InGo Website Blog

Why VIP Notifications Are One of the Most Powerful Tools Within InGo (And Why They’re HUGE for Driving Referrals)

Written by Stephanie Garey | Mar 23, 2026 12:36:56 PM

You could drastically increase the size of your event by reaching the networks of your existing speakers, sponsors and exhibitors. The problem is, most events only get 2-4% of them to send referrals out. With InGo, we get 20-40% of your speakers, sponsors and exhibitors to refer.

Now there is one feature that can even more dramatically increase the number of referrals your event receives…

VIP Notifications

These can single handedly:

  • Double the number of referrals and acquisitions your event achieves.

  • Get your top VIPs sharing multiple times, so they attract their most valuable connections.

  • Let you update your referral message as the event approaches.

When used properly, they turn a single referral opportunity into an ongoing advocacy engine throughout the lifecycle of your event. Let us explain…

The Challenge: Your Advocates Are Busy

Even when participants love your event, sharing their excitement isn’t always top of mind.

Speakers are preparing presentations.
Sponsors are planning activations.
Attendees are juggling schedules.

They may intend to promote the event… but without a nudge, it often doesn’t happen.

This is more a timing problem than a motivation problem.

The most effective advocacy happens when participants are prompted at the right moment, with something easy, personalized, beautiful-looking and relevant to share with their networks.

That’s what VIP Notifications do.

The Opportunity: Turn One Referral Into Multiple Waves of Promotion

If you’re relying on a single moment for advocacy - usually right after registration - then you’re missing out on some game-changing further opportunities.

Advocacy works best when it happens multiple times in the run up to your events.

Think about the natural promotion timeline for an event:

“I’m attending.”
“I’m speaking.”
“My session is coming up on X stage.”
“We’re exhibiting at booth number X…”
“See you there next week.”

Each of these moments is an opportunity for referrals.

VIP Notifications help you activate all of them.

Instead of hoping participants remember to promote the event, InGo sends a timely email with a ready-to-share post preview and a single call-to-action button.

Participants click once, land on the InGo sharing page, and publish their personalized post in seconds.

How VIP Notifications Work in InGo

Inside your event’s Manage Emails section, you can configure campaigns that automatically encourage participants to share and refer.

From this dashboard you can:

• Customize email messaging for each participant group (attendees, speakers, sponsors, exhibitors, etc.)
• Preview the email exactly as participants will see it
• Schedule a full campaign of reminder emails
• Send emails immediately if needed

InGo even provides a default email schedule with eight send opportunities across the lifecycle of your event.

But the real power comes when you tailor those emails to your audience.

Speakers should receive messaging different from attendees.

Sponsors should receive messaging different from exhibitors.

And because each group can have its own campaign, you can speak directly to what motivates them.

Built-In Smart Targeting

VIP Notifications are designed to be helpful rather than spammy.

InGo automatically sends notifications only to participants who haven’t yet shared.

If someone already posted their announcement, they won’t receive unnecessary reminders.

If you add new posting options, update graphics, or change messaging, the system intelligently resets the sharing opportunities so participants can promote again.

This keeps advocacy fresh and relevant.

Why It Matters: More Prompts = More Referrals

Referral marketing doesn’t always work if you just ask once. Sometimes the timing can be off, your attendees are busy, and it slips their mind.

Creating the right opportunities to refer, multiple times in the lead up to your event, is the game-changer.

And VIP Notifications automatically does this for you.

They provide:

✔ Multiple prompts throughout the event lifecycle
✔ Personalized messaging for each participant type
✔ One-click sharing experiences
✔ Fully trackable referrals

For event marketers, that means:

  • More social posts

  • More referral traffic

  • More registrations driven by trusted networks

All with very little extra effort.

A Simple Way to Get More Out of InGo

If you're already using InGo, VIP Notifications are one of the easiest ways to increase your event’s referral performance.

Spend a few minutes inside Manage Emails to:

  • Personalize your email copy

  • Review your participant groups

  • Adjust the campaign schedule

  • Send a quick test email

Small tweaks and personalizations can lead to significantly more shares and referrals.

And when more participants share, your event reaches entirely new audiences.

The Bigger Picture

At InGo, we often say that the fastest-growing events today aren’t just better marketed. They’re better activated.

VIP Notifications are one of the simplest tools available to help you better activate your community.

Want to learn more about how to use and fully optimize VIP Notifications? Reach out to your Customer Success Manager - Kate or Sandeep - today. Or check out this help desk article.

Not yet an InGo customer and want to learn more about how we can up to 10× more event referrals? Click this link to schedule a demo.