Oftentimes I hear from people who are struggling to get people to attend their events. My number one piece of advice to get people to come to something is to invite them. I realize this isn’t a new idea, but I find that it is often overlooked or misunderstood.
Some things about invitations…
- Facebook can be a good tool. But sending a Facebook invitation isn’t the only way to invite someone. If you’re like me, you get a multitude of Facebook notifications, which makes it easy to miss an event invitation. Don’t rely solely on Facebook to invite people to an event.
- Personal is best. An invitation is a good excuse to reach out to an old friend or a contact that you haven’t talked to in awhile. It always feels good to be invited, even if you can’t attend. Don’t you enjoy being invited to things? It’s nice when someone reaches out personally. As simple as it sounds, personal invitations are often overlooked in light of other invitation formats yet tend to be extremely effective.
- Print and email are not dead. Believe it or not, some people do not use social media. Print and email can both be good tools for invitations. If you want to stand out, send something in the mail. Don’t assume that people don’t read their emails either. Lately, the best success that my clients have had with registrations has been through email invitations.