Email vs. Calendar Invites: What Works Better for Event Attendance?

Despite best efforts in promotion, getting people to actually attend events remains one of the most difficult challenges faced by marketing and webinar teams. Registrations may come easy, but show-up rates are another story. So, what works better to ensure event attendance: traditional email invites or calendar-based event invitations?

If you’re organizing webinars, conferences, or client meetings, the difference between an email and a calendar invite could be the difference between an empty room and a fully engaged audience. This blog breaks it down.

We'll also explore how tools like Let’s Calendar are helping leading teams send bulk, discreet, and personalized calendar invitations that drive actual attendance — not just interest.

Why It Matters: From Registrations to Real Attendance

For most organizations, the goal isn’t just to get people to register for an event; it's to ensure they actually attend. This requires a shift from promoting through traditional emails to embedding your event into attendees' day-to-day planning tools — their calendars.

Let’s face it: inboxes are noisy. Emails get lost, snoozed, or simply ignored. But calendar invites? They sit there quietly and remind your participants 10 or 15 minutes before the event. That notification might just be the nudge they need.

Email Invites: Good at Getting Attention, But Limited

Pros:

• Ideal for awareness and marketing promotions
• Easy to include visuals, long-form copy, and detailed agenda
• Works well for cold outreach and retargeting
  

Cons:

• Lower open rates due to inbox overload
• No guarantee recipient will manually add calendar to event
• Not synced with attendee’s time zone or reminders
• Lack of commitment: interest doesn’t equal action

Adding an add to event button helps, but it still requires the user to take an extra step to confirm their participation.

Calendar Invites: Effective, Direct, and Action-Oriented

Calendar invites work better for attendance because they:

• Appear directly on the user’s calendar
• Come with auto-reminders
• Align with the user’s local time zone
• Are treated with more importance than marketing emails
  

Whether you send a calendar invite on Outlook or through Google Calendar, it puts the event front and center in a user’s schedule.

Even better: calendar invites give a sense of formal commitment. The attendee has already agreed to block off that time, making them far more likely to attend.

But here's the catch: doing this manually isn't scalable.

Why Smart Event Teams Use Let’s Calendar

Let’s Calendar makes it easy to send thousands of discreet, personalized calendar invites at once. Unlike traditional emailing tools, Let’s Calendar is purpose-built for:

• Scheduling recurring and one-time events
• Sending 1:1 private calendar invites to each recipient
• Adding dynamic content like Zoom links, agendas, and custom messages
• Tracking RSVPs in real time

You can bulk send invites across all major platforms, including:

• Google Calendar
• Apple Calendar (iCal)
• Outlook / Microsoft 365

Whether you want to send calendar invite Gmail or share an Outlook-compatible invite, Let’s Calendar does the formatting and distribution automatically.

Email vs. Calendar Invite: A Side-by-Side Comparison

Summary: Use emails to create awareness, but calendar invites to drive commitment.

Manual Calendar Invites: How Far Can You Go?

Google Calendar (Gmail Users)

To manually invite users:

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. Click "Create."
3. Add the event title, description, and Zoom link.
4. Under "Guests," type each email.
5. Click "Save" and then "Send."

Yes, it works. But when you're managing 200+ attendees? Tedious.

You can only send calendar invite Gmail one by one or to limited groups, and there's no real personalization or analytics.

Outlook Calendar Invites

To send calendar invite Outlook, follow these steps:

1. Go to Calendar > New Meeting.
2. Fill in details.
3. Set date, time, recurrence (if needed).
4. Add attendees manually.
5. Click "Send."
   

Want to know how to send an Outlook invite with reminders and location details? You can. But again, no scalable tracking, no personalization at scale.

Plus, if you're trying to manage calendar invites Outlook for multiple time zones, things get complicated.

How Let’s Calendar Makes This Simple and Scalable

With Let’s Calendar, you can:

• Upload a CSV of your invitees
• Customize subject lines, links, and content blocks per person
• Choose calendar formats (ICS, Google, Outlook)
• Add addevent buttons to confirmation emails
• Monitor open and RSVP status per recipient

It even supports features like:

• Adding an add calendar to event button with Apple/Google Wallet support
• Discreet delivery (no BCCs, no shared visibility)
• Integration with over 5,000 tools (via Zapier)

Want to know how do you send a calendar invite to 10,000 attendees without revealing each recipient's email? Let’s Calendar is your answer.

Best Practices to Maximize Attendance

If your goal is to fill your virtual or physical room, follow these:

1. Send calendar invites first, emails second.
   
   
   • Let calendar platforms do the reminding.
     
     
2. Personalize invites.
   
   
   • Include the person's name, role, and tailored messaging.
     
     
3. Use Add-to-Calendar strategically.
   
   
   • Embed add calendar buttons into landing pages, emails, and post-registration screens.
     
     
4. Test across platforms.
   
   
   • Make sure invites render well in Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Calendar.
     
     
5. Include auto-reminders.
   
   
   • Let’s Calendar can trigger reminders 24 hours or 10 minutes before.
     
     
6. Track and follow up.
   
   
   • Monitor RSVP rates and send nudges only to no-shows.
     
     

Email + Calendar = Best of Both Worlds

Don’t abandon email entirely. It's still an essential tool for nurturing interest. But calendar invites should be the backbone of your attendance strategy.

Think of it this way:

• Email gets you attention.
• Calendar gets you commitment.

Tools like Let’s Calendar help you do both, elegantly.

Final Thoughts: What Really Works?

The answer isn't just email or calendar — it's about the smart combination of both, executed at scale.

Manually trying to do a calendar invite in Outlook or Gmail may work for small teams, but large-scale webinars, conferences, and client briefings need automated, discreet, and flexible solutions.

Let’s Calendar empowers you to:

• Personalize every invite
• Add to calendar automatically
• Track RSVPs in real time
• Sync with your tools
• Deliver 1:1 invites with enterprise-level privacy

Ready to stop guessing what works for attendance?
Start using Let’s Calendar and let your calendar do the heavy lifting.