Event Invitations Sent by Email

The invitation that went out as a poster

A business plans an evening: an open house, a workshop, a tasting, a customer night before the holidays. Someone designs a poster for the window, and the same poster goes out by email as one image.

Some email programs keep that image hidden until the reader allows it, so the message arrives looking blank. On a phone it shrinks until the date cannot be read.

The subject line says You're invited, and every detail that matters is inside the picture.

People who meant to come forget. People who would have come never learn when it was.

What the first lines must carry

Most email is opened on a phone, and the decision to act is made from the subject line and the first few lines.

• What it is, in plain words rather than a theme name.
• The day and date, written out: Thursday, November 3.
• The time, with a finishing time if there is one.
• The place, with the full address and a word on parking.
• The cost, even when the answer is free.
• How to reply, and by when.

The second is the one that causes the most trouble. A date without the day invites mistakes, and a day without the date leaves people unsure which week you mean.

Put the details in the subject line too

The subject line and the short preview beside it are often all a busy person reads before deciding.

Workshop: fermenting vegetables, Thursday Nov 3, 7 pm tells the reader whether to open it. You're invited tells them nothing and looks like every other promotion.

The preview is usually the first words of the message. If those are View this email in your browser, that is what people see. Make them the date and the place.

Text first, images second

Write every detail as real text, and use the poster, if at all, as a picture beneath it.

Text arrives whether images load or not. It can be read aloud by a screen reader, found by searching the inbox a week later, and copied into a calendar.

A simple single-column template reads properly on phones in almost every inbox now, so there is little reason left to send a picture of a poster instead.

A calendar file and one way to reply

An invitation competes with everything else in someone's week. Once it becomes a slot in their calendar, it stops competing.

A calendar file, a small attachment or link, adds the event to Outlook, Google Calendar or an iPhone in one tap. Many email services and booking tools can create one.

Check its time zone before sending. A tool left on Eastern time moves a 7 pm event by three hours.

Then give one way to reply: a button to a short form on your website, or a line asking people to reply to the email, provided someone reads the replies. Ask only what you need.

Send it to the right people

An invitation to an event your business runs is usually a commercial message under CASL, Canada's anti-spam law, so the list needs consent like any other promotion.

That means people who signed up to hear from you, and customers whose implied consent from a recent purchase or enquiry is still current. Not every address in the inbox, and not a list borrowed from someone else.

Every invitation also needs your business name, a mailing address and an unsubscribe link that works.

A worked example

A health food store on a small-town main street holds an evening workshop every few months: fermenting vegetables, packing school lunches, a talk from a local honey producer.

Last spring the invitation went out as the workshop poster, one image, to the store's newsletter list four days ahead. The subject line was the store's name and You're invited.

Some subscribers saw an empty message with a grey box; others could not read the date on a phone. Replies went to an unattended address.

On the night, the owner had no idea how many people to expect.

The next invitation went out two weeks ahead, with the date, time, address and price in the subject and first lines as text, a calendar link, and a button to a short form that capped the numbers.

Everyone on the form got a reminder two days before, and a note afterwards with the recipes. This time the owner set out chairs for the number on the form.

The reminder

People who reply yes three weeks ahead have often forgotten by the week itself. A reminder a day or two before turns an intention into an evening out.

Keep it short: the date, time and address again, parking or entrance details, what to bring, and how to cancel.

That last line matters more than it looks. A cancellation frees a seat for someone else; a no-show leaves an empty chair and a wasted handout.

Following up afterwards

The day after, send two different messages.

To those who came, a thank-you with whatever was promised: the slides, the recipes, the offer mentioned on the night, the date of the next one.

To those who signed up and did not come, a shorter note on what they missed and where to find it. No reproach; plans change.

Both go only to people on your list, with the same unsubscribe link as any other promotion.

The counter-case

Not every event needs all of this.

A drop-in sale with no limit on numbers needs no reply form, and a weekly event the regulars already know may need only a line in the newsletter.

A very small business inviting a dozen regulars can send a personal note, provided they have agreed to hear from it.

But any event that needs numbers, a booking or a particular evening in people's calendars should get the details in text, a calendar file, one way to reply and a reminder.

Before the next invitation

1. Write the day and date in the subject line.
2. Put the details in the first lines as text.
3. Add a calendar file and check its time zone.
4. Give one way to reply that reaches a person.
5. Send only to people who agreed to hear from you.
6. Remind those coming a day or two before.
7. Follow up with attendees and no-shows separately.

Step four is the one that turns an invitation into a plan. Without replies in one place, nobody knows how many chairs to set out, how much food to buy or whether the evening should go ahead.

Making sure the invitation reads properly on a phone is covered in Gmail finally displays mobile layouts properly.

Frequently asked questions

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.