Your event preparation checklist should include the meeting invitation email. It puts your meeting on people’s minds and keeps them there, even when they have other priorities. Effective meeting invitation emails are more important than ever. A meeting invitation template will ensure that everyone arrives at the correct time, place, and day.
This article will show you how to create a professional meeting invitation email. It will help you create an engaging invitation that increases response rates, no matter what type of event it is. If you are in a rush, jump to the meeting email templates and examples.
How To Format A Meeting Invitation Email?
- First, let’s get to the point. Before you begin writing your invite meeting email, ensure that you have something engaging so the recipient can see “Sender”.
- If possible, an email should be sent from you or someone else, not your company or team.
- Super Office reports that over 45% of email recipients make decisions about whether or not to open an email based on the sender.
- Pinpoint’s research also shows that personal names get more opens than company names — 15% to 35% more to be exact.
- After you have set up your sender account, it’s time to get down to business.
Step 1 – Create your subject line
According to the Super Office survey, almost 34% of recipients opened an email based on the subject line. It should be concise and clear, with only the essential information necessary to start the meeting. You can use this example:
* “Important development team meeting”
* “Project Kickoff Friday at noon”
* “Meeting with the new VP”
Mobile devices have limited space and email open rates are increasing. Try to keep your subject lines short, with no more than 41 characters. This is shorter than the 70 characters required for Outlook or Gmail desktop platforms. It will make your email stand out in mobile inboxes.
Step 2 – Share the where and when
If the meeting invitation email details are not included in the calendar invitation, you should list them in your email message. Three questions should be answered in your invitation letter:
1. When is the meeting?
Please indicate the date and time. Choose the most convenient time. If the meeting is expected to last longer, avoid scheduling it at the beginning or end. Remember to accommodate different time zones for attendees of virtual meetings.
2. What length will it last?
Back-to-back meetings can be common among people who have packed their schedules. This is especially true when the meetings are online and do not require travel time. Make sure you know when the meeting ends. If you need to guess, it is better to go at a later time. Most people prefer to get out of the meeting early rather than being kept late.
3. It will take place where?
If the meeting will be held online, inform people how they can access the link. If the meeting is in person, give the address and the meeting room if necessary, unless everyone knows the location.
Step 3 – Explain the purpose
In the body of an email, clearly state the purpose of the meeting. People will be more likely to buy in and have a better outlook if they are aware of what you’ll be discussing, regardless of whether it is a mandatory staff meeting or a recurring one.
Even for an in-depth meeting, a sentence or two is often enough. For shorter meetings, a brief explanation is required. Here are some examples of email meeting invitation:
* We invite you to join us Friday, January 6th from 4-5 p.m. for the next phase of the Hansen project.
* This is our year-end meeting. We’ll be discussing our annual growth and our plans for the next fiscal year.
Step 4 – Share the meeting agenda
You should expand on the purpose of your meeting by mentioning some points on the agenda. While you don’t need to go into detail, it is important to mention the topics that you will be discussing. This section can be arranged in bullets or you could write it out in sentences if there are only a few items. Take this example:
“We will be discussing bonus structures for next year, recognizing goal achievers in this quarter, as well as the needs of our top customers.”
Attach the agenda to your meeting for more formal or in-depth discussions. Attachments can be useful for attendees who need the agenda to prepare for the meeting or to reference during the meeting.
Step 5 – Ask for an RSVP
To get a count of attendees, it is a reason to send a meeting invitation email. People won’t respond to invitation emails without prompts, so make sure you request one. Even if there isn’t a set date, include a deadline for your response. This will help you to avoid getting all the replies to your meeting emails at once.
Make it clear how you would like people to respond. You can include an email address, or better yet, a Bookngly link so people can add themselves to the meeting without needing to RSVP. This makes it easier for you to schedule meetings and follow-ups.
Step 6 – Add a professional email signature to
These are the final touches. You have invited people to your meeting, explained when and where it will take place, and discussed what you intend to deliberate. Finish strong with a professional email signature.
If you are not communicating with only your team members, please include your full name and position. Also, your company name should be linked with your company website. This is a great way for interested parties to find out more about your company. For a seamless brand experience, make sure to point any scheduling links to branded pages.
Important Tips for Writing Effective Meeting Invites
1. Do not make it too complicated
Keep in mind your goal: You’re inviting people to a meeting. It can be tempting to go into detail and add titbits but keep it to the essentials and what you need to know. Keep the good stuff for the meeting.
2. Prioritize the most important and valuable parts
It hurts me as a writer to admit that people don’t always read the whole thing. This is journalism’s method: Start with the most important information and then move on to the next. Then, finish with details or context. (AKA. Writing with the inverted pyramid strategy.
Here’s a simple meeting invitation email sample
Team,
Let’s talk about a new quarter-end marketing plan. Bring your ideas and let’s have a chat about them. These are the must-knows.
If time permits, we will also be reviewing how the quarter went. If not, we will have a separate review meeting. These are not must-knows, but helpful context.
We’ll see you there!
[Signature]
This way, even if they don’t read all of it, they are still more likely to have absorbed the most important information.
3. Give your invitees a deadline to respond
You need to know how many people will attend your event. This will help you plan for topics and timing.
Include a date-specific RSVP in your invitation email for meeting to get precise numbers and enough time to plan. This is easy to do with Microsoft Outlook or Gmail.
This is not necessary for one-on-1 meetings. This applies more to larger groups where presentations and other activities require more planning.
4. To get people to respond faster, use subject lines that include calls to action
CTAs (calls to action) are something you’ve likely seen before. To encourage people to reply, you can use them in your meeting invitation email subject lines.
These are just a few examples.
* Urgent: Join an important meeting at 2 pm PST today
* Enjoy a free cup of coffee * Get a free cup of coffee!
