A great keynote speaker can enhance any corporate event and attract a big audience.

But how do you get a potential speaker to attend your event?

First things first, you need to reach out to them through a guest speaker invitation letter. 

Sounds pretty easy, right?

And it can be, if you know what to do. 

In our experience, if you want to get a speaker to accept your invitation, you need to put careful thought into how you write it and come up with some additional incentives.

But you’ve got nothing to worry about because we’ll give you all the insights, including a few sample invitation letters.

Let’s begin!

Table of Contents

How to Write a Guest Speaker Invitation Letter in 6 Simple Steps

3 Guest Speaker Invitation Email Templates

How to Find Speakers for Your Event

How To Attract Guest Speakers To Your Event

How to Write a Guest Speaker Invitation Letter in 6 Simple Steps

In our digitalized world, even formal speaker invitations come in the form of emails.

However, you still have to pay a lot of attention to detail when writing these invitation emails to show the potential speaker how much their acceptance would mean to you.

Based on our years of experience and some extra research, we came up with this step-by-step guide to writing stellar guest speaker invitations.

Step 1: Get the subject line right

Subject lines are one of the most important elements because they decide the fate of your invitation.

In other words, without an attention-grabbing subject line, the recipient might not even open your email, much less reply to it.

So, what can I do?

According to Klenty, simply personalizing your subject line can double your email open rate.

Likewise, it’s important to keep it short and informative.

Here’s an example: 

Alex, here’s your invitation to speak at Marketing Matters this July.

Step 2: Use the right title

Clearly, you should always start your invitation letter with the guest speaker’s name to make it more personal, but their title is just as important.

Do your homework and look up the potential speaker’s professional profile online.

Nowadays, almost everyone has a LinkedIn account or a business or faculty page, so it won’t be hard to find.

Identify your recipient’s title (e.g. Professor, Doctor, Ms, etc.) and use it in your invitation email.

Step 3: Make the invite straight away

We all have busy schedules so nobody has the time or patience to read lengthy emails.

Therefore, you should keep your invitation letter short and clearly express your intent from the very beginning.

This way, the recipient will know from the start that you want them to speak at your event.

The opening paragraph should include your name, your organization name, and the event name, location, and date.

Step 4: Explain about your organization and event

After showing your intent, you need to give your recipient a few details about your company and the purpose of the event.

This is also the part where you explain how the speaker fits into your event and why you want them to participate.

You can mention some of the other events you’ve hosted in the past with links to the event websites, to show the speaker your organization is trustworthy.

Step 5: Outline specific requirements 

While it’s important to give some specific info on what you expect from the guest speaker, make sure you keep it short and sweet.

After all, you can go into much more detail in your follow-up email, after they accept your invitation.

For now, you can mention things like:

• The topic you’d like them to cover
• How long the speech should take
• Whether you’re hosting an in-person event, a webinar, or a hybrid event
• Who the audience members are

This is also a good place to tell your invited speaker what they would get in return for their participation to motivate them to say yes.

For example, you should specify if they’ll receive an honorarium and/or cool speaker gifts and whether you’ll be taking care of the travel arrangements and covering any travel expenses.

Step 6: Give a strong call to action

Your formal invitation letter should include a strong call to action for the recipient to RSVP.

Based on our experience, we suggest that you also add a deadline for the speaker’s reply.

Otherwise, you risk finding out at the last moment that they won’t be able to attend, leaving you no time to find a replacement or contact your second choice and potentially ruining your event.

What’s more, you should give the recipient your contact information (your phone number and email address) so they can reach out in case they have any questions.

Finally, don’t forget to sign the guest speaker invitation letter with your name and position, and the company name.

And that’s all!

Now, to better understand the theory, let’s look at some sample invitation letters.

3 Guest Speaker Invitation Email Templates

Since we find it easier to learn from actual examples, we prepared three sample invitation letters for you.

If you want, you can even download and use them for your future events.

But make sure you put in a bit of work yourself to show off your events in the best light possible and convince potential speakers to accept your invitation.

Template 1: Formal conference invitation

If you’re holding a big in-person conference and want to invite an industry leader to give a talk, you should send them a formal invitation letter that acknowledges their experience in the field and the value they would bring to your event, like this:

You can find the formal conference invitation letter template here.

Tip: Spice up your event with conference swag that will leave a lasting impression on your guests. 

Template 2: Academic seminar invitation

Whether you’re organizing a virtual event or an in-person seminar for your students, you can approach a renowned professor with an email that shows how much you value their research and what it would mean for your students to engage with them, like this:

You can find the academic seminar invitation letter template here. 

