The Intangible Brand
The Intangible Brand
Podcast Description
Welcome to The Intangible Brand, where we explore the connection between employee experience and client experience, and the hidden forces that make brands stick. Each episode offers practical insights and inspiration for building a brand people are proud to work for — and eager to work with.The Intangible Brand is brought to you by Cline and TOKY.Say [email protected]
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on topics such as brand identity, employee experience, and client engagement, with episodes dissecting themes like the importance of internal culture in brand perception and strategies for successful rebranding without losing core values, as seen in discussions with leaders from the AEC industry.
Welcome to The Intangible Brand, where we explore the connection between employee experience and client experience, and the hidden forces that make brands stick. Each episode offers practical insights and inspiration for building a brand people are proud to work for — and eager to work with.
Watch this episode on YouTube
Corey Morris believes marketing isn't a vending machine you shake for quick returns. It's an investment you review and grow on purpose, every single quarter.
In this episode of The Intangible Brand, Jerry Gennaria and Carl Winstead sit down with Corey Morris, owner and CEO of Voltage and creator of the START planning process, to explore why so many marketing reports look great and still leave a business no better off. After more than twenty years in SEO and digital marketing, Corey discovered that the real driver of long-term growth isn't rankings or traffic, it's proof that marketing connects to revenue, and he's built his agency's entire framework around making sure that connection never gets lost.
The conversation moves from a very early career gut punch (a report full of great rankings for a client who hadn't landed a single new case) into the discipline Corey built in response: a five-step framework where the R stands for review, not reporting, because reviewing looks forward and reporting just looks back. Corey and the hosts also dig into how AI-driven search is quietly rewarding quality over quantity, and why chasing a spot on a competitor's self-serving ”best of” listicle can backfire when the AI engine cites the list but drops your name from it entirely.
Whether you're leading a marketing team, running an agency, or just trying to prove your own department's worth before the next budget meeting, this episode offers practical insights into making marketing measurable without losing the strategy behind it.
In This Episode
- Why ”good metrics” don't mean anything until they connect straight to revenue
- The difference between reporting and review, and why one is a leadership habit and the other a passive exercise
- Why AI-driven search is rewarding quality over quantity, and quietly penalizing self-serving ”best of” listicles
- Why Voltage walked away from full-service work to go deeper on fewer service lines
- How to build a sustainable content engine off one piece of cornerstone content instead of starting from scratch every week
- Why marketing works better as an investment mindset than a vending machine
- Corey's path from web project manager to SEO specialist to agency owner at Voltage
Key Takeaways
- Marketing metrics only matter when they're tied to a review process that connects them to real revenue impact, not just a quarterly report.
- In an AI-saturated search landscape, genuine expertise and a clear point of view differentiate a brand more than sheer volume of content.
- Specializing in fewer service lines, done at a top-tier level, builds more client trust than trying to be a one-stop shop.
- One well-built piece of cornerstone content (a book, a keynote, original research) can be responsibly scaled into months of authentic thought leadership.
- Marketing works best when it's treated like a long-term investment reviewed on a schedule, not a vending machine pulled whenever leads are needed.
Resources & References
- The Digital Marketing Success Plan by Corey Morris
- Sell with Authority by Drew McLellan and Stephen Woessner
- Rethinking Work by Rishad Tobaccowala
About Corey Morris
Corey Morris is a best-selling author, speaker, and marketing leader. He is the creator of the START Planning Process and the founder of Digital Marketing Success Plan®.
He is the owner and President/CEO of VOLTAGE, a specialist digital agency focused on digital strategy, search/AI marketing, and websites. With more than 20 years of experience, Corey has led award-winning initiatives for brands at local, national, and global levels, helping leadership teams align marketing execution with measurable business outcomes.
His work focuses on helping leadership teams bring clarity, accountability, and adaptability to marketing decisions in an era of rapid change. Corey is a monthly expert contributor to Search Engine Journal and Search Engine Land. He speaks throughout North America on SEO, AI, and marketing strategy and accountability and has presented at events including SMX and Digital Summit. His industry leadership and community impact earned him the KCDMA’s 2019 Marketer of the Year award.
Connect with Corey Morris!
- CoreyMorris.com
- Corey Morris on LinkedIn
Connect With Us
Follow the Hosts: Jerry Gennaria & Carl Winstead
Get In Touch: [email protected]
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