Convert Marketing-Engaged, Problem-Aware Contacts with Event Campaigns

Vector team

Some buyers don’t realize they aren’t comparing vendors but they are actively researching a category, indicating they’ve recognized a problem.

This play helps you catch them at that pivotal moment and guide them directly to your solution with the right events, webinars, or downloadable content.

The Vector Way:

Most companies wait until buyers compare solutions to engage.

Vector flips that.
With contact-based marketing, you can identify when already-engaged contacts begin researching category-level content and invite them to high-value programming that builds trust early.

Use contact-level signals like categorical pageviews + email clicks to trigger targeted event invites before competitors even enter the conversation.

When to use this play:

Use when a contact:

Has engaged with your marketing (email clicks, webinar views, newsletter opens)
Begins researching your category (e.g., problem keywords or blog topics)
Has not yet visited competitor or solution pages

Goal

Warm up cold contacts with low-cost, awareness-driven campaigns and secure your spot on their shortlist before they even start shopping.

Objectives

Educate early, efficiently, and at scale.
Increase early-stage engagement from cold contacts
Improve ROAS by avoiding high-cost clicks
Seed your pipeline with future buyers

Use case

You want to engage contacts who show no signs of intent: no site visits, no brand searches, no sales engagement. They’re totally cold, but still part of your ideal buying committee.

Play type: Top-of-funnel | Ad Strategy | Lifecycle Activation Estimated time to execute: 1–2 hours setup + 2–4 week campaign

How it works:

Step 1: Build your intent + engagement list

Identify contacts who are already engaging with your marketing (think email clicks, newsletter opens, or past webinar attendance) plus thosewho have recently viewed category-level content (ex: blog posts about industry challenges or pain points).

These are your “problem-aware” contacts.

Step 2: Create your audience segment in Vector

In Vector, build a segment labeled “Problem Aware – Event Ready.”
Filter for contacts who’ve engaged with marketing and visited category-related content, but haven’t shown intent toward competitors or solution pages.

This group is primed for educational outreach.

Step 3: Launch a targeted invite campaign

Use email or ads to invite this segment to a relevant webinar, workshop, or on-demand session.

The goal is to deepen awareness and introduce new ways to solve their problem without pitching your product (yet).

Step 4: Optimize your messaging

Focus on empathetic, challenge-led messaging.

Use subject lines or headers like “Struggling with [X problem]?” or “Modern tactics to solve [Y challenge].”

This builds credibility and encourages attendance without overwhelming the contact with product details.

Call out box:

CTA Ideas
- “Struggling to [insert category problem]? See how others are solving it fast.”
- “Join this exclusive session on [category problem]—and what to do next.”
- “From chaos to clarity: Learn how top teams navigate [problem] with data.”

Step 5: Track engagement in Vector

As contacts click, register, or re-engage with your site, Vector updates their lifecycle stage automatically.

You’ll know exactly when they’re warming up and ready for deeper engagement.

Step 6: Follow up with mid-funnel plays

Once they’ve engaged with your content, move them into the next phase whether that’s a nurture sequence, case study send, or sales outreach (we have playbooks for effective next steps!).

Now that you’re building trust, introduce your product as the solution to the problem they’ve been researching.

Wrap up: Move fast, build trust with events

This play helps you identify and accelerate a high-potential segment: contacts already warmed up by your marketing and now signaling they’re ready to go deeper.

By meeting them with the right content at the right time before they start comparing you steer their journey.

Example H2