Stop Wasting Money: Corey Morris Reveals the START Framework Behind High-ROI Marketing Plans

In this episode, Reed sits down with Corey Morris — marketing leader, bestselling author, and creator of the START Planning Process, a framework helping businesses finally build a digital marketing plan that isn’t driven by guru advice, “best practices,” or random tactics.

Corey’s book, The Digital Marketing Success Plan, breaks down a clear and repeatable system for building marketing strategy the right way — one that aligns goals, cuts waste, and gives businesses a plan they can actually follow, measure, and optimize.

With 20+ years of experience, conference keynotes, agency leadership, and hands-on work across search, content, and strategy, Corey brings the rare combo of clarity + practicality in a marketing world that often feels like chaos.

This episode is packed with actionable insights on:

• Why most companies don’t really have a marketing plan
• The problem with “tactics-first marketing”
• How the START model brings clarity to teams
• How AI is reshaping planning, content, and channel strategy
• Why some channels appear to “not work” (but actually do)
• How to challenge assumptions, track ROI, and build a plan that evolves
• Avoiding expensive mistakes before they happen
• How founders and marketing leaders can operate with more confidence, direction, and alignment

If you’re a founder, marketer, leader, or strategist who’s tired of guessing and ready to plan with precision — this episode is for you.

🔗 Connect with Corey Morris

📘 The Digital Marketing Success Plan: https://thedmsp.com

⚡ Voltage Digital: https://voltage.digital

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

• The START Framework: Strategy → Tactics → Application → Review → Transformation
• Why planning isn’t sexy — but is absolutely essential
• How to avoid wasted spend, bloated tactics, and misaligned goals
• How AI is changing both planning and implementation
• How to create accountability and agility inside a plan
• What most companies get wrong about marketing ROI
• The #1 mindset that separates effective marketers from chaotic ones

🎯 Want to see what’s actually working in marketing?

At MarketSurge, we help businesses grow smarter, faster, and louder — with systems that scale and automation that feels personal.

🌐 Visit us at: https://marketsurge.io

📅 Book a Value or Free Coffee Call: https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/15minutevalueorfreecoffee

Creators and Guests

Host

Reed Hansen

Reed Hansen is a seasoned digital marketing executive with a proven track record of driving business growth through innovative strategies. As the Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, he focuses on leveraging AI-powered marketing tools to help businesses scale efficiently. Reed's expertise spans from leading startups to Fortune 500 companies, making him a recognized authority in the digital marketing space. His unique ability to combine data-driven insights with creative solutions has been instrumental in achieving remarkable sales growth for his clients. ​

What is Inside Marketing with MarketSurge?

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Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge and a digital marketing veteran who's helped scale everything from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 giants, this podcast dives deep into what’s really moving the needle in today’s marketing world. Find us at Marketsurge.io

Each week, we’ll break down the latest marketing and business news (minus the fluff), explore tech trends you actually need to know, and feature unfiltered conversations with the most interesting minds in entrepreneurship and marketing.

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Subscribe, tune in, and let’s scale something legendary. 🚀

Speaker: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing with Market Surge, and
today we're joined by Cory Morris.

A marketing leader, bestselling
author, and the creator of the start

planning process, which he developed
to help businesses build their own

digital marketing success plan.

book, the Digital Marketing Success
Plan, breaks down this process in a

simple way, in contrast to all the
so-called best practices and the constant

flood of opinions that we're all with.

Instead, Corey focuses on clarity,
transparency, and the hard work it takes

to actually get to an optimal plan.

With over 20 years of experience, Corey
has spoken at top, conferences across

North America, appeared on dozens of
podcasts and has become a trusted voice

who makes complex digital marketing topics
approachable without oversimplifying them.

Corey, welcome to the podcast.

We're so glad you could join us.

Corey Morris: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Well,
Cory, let's start with your story.

Now, you've worked in digital
marketing for many years, and how did

you use that experience to help you
develop this start planning process?

