diff --git a/lib/index.js b/lib/index.js
index e5d6c9be..778ca4dd 100644
--- a/lib/index.js
+++ b/lib/index.js
@@ -347,10 +347,10 @@ exports.encodePayloadAsBinary = function (packets, callback) {
 
   function encodeOne(p, doneCallback) {
     exports.encodePacket(p, function(packet) {
-      var encodingLength = '' + packet.length;
-      var sizeBuffer = new Buffer(encodingLength.length + 2);
 
       if (typeof packet === 'string') {
+        var encodingLength = '' + Buffer.byteLength(packet, "utf8");
+        var sizeBuffer = new Buffer(encodingLength.length + 2);
         sizeBuffer[0] = 0; // is a string (not true binary = 0)
         for (var i = 0; i < encodingLength.length; i++) {
           sizeBuffer[i + 1] = parseInt(encodingLength[i], 10);
@@ -358,7 +358,9 @@ exports.encodePayloadAsBinary = function (packets, callback) {
         sizeBuffer[sizeBuffer.length - 1] = 255;
         return doneCallback(null, Buffer.concat([sizeBuffer, new Buffer(packet, 'utf8')]));
       }
-
+      
+      var encodingLength = '' + packet.length;
+      var sizeBuffer = new Buffer(encodingLength.length + 2);
       sizeBuffer[0] = 1; // is binary (true binary = 1)
       for (var i = 0; i < encodingLength.length; i++) {
         sizeBuffer[i + 1] = parseInt(encodingLength[i], 10);