Email Marketing

The Importance of Hybrid Email Design: An Ultimate Guide

Team Pepper
Posted on 9/05/227 min read
The Importance of Hybrid Email Design: An Ultimate Guide
Hybrid email designs are beneficial in making a customizable email independent of media queries and adjusted according to the user’s display.

Table of Contents

● What is a Hybrid Email Design?

● Importance of a Hybrid Email Design

● Elements of a Hybrid Email Template

● Pros and Cons of Hybrid Email Design

Don’t you hate it when your email marketing campaign’s email shows up in different sizes and messes up the whole point? That is the major drawback of a simple email. It will break when you try to open it using devices with different screen proportions. To counter this, email marketers use hybrid mails. These emails automatically adjust themselves according to the user’s device and let them experience the entire email on full screen.

Now that you know what a hybrid mail is, let us focus on a hybrid email design and why it is essential to learn hybrid email template design. Below, you will find a complete guide on hybrid emails and hybrid email template elements to enhance your emailing strategies.

What is a Hybrid Email Design?

A hybrid email design is an advanced form of responsive email design that can work without media queries. Hybrid design is also known as Spongy. Hybrid email design coding includes a unique feature that allows the email to imitate water. Just as water takes the vessel’s shape, it’s kept in, the email shapes itself according to the screen it is displayed on.

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Importance of a Hybrid Email Design

Using a hybrid design for your email campaign is crucial because it gives you the freedom to manipulate emails to suit every user’s needs. Furthermore, a hybrid email can automatically optimize itself to display the email to its full potential according to the device used by the user. It makes the hybrid design very versatile.

In addition, the hybrid design is not dependent on media queries. Media queries usually tell the email to adjust to the appropriate size, but a hybrid mail can do it independently. Thus, it is a compelling design for email marketing.

Elements of a Hybrid Email Template

1. Important designing elements

Designing is an essential part of a hybrid mail as it is the first thing the user will notice. You must make your email look and feel better before anything else. Here are some tips to help you create a better visual impression in a hybrid design.

● If you are creating hybrid designs for your company, make sure the layout of all your emails is consistent and follows a similar color scheme. It will help you stand out from hundreds of other emails.

● A hybrid design does not include a complicated layout. Make sure your email is free of any complex design and cluttered information.

● It is always good to integrate social media buttons with your email. It helps you build credibility and trust. It will also enable users to find out more about you through your social handles, and you might gain a few more customers.

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● One thing you might want to refrain from is the use of background images and watermarks, as these sometimes get distorted for some users. If you aim to make your email future-proof using a hybrid email design, you must not include background images.

● Always include different display options in your hybrid design layout. It helps users to view the text with/without images.

● To make your email more attractive and give it a separate identity from the browser or app background and bright colors, you should use borders and lines to separate different sections of the hybrid mail.

2. Hybrid email template content elements

As always, content is the real king. Ensure that your content flows and your consumers connect with it when reading the email. With content, you must include some content-related options with your email. We have mentioned some content-related tips for your hybrid mail below.

● Write simply. Do not use abusive, challenging, harsh, complex, and overused words in your email.

● When creating the hybrid email template, include an “Unsubscribe” button. In addition, double-check that the link works.

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● Make sure you follow all email marketing guidelines while creating the content element of a hybrid email design.

● Your email should have the option to turn off tracking. Include a link in your newsletter to turn off tracking.

● Follow the labeling obligations with all contact data in your hybrid email.

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3. The CTA element

CTA or call-to-action is an essential element in your email. CTA should be your ultimate goal. The purpose of creating an email campaign and developing a hybrid email template is to get something out of it, and CTA is the path through which you will get what you want.

 

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Use the CTA in a sentence or a phrase strategically included in the email body.

Including the CTA link more than once is also not a bad idea, but overdoing it will make your email look spammy. Before including the CTA, make sure you build up to why you suggest that your reader clicks on it. If you wish to keep your email short, it would be better to explain the CTA using images and copywriting skills. We have mentioned some of the most liked CTA structures below.

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● Make sure that your CTA button and text have a pairing color, for example, blue-white. The pairing color scheme will make your button look more attractive.

● Avoid making your CTA button look like the one you see in spammy online ads. Spend some time and create a unique CTA button.

