E mail performs an necessary function within the success of any occasion. Whether or not it’s an off-the-cuff completely happy hour or a hybrid seminar, occasion organizers can use their occasion invitation e mail to promote out their gathering. However how do you write an occasion invitation e mail that converts? Whether or not you’re working in your first marketing campaign or your fiftieth, we’ve bought some professional recommendation and concepts to spark your creativeness.
On this publish, we’ll break down our tried-and-true steps for writing an occasion invitation e mail that leads will reply to. We’ll additionally break down why e mail is the primary channel for RSVPs, share recommendation from the professional interviews we’ve curated, and description the related e mail information. Let’s dive in!
Why e mail is essential for occasion registration and planning success
Do you know that 76% of entrepreneurs agree e mail is “the one handiest solution to drive registrations”? In a survey carried out by Markletics, 3851 respondents named e mail as their most important advertising and marketing channel for occasions.
This is smart. With out e mail, we’d be restricted to sending occasion invites over SMS, social media, and common mail. Whereas all of those channels mixed can assist a profitable occasion marketing campaign, e mail nonetheless stays the most effective hub for sending invites.
Not solely is e mail simpler to ship and obtain, it’s additionally straightforward to seize consumer information. Entrepreneurs can use this info to raised perceive their viewers, monitor and enhance engagement, and create evidence-based gross sales funnels.
Having this evaluation at your fingertips makes it less complicated to determine what’s or isn’t working together with your occasion technique. You possibly can then replace your advertising and marketing plans accordingly utilizing this real-time suggestions… all due to e mail.
Methods to write an occasion invitation e mail
You possibly can observe these primary steps to writing your occasion invitation e mail. Whether or not it’ll stand alone or kick off a sequence, we advocate taking this strategy.
Step 1: Collect samples
Begin by grabbing a mixture of different occasion invites despatched out by opponents or manufacturers in your area of interest which have hosted comparable occasions. Examine and distinction what you want or dislike about each to additional develop your style and the model of the occasion. Make a listing of components that encourage you as you progress on to the subsequent part.
Step 2: Listing key particulars
Reply every of the next questions:
- What’s your aim for the occasion?
- Who’s the occasion for?
- What are the advantages of attending your occasion?
- What info will audiences must know earlier than signing up?
Step 3: Select the format and design
Some entrepreneurs choose to work on the copy first and design second, however we advocate beginning with the design. It’s simpler to see how a lot area you actually need to work with, so that you’ll know the way a lot copy you possibly can accommodate. Contemplate how your design will look on completely different sized screens. Ensure that no matter you write will match into the design in a means that’s straightforward to learn and aesthetically pleasing.
Step 4: Draft the copy
Your e mail copy ought to serve one clear objective: be persuasive. The aim of the e-mail will doubtless be to enroll or purchase a ticket for the occasion. If that’s the case, make sure that your occasion invitation e mail name to motion displays that.
To be persuasive, spotlight one or two of essentially the most thrilling components of your occasion inside this primary e mail. This may be your spectacular visitor audio system, lovely location, or one-of-a-kind workshops. No matter it’s, boil your message down to those key factors and deal with them whereas writing.
Step 5: Have a number of choices
It’s possible you’ll discover that your first three e mail drafts weren’t fairly proper. Ensure you preserve every model although. You possibly can simply Frankenstein the entire finest elements of your different drafts right into a single e mail you’re happy with.
Use these professional tricks to write a killer occasion invitation e mail that really will get engagement
Make your occasion invitation e mail stand out with these finest practices, distinctive concepts, and real-life examples. We interviewed consultants and dug deep into analysis to compile this record of actionable steps that may take your advertising and marketing to the subsequent stage. Use a number of of the next ideas to extend your open price, hook recipients, and finally promote extra occasion tickets.
- Put necessary particulars above the fold
“Emails selling occasions ought to typically be temporary,” says Kavin Patel, the Founder and CEO of Convrrt. His platform gives companies e mail advertising and marketing instruments, amongst many others. In an e mail to Social Tables, Patel went on to say that “firstly of the e-mail, record an important particulars about your occasion, such because the date, the venue, and a hyperlink to buy tickets.”
Conserving the viewer’s consideration above the fold is essential. “The less scrolls your reader must make to search out the data they want are higher,” advises Patel. Additionally, don’t overlook to match your e mail topic strains with the content material of the e-mail itself so leads know what to anticipate when opening the message.
- Time it proper
A joint survey of over 400 occasion entrepreneurs carried out by Eventbrite and e mail advertising and marketing software program Emma discovered that the instances and dates these professionals despatched out their occasion invites significantly varies. However there are some patterns.
Some, 27%, took the early chicken will get the worm route by beginning their occasion invitation e mail sequences two to a few months prematurely of the occasion. One other 26% waited till a month earlier than. And nonetheless one other 14% waited till about two weeks out.
Our takeaway? All issues being equal, you actually can ship your first occasion invitation e mail anyplace from three months to 2 weeks out with out damaging penalties. Any roughly time than which may imply risking low attendance numbers.
