Meet Corey Smith
I connect marketing direction with the work that follows.
Today, my focus is helping businesses decide what deserves attention, then turning that direction into useful work. Through Smithworks, I bring marketing planning, websites, HubSpot, and content together around what your business needs to accomplish.
My focus today
Choose the right work. Make sure it gets done.
A website, a campaign, and a customer database can each look like a separate project. But buyers move between them. What they read on your site affects whether they inquire. The information in HubSpot affects how your team responds. Your marketing plan should connect those decisions.
That is where I focus my work: understanding the business goal, choosing the priorities, and staying close to the writing, building, setup, and review that follow.
Sometimes that means planning and building a website. Sometimes it means improving HubSpot records, forms, workflows, or follow-up. Sometimes it means organizing content and campaigns through a marketing sprint—a planned period of work focused on an agreed goal.
The Forged Marketing System gives that work a shared direction. Strategy helps us choose the tasks; doing the work and checking the results helps us decide what comes next.
How I got here
Running an agency shaped how I work today.
I founded Tribute Media in 2007 with more confidence than experience running an agency. Building the business taught me that marketing problems rarely stay inside one discipline—and that leading a team takes more than having a plan.
Over time, I learned to share responsibility, make roles clearer, and give people room to do good work. Those lessons still shape how I plan projects and work with clients.
Tribute Media was acquired by Hawke Media in 2023. After two years as a managing director there, I left in 2025 to focus on Smithworks. I wanted to stay close to both the decisions businesses make and the work needed to carry them out.
You should understand the work and your part in it.
I lead the work and stay involved in planning and execution. Who else takes part depends on the agreed scope and the people already on your team.
You should know what we are trying to accomplish, why a task matters, who is responsible, and where your input is needed. You should also know what is included, how much work we can take on, and what the results do—or do not—tell us.
That makes the plan useful to the people carrying it out and gives us a clearer way to decide what happens next.
Contact Corey
Start with an Executive Growth Brief
Understand what deserves attention first.
If you are unsure where to start, an Executive Growth Brief brings your business goals and relevant marketing information together. It helps explain what deserves attention, what is worth keeping, and where we recommend starting.
There is no cost for an Executive Growth Brief.
The brief helps you understand:
- Which business problem or opportunity deserves attention first.
- Where buyers may be losing confidence or dropping out.
- What is working and should be preserved.
- Which next step is worth exploring, and why.