Template 3: Corporate event invitation

You can enhance any corporate event with the presence of a keynote speaker and you can convince them to attend with a thoughtful corporate event invitation that makes a clear connection between their area of expertise and your event theme, like this:

You can find the corporate event invitation letter template here. 

Tip: A thoughtful corporate gift can help sweeten the deal for the invited speaker.

Still, before you can use these invitation letter templates, you need to find the right keynote speaker for your event.

Let us show you how to do that.

How to Find Speakers for Your Event

For your event to be a big hit, you can’t ask a random person in your field to hold a speech.

Instead, you need to find the right person who would bring the most value to your event.

Here’s what we suggest you do:

• Listen to your audience. It’s your audience members who decide whether your event was a success. Therefore, you should always seek their recommendations regarding potential speakers.

For example, you can send them email surveys, create social media polls, or talk with them in person to find out who they would go to for industry insights.

• Find thought leaders in your niche. You can’t go wrong with these important figures who have an authoritative voice that people respect.

Usually, thought leaders attend many conferences and events, so it won’t be hard to find them.

You can also look them up on LinkedIn to find out more about their areas of expertise.

• Use social media. If you’re organizing a smaller event and have a limited budget, it can be hard to get an industry leader to attend.

After all, the travel and accommodation costs alone will likely put a dent in your company’s finances.

So we suggest you turn your attention to social media influencers in your niche.

Look for social media users with higher education, a large following, and whose message aligns with your company’s.

Once you find the right speaker for your event, send them a letter of invitation and offer some additional incentives to convince them to say yes.

Keep reading to find out more about these incentives.

How To Attract Guest Speakers To Your Event

No matter how well-written your formal speaker invitation is, it doesn’t guarantee the invited speaker will accept your invitation.

That’s why we advise you to include some incentives that make it hard to refuse.

Here are some ideas that can help you close the deal:

• Highlight the benefits. Clearly explain what the guest speaker will get out of attending your event. 

For example, you can offer them industry exposure or a chance to share their knowledge and experience with important audience members.

• Offer compensation. If a potential speaker has to travel long distances to attend your event, you should at least offer to cover their travel and accommodation expenses.

However, if you’re hosting a big event and budget is not an issue, offering a guest speaker an honorarium for their participation is a very effective incentive.

• Offer to promote the speaker. Let’s face it, nobody will ever say no to some good publicity.

While this might not be enough to convince the invited speaker to attend, it can stack the odds in your favor.

So, let the speaker know that you’ll be promoting them in all your social media and email marketing campaigns, before, during, and after the event.

• Provide gift bags and tokens of appreciation. You can send potential speakers a swag bag via mail before they accept your letter of invitation to convince them to participate.

Or you can mention in your letter that they’ll receive a speaker gift at the event as a token of your appreciation, to pique their interest.

Either way, make sure you choose branded products that will impress them. 

Our clients suggest that you opt for tech swag or luxury promotional products. 

For example, this wood Bluetooth speaker with wireless charging pad has a classic design that can easily match any decor and will remind your recipient of your event whenever they listen to their favorite songs.

Another great idea is to enhance your recipient’s writing experience with this Moleskine smart writing set that will create a digital copy of anything they jot down in the branded notebook.

• Offer VIP treatment. People like feeling special, which is why you can convince your invited speaker to attend your event by offering them VIP treatment.

For instance, you can specify in your formal invitation letter that the speaker will have access to exclusive event areas, the hotel spa, or even a personal assistant.

• Tailor the experience to the speaker. If possible, stay flexible in terms of schedule so that the guest speaker can choose the time that suits them best.

Likewise, inquire about any technical requirements they might have for the presentation and do your best to fulfill them.

• Highlight the networking opportunities. Many people attend conferences and corporate events to meet important industry figures who could later benefit their careers or businesses.

And this applies to both the audience members and the guest speakers.

So, if you have some prominent figures attending your event, let your potential speaker know about them to grab their attention.

• Offer recognition and endorsement. If your guest speaker hasn’t attended many events in the past, you can sweeten the deal by offering them a letter of endorsement after the event.

They can add it to their portfolio and increase their chances of getting invited to other industry events.

Ultimately, you can pick and choose which of these incentives would work best for your event and the potential speaker.

Now, one more thing before we go.

Over To You

With all these insights, you can now write a stellar invitation letter for guest speakers that will be hard to refuse.

Just remember that you need to show the invited speaker how much you value them and that they also have something to gain from this experience.

In addition to any other incentives, we believe that a thoughtful gift will help you make a good impression and convince the speaker to accept your invitation.

So, browse our SwagDrop shop and choose a unique gift that will impress your potential speaker.