How to Send an Evite Through Text Message and Increase Event Attendance

Did you know that text messaging is one of the most effective methods for increasing event attendance?

SMS is an effective tool for online invitations from Evite, Greenvelope, Punchbowl, or any paperless invitation company. From small gatherings to large conferences, many industry-leading businesses and organizations have already made a significant investment in SMS.

• Brian’s Place Restaurant used our SMS messaging software to blast out an online invitation to alert their customers of live music events hosted at its location. 
• Viking Cooking School was able to fill empty class seats with an event announcement SMS that included a link to purchase a seat.
• Students for the National Equality used text messaging to promote its event, collect RSVPs, and communicate with attendees.

Don’t miss out on the benefits that SMS messaging can bring to your events. Stick with us, and we'll guide you through the process of signing up for a software provider and sending your first online invites — one step at a time.

How to Send a Digital Invitation Through Text Message

SMS is a smart choice for events. 68% of the US population owns a smartphone, and with an open rate of 98%, a majority of your important event notifications will be read. 

Creating an event and sending your first digital invitation doesn’t have to be complicated. Just follow this step-by-step guide to get started today.

1. Select a Text Messaging Partner

With countless options to choose from, finding the right text messaging partner can be difficult. To narrow down your selection, ask each provider the following: 

Question #1: How easy is it to use?

Forking out a large wad of cash on software with all the bells and whistles might seem like a good idea – but is it really? All those fancy features can be great if you know how to use them, but you need to prioritize the software that has a user-friendly interface and easy-to-use tools.

Question #2: What features are included?

When comparing your options, find the features that your business or organizations will benefit from the most.  

EZ Texting offers a full range of features that will help you craft successful campaigns and keep your subscribers engaged. Some of our most popular features include personalization, drip campaigns, and automation.

Personalization: Connect with your subscribers on a more personal level by sending messages that use their name instead of a generic greeting. Our software will automatically plug in their first and last name for you. This gives you the ability to send the same message to your whole list and still have that personal touch your customers crave.

Drip Campaigns: Drip campaigns are perfect for creating a welcome series for new subscribers. You can create however many messages you want and customize when they are sent with ease.

Automation: Send recurring messages for reminders or sales calls by automating your messages. You can send them out daily, weekly, or monthly and never have to touch it again. EZ Texting’s software will take care of the hard work for you.

Question #3: What’s our return on investment? 

When investing your time, resources, and capital into a new solution, make sure you understand exactly what you’re getting. 

Always read the fine print. In some cases, the rates for MMS and SMS messages may differ. In this instance, you could be hit with additional fees. 

Choose a software provider that has a simple and transparent pricing schedule. EZ Texting offers easy to understand pricing and a free trial, so you can test out the software before you invest.

Question #4: Do they offer customer support? 

There’s nothing worse than being left on hold when trying to get in touch with customer service. It’s incredibly frustrating, and frankly, a serious waste of your time. 

We understand that the success of our business rests on the success of yours, so we have trained our support staff to use the software and keep them up to date on text marketing best practices to help you achieve the best possible results. 

Our customer support team is here to help you every step of the way. Check out our help forum or give us a call at (855) 646-0414 to get the guidance you need now.

2. Start Your Free Trial

Set up an account with your chosen software provider before moving on to the next step. A free trial gives you the ability to test the software and make sure that it’s going to work for you. You can make sure the interface is intuitive, the features are what you need, and that you can upload your customer lists easily.

If you start your free trial with EZ Texting, you will be able to send your first 100 messages for free! Your trial period will also allow you to follow along with the remaining steps in this article and implement your online invitations without incurring any additional costs.

Sign up now and complete the additional steps to prepare your first online invitation to be sent.

3. Upload Contacts

Uploading contacts is super simple with EZ Texting. You can upload a mass list, create a new contact, import contacts by copy and paste, or import CSV, XLS, or XLSX files. 

You can even manually opt a contact out of your list if you ever needed to. For example, if you can remove an outdated email address for one of your contacts. 

Get started adding your contacts now using the detailed instructions on our Contacts - Basics page.

4. Prepare Your Event Details

Have the details of your event ready and get started crafting your message with compelling reasons for your subscribers to attend. 

You should create an event page that provides details and that you can link to in your message to give your subscribers more information. A good event detail page should include information such as:

• The event name and description
• The event date and time
• The event location and any relevant tips for parking
• How to RSVP or purchase a ticket
• Who to contact with questions

5. Send Your Online Invitation and Manage RSVPs

Once you have created your event, you are ready to share it with your subscribers. Send them a brief message that will entice them to click the URL to your event page or RSVP. 

Pro Tip: Integrating Eventbrite with your EZ Texting account will allow you to sync up your contact list and manage your RSVPs. 

Your attendees can RSVP on your event page, or you can have your contacts text a keyword like “RSVP” to 313131, and EZ Texting will log the responses.

Recommended Reading: Event Marketing – Promotions, Alerts, and Engagement Made Easy

6. Coordinate with Event Attendees

You can use text messages to send event updates and important alerts to your list. 

A quick reminder message the week leading up to your event and the day before can boost attendance considerably. You can also offer more value to people who have RSVP’d by sending out sneak peeks or hosting exclusive giveaways or deals leading up to the event. 

With our SMS messaging software, you can create segmented lists to separate your guests from your employees. This allows you to combine your communication methods into one and use your SMS software to communicate with staff as well as attendees.

Get the Latest Statistics on Mobile Device Usage

In our 2019 mobile usage report, we share our findings from a survey conducted of 1,000 respondents between the ages of 18-65. The results we found backed up one thing we already knew, SMS marketing is a must for every business — unless you like leaving money on the table.

Don’t take our word for it – download your free copy of the report and see the results for yourself.

Photo: Adobe Stock/Right 3