan as discussed." from their desktop. If you notice this pattern in your own behavior, be mindful of whether the mobile version matches the level of formality the email requires.

Looking Ahead

The trend is clearly toward more emoji acceptance. A 2019 Adobe survey found that 61% of emoji users reported using emoji at work. By 2023, that number was higher, and Gen Z workers — who are now entering management — see emoji in work emails as completely normal.

That said, email remains more formal than Slack or WhatsApp. The full emoji vocabulary belongs in chat. Email is a place for one well-chosen 👍 or 🎉, not a string of 🔥💯🚀.

The bottom line: emoji in email are a tool. Read your audience, match the context, start conservative with new contacts, and let the relationship guide your usage over time. When in doubt, leave the emoji out. You can always add warmth later. You cannot undo a first impression that says "this person communicates like a group chat."