And I say start, it's in caps,
uh, and we're gonna talk about

the acronym in a little bit.

Corey Morris: Um, I am in
the 20th year of my career.

Um, and looking back, I had a chance
to do that when I wrote my book.

Um, and, uh, it's been a journey
when I really think about it.

It was kind of just a,
what do I want to do?

Let's figure this out.

In my first couple of years
to falling into search engine

optimization and paid search and.

Heavily with websites and then all of
the, the digital marketing channels.

But, um, I've got a, a great story
and what I'm really proud of that's

in the book that I, that was kind
of the long way to figure out how

the process could and should work.

It had, like, that client had
pretty much every element of.

No goals, no marketing strategy,
um, siloed departments, um,

stakeholders doing things their own
way, internal politics, um, and,

uh, didn't really have a tech stack.

And so pretty much every possible
thing I could come into was in that.

And I didn't realize at the time
that the work that we were doing to

build their plan would be kind of the
basis, um, for that framework that.

That years later that,
that I finally established.

Um, I also had to fight through my own way
to take really technical and nerdy things

and things that I iterate on every time I
do it and make it something standardized

and something I can articulate.

And so I wasn't just adding more to
everybody's own mess of like, uh, of more

variables of how to try to do things.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Well, so let's jump into
the, the nuts and bolts.

What does start, stand for and, uh, you
know, tell us about why it's effective.

Corey Morris: Yeah, whether I'm leading
a client through it or my team is in

my agency, or you just take it from
the book where I've gladly give it

away to the world to self implement
or take parts and pieces of it to

implement or supplement your own process.

Whether you're starting from scratch,
and don't have a digital marketing

plan and just have a bunch of tactics
or things you've been doing, or

you've got a really awesome plan and
you're incorporating this in maybe an

annual review or revisit of that plan.

It's in most cases, we're implementing in
a 60 or 90 day process to build that plan.

so start as an acronym.

it naturally begins with strategy and
so many times we come in and we see

so many tactics, as I just mentioned,
where question, why are we writing

seven blog posts a month and posting
on social media 15 times a week?

Is it because we've always done that?

Is it because somebody
told us to at one point?

or that's a best practice out there
somewhere, or our competitors are

doing it, but working through that
and challenging why we're doing

activities and what they're linked
to, to an ultimate business outcome.

So getting on the same page even with
the stakeholders in the room who could

represent different departments and
have different things that they're

advocating for, or even different
ways that they define the same inside

baseball language in the company.

So getting alignment, doing some auditing
of what's working and what's not.

So we don't just assume none of it's
working or we don't make assumptions

that all of it was working to carry
it forward, even if we're biased

towards certain channels or activities
or things, um, that we like.

And so getting the strategy
nailed down and understanding the

finite business, connected KPIs.

That can connect back to marketing
KPIs, um, is a critical place to start.

Um, again, puns are all over the place
here in this process, but then from

there, when we have a lens to look
through and a filter, we get into tactics.

And so the tactics layer, this is
where it's cheap to test and we're

not really putting things out in
the wild, but we're gonna use.

Industry leading research tools,
platform specific research tools,

and to go validate, uh, is there
enough of our audience in these

places mapped to our funnel or to our
customer journey to go, uh, to go get

what we need to, hit our goal that
we defined in the strategy phase.

And so may have to go back to the strategy
phase for a minute, if our goals were

a little too ambitious or there's just,
but it's good to find it out now before

we're running, giving budget to Google.

Paying an agency or anyone else, uh,
to go find out six months down the road

that it was an expensive experiment.

So getting the right mix of tactics
locked in that allows us to move

even faster through the last three
phases, uh, the a is for application.

And this is where we're understanding
how that strategy and those tactics will

come alive and making sure that we're
ready to invite people to the party.

do our landing pages,
need to be revisited?

Do our.

Creative and assets for ads.

Are they in a good place?

