Sending invitations for a corporate event: how to keep track

Sending invitations for a corporate event is the process of personally contacting invitees with a link to the event website, allowing them to register directly while giving the organizer visibility into who has responded.

The invitation is the first moment when your invitees become aware of your event. Yet at many organizations, this moment gets lost in a separate mailing sent from a marketing tool, after which no one knows exactly who has responded. What you want is an invitation that leads directly to registration, so every response ends up in one place. Activo has been handling this for corporate events and conferences since 1997.

An invitation is not a mailing, but the start of your registration process

With a standalone mailing, the process ends when the message is sent. With an invitation linked to your registration process, that is where it begins. The invitee clicks through to the event website, registers, selects a session if necessary and receives a confirmation. On the other side, you can see exactly who has responded, who has declined and who has not yet responded.

You notice this difference especially at events with multiple target groups. Customers, employees, speakers and partners each receive their own invitation with their own route through the form. Activo links the invitation to the event registration system, so every response automatically ends up in the same participant overview.

Personal invitations work better than a general call

An invitation that includes the invitee's name reads differently from a general call to action. More importantly, a personal invitation is traceable. You know who opened it, who clicked through and who ultimately registered. This makes follow-up concrete rather than based on estimates.

Activo handles the complete invitation process: save the date, invitation, reminder, confirmation with e-ticket and a final mailing shortly before the event. For organizations such as ASML, Rijkswaterstaat and the Dutch Judiciary, this process has been running this way for years. In our knowledge base, you can read more about how the process continues from invitation to badge.

What to include in the invitation itself

Keep the invitation short. At this point, the invitee only needs to know three things: what the event is about, when it takes place and what is expected of them. The rest belongs on the event website, not in the email.

• Date, time and location, with an add-to-calendar button so the date is immediately saved
• One clear action: register via the event website
• The reason for the event in two or three sentences
• A way for invitees to get in touch if they have a question

The registration form behind that button determines how many people actually complete their registration. Only ask for the information you need; you can read which fields to include in the article about which data to request for event registration.

Keeping track after the invitation has been sent

After the invitation is sent, the participant list changes every day. Registrations come in, people cancel, and a colleague asks whether there is still space. In one overview, you can see the current status: registered, cancelled and no response yet. Based on this, you can decide who should receive a reminder and who does not need one.

This overview is also what you need when reporting back to your own client or stakeholder. Instead of an export from three different systems, you can show one up-to-date list right up until the day before the event.

Frequently asked questions about invitations for a corporate event