Articles3 min read
· Janiré Castillo
I Ran My Own Emoji Decoder on a Message to a Prospect
Three emojis, one message asking for work, and the rules I sell that said all three had to go.
I sell a $27 Emoji Decoder. It's a decision tool for people who sell expertise and care how their writing reads.
In September I ran it on a message I had prepared for someone I'd like to build a website for. All three emojis came out.
The message
It was warm, and it should have been. I know this person. The message had good news in it, and it asked for the work.
It had three emojis. A smile after the good news. A grin at the end of the line saying I'd still like to build the site. A laughing face after a joke.
What the Decoder said
The first check is the simplest. If an emoji is not in the approved set, you don't use it, whatever its risk level. None of the three was in it.
Two of them failed a second rule as well. The grin sat on the sentence that asked for the work, and the Decoder is blunt about that: "If it is near money or commitment, it does not belong." The laughing face is high-risk by name: "Emotional expression or humor. Actively reduces authority in sales contexts."
The Emoji Decoder is the checklist this message went through. See the Emoji Decoder.
The one that was doing real work
The smile and the grin were easy to remove. The laugh wasn't.
It was telling the reader the joke was affectionate. Without it, the joke read like a criticism. The Decoder has an answer for that case: "If removing the emoji breaks the sentence, the writing is doing too little work. Rewrite the sentence."
So I rewrote it. The warmth moved into the words themselves, so the line no longer needed a signal that I was joking.
The exemption I wanted
The Decoder allows high-risk emojis for personal storytelling. This message was personal, and for a minute I wanted that exemption.
But it asked for paid work. The relationship was personal. The ask was not, and the ask decides. All three stayed out.
The line in the Decoder that settled it: "If the content supports trust or pricing, emoji usage is a business decision."
Before you
hit send.
Use emojis without lowering perceived value, credibility, or pricing. A practical decision tool for people who sell expertise and care how their writing is interpreted.
- Clear rules for using emojis in proposals, pitches, and client emails without undermining trust
- A structured framework that classifies emojis by impact on authority, not emotion
- Practical guidance for writing that reinforces authority instead of softening it.
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