E-Mail Invitations as Exciting as the Actual Event

 

Much of my copywriting work entails writing email for conference and event producers. Most of these email messages are letter-styled missives describing the benefits of attending the event. For excitement, an attractive email template is used that includes the event’s brochure cover, photos of keynote speakers and the hotel, and, increasingly, an incentive for registering. Despite conventional wisdom that says long email copy doesn’t sell, I’ve seen the text-heavy event email outperform shorter ads time and again.

That said, my eyes lit up when I saw the fast-action email “Web commercials” Nortel sent for a new regional loyalty events program, “Nortel CALA Partners Kick Off 2005.” The event took place in Puerto Rico, with attendees from nine countries: Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, and Panama. The purpose of the event was to strengthen the relationships and loyalty of Nortel’s strategic partner companies in the Caribbean and Latin America (CALA) region.

Created by Miami-based advertising agency SCI e-marketing, this rich-media email marketing campaign definitely kicks it up a few notches more than the traditional IT event invitation. Check out the invitation for yourself.

Created in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, the campaign generated a 55.6 percent rate of qualified attendee leads from the total number of invitations sent, according to Martin Diaz Andrade of SCI.

Let’s look at a couple more high-adrenaline email messages from Nortel. You don’t have to understand Spanish to get excited about them. The first email is a teaser online invitation. The second is the actual online invitation.

What more needs to be said? When you want your prospective attendees to get pumped up for your event, try pumping a little more creative juice into your email.

Want more email marketing information? ClickZ E-Mail Reference is an archive of all our email columns, organized by topic.