Topic:

I’d like to get a gauge of how many people are planning to attend my event. How does the RSVP system work?

Solution:

When you send an email using the RSVP merge field, the recipient will receive the email with a link that reads “Click here to RSVP”. When they click the link, they will be taken to a page that asks if they plan to attend this event, Yes or No or Undecided.

• If they answer Yes, they’ll be taken to the registration start page for your event.
• If they answer No, their response will be logged and they will be given an option to let you know why they can not attend.
  • The invitee's reason for declining the invitation will be automatically emailed to the Contact Email Address listed on the event.

In either case, you (the event admin) can then run an RSVP report in the RegMail system to track the number of people who have responded Yes, No or Undecided, and how many have registered for the event.

To send an email with the RSVP functionality: 

1. Create your content and include the merge field called “RSVP (Invitation)” in the Other Merge dropdown. 
2. Create and/or upload a mailing list..
3. When you schedule the job in the RegMail system, select the event from the Form: dropdown list. This will send the email job as an RSVP, enabling the next steps for the user.
4. When the email is received, the user can click the link to respond. As mentioned above, a Yes answer takes him/her to your form; a No answer is logged in our system.

To see an RSVP report:

1. Go to the Folder List and click RegMail, then Reports, and then RSVP Report. The RegMail – RSVPs window displays. listing all events that have been set up with this functionality.
2. To see a complete report of the RSVP activity for this event, click the Snapshot icon for your event. The RSVP Snapshot window displays, listing the number Invited, Responded, the numbers of Yes and No responses, along with details about the email job that was sent.

Additional Information:

RSVP and other RegMail functionality are covered in detail in the RegMail recorded training.

The RSVP Report displays the following information for the recipients of your RSVP job:

• Invited - The number of list members who received the email message with the RSVP link. 
  • Click this number to display a list of these members in a new window.
  • The number invited may be larger than the number sent if you are using the Tell-a-Friend feature and some of the recipients have added referrals.
• Responded - The total number of people who clicked either the Yes or No button
• Yes - The total number who clicked Yes
• No -  The total number who clicked No
• Undecided - The total number who clicked Undecided
• Registered - The total number who completed their registration after clicking Yes

Note that the RSVP functionality works for events that are in Testing status, as well as Active events. In other words, you do not need to take your event "live" in order to use RSVP. 

Related Links:

• How do I create an invitation email for my event?
• How do I resend an invitation (RSVP) to people who have not yet responded?
• How do I create email content or templates in RegMail?
• How do I upload a mailing list?
• How do I schedule a job in RegMail?
• What do the various merge fields do?

Keywords: RegMail, Mailing List, Upload, Invitation, Invite, RSVP, RegMail, Mailing-List, Import, Importing