Why one invitation email isn't enough
Whether you're hosting a webinar, a workshop, a customer dinner, or a booth at a conference, the goal is the same. You need the right people to sign up, then actually show up, and then hear from you afterward while the event is still fresh. A single invitation email handles only the first of those three jobs.
That's why an event campaign is usually four or five emails sent over a few weeks. The invitation tells people what the event is and why it's worth their time. The reminders bring registrants back as the date gets close, because a lot of people who register forget, get busy, or never put it on their calendar. The follow-ups come after the event, and they have to be different for each group. Someone who sat through the whole session wants the slides and a next step. Someone who registered and didn't come wants to know what they missed, and they don't want to be thanked for attending.
The writing isn't the hard part. The hard part is keeping track of who should get which email and sending each one at the right moment, while you're also planning the event itself. That kind of work suits an AI agent well. It's a set of small, time-sensitive jobs that depend on keeping several lists straight, and it rewards someone who will write a careful no-show email instead of skipping it.
Kite is an AI marketer. It researches your business, builds a growth strategy, and ships the work that brings you new customers. You can work with Kite in your browser or in Slack. For an event, Kite runs the email campaign around it, while you run the event itself. Here's how it works.
How Kite runs an event invitation email campaign
Kite starts with the event and its goal. You tell it what the event is, when and where it happens, who it's for, and what a good result looks like, such as forty people from companies like your best customers or booked demos in the week after. Kite adds what it already knows from your team's knowledge base: your positioning, your customers, your brand voice, and how your past emails performed.
From there, Kite plans the whole series at once. It decides who gets invited, where people register, which emails go out and when, and how the follow-up will split. It sends you that plan in the conversation so you can change it before any writing starts.
Then Kite writes each email and shows it to you before it goes out. Approve an email, and Kite schedules or sends it through Mailchimp or from your team's Kite email address. As registrations come in, Kite keeps the registrant list current. After the event, it compares that list with the attendance list, sends each group its own follow-up, and reports what the campaign produced.
- Decide who to invite and where they sign up
- How do I write an event invitation email?
- When should I send event reminder emails?
- What should a follow-up email to event no-shows say?
- Learn what filled the room
Decide who to invite and where they sign up
The invitation list has more effect on attendance than any line in the email, so Kite settles it first. For most events, the core of the list is people who already know you, such as your newsletter subscribers, customers, and recent signups. Kite reads those audiences in your connected email platform and proposes which of them fit the event. A workshop on advanced reporting, for example, belongs with existing customers, while an intro session belongs with recent signups and newsletter readers.
Some events also need people who aren't on your list yet. For a small dinner or a roundtable, Kite can find people at companies that match your ideal customer, check each person's role and company, and score them from one to five against your criteria. It then writes each of them a short personal invitation that explains why the event is relevant to their job. These go out one at a time from your team's Kite address or a connected email account, rather than as a bulk campaign.
People also need a place to register. Kite can build the event page on a website it hosts, with the date, the agenda, the speakers, and a registration form. Each registration from that form can go straight into your Mailchimp audience with a tag for the event, so your reminders and follow-ups reach exactly the people who signed up. If you'd rather use Google Forms, Kite builds the registration form there and writes the questions, and you publish it in Google Forms before sharing the link. Kite then reads new registrations on a schedule you agree on.
A good registration form asks one question beyond name and email, such as "What do you most want to get out of this session?" Kite uses those answers later, in the reminder and the follow-up.
How do I write an event invitation email?
A good event invitation email tells the reader what they'll get out of the event in the first two lines, then gives the date, time, and place and one clear button to register. Kite writes every invitation around that idea. It leads with the reader's situation rather than with your company's news, because nobody opens an email to read "we're excited to announce."
Kite writes each invitation with these parts:
- A subject line that names the payoff. "How three teams cut their month-end close to two days" says more than "You're invited: Finance Webinar."