Or for the first few flights of ads that
we're gonna run under a revised strategy?

Is our website in a good
place to be optimized?

Or is it gonna hold us back
when we're ready to implement

and turn on the strategy?

We also then get into
the R, which is review.

I call it review, not just reporting,
because it's not just reporting and doing

things straight outta the box with Google
Analytics or GA four, but this is making

sure you have a holistic view all the way
through to, your CRM or whatever system

you have to be able to see actual realized
revenue or whatever that ultimate business

goal is, and work backwards, from that.

So it's not just an out of the
box dashboard, but we have to

make sure that we can attribute.

our work in the digital marketing
arena to what that business goal is,

and then the T is transformation.

That's where this whole
thing comes together.

We have parts and pieces, we probably
have spreadsheets on top of spreadsheets.

In my book, I give a sample outline, just
so it's not a vacuum, but this may be in

decks, spreadsheets, tools, everywhere.

And this is putting an action plan
together that you can resource, that

you can put accountability into, and it
doesn't become something in someone's

head or put on a shelf and we get
busy and three months later we're

off the plan or we're ignoring it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay, awesome.

So obviously this, the result
of this process is the digital

marketing success plan.

I have a note.

is this trademarked?

It looks like that.

It might be.

Corey Morris: It is, um, earlier this
year I finally got to the end of the

year long process to get to the Circle R.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Fantastic.

Corey Morris: So it is
trademarked, but like I said, I

give away the whole framework.

My whole thing here with giving it
away instead of holding it back is

I, there are just so many times where
someone gets to me a little too late

and I'm like, oh man, I wish, with these
challenges you've gone through that I

could have just gotten a few of these
parts and pieces from mistakes I made.

Not because I'm sitting here
from a place of having it all

figured out or being perfect, but.

From all these parts and pieces of
the mistakes I've made, um, over the

years and learned from, um, where
again, Google will take your money,

Facebook and LinkedIn and everyone
else, whether it's working or not.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

So the, um, you know, you have
this contained in a book and

you're generous to, to share that.

Do you tell, tell us about the
process of, of writing the book.

Uh, you know, how did you decide
on how much to put in, how you

know what to leave out what's too
detailed or maybe focused on a niche?

Um, you know, how did you
filter what you put in the book?

Corey Morris: I worked with a great
publisher, indie Books International, and

so, um, Henry Dries, in the leadership
there was able to came out to me in

Kansas City and helped me structure this.

So it wasn't just my rambling thoughts
and it wasn't just the process in a way

that would put everyone to sleep in,

Two chapters.

so it really has stories woven in
where I didn't hold back, I changed

names so I wouldn't have to hold back
any juicy details, but going into real

stories of my own learnings and some
of my own failures, as well as some of

the challenges I saw across clients.

the process of putting that together,
starting with the stories, was awesome and

really gave it even more, meaning in terms
of how many dollars absolutely are wasted

every day and every year in marketing.

the reasons why some people give
up on certain channels, and some

companies think that maybe SEO or
what's turning into AI search or.

Google ads or whatever
doesn't work for them.

Maybe it does work for you, but, we
didn't get across the barrier of what we

needed to in terms of having it planned
and implemented properly, unique to them,

working through that process as well
as, being forced to say, okay, how do I

take this and put this into five steps
or six steps, or whatever it is, we do.

And so it was a cool experience to
sit down with my team and figure

out how to organize this thing
that we're always iterating on.

We're always complicating, and
to get it down to something that

we can articulate pretty quickly
and make it repeatable, but not.

You know, cookie cutter.

So the process and framework has
discipline, but everyone's plan

and the inputs and what we plug
into it produce a total unique

plan on the back end of it too.

So that was really the emphasis of it.

Um, but it has some stories too
to help break it up as well.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: I've
worked at organizations, um.

