In this episode, I interview Corey Morris, Chief Strategy Officer of Voltage, a digital marketing agency based in Kansas City. Voltage partners with clients to create award-winning strategies focused on design, development, search engine optimization, paid search, and marketing campaigns. For the past 15 years, Corey Morris has worked in strategic and leadership roles in the digital marketing industry. In 2015, he led the Search Engine Marketing Professionals Organization (SEMPO) Cities initiative in Kansas City upon founding the KC Search Marketing Conference and currently serves as VP for the worldwide SEMPO Cities Program.
Corey also shares his knowledge about the search industry as VIP contributor to Search Engine Journal and speaker at local and national events on SEO and digital marketing topics. He also formerly served as co-host of a monthly tech radio show called Tech Circuit.
Join us today as Corey gives his insights on what it's like building a digital marketing team from scratch, finding the right people and cultural fit to scale an agency, and tips on how to grow your small agency past the 7-figure revenue mark and beyond.
This Cast Covers:
- How Corey joined Voltage and started as as a digital marketing team of one to leading overall strategy at Voltage (1:32)
- Playing every sport he could in his childhood and wanting to break the mold of being a doctor in his family (3:10)
- What made Corey realize he wanted to pursue a career in marketing (04:23)
- The power of networking and how it led him to his first project manager role in a digital marketing agency (05:42)
- What led him to join Voltage in 2013 (6:35)
- From being known as a full-service agency to narrowing their focus on digital marketing strategy specializing in SEO and search marketing (06:58)
- How niching down helped Voltage establish their digital marketing presence and grow their team internally (07:12)
- Empowering people to embrace their subject matter expertise (10:38)
- What makes Voltage successful in terms of higher sales, higher employee and client retention (15:37)
- Effective and reliable growth tactics for acquiring and retaining clients (17:40)
- Corey’s biggest contribution to the agency a.k.a. Corey’s superpower (21:00)
- Where Voltage is headed in 2021 and what they are trying to improve in terms of growing and scaling the agency (24:20)
- What agency owners must focus on that will make the most impact on growth and profit margins (26:41)