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How to Write an Effective Business Event Invitation Email

Getting people interested in your events is your job as an event organizer. If you can’t get enough people interested, you’ll have trouble getting follow-up traffic to your events – which also means you won’t make much money either. The most important step of attracting attendees to your event is to send out high quality event invitation emails. A quality email makes it clear why the event is worth going to. It makes it clear that your business is trustworthy and will also encourage readers to take action and sign up for your event. A good email is both convincing and a true work of art.

Here are tips to create a quality invitation email to get those registration targets.

Immediately Create Interest with a Snappy Subject Line

The subject line is the most important part of your event invitation letter. If the email subject line isn’t interesting enough, the receiver will never read what you have to say. Keep it short, make it clear what the email is about, and add an interesting fact or bit of information that makes the receiver want to open the email.

Consider adding the phrase “you’re invited” into the subject line. Add that personal touch and they will be more likely to check your invitations. Don’t stop there.

  • Personalize your subject line
  • Include a short sentence that clearly states what your event is
  • Share that it’s an invite-only event (only if it really is)

Include bits of fascinating information and you’ll have a great opener for your invitation email to your business event.

Make the Reason for Your Event Clear Early on

Business owners are busy professionals and they hate wasting time. Some will be happy to read more about your event sometimes, but most will skim over your email when they realize there is no point to your event, or when the point is not made clearly.

It’s your job to articulate the point of your event as early on in the email as possible. Hint at the benefits in the subject line and then elaborate within the first sentence of your email.

Explain the value proposition of your event and how it benefits the recipient. Skip this and you won’t get a good response. Announce a benefit early on and reinforce that benefit with a couple of follow up sentences to support your information.

Talk up the Venue Location

Unless you are hosting your event at a really drabby location, talk up your venue in the invitation letter for your corporate event or meetup. List the main highlights of your location and you’ll likely encourage people to attend based on the merits of the location alone.

Mention the Highlights of Entertainment

If you’re having a special speaker at the event, make that known immediately and do it in a bold way. If you’ll be having a delicious 5-course dinner to cap off the evening, highlight the meal itself and how great it’s going to be. You are selling your event in your email, so it’s up to you to sell it as effectively as you can. If that means using every single tool you have in your invitation for your business event – do it.

Make it Official with a Logo or Letterhead

There’s nothing that says official like a company logo and a letterhead. Be sure to add one or both to your email. Always include your contact information in your emails to show that you are sending out a legitimate invitation. Your real details and company logo will reassure business owners that they can trust you. Sure, not everyone is going to want to go to your event, but everyone that reads your company event invitation will at least know that you are the real deal.

Include all the Details

When you email invitations for corporate events, you will want to spend most of your email explaining the benefits of your event. However, don’t forget to include the basic event details so that interested people can follow up and actually attend. Explain how to sign up, give the time and the location of the event. Make your email the only needed platform to convert a reader into an attendee.

It’s also a good idea to include an event registration website with both a form and contact details for registrants to reach out for support. Some business owners don’t want to fill out forms and would rather speak to you over the phone. Make this option available to increase the signups that you get – but make sure it’s not the only option.

Toss in a Picture

There’s nothing that sells an event better than a picture, especially if you’re hosting it at a photogenic location. Include at least one picture to the event that really shows off why it’s special and you’ll be amazed at how much of a difference it makes. You’ll be showing people exactly why they should go to the event, and you won’t have to try nearly as hard to convince people to consider to come after seeing your image.

End with a Powerful Call to Action

Before the end of your invitation for the corporate event, you need a call to action that will turn readers into registrants. “Click here to secure your place in XX Event now!” is a simple and yet effective example of a call to action. It’s the spark that encourages readers to sign up immediately.

A particularly effective approach is to include a call to action in the middle of your email invitation after listing a few key benefits of the event. Then, include another one near the end of the email. It’s best to encourage action as soon as possible to readers that don’t want to waste their time, and yet also offer more details for readers that take more time to consider before deciding to go. Two or three calls to action provide opportunities for both types of readers to register.

Rely on Business Event Invitations Templates

I strongly recommend against copying an invitation template entirely. but getting inspiration from them is a good idea. Look over a sample event invitation letter to get an idea of the elements you like – and what you don’t like. After reading over a few of them, you’ll understand which elements work. Write up pieces of your email as you look at samples and then figure out how to put it all together and create the best business event invitation email that you can.

It’s not too difficult to find a sample of an invitation letter to participate in an event, but you won’t find quality ones right away. Take your time to look through business event invitation templates. Only decide after looking through at least 5 to 10 of them so you know you’ve at least sampled a few options out there.

Get Third Party Opinions

The final step in drawing up an event email invitation is to show it to colleagues, event professionals – maybe even friends and family to get their opinions. It’s best to find out how other people see your invitation before you send it out to all your potential attendees. They’ll find errors that you make and you’ll get helpful tips on  improving the invitation. By showing off your email and getting opinions, you’ll increase your success almost every single time. It only takes a day or two to get feedback, and since it’s a vital step, don’t skip it!

Learn and Improve

Keep track of every invitation email that you send out and the responses that you get from it. Consider using email tracking services to track your open rate and the percentage of people that react to your email in a positive way. Use all this statistics to improve your future invitations and get even better results the next time.

 Now that you know what goes into a good event invitation email, go ahead and write one up. Don’t rush the process, but don’t take too long either. It doesn’t need to be perfect, and it won’t be. Draw one up and share it with people to get opinions on ways to enhance your invitation. Turn it into the convincing document that gets you the results you want. Iterate your email based on constructive feedback and send out that attendee-converting digital message!

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