Inside and out, you know, in marketing
roles, non-marketing roles, and to

have a comprehensive plan was, I think
relatively rare from my experience.

you know, there's often like a deck
that had been presented as the plan.

does that match with what
you've observed as well?

And you know, how common is it
for a marketing organization

to have a plan and stick to it?

Corey Morris: Planning is
not a sexy topic, right?

it's not.

and sometimes it conjures up memories
of, oh man, we did that strategic

planning thing for six months and it
about killed us and just drug on forever.

And it just felt really bloated.

Or the absence of that is.

we did a thing for three hours and we
set our goals for the year, and then

everybody kind of went on their own
way to figure out how to implement.

And then again, everybody got busier,
was siloed and didn't come back to it.

So having the plan, especially
if in a smaller team.

If it's not documented somewhere,
it's in somebody's head.

If that person leaves,
they're with your plan.

or if it's a smaller team it's in that
person's head, then it's really personal.

If someone wants to come ask questions
or challenge why it's not working,

it's really hard to make it objective.

I talk a lot about, you know, we want
to have a plan and if we can get it

blocked out for sprints for the first
or second quarter or for a year.

Great, but we can't just
blindly run the plan.

There has to be agility built in.

So it's the right balance of both
worlds, of having a documented plan.

So it's on paper and if something
changes, we can come back and revisit

it to reallocate budgets or priorities.

If we launch a new product, new
tech emerges, a new competitor does

something, A CEO gives us a drive
by and says, what about this idea?

It gives you a chance to say, okay,
even if it's a timeout for five minutes.

How does that change budget
priority or the plan?

Do we have more budget or do we need
to restack the plan and go back and

get it approved versus just making
assumptions or chasing things around?

And so having the right balance of.

Being able to handle those, what I
call trigger events when they come

and or having your own built-in
milestones to check progress and to

make sure you're adapting it and not
just running something, whether it's

working or not is important, but all
those are characteristics and aspects

to try to prevent, you know, being
too light on it or being way too

heavy where, you know, we're always
in planning mode and not implementing.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: So you,
something in your comment made me

think of, you know, the aspect of
ai, and there's two facets to this.

So one, I'd be interested in how
AI affects the planning process.

You know, does that,
does it speed things up?

Does it make it easier
to synthesize more data?

And two.

you said, new tech is emerging
all the time, largely around ai.

You know, maybe it saves us money or
maybe it, makes it a certain channel or

approach more appealing 'cause it's, you
know, now facilitated by AI or something.

So those two aspects, how would you say
those are actually affecting marketing

planning and plan implementation

Corey Morris: Yeah.

and those are two big ones and there
are even a couple more that are almost

dizzying if you just go spend your
whole day, going down that hole.

But, in terms of planning
and research and.

Tools, it's great because we can scale
and get data so much faster, right?

So when I talk about auditing and
doing things like that, a lot of the

leading tools now have AI functions
so they're more powerful at that same

price point or, not much different
price point than they were years ago.

And we don't have to take as much.

Synthesis of the data that they
give us, whether it's ah reps or an

SEM rush or whatever it might be.

but in other cases, whether we're doing
our own auditing, we can just do so

many more things at scale or get deeper
or have another opinion, especially

for a team of one doing any of this.

When it comes to impacts on what we're
doing over time as well, it can really

help with scaling content as long as
we're careful and not producing what a

lot of us can see from a mile away being
AI produced content now and more generic

and just kind of bloating the internet
with, more commoditized, not bad, but

not great or not branded and personalized
and connecting to their audience level.

of engagement content.

and then another category down the
road too is knowing that change is

happening at such a rapid pace, within
the different marketing channels.

my agency's focus is heavily
on search, both organic and.

Paid and the new AI Max match type, coming
out in, Google Ads or, the disruption

within Google of showing AI overviews more
exclusively and eventually probably going

to AI mode a hundred percent of the time.

the fragmentation with other sources
like, search functions and LLMs.

And so all of those things are changing
how we might be doing this as well.

