Did you have fun this past week? Just a few weeks more before the end of the year, let’s make them count:

Hey! Andres here,

Welcome to another week of the networking desk!

Automation has been a lot in my mind lately, so it is perfect that this week’s topic is how to do event reminders the right way (continuing the book “The 2-hour cocktail party”).

I will be mentioning what I read in the book and how I would automate the reminder process, AND still keep it authentic…

Alright, here’s what we got this week:

• Automation & Reminders.

• Local Events for next week.

Alright, let’s do this.

“Lean forward moment” of the week - 🎗️Event Reminders & Automation Tips

How many times do you see this: People tell you they will be coming to an event after you invite them and… they don’t show up.

Yep, it’s normal. People are busy.

Now, there are ways to improve the odds of getting them to show, specially to OUR events. Just as you do with people you want to sell to. You follow up.

The magic number is 3 reminders. First a week away, then another one 3 days before, and one last one the day of. Let’s dive a bit deeper into each one:

1. 1 week before the event - This one should be a lighthearted email reminder. It should contain basic information about the event, location, time and even a funny image, GIF or even a picture of a previous event to grab attention.

2.  3 days before the event - For 3 days before, you want to send a few bios of people attending (even better if you can attach a list) with a few facts that people can connect over. This gets them exited, and it might take a bit longer to create, but is the one that converts the most.

3. Day of event - This is the final reminder and is used for logistical information. Add your address again and phone number in case they get lost.

If you are new here, hello again!! Great to meet you! — but for those who have been following for a while, you know that I am a nerd. I like to get fancy and automate or do something more techie, so here’s my input into automating these reminders because who’s got time for all that?

Yes, I know automation makes things less personalized but hey, even the book mentions that it is ok for these to be more copy-paste as they are quick reminders.

I recently learned that Zapier does automation for reviews in google business profiles (if you are interested in that, look at this video), and you can even verify what the bot will say before sending it, reducing the work drastically.

So. What if I told you could do the same with your invites?… That’s right, just feed it your list add a couple of steps and let it create more personalized messages.

Here’s what I wrote:

You can add custom instructions to ChatGPT and let the AI create the automated responses, not sure if there is a limit, but a ton of other platforms like Brevo do this as well, where you can give it a list and automate sending emails.

I just wanted an excuse to show you Zapier, as I’ve been playing with it. (Maybe I’ll do a video or a newsletter about the things I do with it later)

🖥️ Convert more website users into clients

🗓️ Now, the events…

⭐ = My picks of the week

Thank you for reading! Quick thing before I go:

1. If you are new or would like to read older posts, check out this page. There is a backlog of previous weeks of “The Networking Desk”

2. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Be sure to share it with them! 📩 (just copy the link or forward this email) I will keep putting out great newsletters for them and for you. That’s a promise.

See you next week.

- Andres Inciarte