Are you sending your clients the right event emails at the right moments?
Correctly worded emails that are beautifully designed and sent timeously help you win business and keep clients informed about important event details. Among other things, communicating effectively can mean the difference between securing event bookings, getting paid on time, and executing a seamless event at your venue.
This article will explore six types of emails every event manager should send to their prospects and clients. Following this list will help you convert leads to sales and keep people returning to book your event venue.
As a bonus, we'll also talk about how software can automate much of the work around sending out well-timed emails that look professional and deliver your message.
Six Event Emails to Send to Clients
1. Contact Form Response
You can probably relate to the feeling of arriving on a website landing page and having to fill out a contact form. Is there anyone on the other end, and how long will it take to hear back from them?
Now, put yourself in the shoes of a prospect who wants to inquire about booking your event space. An excellent way to reassure them of your attention is to automate a response to their inquiry submission.
Thank them for their interest in your venue. Mention a specific timeframe, for example, 24 hours, in which they can expect to hear back from you.
It also helps to include download links to your menus, packages, venue photos, and pricing in the same message. This will give the prospect something to review before you get back to them with a more personalized response.
2. Professional Event Proposal
The next event email to get right and send to potential customers is your event proposal. Forget about sending a casual reply to a booking inquiry with a simple yes to confirm your venue’s availability. Instead, create a professional event proposal to win over the prospect and secure their business.
Sending a proposal in response to a venue booking inquiry is often the first personalized interaction you have with a prospect. With this in mind, are you making the right impression with your email?
Do you use a template and autocomplete details to ensure you capture and answer every aspect of the inquiry?
Is your message laid out professionally?
Have you sent it timeously?
Is it filled with accurate information?
Have you been clear about what your venue and team can offer and bring to the upcoming event?
Some of the information that should go into your proposal includes:
- Space availability for the proposed event dates
- Details about the team that will execute the event
- An outline of your experience as an event manager
- Points around your venue’s value proposition and how you can successfully host the proposed event
- An event costing, including food, beverage, labor, and any additional rentals and fees
- Event inclusions and exclusions
- Relevant additional information, for example, venue terms and conditions, previous client testimonials or cancellation policies
- A deposit payment link, if necessary
3. A Follow-Up to Your Proposal
Sometimes, you’ll send proposals and not hear back from the recipients. A good way to increase the chances of them accepting your event proposal is to follow up with an email reminder. Give it 48 hours, then send a brief message to ask if they have any questions about the proposal and suggest a time for a call to discuss if needed.
In the same email, reassure them how easy it is to confirm their booking. It’s just a case of signing the proposal digitally and clicking the link to pay a deposit (if necessary). Â
4. Booking Confirmation
A booking confirmation email lets a client know that their event date is confirmed. It also provides some necessary general information about your event venue and the planning process leading up to the day.
In your booking confirmation email, include valuable information such as:
- Exact booking date, time, and event location
- Your contact details
- Total booking cost and outline of payment installments
- Menu selections
- Cancellation policies
- Booking reference number (if applicable)
5. Payment Reminders
Clients often book events in advance and agree to a staggered payment plan. This is smart on the financial front, as you can budget incoming funds and align installments with the days you have to outlay funds for event purchases.
However, it potentially leaves you and your clients open to accidentally missing payment dates. That is, unless you have automated email reminders to send out ahead of the due dates.
In the reminder emails, include an outline of what has and hasn’t been settled, along with their respective payment dates. This keeps everyone on the same page and provides time for budgeting. Also, include a direct payment link in the message so your client can settle the amount in a matter of clicks. You can also automate reminders for final menu selections, guest count, and more. Â
6. Post-event Feedback and Thank You
As far as event emails go, this is one of the most critical to include in your lineup. Sending an event follow up a few days after the occasion can give you valuable insight into the impact of your efforts. Using feedback from your clients, you can gather your team and work out how to be more effective when organizing and managing future events at your venue.
The message can be as simple as thanking the person for their business and letting them know it was a pleasure serving their party. Ask them to respond with any feedback or suggestions about their experience that you can address with the team, or include a brief survey link to capture responses.
If you receive a positive response to your post-event email, the final message to send is a review request. Include links to the review platforms you’re on, for example, Google and Facebook. Getting this type of social proof is critical for growing your business and earning the trust of potential customers.
Use Software and Email Automation to Your Benefit
Using venue management software, like Perfect Venue, allows you to centralize and automate actions around your event emails.
From a single dashboard, you can seamlessly communicate with event hosts on all elements of an event, including sales, coordination, payments, post-event feedback, and more. Email templates and personalization fields help you autofill information and write professional messages quickly.
After that, our convenient Gmail and Outlook integrations help you maintain momentum and respond timeously. Depending on what you’re working on, choose whether to respond to messages directly from your dashboard or Gmail or Outlook inbox.
Because you’re working from a centralized dashboard, it’s also easy to batch-download event documents to share with your team. Everyone has access to communication threads, so important details are never missed and are accessible by the relevant stakeholders.
Conclusion
Engaging your prospects and clients with the right email messaging on the moments that count can help you be more effective in business. You can boost sales, improve customer satisfaction, and streamline the event management process. All it takes is some great software and a bit of know-how.
Ready to streamline communication at your event venue? Perfect Venue offers a host of event email templates and the automation to boot. Sign up for your 14-day free trial today and find out why G2 users rated us as the No.1 venue management platform.