- Preview text that adds the date. The preview text is the short line people see beside the subject line in their inbox, and the date belongs there.
- An opening that speaks to the reader's problem. Kite draws this from your customer research, so it sounds like the reason your customers actually come to you.
- The essentials. The date, time, time zone, and place or link, plus who's speaking and what attendees will leave with.
- One call to action. A single register button, because a second link competes with the first for the same click.
Kite writes in your brand's voice and signs the email from the person you name, such as your founder or the speaker. A plain-text email signed by a real person often works well for small events, while a designed email suits a larger conference. Kite tells you which format it chose and why.
In Mailchimp, Kite creates the campaign, picks the audience or segment, writes the subject line, preview text, and body, runs Mailchimp's send checklist, and sends you a test so you can read it in your own inbox. In Brevo, Kite writes the content and sets the recipient lists on the campaign you've started there, and your team sends or schedules it from Brevo.
Related How-to pages
- How to schedule webinar invitation and reminder emails in Mailchimp: Set up the invitation and each reminder as scheduled Mailchimp campaigns aimed at the right segment, so every email goes out on time without anyone pressing send.
When should I send event reminder emails?
Send a reminder the day before the event and another shortly before it starts, such as an hour before an online session or the morning of an in-person one. For an event that people book weeks ahead, add a reminder about a week out. Kite plans this schedule backward from your event date and sends reminders only to people who registered.
The reminder matters more than most teams think, because it's the email that turns a registration into a person in the room. Kite gives each reminder a reason to come that the invitation didn't already use. That might be an answer to a question registrants asked on the form, the name of a guest who just confirmed, or a note that seats are filling up when that's true. The reminder also carries everything people need on the day: the link or the address, the parking or the floor, and an easy way to add the event to their calendar.
Kite schedules each reminder for its send time once you approve it. In Mailchimp, it sends the reminder to the segment of people tagged as registrants, and it can resend an earlier reminder to people who didn't open it, usually with a new subject line. When a text message suits the moment better, such as on the morning of an in-person event, Kite can build an SMS reminder campaign in Brevo for your registrant list.
If the event moves, Kite can unschedule a reminder in Mailchimp and rewrite it with the new date.
What should a follow-up email to event no-shows say?
A follow-up to no-shows should acknowledge plainly that they couldn't make it, give them the most useful part of the event in a few lines, and offer one easy next step, such as the recording or a seat at the next session. It shouldn't scold them or pretend they attended. Kite writes this email with the same care as the attendee follow-up, because people who registered and didn't come were still interested enough to sign up.
To split the follow-up, Kite needs to know who showed up. You share the attendance list from your event platform or your door check-in, and Kite compares it with the registrant list. In Mailchimp, it tags each registrant as an attendee or a no-show, so both follow-ups go to the right segment and the tags stay on each contact for future events.
Then Kite writes two follow-ups:
- Attendees get a thank-you that refers to something specific from the event, the slides or recording you promised, and one next step that fits the event's goal, such as booking a call or trying the feature you demonstrated. When an attendee asked a question on the registration form, Kite can answer it here.
- No-shows get a short summary of the one idea most worth their time, the recording or a recap if there is one, and an invitation to the next event when you have one planned.
Kite sends both within a day of the event, while the event is still on people's minds. It can send one more follow-up a few days later to people who haven't opened or replied, and it adds something new to that email instead of repeating the first one.
Learn what filled the room
Once the follow-ups have gone out, Kite reports on the whole campaign. In Mailchimp, it reads each email's opens, clicks, and unsubscribes, which links people clicked, and who clicked them. In Brevo, it reads the deliveries, opens, clicks, bounces, and unsubscribes for each email campaign, plus delivery and replies for SMS. On an event page Kite hosts, its built-in analytics show how many visitors registered and which sources sent them. For personal invitations sent from your team's Kite address, Kite reports which messages were delivered, which failed, and who replied.
