Top-Notch Event Invitation Email Trends for Corporate Events

Getting people to come to your event is always a challenge, especially when you’re trying to attract busy and coveted industry leaders who have a full schedule and are extremely picky.

However, no matter how hard a person may be to reach, a well-crafted and persuasive email can go a long way in generating interest in your corporate event and quickly boosting attendance.

That’s why corporate event management professionals are always looking for ways to tweak and improve their email invitations, as, with the right approach, they can become the single most powerful tool that can quickly fill the seats of any event.

But what are some of the biggest email invitation trends that have been on the rise in the past few years?

Let’s explore below.

Personalise It

Not too long ago, sending out emails in bulk was an approach used by many event planning services providers, as it was simpler, easier, and took much less time.

However, while it may be easier to send out a bulk email to a long list of potential attendees, that will be all but useless if the email fails to persuade any of them.

That’s why, if you want to achieve good results, you will have to spend time and personalise the emails so that they resonate with each recipient, emphasising points that matter to them individually.

Now, the fact that email invitations need to be personalised doesn’t mean that you have to craft each one from scratch – you can still use the basic framework, personalising the names, company names, as well as parts of the email to make it seem more authentic.

But at the same time, adding those little details to your emails will make a huge difference, showing the recipient that you are talking to them individually, and not a bulk list of potential attendees that you want to invite.

Today, you can even personalise your emails based on segmented lists or past behaviours, which can add another level to your email invitation campaigns and significantly improve your open rates in the process.

Make Yourself Recognisable

Another crucial aspect of generating a positive response from email invitations is making sure that your email gets delivered and captures attention.

To achieve that, you need to send your inquiries from an email address that will seem reliable, both to the email service provider and the recipient.

After all, it won’t matter how compelling your email is if Gmail decides that your email is spam and should be filtered. At the same time, if you send emails from a personal email that isn’t associated with the company that you represent, the person that you’re trying to reach might not even consider opening it and send it straight to the trash folder.

But how can you make your email contacts more trustworthy?

Well, since you’re representing a company, it only makes sense that your emails should clearly show who is reaching out.

If you represent company ABC and are organising the annual XYZ business event, make this information visible in the “From” section of the email, or at least in the subject line.

Also, introduce yourself immediately and state the reason for reaching out – if you want to be taken seriously by corporate prospects, you must be professional and to-the-point in all of your communications.

Encourage Acting Now

Most people are naturally inclined to postpone non-urgent decisions as far away into the future as possible.

So even if the person you’re reaching out to might be interested in your event, he is likely to postpone making a decision or even sending back a reply to sometime in the future, which might as well mean never.

That’s why it’s absolutely crucial to make your email invitations as action-driven as possible, clearly stating the next steps that the recipient should take, and why.

A good way to encourage people to act more swiftly is to provide an incentive for responding right now – many successful corporate event management professionals offer various early-bird deals, as well as exclusive bonuses, to those that make a decision and commit to the event right now.

But even if you decide against running a special offer, even clearly laying out the next steps can often be enough to make a difference in the number of people that end up responding.

Track Your Results

In the last few years, performance metrics tracking has taken another huge leap forward, now offering precise and incredibly in-depth data about everything that happens after you hit that send button.

Because of that, today’s event planners don’t have to be in the dark about how effective different aspects of their email invitations are, and can instead see objective data that they can look at and analyse.

If you use an email services provider that offers tracking and analytics, you can gain invaluable insights about what your audience responds to best, the most effective timing opportunities for sending out the emails, as well as the habits and preferences of your audience.

In the end, all of the insights that you gain will serve in providing you with an upper hand against other events, which is crucial in a time when the competition is as fierce as ever before.

Experiment with Eye-Catching Design

In the business world, a straightforward email is usually seen as the most effective way to convey information and make an argument for attending an event.

However, even though that may be true, when you need to stand out, experimenting with different approaches isn’t always a bad idea.

In some instances, you may find that a custom-designed e-invite will be much more effective at capturing attention and standing out from dozens of emails in your prospect’s inbox.

For one thing, customised design is naturally eye-catching and will allow you to emphasise the most critical parts of your message such as the date, the purpose of the event, and why it should matter to the recipient of the email.

The design can even showcase your brand identity and help strengthen your appeal in the eyes of your audience, having a similar impact as a physical invitation but without the hassle of printing and mailing it.