* I have an idea. Meet up next Wednesday to discuss it.
5. Facilitate the process for attendees to attend the meeting
This is something I already mentioned: If you have people who are conferencing into your virtual meetings, make it easy for them.
Meeting invitation email can be set up from either your Outlook calendar or Gmail account. This saves you time and allows you to streamline your meeting details. Bookngly integrates with both Outlook and Google Calendar so that you can insert meeting links in event invites.
Make meeting invitations that receive responses using the right tools
A meeting invitation email does not have to be tedious. They are an integral part of our daily work lives and can be made quickly and easily with the right templates and tools.
A good communication platform should integrate with your calendaring tools. It will make it easier to plan, schedule, customize and run meetings no matter where you are located.
Meeting invitation email examples
You now have an idea of the structure and style of a meeting invitation email. Let’s see how it looks in its final form. Below are both formal and informal versions that you can modify to your liking.
Example 1: Formal meeting invitation
This invitation to an annual meeting of shareholders explains what shareholders need to know to prepare and join a virtual meeting.
________________________________________
From: Connor Murphy
Happy Home Insurance AGM
Dear shareholders:
Happy Home Insurance’s annual general assembly is approaching. We want to thank you for all your support. We hope that you will be able to attend the meeting this year, which is scheduled for March 6, 2022, at 12 AM on Zoom. The link is here.
To help you plan, we have attached the meeting agenda to this email. These are the key topics that will be covered at the meeting:
* Elections for this year’s board positions
* Votes for shareholder proposals
* Annual financial reports
* Recent developments
The meeting should last approximately 2.5 hours. We need a quorum to hold the meeting. Please let us know by clicking this link before February 15.
We appreciate your time and look forward to seeing you in March.
All my best.
Connor Murphy
Manager of Business Development
Yoyodyne, Inc.
________________________________________
Example 2: Informal email invitation
This informal invitation is more suited for small groups or one-on-1 meetings.
________________________________________
From: Alana Beck
Subject: Friday, 1.29 – Kick-off meeting for the Social Influencer Project
Hello team
I am happy to invite you to join our department’s social outreach project. We have a great team, and I look forward to seeing what they accomplish together.
Join me Friday, January 29th at 10 am for a Kickoff meeting. It will be held in the third-floor conference area for approximately two hours. There will be water and light refreshments.
Bring any questions about the project. After discussing the overall strategy, goals, and timelines, everyone will be assigned their first assignments.
Please use this Calendly link to confirm your invitation and ensure that we have an accurate headcount. The meeting was scheduled based on Calendly availability. Please let me know if you have any questions by Wednesday.
We can’t wait for this project to start!
Thank you all,
Ana
PR Manager
________________________________________
Template for meeting invite
Don’t worry if you don’t know how to adapt these templates to your specific needs. You can fill in either one of the two templates, formal or informal, with details about your meeting and you’re ready to go.
Invitation 1: Formal email template
This invitation to a meeting template is useful if you are planning a formal business meeting.
________________________________________
Hello [invitee group],
I hope you find this email helpful. I am writing to you to invite you to a meeting at [date and time] to discuss [topic].
The meeting will take place at/on [location/videoconference platform] and will last about [number] hours. Attached is the agenda. These are the most important topics to be discussed:
* [meeting agenda, item 1]
* [meeting agenda, item 2]
* [meeting agenda, item 3]
To confirm your attendance, please click the following link. So we can plan efficiently, we ask you to reply by [date and/or time]
Regards,
[Your name]
[Your contact information and role]
[Company name]
________________________________________
Invitation 2: Informal email template
This email template is great for informal meetings with more familiar people.
________________________________________
Hi [recipient],
I hope you’re doing well. It is time to get together to discuss this topic. Calendly has everyone’s availability, so it seems like [date] at[time] would work best for everyone. Let’s meet at/on the [location/platform]. We will need approximately [length of meeting]. We should be able to cover the following:
* [topic 1]
* [topic 2]
* [topic 3]
Use this link to let us know if you can attend. I look forward to meeting you all.
All my best.
[your name]
[Your contact information and role]
________________________________________
How do I send a meeting invitation email?
There are two ways to send a meeting invitation email:
1. E-mail Body
This applies to most invite. The message can be written using your company email server. If you prefer to do more formatting (and reporting), consider an email marketing service such as Mailchimp or Constant Contact. This allows people to easily go back to find related links and agenda attachments.
If you use Bookngly to schedule, the meeting will copy to attendees’ linked calendars (such as Google Calendar) and they won’t need to go back to look for an email.
2. As an PDF attachment
You can add a PDF invitation to your email and print it on company letterhead. This is a great option for large groups (such as shareholders) or invitees who prefer a printed copy.
Include a short paragraph in your email body to introduce your invitation. This will allow you to include any links that you want people to click.
Bookngly also gives you an advantage in this area. Its integrations with Zoom and Webex, automatically generate videoconference details for your meeting. You only need to ask recipients one time. You can also have your invitees link their online calendars. So that the details of the meeting will be copied over to Bookngly.
Why Is A Good Invitation Important?
If you are the host of the meeting, there are two reasons you should pay attention to a meeting invitation email.
1-It keeps everyone on one page
A professionally designed calendar invite will provide all the information attendees need: time, location, meeting date, and what’s on the agenda.
2-Everyone is held responsible
Participants can prepare for discussions ahead of time by having all necessary information available. There are no excuses not to do so.
The invitation to a scheduled meeting is a great opportunity for everyone to establish goals and expectations before the meeting.
Conclusion
You don’t have to be creative in how you write your meeting invitation email, but your goal is to get people to say yes. Bookangly makes it easy to book meetings by simplifying the booking process. A well-crafted invitation will result in a successful meeting and more growth opportunities.
