Best Practices To Handle User Invitation Email

It is very important to make a great first impression to draw an user to you. One of the ways is to invite a user to try your application. Many applications do not require to invite users via invitation emails. However, when you get this all right, the invitation email will enable the new user to join your company and become an active user. If you do not get it right, the recipient may doubt the email and report it as spam. Remember, the people who use your product have selected the recipients of this invitation email. Therefore, make sure your first impression is excellent!

User Invitation Vs. Beta Invitations

There are two types of invitations, and they are slightly different from each other. You can send user invitations emails when your customer invites his buddy to try your product. Usually, a team sends Beta invitations to invite new users to check out their software. Sending beta invitations is very important. However, let us focus on user invitations in this blog. These invitations are long-lived because they will be a part of your app. The beta invitations do not last for long.

User Invitation Email Goals

It helps New Users to Get Started with your Software

The main reason behind sending invitation emails is to assist the user to get started. There is so much to user invitations other than creating a password and logging in. There is a high probability that they are unfamiliar with the product. Therefore, they may question what the email is all about and what is the product, the person who sent the email, and why did you invite them to use the software. As you help the user to get started with the software, you should also give a reason why they should give your product a try.

It Serves As An Introduction to your Product

When you send the invitation email, it may be their first encounter with your product. Therefore, in few words, you need to tell them about your product and the problem it solves. This way, they will be more conversant with the product, and they will easily identify your future emails.

Common Mistakes With User Invitation Emails

One of the challenges in such kind of emails is that people who receive user invitation emails are always very skeptical. This is because of the increase in email spamming and phishing. Hence people have become too cautious with the emails that they did not expect. Sometimes they may expect these emails, but this is not the case every time.

Assuming That The Recipient Is Expecting The Invitation

Sometimes it is true that many recipients will be expecting emails from you. But, it is also true that many others may not expect. Therefore, when you send emails that are asking the recipient to “Follow this link to accept the invitation” will make them more suspicious. Hence the email content and the tone that you use should give the recipient a larger context concerning the invitation.

Not Explaining What The Product Does

The email might land in the inbox of someone who has never heard of the product let alone knowing what it does. Therefore, say hello to the recipient and introduce the product. You should include the product’s link too. This way, if your efforts fail, there is a more convincing way to get accurate information about the product. This also increases their confidence in the product and the legitimacy of the email.

Information To Include In User Invitation Emails

Invitation emails are fairly easy to design. However, they should fulfill their goals of reassuring the recipient about the validity of the email and help them to get started with the product. Hence keep in mind to include the following details to make sure you effectively achieve your goals.

The Sender Of The Email And Why Was It Sent

The best way to go about this is to include the details of the person who has invited them (only the name) and a private message to them from that person. This goes a long way although it is not completely fail-proof. It helps eliminate any fears from the recipient. For instance, you can add one line to the effect of “Anna from Aritic Mail. invited you to try out the Aritic Mail Application that will help you to work on ABC project.”

After looking at the example above, you will understand that five key points help the recipient to be familiar with the context.

• The name of the sender has the highest chances of reorganization by the recipient. However, this is never the case in all the situations.
• The name of the company, if present, will work excellently with the name of the sender. If they fail to recognize the sender, they may be expectant of an email from the company.
• If they are still not familiar with the company and the sender, the purpose of the application will trigger something. They are aware of the project that is going to start and that the email relates to the same project.
• The name of the project at the end is the last piece of the puzzle. It is not necessary for it to be a formal project. It can be a Trello board (or similar alternatives) or Dropbox folder. The important thing is that it should be the name of something that can be recognized by the recipient easily.
• It is a good idea to follow this up with a personal message to the recipient from the person who invited them. This is a step that ensures that the recipient has something to depend on if everything else fails to ring a bell. It will confirm the legitimacy of the email to the recipient.

A Link Where They Can Accept Invitation and Proceed to Create Their Account

This is a vital piece of information, and you can hardly forget to add it to the email. But ensure that the link has an expiration date and is usable only once.

Information About What The Product Is And What It Does

Other than the primary reason for the email, ensure that you add information that will enlighten the recipient about the product. There is a chance that the person who invited is not familiar to them. Therefore, if they are expecting an invitation email from you, including this information will give them more assurance.

Include A Relevant Address For Them To Reply

User invitation emails are a great platform for you to include reply-to address and this will depend on the kind of product you deal with. You can safely add a sender’s address. This way, the recipient can get in touch with the sender if they have any inquiries, and the sender will receive the email directly. If not, you should include your support email address for the email to have a reply-to value.

What Comes Next After The Invitation?

When a user accepts your invitation, they need extra help to learn how to use the product. Therefore, you can send them an onboarding message once they have signed up. This will help them navigate through the product.

Like the welcome emails, send the onboarding emails to the account holder after they sign up. The new user will always find onboarding emails helpful when they need to log in, seek help documents, and contact the support team. At this point, add an excellently customized onboarding sequence for the new user. Its primary focus should be on the application and its usage. Your perspective should be of a person that is not an administrator but a regular person.

The Checklist

The following is a quick summary that will help you remember all the individual points necessary for the designing and building of the email template.

• The name of the sender.
• Name of the company (whenever applicable).
• The name of the product.
• A reply-to address that is relevant.
• Brief explanation of the product and what it solves.
• Relevant information about the next step when they accept the invitation.