We need to be leveraging AI at a
minimum for efficiencies when we're

doing planning work, implementation of
our plan and tactical work, and also

be aware of how it's changing what
those channels look like and how our

potential target audiences and users
engage with us in those channels too.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

No, that's, that's really helpful.

Um, so.

you, you are also a business owner
and, uh, you know, I'm sure you've

been implementing marketing plans.

what are some of the lessons you've
learned from doing these marketing

plans for your own business?

You know, is it effective
if you do x, less effective?

If you do, you know, what are
some of those, um, takeaways?

we could talk about?

Corey Morris: Yeah.

Um, and this is where it gets a little
dangerous and more extreme, but if you

don't know that something is working, you
think it's working or you feel like it

might not be working, that is absolutely
the time to question everything.

Um, marketing should be looked at as an
investment, an expense, and an investment.

Assumes a return on investment.

So getting something back.

And so if you're not able to track it all
the way through, or some of the things

we talked about earlier, some of that,
that my process is, is built to kind of

try to make us have conviction around
before we are spending tons of money or

to realign that, um, understand that.

And so I, I'm big on challenging
in a polite and respectful

way, like the what and why.

And it may result in us still doing the
exact same things we're doing, but I

feel like a healthy dose of skepticism or
just healthy, healthy challenging of our

goals, are they deep enough and is their
return on investment for, um, for writing

this blog post, for writing this, this
book, or setting up this new AI function

and training it so it can replicate
me in some way if I'm just kind of.

Looking at it as a checklist or a
best practice or a thing to do versus

a strategic advantage, um, that's
where I will always question it.

So for me, I'm constantly evolving.

I mean, I, my book came out last year.

Uh, you mentioned in the off the top, you
know, I've done a lot of speaking, a lot

of, um, interviews like this, but thinking
about the highest value activities.

and where you put your time and time
blocking, you can't see my whiteboard,

but how I'm working on time blocking and
finding the highest value in marketing.

Um, with doing, you know, taking some 80
20 rule in that approach too, of leaving

10 or 20% of my time also to test the new
things and not just assume it's working.

So, I have to get outta my own head
with the whole process and step back

out of it and let others challenge
me to make sure that I'm not.

Falling into a pattern on a week that's
really busy with a hundred things going

on, running the business, and just mailing
it in on the marketing side, um, since

that's a hat I wear in my company, or
doing it for a few months and forgetting

the process or abandoning my own process.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: that's,
uh, thank you for being so candid.

that's really helpful.

Now, uh, for people that would like to
either work with you or learn about the

the start model, uh, read your book, what,
you know, where can they find the book?

Where can they reach out
to communicate with you?

Corey Morris: Yeah, there's a couple
ways to reach out to me or to my team.

Um, we don't have a sales team, so you'll
be talking to a strategist or someone

possibly me, um, and you won't be sold to.

So, um, we love to nerd out on
people's businesses and see if there's.

Some way we can help or point you to
a trusted colleague who could help

or what the best step is for you.

But, um, the agency side is
Voltage Digital to find us there.

But if you're interested in the book
itself, it's got its own standalone site.

The book is called The Digital Marketing
Success Plan, and with that being a long

title, I've shortened it to the dms p.com,

and if you land there, it's
got information about the start

planning process and a link over
to Amazon to pick up a copy.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: That's awesome.

Well, thank you so much
for your generosity.

It's always great to have, uh, content
that the, readers can take away, and I

look forward to getting my own copy and,
trying to incorporate these lessons.

So, um, Corey, I really appreciate
you joining us today and, uh, we

look forward to staying in touch
and collaborating in the future.

Corey Morris: Thanks for having me, Reid.

Speaker 2: Want to stay ahead of what's
actually working in marketing right now.

Head over to Market surge.io

and see how we're helping businesses
grow smarter, faster, and louder.

That's market surge.io

because your next breakthrough
shouldn't be a guess.