This may be as a result of sending your first invitation to this point prematurely makes it simpler to overlook in regards to the occasion completely. And should you wait to ship it lower than 14 days earlier than the occasion, there’s a superb likelihood a few of your viewers will have already got plans for the time and date.
One other attention-grabbing takeaway from this survey: the vast majority of occasion entrepreneurs most well-liked to ship their first occasion invitation e mail on Tuesday afternoons. Whereas this may increasingly not imply this time and date mixture is finest on your viewers, as Rachel Grate, a content material strategist and editor at Eventbrite reminds us, it’s a superb place to start out.
Earlier than scheduling the message for two:00 pm on a Tuesday, take into account the next:
- Whether or not or not they’ve interacted together with your emails on this identical time of day up to now (trace: have a look at your earlier information)
- Your audience’s private {and professional} habits
- Any huge occasions which may be occurring in your audience’s business or nation
- What time zone they’re situated in
- Phase audiences
Social Tables additionally spoke to Cicinia’s Chief Digital Officer Caitlyn Parish. Having labored within the bridal business for a few years as each an occasion planner and a marketer, Parish is aware of a factor or two about writing occasion invitation emails for her purchasers and her personal enterprise.
“Opposite to the overall tip of sending mass emails to prospects immediately,” says Parish, “you will need to categorize audiences that will probably be reached to acknowledge their various diploma of inclination and expectations towards the forthcoming occasion.”
In different phrases, take into account who will really be studying your occasion invitation e mail. Are there targets completely different from different elements of your viewers? Will they reply to the identical language? What about the identical CTAs? Contemplate these questions earlier than you hit “ship”.
And don’t overlook to personalize your topic strains by immediately addressing the recipient by identify.
- Select the fitting tone
Parish additionally stated that it’s necessary to reconcile each the tone and objective of your e mail. If the occasion is formal, use formal language. However as Parish factors out, “e mail invites needn’t be extremely formal always, so make sure that to incorporate an off-the-cuff tone if acceptable.”
For instance, the language you utilize to write down an occasion invitation e mail for a kid’s birthday celebration will probably be completely different from the language you utilize for a company gala.
- Add some bells and whistles
Occasion invitation emails with a number of embedded pictures, video hyperlinks, GIFs, and particular gives are a profitable mixture in our books. Listed here are some artistic methods to make use of multimedia options in your occasion invitation e mail to create higher engagement:
- Create occasion speaker playing cards with their bios and headshots
- Report a customized occasion invitation video immediately addressing the recipient on a private stage
- Add some informal humor to your occasion invitation e mail with GIFs that reference popular culture
- Place a ticketing countdown clock within the e mail physique so as to add a way of urgency to your registration deadline
- Insert Tweetable occasion invites visitors can use to see who else of their community goes
- Embrace a clip of all of the enjoyable everybody had ultimately 12 months’s occasion
As you possibly can see, these additions are participating, entertaining, and persuasive in any occasion invitation e mail. The sky’s the restrict with this! Nevertheless we do advocate preserving your design and messaging streamlined, in order that the occasion invitation is as straightforward to learn as doable.
- Comply with etiquette guidelines
Occasion invitation etiquette was created for handwritten letters. However the classes we study from this broadly accepted code of conduct applies to email correspondence, too. The most important etiquette rule occasion entrepreneurs ought to take note of? Answering questions your viewers is more likely to have.
This contains, however isn’t restricted to:
- Costume codes
- Parking directions, and a map if the venue is difficult to search out
- Guidelines on plus ones
- A quick synopsis of meals and beverage everybody can count on plus the place to submit allergy or dietary restriction info
- Occasion-specific info they might not have thought to ask about (suppose bug spray, umbrellas leases, and many others.)
- Use a template
Kate Zhang is the founding father of Kate Backdrop, an organization that gives photograph backdrops for occasions. Right here is an occasion invitation e mail template she’s efficiently despatched to her VIP prospects:
“Hey,
You might be cordially invited to attend our upcoming occasion (insert occasion identify right here). This thrilling gathering will probably be happening on (insert date and time right here), and we might love so that you can be part of us.
The aim of this occasion is to (insert occasion objective right here), and we predict you’ll be a worthwhile addition to the dialog. This will probably be an amazing alternative to community with like-minded people, and we hope you’ll reap the benefits of this opportunity to attach with others in your area.
If you’re involved in attending, RSVP by (insert date right here). We look ahead to seeing you there!
Finest,
(Your identify)”
As you possibly can see, such a occasion invitation e mail is brief and candy whereas additionally providing a number of key elements:
- Occasion particulars
- A brief clarification of the occasion aim
- What visitors can get out of it
- Why she has particularly invited this individual
- How and when to observe up by
All although it’s fairly easy, the straightforwardness of this message supplies simply the right combination of knowledge with out being overwhelming.
We advocate this template for emails despatched on to people reasonably than a whole record. You possibly can even use this instance as a leaping off level and add in different components afterward.
Able to get occasion goers enthusiastic about your subsequent gathering?
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