● It has been noticed that CTA buttons with rounded edges get more clicks than the other sharp shapes.

● Ensure your CTA is in both text and graphic form because sometimes graphics may get glitched due to poor connection or other technical problems.

● The size of the CTA button should be short and should be of only one line or a single word like “Read” or “To Know More, Click Here.”

4. The hide and view element in the hybrid email template

When creating a hybrid email design, we often use a TOC (table of contents), which helps users understand what to expect from the email content and helps them jump over the sections. However, this feature only works on desktops and specific browsers.

The TOC does not appear in mobile versions of a hybrid mail. That is why it is important to code your hybrid mail so that users can hide or view the table of contents anytime they want. This way, you can avoid making the email longer and boring and still provide a valuable asset to the readers.

5. The image element in a hybrid email design

An image is one of the essential elements of a hybrid mail because it provides visual support to your CTA and offers information within it. Below are a few tips for images in a hybrid email design.

● When programming your hybrid mail, do not define fixed image heights. Make sure that the width is defined, not the height, to fit into any screen you want.

● When choosing an image for your hybrid mail, make sure not to use your logo or any important text inside the picture, as the image reduces when viewed on devices with a small screen.

● When inserting your brand logo onto the hybrid email, do not use a round logo, as it gets pixelated due to its shape and size.

● In a hybrid email template, all image sizes remain unchanged, and thus it gets saved in just one size. When the requirement for smaller images arises, the viewpoint rescales the image to fit the screen.

● Do not use a background image for your hybrid mail, as sometimes these do not load on a mobile device. Moreover, do not put text in an image to create the whole email because if the picture doesn’t get processed, the email will be left blank.

Pros and Cons of Hybrid Email Design

Pros

● The hybrid mail can work on all devices connected to a display and the internet. Clients will have no problem viewing it on any device. Thus, it requires no maintenance once created.

● It enables you to customize your email and have better control over it.

● Hybrid emails can work without relying on media queries.

● The hybrid email template is future-proof such that it can be circulated without constant updating.

Cons

● Creating a hybrid email template requires advanced development knowledge.

● Creating a hybrid email template is very complex work.

● With more elements, the work becomes more tricky. Thus, it requires highly skilled professionals.

Parting Words

Overall, we can conclude that the importance of hybrid email designs is very high, and the features we get with hybrid mails are irreplaceable with any other type of email.

Although using a hybrid email template in email marketing has some drawbacks, the outcome rewards all hardships.

Key Takeaways

● A hybrid email design is superior to the traditional one (responsive).

● The hybrid email is not dependent on the instructions of the media queries.

● The hybrid email template is highly customizable and can suit every user’s needs.

● The hybrid email template is future-proof.

● Creating a hybrid email template with many elements is a very challenging task that usually requires a highly skilled coder and designer.

● Inserting the proper CTA in the right place is the key to success with hybrid mail.

FAQs

1.  Why should I use a hybrid email design?

There are many reasons to use a hybrid mail, and the number one is its adaptability feature, which is not dependent on media queries.

2. Does content matter in a hybrid mail?

Yes, just like any other type of email, a hybrid email also requires you to fill it with great content to make the user click on your CTA button. Remember, content is the real king in any digital marketing field.

3. What are the downsides of using a hybrid email template for your email marketing campaign?

There are no significant downsides to implementing a hybrid email design. However, creating a hybrid email template is sometimes complex, and you might need help from a professional to code your hybrid mail.

4. How to include a CTA in a hybrid email template?

To shift users’ focus from the rest of the surroundings to the CTA, you must put it in the middle of the email. Moreover, it would be best if you also built up a need or sense of urgency for the user to compel them to click on the CTA button.
Also, focus on inserting your CTA into the text in the shape of a button.

5. How to make your hybrid mail stand out from the rest?

A user might be using a desktop or a mobile phone; either way, it is full of colors, and it is very harmful to your business as the users will be distracted while reading your email. The best way to make your hybrid design stand out is by smartly utilizing borders and separating lines in your hybrid email template.
Make sure your email has proper boundaries separating different elements from one another. Try using a combination of colors that sits well together, like red and yellow, blue and white, etc.