Hosting Invite Only Events

This article will walk you through the process of hosting an "invite only" event, which involves creating the event, and then sending an e-mail campaign with an invitation to guests. 

The Workflow

To receive RSVPs for an invite-only event you will follow these steps (more details below): 

Create the event through Dashboard > Marketing > Events

 Add attendees to the event

Send an e-mail invitation to attendees requesting they RSVP to the event

Send an e-mail follow-up reminder to attendees who haven't RSVP'd. 

Invite only events do not allow general users to RSVP. You will send an e-mail campaign with an RSVP link, when the contact clicks the RSVP link they will be automatically logged in to the website, allowing them to RSVP for the event. 

Create and Configure an Invite Only Event

 Navigate to Dashboard > Marketing > Events, and click the New Event button.

Enter your event details (title, start time, end time, timezone etc).

Click the "RSVP Options" tab to reveal more configuration options. 

Change the "Invitation required" field to select the option "Invitation Only"

If you would like to allow your guests to send an alternative person in their place if they are unable to attend, select the option "Allow Alternate Guest Registration". 

Click "Save Event" when you have configured your event. 

Adding Attendees

After you have configured your event, it's time to start adding attendees, who will later RSVP. Think of attendees as the contacts who you would like to attend the event. Don't worry, Oncord won't automatically send an invite as soon as you add an attendee to an event. 

After saving the event you will be directed to a page where you can view attendees and their RSVP statuses. Otherwise, navigate to Dashboard > Marketing > Events and click select your event. 

Select the "Add Attendee" button, and a dialog box will appear. Search for the contact you would like to add as an attendee. If the contact doesn't exist on your database yet, you will need to close the dialog box, and navigate to Dashboard > Customers > Contacts and add the contacts to your database first. 

You can specify the RSVP status of an attendee when you add them. In most cases you will specify the Attendance Status of "No RSVP", to specify that they haven't RSVP'd yet.

Inviting Attendees

After you have added attendees to the event, you're ready to send an e-mail marketing campaign with a link to RSVP. 

To do this, open the event (Dashboard > Marketing > Events, click the event), and then click the "E-mail" button. 

A dialog box will appear, which allows you to specify which attendees you would like to e-mail. You will have added your attendees with the RSVP status of "No RSVP", so select this option. Click the "Create E-mail" button. 

After you click the "Create E-mail" button, Oncord will create a new e-mail marketing message, and copy across the event details to save time. At the bottom of the message there is a link to RSVP for the event. 

Oncord will configure the e-mail campaign to only send to Contacts as you have specified (contacts with RSVP status of "No RSVP"). When you prepare to send your e-mail campaign, you can check the contacts who will receive the message by clicking the number next to the text "Number of contacts to send to". 

When a user clicks the RSVP link, they will be taken through to the website to RSVP for the event. When a contact clicks a link in an e-mail marketing campaign they are automatically logged in, so the RSVP page will recognize that they are invited to the event.