Tips for Writing a Polite and Professional Calendar Invite Message

Why is it important to write a good calendar invite message

Writing and sending quality communications are crucial for both professionalism and organization in both work and personal life. First and foremost, a well-crafted calendar invite ensures a level of clarity and conciseness when conveying a point or trying to get essential details across to other people. A good email or calendar invite goes beyond just communicating the event time, date or location, it also conveys your attitude and tone and level of interest. 

The art of sending calendar meeting invites

By communicating details effectively and in a forthcoming way, you greatly minimize risks of scheduling conflicts, misunderstandings and tonal inconsistencies, and who doesn’t want a more approachable and understandable way of working with others.  

How to write and send calendar meeting invites

Sending thoughtful calendar invites demonstrates respect for the participants’ time and encourages a sense of importance and relevance to the meeting or gathering. By providing relevant context and agenda in the invite, attendees can arrive in a more prepared fashion which enhances the overall productivity and efficiency of the event itself. 

Sending good calendar invites for meetings also fosters inclusivity by ensuring that all necessary individuals are invited and aware of the engagement, avoiding potential exclusions. Additionally it allows participants to forward the invitation to other relevant colleagues or parties who might also benefit from attendance, adding a layer of knowledge sharing and collaboration to your meeting style. 

Beyond a mere relay of logistic information, a well-written invite can also inspire a sense of engagement, buy-in and enthusiasm for the contents of your meeting or its agenda. Be thoughtful and try to get people excited about what it is you will be discussing. Creating anticipation for a meeting, regardless of topic or urgency, is always in your best interest as a host. 

By ensuring to provide essential details and information while also paying a bit of mind to p’s and q’s, you can set yourself up for success and ensure your meetings are tonally interesting, well attended and productive. 

Now, let’s take a look at some essential items to include in your next meeting calendar invite. 

Polite and professional meeting invite must-haves

A professional calendar invite should always try to be clear, concise and contain all of the necessary information expected in an invite or request. Think of your calendar invite as your one shot to nab attention and also communicate key aspects of your pending arrangement that can hook people and get them interested and invested in what it is you are trying to convey or communicate. Remember, the calendar meeting invitation is the first step in ensuring your engagement runs smoothly and does what it sets out to do. Here are some essentials to include in your next professional calendar invite:

State the title and purpose of your meeting in calendar meeting invite

Try to always clearly state the event in the title of the calendar meeting invite, like ‘Financial Workshop’ or ‘Quarterly Gains’ so that there is minimal opportunities for confusion when sending them out. Doing so helps your participants to understand the nature of the event they are saying yes to, and to have a clear sense of what it is they need to wrap their head around and prepare for. 

Always include date and time in your calendar invites

You should make it a point to always specify the exact date and time of your event, and be mindful of meeting end times to ensure that people feel their time is respected. This might sound like an obvious consideration, but you would be surprised to see how many people forget to include this essential item while sending calendar meeting invites. Also, if you're scheduling a recurring event, be sure to explicitly mark it as such so that your participants can stay abreast of their ongoing commitment to attend. 

Add an agenda to your professional calendar invites

Providing a clear and somewhat detailed agenda that outlines some of the topics you will  be discussing and the flow of your meeting’s contents can help your attendees prepare and know what to expect from your engagement. This is also a great way to add a layer of context and relevance to your meeting, as it allows people to connect to what it is you are trying to say and how it appeals to them. 

Add RSVP or rescheduling instructions in your meeting invites

Clearly state how any of your attendees could reschedule or RSVP through clear, concise and legible instructions. This helps to mitigate no-shows or maybe gives you insights into alternative times that could work better for all. With planning, we usually need all of the help we can get so if there is a democratic way of doing so via rescheduling options, why not try placing the power in your participants’ hands and see how it plays out. 

Always to remember your attachments in your calendar meeting invites

No one wants to send or receive the dreaded, ‘Sorry I forgot to add attachment’ email, so add a sticky note to your desktop or double check for the nth time to ensure that all relevant documentation and supplementary content gets sent out along with your meeting invite. 

Contact information is super important when sending meeting invites

Provide contact details for the event organizer or a point of contact in case attendees have questions or need assistance in getting additional information. Sometimes simply firing off an invite is not enough for some people, so you should always include opportunities for them to acquire additional information and insight. 

Adding etiquette or meeting guidelines can be useful in meeting invites

There are times when a meeting’s contents or agenda are insufficient in communicating certain aspects of the expectations surrounding a pending engagement. Try to include useful information like dress code, etiquette or helpful guidelines in calendar invites as they pertain to conduct or sensitive areas of concern that could cause discomfort in a meeting. 

After sending calendar invites make sure to use reminders

Reminders, whether automated or not, are really the unsung heroes of the scheduling process. They help to alert people of incoming meetings or engagements and are truly beneficial when times get busy and people get forgetful. If you’re in need of a streamlined, automated and foolproof approach to meeting reminders, be sure to check out OnceHub and how it can transform the way you schedule time with others. 

Reasons why OnceHub is great for sending calendar meeting invites

OnceHub is an invaluable calendar scheduling tool for sending calendar and meeting invites due to the following features and capabilities: 

• Ease of scheduling 
• Robust integration with calendar apps 
• Easy time zone management 
• Customizable meeting types
• Personalized booking pages 
• Automated reminders
• Integration with most online meeting tools 
• Analytics and reporting 
• Security and privacy 

There you have it, our essential items to include in all of your upcoming calendar meeting invites. If you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed with how you book time with others, sign up for free to OnceHub and see how you can automate and optimize your scheduling infrastructure in a sustainable way.