Infographic: How To Woo Your Clients Using Email Invitations This Valentine’s Day
It’s almost that time of year again – the one day where, thanks to St Valentine, you can declare your amorous intentions to a potential love interest in the hope that they’ll share your feelings. Just as you would like to increase the chance of your email invitation being received and responded to by your Valentine, brands share a similar goal when it comes to getting their guests to respond to email invitations on a daily basis.
Ensure your email invitations are immediately identifiable.
Your recipients should be able to instantly recognise two things: 1 – who their email invitation is from, and 2 – what kind of event they’ve been invited to. If you were emailing a potential Valentine about joining you on a date, you’d want them to know that the invitation came from you and that it (hopefully) elicited some sort of excitement on their part.
Never send from a “no-reply” address – it looks like spam, and makes the recipient wary of any communication they receive from you. Your address should clearly show that your invitation comes from your brand, for example: “[email protected]” Use enticing phrases in the subject line, like: “Come and drive the new BMW” instead of “BMW product launch”, or “Join us in toasting to the future of motoring” instead of “Launch drinks” – however you decide to word your subject line, think about whether it sounds like something you’d want to be part of or not. If it isn’t – you need to relook at your copy.
Once you’ve convinced people to open your email invitation, there are a few things that will go a long way in ensuring that your event is well-attended.
Make sure that your email invitations can be easily viewed online.
Most email companies have a standard practice of blocking emails that contain images, so if you don’t want to lose out on an affirmative RSVP, make sure that you include a way for your recipient to click through to an online version. Make the process as user-friendly and simple as possible – if someone is frustrated, they won’t view the email invitation, so include a link to an online version at the top of your email invitation.
Bear in mind that the object of your affection may receive more than one Valentine, and use this as impetus to make yours stand out by ensuring it’s easy to view.
Put your most important content in the top left corner.
When viewing content online, the first place that we direct our attention to is the top, left corner of the screen. This is something event planners should keep in mind when creating a brief for the design of your email invitations. Your most prudent information (who, what, when, where, why) should be placed here so that anyone viewing your email invite can instantly see what the invite is about.
The technical elements of your email invitations need to be correctly implemented.
Have a look at the elements referred to in the infographic under the sections entitled: “email layout” and “visual impact” in order to get an idea of the minimal technical requirements that an email invitation should fulfil. Fear not though – if you’re outsourcing the design and building of your email invitations, your supplier should (hopefully) be up to speed on the necessary technical aspects involved.
The objective of most email invitations is to get someone to confirm if they will attend or not. With this in mind, your call to action should be bright, bold and easily understood. Lastly, it should be easy for guests to RSVP – a simple: “Yes I am attending” and “No I am not attending” will suffice.
Design your online invitations strategically.
Including a lengthy sonnet in your email invitation to a potential Valentine may seem like a nice touch, but most people don’t have the time to wade through superfluous text. Having to wade through a text-heavy invite will result in your email invitation being ignored.
Always use copy sparingly – you should aim to convey the essence of your event in a few, short sentences. Simplify the text by using headers and sub-headers. Don’t forget that not everyone will be able to see your images – so any pictures or graphics you use should play a supporting role to the copy – and won’t render the invitation redundant should your recipient not be able to view them.
It’s highly unlikely that you’d want other people to join in on your romantic Valentine’s date for two, but, each to their own, so if you’re holding an open event and you want other people other than those you invited to attend, don’t forget to include social sharing ability in your email.
You’re also required (by law), to include an “unsubscribe” option. Much like unrequited love, if someone isn’t interested in what you have to offer, the best thing to do is move on to the next prospect.
Make your online invitations mobile-friendly.
These days, most people read their email on their mobile phones, so make sure that your email is optimised for mobile viewing, or failing that, give people the option to view your invitation online (a link should be included right at the top of your email invite for ease of use). The RSVP Agency has learnt these “best practices” from years and years of experience – you can check out some of our email invites here.
Quick Response (QR) codes have boomed in the last decade. Although the technology was invented back in 1994 to keep track of car parts during the manufacture of vehicles in Japan, QR codes have had to bide their time before really taking off outside the car industry. The current climate of smartphones, apps and a hunger for automation has created the perfect environment for QR codes to flourish in. The events industry is a perfect example of where QR codes can be used to create the smoother running of events that give attendees a more personalised experience.