Emoji Appearing as Broken in Email Marketing Subject Lines

Site URL: https://www.littleboxes.shop/

Hi Circle Fam,

This one is seriously stumping me. For the past couple of months, when I add emojis to the subject line of my marketing email campaigns, they appear as broken on send (and on test sends). No matter the emoji, it appears as two question marks in diamond shapes.

It's been really frustrating because I can't find a cause, and it used to work for me!

I've reached out to Squarespace support, but they claimed it's not an issue on their end and that it must be a client issue. Which is weird, because my email client is Gmail, through the Squarespace website (I purchased the Gsuite through Squarespace).

Anyone else having trouble with this or know of a fix? Thank you!

I'm not seeing this issue myself (see below) but it sounds as if your emoji codes aren't being understood. How are you adding the emojis to the subject line? Has the method changed recently, for example a new device or a software upgrade?

Hi Paul, Thanks for jumping in!

I am entering them the same way you are, with that widget that appears if I use the FN key or command+shift+space bar. It appears perfectly in the editor (as you show in your screen capture GIF), but then when I test send or send to recipients that's when it breaks. 🤔

I did recently upgrade my mac (within the past two months) and I'm using macOS Big Sur version 11.6.

It's a mystery!

Does it happen will all emojis - for example, the heart in my capture - or only with certain ones?

Hi again @paul2009 🙂 Okay, GET THIS!

So I thought it didn't matter which emojis it was because I've tested that previously, but upon further inspection... it's CERTAIN emojis ONLY when placed directly after my title. What the heck? Do you know what could be causing this?

It's because you're using Apple. Many mac/iOS emojis aren't compatible with other platforms, so you'll want to make sure that you're using an emoji that all operating systems recognize. I don't think many Apple users realize this because I see emails constantly, even from big brands that have just a series of question marks 😉 

You can use a site like https://emojipedia.org/ to verify how emojis will look on various platforms.

@foxandlens it's a good theory, but I looked to make sure the memo would appear on everyone's devices, and it was one that shows compatibility: https://emojipedia.org/memo/. If all the devices show an emoji next to them, how am I supposed to know which aren't compatible?

When I sent a test, it looked amazing. Upon send, 2 quesiton marks. It makes me so frustrated because I spend all this time on a marketing email and then less people click through because it looks spammy.

Thanks for your help! Or anyone else's help!

Quote

On 11/6/2021 at 7:36 AM, kindandbrave said:

I looked to make sure the memo would appear on everyone's devices, and it was one that shows compatibility: https://emojipedia.org/memo/. If all the devices show an emoji next to them, how am I supposed to know which aren't compatible?

 

I guess it's possible that if someone hasn't updated their device in a long time, this could be a problem, but yeah... this particular emoji is not a new introduction so I'm not sure what's going on.

If you're saying that the test email comes through with it looking OK and that the final one doesn't on the same device, then it's possible something's happening on Squarespace's end to break the Unicode. Or that certain providers are blocking certain things.

Re: spam - you may want to reconsider using emojis altogether. It's interesting how things come full circle and there are many who now automatically think spam when there are any emojis in the title because people have adapted to it being a marketer trick (I definitely fall in this camp - if I see an email with an emoji in the title, I automatically delete it without opening). I've also read that some email providers are starting to look for emojis as an indicator of spam, too.

Here's an article by constant contact, for instance that advises to only use a single emoji if you're going to use one so as to not trigger spam filters: https://knowledgebase.constantcontact.com/articles/KnowledgeBase/17990-using-emoji-in-an-email-subject-line?lang=en_US

Thanks again @foxandlens.

When I contacted Squarespace about it, they said they weren't at fault. Anyone know who I could tag here to get someone on Squarespace to look into this further?