LinkedIn event invitation messages: 15 templates that get registrations

There are 5 ways to invite someone to your event on LinkedIn, and they reach different people. Most organizers only use the first.

LinkedIn also recommends inviting only connections who share an interest in the event's theme. That's good advice for a better reason than the rules: an invite from someone who obviously picked you gets opened. A notification sent to 1,000 people gets ignored.

On desktop: open the event, click Share, then Invite. Filter your connections by location, current company, school or industry, tick the people who fit and send. Attendees can invite their own connections too, which is the cheapest reach you'll get.

1. 1Filter hard. Location for in-person events, industry and company for everything else.
2. 2Spread invites across the week instead of using all 1,000 on Monday.
3. 3Send a short DM to the people you most want in the room, the same day as the invite.
4. 4Ask every speaker and early registrant to invite 10 connections who'd get value from it.

The invite arrives as a standard notification, so the DM does the persuading:

Most of your ideal attendees aren't connected to you, so the connection request is the invitation. Keep the note short: LinkedIn Help says each note can be up to 200 characters, and a free account can add one to only 3 requests a month. Premium members can add a note to every request.

No link in the note. The link goes in the first message after they accept, when they've already said yes to you.

To a 1st-degree connection, a DM is the strongest invitation you have. Keep it to 2 or 3 sentences and one question.

The speaker-network message works because the reason is real: someone they know and trust is on stage. Search each speaker's connections and engagers for your buyer profile, then mention the speaker by name.

Use InMail for senior people you can't wait 3 weeks for, and for open profiles. LinkedIn credits an InMail back when it gets a response within 90 days, so a good one costs nothing. Use a comment when the person posts about your event's topic: a useful public reply turns your message into a continuation, not a cold open.

Leave a day between the comment and the DM. Same day feels like a tactic.

Once, about 4 to 5 days later, shorter than the first message and with something new: a speaker, a question that'll be answered, a seat count. Then let it go until the event-week reminder.

When they do answer, reply fast and specifically. A typical exchange:

Registration is half the job. On LinkedIn, attendees can leave an event at any time and the organizer isn't notified, so a personal reminder matters. For the full reminder sequence across channels, see how to reduce event no-shows.

Notice that links appear only after someone said yes. That's the pattern for every template here, and it's why they read like a person, not a campaign.

It's spam when it's sent to everyone with the same words. It's an invitation when it's sent to someone who fits, with a reason that's about them. LinkedIn's rules point the same way: invite connections who share the event's interest, and don't use third-party software that automates activity on the site, which can get accounts restricted.

• Write to people whose role, posts or company give them a real reason to attend.
• One question per message, no link until they say yes.
• 1 follow-up, then a reminder in event week, then stop.
• Pace it like a person: a few dozen thoughtful messages a day beats 500 identical ones.

For the full LinkedIn playbook, including Event pages, posts and ads, read how to promote an event on LinkedIn. For limits on connection requests, see LinkedIn connection limits.