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Referral-only gatherings

Run a gathering people can only join when someone who knows you refers them.

Some gatherings are for people who come recommended. A referral-only gathering doesn’t take sign-ups on your site. Instead, people who already know you refer a friend through a private link, and you follow up personally.

Steps

  1. Open Scheduling > Gatherings, click the gathering, then click Edit.
  2. Switch on Referral only.
  3. Optional: switch on Only people already in Contacts can refer. The referrer’s email then has to match someone in your Contacts. Anyone else sees “We don’t recognize that email” and nothing is saved.
  4. Optional: pick a Questionnaire for referred friends from your published forms. You can also write the Email to the referred friend (a Subject and a Message), and choose whether to Include the gathering’s date, time and place.
  5. Click Save changes.
  6. Open the new Referrals tab and click Copy next to your private referral link. Send it to people you trust.

What happens next

  • The public gathering page shows “By referral only” instead of a sign-up button.
  • Whoever opens the link enters their own name and email, then the friend’s details and how they know each other.
  • You get an email for each referral, and it shows on the Referrals tab. Set a status as you go: New, Contacted, Registered or Declined.
  • The friend is added to Contacts as a lead, with the source “referral”.
  • When the answer is yes, add them on the Attendees tab with Add attendee.

Good to know

  • Referred friends haven’t agreed to receive your marketing emails or texts, so campaigns leave them alone until they opt in. Reach out personally.
  • The link isn’t listed anywhere on your site.
  • Replace link turns off the old link and gives you a new one.
  • The questionnaire email goes out from your own sending address, so set that up first. See Send email from your own domain.
  • A friend referred with only a phone number doesn’t get the questionnaire.
  • Questionnaire answers land on the friend’s existing contact, tagged with the form’s tag plus “referral-questionnaire”. Build forms in Make a form.