It might seem a bit of a stretch to suggest body language can be useful in our craft, but read on. I used to teach communication methods to sceptical students. I would walk into the class, put up a flipchart onto the board and reveal the lesson’s title to expected moans and sounds of resignation. I’d then reveal the second page. It read, ‘hands up everyone who sat back in their seat, folded their arms or put their pens down when the lesson title was revealed’. Got ‘em. 

The subject has been studied with renewed vigour by scientists recently, and they’ve produced some complicated reasoning, but we don’t need to go into that depth to extract something useful. And we shouldn't. After all, an email, especially a marketing email, is non-verbal by definition.

Eyes can be used to gain an emotional response. When advertisers want to attract a viewer, they will enlarge a model’s pupils, mimicking the dilation that occurs naturally. When choosing an image to use in your next campaign, pick one with dilated pupils. You’ve probably done so unconsciously in any case. 

Eyes also direct. There’s a classic eye-tracking picture of a woman looking directly at the camera with, overdrawn on it, the way viewers’ eyes wander over it. This is not what we in email marketing want to happen. If the model is looking in a direction outside the picture, our eyes will be drawn there. If you’ve got the hook of your campaign in their eye-line, then that’s what the subscriber’s eyes will be drawn to.

One of the best ways to show what’s important in your email is by separation. Bland, pastel colours and ill-defined shapes tend not to gain a person’s attention. The bright image of your product, or the remarkably low price in a bold font, on the other hand, will stand out.

Different triggers work with different groups so test with segmented email marketing lists. Does a no-nonsense engineering type generate more dependability than someone in a suit? I don’t know, and if you don’t for your subscribers, you need to find out.