The pandemic may have shifted meeting to remote channels in 2020, however, organizing and inviting people virtual events still requires time and careful planning if it is going to be successful.
Based on data from Markletic, 56 percent of marketers say it takes 2-4 weeks to organize a virtual event properly. Likewise, 76 percent of businesses agree that email is the most effective virtual event invitation engagement tool. Let’s discuss how you can write the perfect invitation email for your virtual event to drive more registrations in 2021.
1. Open with an Engaging Subject Line
Your subject line matters considerably. It’s very easy to end up in your recipients’ spam folder without properly writing the subject line. In fact, Small Business Trends, estimates that almost half, 47 percent of recipients, judge whether to open the email based on the subject line alone. Use the subject line to write the name of your event, its date and the catchphrase or main topic you will tackle. A compelling opening subject line will ensure that more people open your email and read through the invitation copy you’ve written.
2. Adopt a Personalized Tone of Voice
Personalization is a major component of modern email marketing. Treat people you want to invite to your virtual event as your equals. As such, adopt personal pronouns by default and allow your personality to shine through the writing.
The following virtual event invitation email by Compete is a good example of how you can balance professionalism and personalization. This is especially valid if you are inviting B2B contacts with whom you’ve worked extensively before—there’s no need for overly formal writing.
3. Address the Most Pressing Points
There are some unspoken rules about invitation emails. If you want someone to attend your virtual event, the first thing they will probably ask is: “when is it taking place?” The invitation email below by Litmus offers a good example of how you can write all the necessary information for your virtual event to attract attendees.
The email successfully answered the questions of “when, why, who and where” in just a few sentences. If you have trouble editing down a long email into cohesive writing, copywriting services are available for your convenience. Aim to answer as many pressing questions as possible in as few sentences as you can to drive engagement.
4. Attach the Virtual Event’s Agenda
In the case of multi-day conferences and seminars, your recipients will likely want to know more about the agenda before signing up. Attaching your virtual event’s schedule in the form of a PDF or an external link allows recipients to follow for more information.
Use your event’s agenda to outline what the event will consist of, who the speakers are, and what topics will be covered. The program can be as simple as a spreadsheet or a custom-made table with original graphics—that’s up to you and your time and resources.
5. Make it Easy for Attendees to Check-In/Out
Even though your event is virtual, some people may miscalculate their free time and decide to opt out of attending the event entirely. Likewise, some people may want to join multiple days or scale back on how much they’ll visit.
The email below by Monday.com is a great example of how you can allow people to opt in and out of attending your virtual event. Allowing attendees to easily modify their sign-up develops good will. Bonus: you will have up-to-date information on how many attendees will actually attend.
6. Don’t Overstay Your Welcome
While you may want to include every bit of information about your virtual event, brand and speakers in the email, try not to do that. Overly long emails with entire paragraphs of text will often go over people’s heads, and you will see less engagement as a result. Because many people use smartphones and tablets to read emails, rather than traditional computer screens, less is more.
Keep your email’s length under control and separate every 1-2 sentences into a new paragraph for clarity. Likewise, be mindful of how many images and graphics you include as they might interfere with the flow of reading. Instead of adding all the available information on your virtual event in the email, offer an external link or PDF with more detailed info.
To Summarize
The email invitations you send out will make or break the event, so be careful of how you write them. If you plan on hosting multiple virtual events in the future, use virtual event metrics from previous email campaigns to fix future invitations. Before long, you will have found your method of writing invitation emails for virtual events with good attendance rates as a result.
Jessica Fender is a copywriter and blogger at GetGoodGrade with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services.
