If you want to create content that truly resonates, start by listening. Your audience is already telling you what they care about—you just need to ask the right questions and use their answers to fuel smarter, more personalized marketing. That's a quote from Rachael Bassey and a sneak peek at today's episode.

Hi there, I'm Kerry Curran—B2B revenue-growth executive advisor, industry analyst, and host of Revenue Boost, a marketing podcast. Every episode, I sit down with top experts to bring you actionable strategies that drive real results. If you're serious about growth, hit subscribe and stay ahead of the competition.

In From Insight to Impact: Smarter Research for Personalization That Resonates, I sit down with Rachael Bassey. She's the research partner to SaaS companies and the founder of ContentCollab.co. We explore how small marketing teams can personalize content at scale through smarter, more targeted audience research. We dig into practical ways to uncover buyer pain points, engage prospects through collaboration, and create content that stands out—especially in a sea of generic AI overviews.

If you're looking for a way to connect your content strategy to pipeline impact, you don't want to miss this conversation. Be sure to stay tuned to the end, where Rachael shares how to turn contributors into loyal brand advocates and why that's the smartest way to grow both your content and your customer base. Be sure to subscribe and leave a review so you don't miss future episodes packed with actionable advice. Let's go!

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.72)
So welcome Rachael, please introduce yourself and share your background and expertise.

Rachael Bassey (00:07.279)
Hey everyone, I'm Rachael Bassey. People call me Ray—Ray of Sunshine, more like it. I work as a research partner for SaaS companies. My specialization or expertise is helping companies create original research reports. I'll dive into what these reports are and my process later, but in a nutshell, that’s it.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:41.966)
Excellent. Well, thank you. I'm very excited to have you join us today because content is so critically important—especially original content and research specific to the audience. So talk to us a bit about what you're seeing and hearing as you're talking to your prospects or clients. What are the needs in the marketplace these days when it comes to getting smarter, better content?

Rachael Bassey (01:10.529)
Okay, before I get into that—thank you so much, Kerry, for having me. Really, thank you.
So two things:
One—AI. You have small companies that are like, “Why bother hiring a writer when I can just go to ChatGPT and say, ‘Help me with my content plan, content calendar, and 50 articles for my blog’ and get it done?”
But then, a lot of people can easily spot articles written by ChatGPT, and people are tired of the robotic voice—even though I use a lot of it. People want to hear things that actually sound human.

People are also hungry for data—things they can benchmark their performance against.
Then on the other hand, budgets are being cut everywhere—left, right, and center.
So CEOs and founders are asking, “Why should I invest more in marketing? How do we tie marketing to revenue?”
There’s a debate around, “Is the whole marketing funnel even relevant anymore?”

You just have different arguments around whether it’s important to invest in marketing or if we should even bother right now. That’s pretty much what I’m seeing in the space.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:01.484)
Yeah, definitely. And it's so true—I can't have a conversation about marketing without AI being front and center. There's a lot of value there, but to your point, if you're putting all your creativity into the AI model, you're not going to get the quality you need.

Adding to that, AI also impacts search results. If you're just producing generic content, your rankings will suffer. You have to get smarter about content structure so your expertise can rank better.

So much opportunity here. Talk to me about how you're solving this—how are you helping your clients?

Rachael Bassey (04:03.102)
Great. Okay, so I’ll just do a bit of a rundown.
I worked with a company called Databox back in 2019. I’m no longer with them, but we started what I like to call collaborative marketing before it was even a thing. Back then, people didn’t really care about talking to real people or experts and collaborating with them to create content.

Now you go on LinkedIn and see a lot of people talking about original research, but before it became the trend, we were doing it. We were a small marketing team. I was employee 25 in the company, and our team had just three people: John, Bella, and me.

When you have a small marketing team, you wear many hats. You might not even be an expert in the industry, yet you're expected to write 50 articles in two months. So we said, “Let’s collaborate with our customers and prospects.”

At the time, agencies made up the majority of Databox’s clients. I would spend so much time on directories like Agency Spotter, HubSpot, and Pipedrive to find and connect with them.

It made so much sense to involve these people in our content production process. We’d create simple surveys, ask them specific questions, collect their answers or insights, and publish blog articles based on their input.

Eventually, we stepped it up to create benchmark reports. For example, if you're a Facebook advertiser, and your click-through rate is 2.4%, what’s the industry average?
We could provide that kind of insight—so companies could compare and see where they stood.

That’s how we scaled from publishing two articles a week to an article every day.

I moved on from Databox and later worked at a company called Terkel—now known as Featured. If you know HARO, Featured is kind of a competitor.

I thought, “Okay, I did this for Databox, and I know it works—how can I do this for multiple companies at once?” So at Featured, I worked with smaller teams to help them understand it’s okay not to have a big marketing budget.

