What are Add to Calendar Links? how-to

Updated Sep 2nd, 2025 by AddEvent

Add to Calendar links are a fantastic tool that lets you get your events on people’s calendars by sharing a simple Add to Calendar link in your event marketing emails, on social media, in SMS, and anywhere else you want to promote your event with links.

Historically, email marketers have had to code .ics files to share events with a calendar file format, leading to user error and nightmares creating the .ics files. Without .ics files or Add to Calendar links, you’re relying on your customers to create their own calendar event with the correct start time, end time, and all other essential information for a useful calendar invite or reminder.

Not only are our Add to Calendar links functional, supporting all of the main calendar apps such as Apple Calendar, Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Yahoo Calendar, but they also look great. Ensuring that your event invitation emails look stylish and professional, improving click-through rate, and maximizing the likelihood that your users use the Add to Calendar links to add your events to their calendars.

AddEvent allows you to choose from beautiful templates (just copy and paste them!), or you can create your own style so you can customize the Add to Calendar links to look exactly as you want them.

Want to keep it really simple? We’ve also got you covered: just add a simple plain text Add to Calendar link to your marketing email by coping and pasting the code from AddEvent into your marketing automation tool.

AddEvent works with all major email marketing platforms like Active Campaign, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Marketing Cloud, Constant Contact, and many others. 

Ways to Share Your Event

With AddEvent, you’ve got multiple ways to share your events and keep your audience in the loop:

  • Share single events
    Perfect for promoting a specific webinar, sale, or announcement. You can even collect free online RSVPs!
  • Share calendars with multiple events
    Let users follow a full calendar of events. The best part? It’s dynamic so any updates or new events you add will automatically show up in your subscribers’ calendars.
  • Create personalized events for individual users
    Our automated Add to Calendar links generate unique events for each person. These are super useful for appointment reminders like doctor visits, car servicing, or salon bookings.

This article will walk you through how to share events using add-to-calendar links specifically for email.

How to use add-to-calendar links in your emails

  1. Sign up or log in to your AddEvent dashboard

First things first, log in to your AddEvent account, or sign up if you’re new. You can start with our free Hobby plan or explore one of our paid plans with extra features. Check out the Plans & Pricing page to see what works best for you.

2. Create your event

From your dashboard, click Create and choose Event. Fill in the details like the title, date, time, and anything else your guests should know. Need RSVPs? You can turn those on too!

3. Publish your event page

When you’re happy with everything, hit Create Event to publish your event and generate your event landing page.

4. Find your Add to Calendar links

Once your event is live, you’ll land on the Event Details Page. Scroll down to the Share your event section and look for the Add to Calendar Links box. Click the little + button to open up your sharing options.

5. Copy and share your calendar links

You’ve got two easy ways to grab the embed code for your emails or website:

  • Click the copy icon in the top-right corner of the box
  • Or click the < > icon in the bottom-right corner to open and copy the HTML code

AddEvent Tip: Want your Add to Calendar links to match your brand? You can customize how they look so they blend right in with your emails or website.

Use a Subscription Calendar for Regularly Scheduled Events

To use our Add to Calendar links to allow users to subscribe to your calendar instead of adding a single event, you can follow the same process. However, you’ll also need to create a calendar in our dashboard, add your events to that calendar, and then copy the Add to Calendar links for the calendar you want to share instead of the single event. 

Subscription calendars work seamlessly with Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Yahoo Calendar; allowing your customers to Follow your calendar and get any new events directly in their calendars through the synchronization. Perfect for anyone who would like to share multiple events without requiring their end-users add multiple events to their own calendars.

Dynamic Add to Calendar Links for Automated Events

Do you have multiple unique events that you need to add to your emails to users? Our Automated Events allows you to add dynamic add-to-calendar links to your email campaigns that link back to your database and update for every individual user’s unique event, meeting, or appointment.

These dynamic add to calendar links are perfect for confirmation emails or reminder emails containing a personalized calendar event that users can quickly and easily add to their calendars. Check out our extensive automated events developer documentation, our Automated Events page, or contact us to learn more.

If you love AddEvent and want to make a little extra cash, listen up! 

AddEvent’s Affiliate program currently has a few openings for new, US-based affiliate partners. 

As an AddEvent affiliate, not only do you get to share our cutting-edge event management and marketing tool with your audience, but you also earn a recurring 20% commission for up to a year on every new paid subscription stemming from your link. With a 45-day cookie window and plans ranging from $36 to over $100 a month, the earning potential is limitless!

While the program is currently open to US-based affiliates only, the benefits are unparalleled. Plus, signing up is a breeze — it’s a free program, and we provide all the resources you need.AddEvent’s Affiliate program is currently accepting new applications at this time — but don’t wait! Apply today while the application window is still open and start earning immediately.

FAQs

What are Add to Calendar links?

Add to Calendar links let your audience easily save your event to their personal calendar with just one click. It’s a smart way to boost attendance and make sure no one forgets your event. They work with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, Outlook, Yahoo, and more.

Do Add to Calendar links work on all email platforms?

Yep! AddEvent links work seamlessly with all major email marketing tools—like Mailchimp, ActiveCampaign, HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Adobe Campaign, and many others. Just copy the code from AddEvent and paste it into your email editor.

How do Dynamic Add to Calendar Links work?

Dynamic links let you create personalized calendar invites for each user. Great for appointment reminders, event confirmations, or custom schedules. The link updates based on your data—so every recipient gets their own unique event.

Do I need to know how to code to use AddEvent?

Not at all. You don’t need to touch a single line of code unless you want to. The platform is super user-friendly, and we’ve got copy-paste embed codes ready to go. Developers can also dive into our documentation for more advanced use cases.

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