The emoji opener that aged badly

The emoji opener that aged badly
Popular advice: "Lead with an emoji — it feels casual and lifts opens."
Myth. A brand that ran 👋 openers in 2022 at solid rates re-tested 1,600 DMs against plain text. Emoji version now: 6.5% reply. Plain: 9%. The same casual signal that once read "real person" now reads "mass campaign," because that's who adopted it. Tactics decay the moment the spammers copy them. It's not the emoji that ever worked — it was being early to a pattern. The opener that converts is the one your competitors haven't ruined yet.