What is the Best Time to Send an Event Invitation?

Why Send an Event Invitation?  

An event invitation is the direct link to your event. It not only allows you to inform everyone about when and where the event will take place, but also to immediately excite and convince potential attendees to register. An invitation always creates a personal impression and thus establishes a connection with potential participants.

When is the Best Time to Send Your Invitation?

You’ve probably come across terms like “save the date” and “invitation” before. But what distinguishes a save the date from an invitation, and when is the best time to send them?

Save the Date

A save the date is a preliminary announcement of your event, sent out before the official invitation. It informs your potential attendees about the event date far in advance, so they can mark their calendars even before they can register. Sending a save the date is particularly beneficial for large, multi-day events and for audiences with packed schedules, where long-term planning is essential. The optimal timing for a save the date depends on the type of event:

• Formal events: 6 to 8 months in advance;
  
  
• Informal events: 4 to 6 months is usually sufficient.

Invitation

After a save the date, it's time for the "official" invitation. With this invitation, you open the doors for registration and inform your contacts that they are welcome. This is the moment to personally invite your contacts to experience your event. Whether you send your invitation digitally or analog, the goal is to capture as much attention as possible. Timing your invitation correctly increases visibility and the chance to make a lasting impression.

The Dutch Association for Data & Marketing (DDMA) regularly publishes a national and international email benchmark containing valuable data. From this, we can conclude that the first invitation should ideally be sent 3 to 5 months before the event.

For formal B2B events, you deal with busier schedules and long-term planning. Therefore, you need to come to their attention earlier than for an informal event. Besides this data, it is always important to keep your unique target audience in mind.

The best day to send your invitation

What is the best day to send the invitation?

As you get closer to sending your invitation, it is also important to look at the finer details. Even the day and time you send your invitation can impact visibility and the ultimate success of your event.

From the DDMA data, we can deduce that the click-to-open rate (CTO) is highest on Tuesday at 4:00 PM. Statistically, if you send your invitation at this time, 14.12% will see your invitation immediately, compared to an average of 9% during the rest of the week.

Extra tip! Are you looking for a more informal invitation to reach your audience over the weekend? Opt for Saturday.

When choosing the day and especially the time to send, it's crucial to keep your audience in mind. Are you sending out many international invitations? Remember to consider different time zones. Segment your audience into time zone groups and send your invitation in batches to ensure optimal delivery. If you're dealing with fewer time zones, find a good middle ground in terms of timing for all your target groups.

Data can help you make the most of your save-the-date and invitation, thus increasing the likelihood of your event's success. Below, we've summarized all the key dates for you.

Save the date

• The preliminary announcement of your event. This is sent before the official invitation. Sent this 4-8 months prior to your event.
  
  

Uitnodiging

• The announcement that your contacts can register for your event. Send this 3-5 months in advance.

Source: https://globaldma.com/international-email-benchmark/