Send Unique Event Registration Response Emails For Each Event Using No Code

*** NOTE: ALL INFORMATION IS ACCURATE AT DATE OF PUBLISHING ***

Back in June 2022, I wrote a blog showing how you could create a custom trigger, and build a couple of flows in Power Automate to generate one journey for ALL of your Events if you wanted to. The challenge otherwise was there was no way to get a unique ics file for each person that registered for the event. So if you followed this blog post, you might have built it. This is NO LONGER NEEDED, and you can do the same thing without creating any flows, no custom triggers required and DEFINITELY NO CODE!!! This post will look at how to send unique event registration response emails for each event using no code at all.

First, let’s look at an Event. When creating a new Event and using the Realtime Marketing option, there are a few things I would suggest doing first in terms of getting existing fields and making them work a little better for us.

One of the fields that bizarrely is now hidden on the form is the Event image field. This for me is key to having a fully customised experience so that an email for an Event can be totally branded so it’s obvious it’s for a specific Event. We can see here that on the Event Main Form, there is a whole section that is hidden by default and only shows if it’s not a Realtime Event form. In it, there is an Event image field.

I’m going to add this field to the Additional Information tab so it shows regardless of the type of form used (Outbound or Realtime). I am also going to apply a custom control component and add the ImageSelectButtonControl. This means when an image is added, it uses a popup control rather than taking the user to a different screen to add the image, then going back again to the even page. Believe me, this is a much better user experience.

Another out of the box field on the Event record is the Description field. I am going to leave this on the Additional Information tab, but going to add a different custom control and use the Rich Text Editor. This means you can add an Event description that can be customised with different fonts, bold, italic, multiple lines etc. so when it’s passed through to an email, it all looks good.

Once those have been added to the Event form and published, the two fields can be used to add a lovely header image AND a very nicely laid out and informative description.

Adding the image looks like this. It pops up a lovely control where you can upload and select an image to use for this Event.

Now the fun stuff, making a nice looking email in Realtime Marketing. Adding in the image is as simple as inserting an email and then opting to add it from a URL. Then use the personalisation button and map through to the Marketing Event Registration Created trigger, then from there, the Marketing Event Reference. From there pick the Event image, and then select BLOB CDN URL. This is the full path to where the image lives and will make sure it displays. Unless you are certain your Events will ALWAYS contain an image, you might want to add a URL as the Default Value so there will always be something displayed.

Now here is the stuff that will make sure a button to add the event to a calendar will contain information for the correct Event. Add a button then choose to link to ‘Add to Calendar’. In this case we will do Only the event, then when picking the Event, choose from other source. Then go in to the Marketing event registration created trigger again.

From there, click on the top attribute in blue, which is going to be the Marketing Event Reference.

It should look like this. Each time someone registers, the value of the event is being taken from the Event that the Event Registration record is linked to. Simple!

Here is what my Email looks like. Notice that the header image shows ‘Dynamic image’ meaning you won’t see anything until email are sent, then it will be set dynamically from the image added to each event. I’ve also pulled in the Event Name, Event Start Date and Event Description, all pulling via the out of the box, Marketing Event Registration Created trigger. Then there is of course the Add To Calendar button that we set in the previous step.

Now we make sure to build a Journey. This will fire using the same trigger of Marketing Event Registration Created, again, the out of the box one, nothing custom here. You can set an Event, although the point of this is that you don’t have to, it can be one Journey for all events. Up to you if you want to only use this if the condition of Event type is Webinar, or something similar would make sense for your own organisations requirements.

Your Journey can be just to say thanks for registering and share the Add To Calendar information, or you can have an entire Journey with reminders and follow ups like you see here. On this Journey, I would suggest not applying any frequency caps to this one so make sure to turn it off in the settings.

Same with any quiet times so that responder email go immediately rather than sitting waiting.

Now just register for your event, and check out the email you received! This looks pretty good, and if I register for a different event, I get a completely different email with a different header image and description, the right information for the right event each time. Bonus!

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Check out the latest post:
Checking Contact Attributes Or Contact Point Consent Records In Realtime Marketing

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