Why use an online invitation service

Signed, sealed, delivered? Why go to so much effort? With the advent of online invitations via email, invitation services are changing the face of event coordination as we know it. There’s no waiting for invitations to make their way through the postal system, or for RSVPs that get lost in the mail…

These days, invitation management services issue invitations online, and have all the tools to remind guests about the event, send updates, text messages, and more. The virtual invites can be customised and make RSVP easier than any other aspect of event planning. Guest list management has embraced the 21st century – you should too.

An online invitation service helps event managers or coordinators design an attractive digital invitation, customised to your event and company or client, and track RSVPs and invitee responses with almost no effort. With time being a luxury not many of us can claim to have, online event invitation and registration management is useful not just for event planners, but also for the guest who just doesn’t remember or have the time to officially RSVP.

Digital gets even more personal

The internet has changed so much of our lives and made many organisational and time management tasks easier. There’s absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t be the same for every aspect of your event management – right from the design and wording of your invitations through to tracking RSVPs and event reminders.

Responding to invitations should be easy, and software that both sends out invites and tracks RSVPs is a lifesaver in this regard – most people nowadays are attached to their smartphone, tablet, or computer, so it’s easy to catch their onscreen attention with an email, and makes the RSVP process as simple as it could be.

An online invitation management service is exactly what it sounds like – a facility that makes use of email to allow you to issue online invitations to an event. It’s also much more than just an invitation service – it’s a collection of tools that you can use to remind your guests about your event as well as send updates, text messages and manage your guest lists from one convenient, central location.

Why do you need an online invitation service?

In case you need convincing, here are our top five reasons to use an online invitation service…

1. Invitations simplified

Whether you’re a professional event manager or a corporate, you can make use of such a service to design an appealing digital invitation. You could use one of any number of attractive templates – they’re flexible enough to accommodate just about any design and can be personalised for each individual invitee.

Digital certainly doesn’t have to mean impersonal and an online invitation service can help you with every detail right down to the wording of your invitation. Should you choose to use your own designers, the service will simply integrate the guest registration process into your designs.

Benefits:

• Create beautiful invites instantly (with or without the help of a designer).
• Personalise your invites.
• You have the option to allow guests to invite other guests – this makes sure your invitation gets to the right people!

2. RSVPs made easy

Using an online invitation service ensures that your online invitations have a high delivery rate. Gone are the days of paying a fortune to have an invitation designed and printed, only to have it get lost in the mail or tossed in the bin, unopened.

Once the email invitations are delivered, the invitation service tracks invitation bounces and out-of-office notifications to show you the status of guests who haven’t yet accepted or declined your invitation. Those that accept your invitation are then instructed on how to register online for the event. It’s at this point that you can gather information (like dietary preferences) from your guests. This data is stored on a secure server and utilised to give you live reports with up-to-date information on guest numbers and any guest preferences gathered.

Benefits:

• Get a real-time view of all RSVP statuses.
• Get tangible figures for people opened/read your invitation – takes the guess-work out of following up on RSVPs.
• Gather guest preferences to ensure the smooth running of your event.

3. Automatic Reminders

You’ll find it extremely convenient that the system reminds your confirmed guests of the event via SMS the day before. Just in case the automatic iCal/ calendar integration and reminder that they received wasn’t enough…

Benefits:

• You won’t have to waste a second of your precious time reminding guests to RSVP or attend – everything can be done for you.
• Increased attendance at your event, less of a likelihood of guests ‘forgetting’ to RSVP or attend.

4. Ultimate list efficiency

An online invitation service caters for multiple guest RSVP lists which allow you to set up multiple lists for each event to enable customised communication for your VIPs, media and staff – making light work of staying on top of your inbox, and ensuring that important emails never go unnoticed.

An online invitation service consists of a sophisticated system that will identify duplicates in your guest lists. This means that none of your guests will be annoyed by duplicate information. This process of data cleansing happens automatically, every time you upload a list. For your convenience, guest information is uploaded from and downloaded to a spreadsheet.

The right online invitation service can also help you to ensure that your guest lists are accurate, comprehensive, and useful. When it comes to successful event planning, the importance of a detailed guest list cannot be overstated.

Benefits:

• You won’t miss any important communications about your event.
• Your guest list will be useful, detailed and usable for future events.

5. Complete integration Event invitations and guest list management isn’t something that should be managed in isolation, or using separate services. For the ultimate in convenience, the right event management software will maximise the success of your event by managing email invitations as well as event registration. A

n email invitation service is perfectly complemented by an event registration facility and software that handles everything for you, allowing you to spend less time managing guest lists and more time managing the event itself.

Benefits:

• All the organisational assistance you need, all in one place.
• Easy to use tools that makes your online invitation and registration process run smoothly. If these top 5 reasons caught your eye, then Contact The Professional RSVP Agency today to find out more about how you can make an online invitation service work for you.