You can still do really good work if you focus on involving customers and prospects in your content creation process. Right now, if I were to write about civil engineering, it would be based only on what I find online. But if I talk to civil engineers who spend 8 hours a day on site, they’ll give me insights no AI model can produce.

Your experience, Kerry, is unique to you. ChatGPT can’t replicate it.

Then I started my own thing after Featured—but that’s the origin.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:07.552)
Excellent. So talk to me about the process though. You’re identifying the client’s target audience and interviewing them. You said you research to find the right experts—how do you even start with what to ask them?

Rachael Bassey (09:26.34)
Great. So it depends on the level I’m working with. For example, one current client—during our first meeting, I asked about their ideal clients, and the founder listed eight different groups. I said, “How do I even reach out to that many groups? You can’t possibly cater to eight.”

Some companies aren’t even clear on their ICP, so I always say, “First, we need to get that right.”

Because once you know your ICP, everything else is much easier.

So, first I ask:

• Who are your ideal clients?
• Where are they based?
• What do they talk about?
• What do they write about?

For this particular client, I’ve been spending 80% of my work time in Facebook groups. I don’t even know why I’m paying for LinkedIn Premium right now! I’m just listening to bloggers, creators, and entrepreneurs to understand what they’re really talking about and interested in.

Especially since this client is a Shopify theme developer, I’m trying to determine if the market actually wants what they’re building—or if it’s just a nice idea that nobody asked for.

Once I do enough listening, I reach out to these audiences with a basic survey I’ve created. That survey is designed to surface their pain points.

If a majority of respondents don’t list monetizing their content as a pain point, for example, then that’s a sign we shouldn’t be investing in a solution for it.

And sometimes people don’t even know they have a problem until you talk to them.

So first, I help my clients clarify their ICP—if they haven’t already. Many clients I've worked with thought they had their ICP nailed, but after talking to customers, they ended up pivoting or refining it.

Rachael Bassey (12:13.696)
Next, I work with them to define what I call the "Ideal Contributor Profile" too—not just the ideal customer.

For example, Kerry, if you were my ideal customer, I’d ask:

• Where do you live?
  
• What’s your title?
  
• What’s your industry?
  
• How many employees are at your company?
  

Sometimes, trying to reach a VP at a 5,000-person company is a waste of time. You’ll need approval from too many layers, and it’s like going to court.

So once we define who our ideal contributors are, I use LinkedIn filters—sometimes even certifications (like HubSpot Certified, for instance)—to find highly qualified individuals.

It’s not just about gathering insights. We want insights from people who can also become customers down the line. That way, the work serves both marketing and sales goals.

For example, one client was in influencer marketing. At first, they wanted to gather input from agencies. But I said, “Let’s focus on in-house influencer marketing professionals at eCommerce brands—because those are your buyers.”

So we shifted our survey strategy. Now, instead of collecting insights just for backlinks or SEO, we’re engaging the people who might actually buy the product.

That way, when the marketing manager follows up to thank them for contributing, it’s not just relationship-building—it’s lead generation.

We’ve even had contributors say, “I’ve been thinking about buying a tool like this—can I get a free trial?” Of course! That’s exactly the goal.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:10.028)
No—and you're so right. And you're so smart, because I think we spend—personally, I spend—so much time researching. But to actually start interviewing your target audience, especially those who aren’t already customers, is just brilliant.

It’s not necessarily easy, but it’s manageable. Especially if someone like you is guiding the process.

Tell us—how can people get in touch with you?

Rachael Bassey (27:43.904)
Rachael Bassey—not the American spelling! It’s R-A-C-H-A-E-L. That’s important. And Bassey is B-A-S-S-E-Y.

I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, so that’s the best place to find me.

I’m currently working on my website: contentcollab.co. Or feel free to email me: [email protected]. That’s content and collab—C-O-L-L-A-B—dot co.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (28:24.682)
Excellent. Thank you, Rachael. I’ll put all your contact information in the show notes. And thank you for reaching out on LinkedIn and asking to be on the show—this topic was so actionable.

I already know what my takeaways are, and I’m sure our listeners will feel the same way. Thank you again.

Rachael Bassey (28:45.22)
Thank you so much, Kerry, for having me. This was lovely.

Huge thanks to Rachael Bassey for joining us today. Her insights on using original research to create personalized, relevant, and scalable content are exactly what modern marketers need right now.

If this episode sparked ideas for how your team can better connect with your audience, share it with a colleague—and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review.

For more strategies to connect marketing with revenue, head over to revenuebasedmarketing.com.

And please follow me, Kerry Curran, on LinkedIn. We’ll see you soon.

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