David Vernon

First, you need to understand why your team lacks motivation or inspiration. It's all well and good trying to supplement a lack thereof with incentives and motivational speeches, but if you fail to solve the underlying issue, it will always return sooner or later. So you need to present a number of questions to your team: 'what keeps you motivated' 'why are you feeling uninspired' 'what can we do to make things more interesting' etc etc. The answers you get will determine your next steps. Individuals operate differently - and you need to tailor your intentions to each individual specifically to get the desired result.

1. Do your research Take a look at job vacancies online for a similar title. Some websites list the average salary for specific job titles. 2. Work out your living costs Living costs are another factor to consider when asking for the salary you want. Make sure that you can comfortably cover your rent, bills and other living expenses. Salaries tend to differ according to location. 3. Consider your experience If you have many years of work experience in your field, it puts you at an advantage and could justify a higher income. Once you've done all of the above, present a salary range to your boss or hiring manager (your lowest & highest bracket) and start to negotiate.

Don't focus on improving your digital marketing skills (unless you need to) Approach your line manager and ask them 'what will it take to get promoted?' Or 'I want to earn x amount yearly, what do you need to me to do to get there?' Earning promotions isn't always about skills - it's about approaching the right people who will set you on the right path. Improving your skills might make you a better digital marketer, but it won't always put you in the best position for a promotion unless you take active steps to understand what your line manager/business needs from you.

Try updating your clients on a weekly basis. This includes what you’ve been working on that week, what you have planned for next week and any additional insights, problems and recommendations you might want to discuss with them. Communication doesn’t need to be difficult. It needs to be consistent and transparent. After working in the industry for over 10 years, this is the number one thing you can do to build trust and confidence with your clients.

Be authentic and solve a problem: Lead generation is inundated with spammy messages and poor efforts to reach out to businesses. These are usually met with unwanted solutions to problems that your prospects don’t have. The moment you do that, you’ve lost your shot. Being authentic means reaching out, getting to know the person behind the business and most importantly, asking questions so you can understand their challenges. If you can help them with it, great, you’re on the right tracks. Go ahead and tell them how you can help. If you’re authentic, people will open up to you. Think of it as a conversation, not a pitch. That’s how you win in the lead gen game.

As part of this process, it's also important that you set a specific budget for your project that aligns clearly with your goals. Jim Rohn once quoted: "don’t put a small effort into a big result. If you have large growth goals don’t expect to invest less than 10% of the monetary number you’re trying to achieve." Using this principle, if your business wants to generate an additional £250,000/$250,000 through SEO, spend a minimum of £25,000/$25,000 to achieve it. You may go up to as much as 30% but it will pay itself back exponentially because it creates a measurable system that can run and make money on its own. Equally, don't put a small effort into a big result. If your budget seems disproportionate to your goals, it probably is.