Kite puts those numbers together so you can see the path from invitation to attendance. You might learn that newsletter readers registered in large numbers but rarely attended, while customers registered less often and nearly all showed up. Kite records findings like that, along with the subject lines and angles that worked, in your team's knowledge base. The next time you host an event, Kite starts its plan from what actually happened last time.
What you get
A campaign plan
The invitation list, the registration page or form, each email with its audience and send time, and how the follow-up will split.
The invitation
A subject line, preview text, and body written for your audience and your event, set up in your email platform with one clear call to action.
Personal invitations, when the event needs them
Short individual emails to well-matched people who aren't on your list yet, each with a reason that fits their role.
A registration page or form
An event page on a website Kite hosts or a Google Form, with registrations flowing into the list your reminders use.
Reminders
Scheduled emails to registrants before the event, each with a fresh reason to come and everything they need on the day, plus a text reminder through Brevo if you want one.
Two follow-ups
One for attendees and one for no-shows, sent within a day of the event, with a second note for people who didn't respond.
A results report
Registrations, attendance, opens, clicks, and replies for each email, and the lessons Kite saved for your next event.
How to get started
Tell Kite about your event in plain language. You might say, "We're hosting a customer workshop in Austin on November 14. Help us fill twenty seats with existing customers and follow up afterward."
Kite replies with a plan: who it suggests inviting, where people will register, which emails go out and when, and how it will handle the follow-up. Change anything you like, then approve the plan. Kite writes each email and shows it to you before it sends or schedules anything. Approve an email in the conversation, and Kite takes care of the rest. If you'd like Kite to send the reminders and follow-ups on its own once you've approved the invitation, you can give it that autonomy.
Connect Mailchimp or Brevo so Kite can work with your audience and your campaigns. Connect Google Forms if you want registrations to come through a Google Form. If you only plan to send personal invitations, you can start without connecting anything, because Kite sends those from your team's own Kite email address.
Integrations used for event invitation campaigns
Kite uses your email platform to reach the people who already subscribe to hear from you, and a registration form to collect sign-ups. Kite's own team email address and built-in research sources cover personal invitations to people outside your list, so that part needs no extra account.
Send invitations, reminders, and follow-ups to your list
Kite builds the event segment, writes and tests each campaign, schedules the invitation and reminders, tags registrants as attendees or no-shows after the event, and reads each campaign's opens and clicks.
Kite reads your lists to choose who gets invited, creates a list for the event, writes the content and sets the recipients of each email campaign you start in Brevo, builds SMS reminders for registrants, and reads the results of every send.
Common questions
How do I get more people to attend my event?
Invite people the topic is truly for, give them a specific reason to come, and remind them close to the date. Most of the gap between registrations and attendance closes in the reminders, so a reminder the day before and one shortly before the start do more than another round of invitations. Kite also uses the registration form to learn what each person wants from the event, then speaks to that in the reminder, which gives people a reason to show up that's about them.
Should I send event invitations from Mailchimp or from Kite's email address?
Use your email platform, such as Mailchimp or Brevo, for invitations to people who subscribed to hear from you, because that's where their consent and unsubscribe preferences live. Use Kite's team email address for personal invitations to a small number of hand-picked people, such as guests for a dinner or prospects for a roundtable. Many event campaigns use both, with the main invitation going to your list and a handful of personal notes going to the people you most want in the room.
Does Kite work for in-person events as well as webinars?
Yes. The campaign works the same way for a webinar, a workshop, a meetup, a dinner, or a conference booth. For in-person events, Kite puts the address, parking, and arrival details in the reminder, and it can build a text reminder in Brevo for the morning of the event. For webinars, the reminder carries the join link instead.
Can Kite host the event or send the calendar invite?
Kite runs the marketing around your event, and you host the event in the platform or venue you already use. Kite builds the registration page or form, writes and sends the emails, and reads the attendance list you share afterward. Give Kite your event platform's calendar link or join link when you describe the event, and Kite includes it in every reminder.