CRO Specialist Earning £125,000/year

Welcome to another post in the $100k Club series. You can see the full series here. This is "My Morning Routine" for content marketing folks making six figures. The goal is to shed light on the skills and habits that enable people to achieve lucrative jobs and help get more people in this club.

These will be anonymous and updated regularly. If you make more than $100k/year and want to contribute, fill out the form here.

For more info on content marketing salaries, check out our salary report.

If you'd like to see more info on salary by job title, check out these resources: Content Marketing Manager Salary, Content Strategist Salary, Head of Content Salary, and Content Director Salary.

What was your first full-time job in content? What was the salary?

Digital Marketing Executive - SEO and Website Specialist with £32,000 salary per annum.

I actually studied fashion design in university and worked in the fashion industry for 6 years before realizing it wasn't for me. After taking a 1-2 year career break, I tried working at a branding agency and in sales for a jewelry designer, but neither felt right.

A friend who was starting a drone photography production house asked me to help with marketing. Despite having no experience, I built a website from scratch, reverse-engineered competitors' SEO strategies, and got the site to page 1 in Google within 3 months. I also set up Google Ads campaigns that generated solid revenue and leads.

I used this portfolio to land my first full-time job in digital marketing at £32,000, where I handled technical and on-page SEO for a B2B website with over 30,000 monthly users. Since SEO and content had major overlaps, I also created an SEO-driven content strategy for our content and social media team.

List out your income by year for as long as you've been working in content marketing.

2016 to 2017 - £32,000 - SEO and Website Specialist - Inhouse

2017 rest of year - £45,000 - Paid Search Specialist - Inhouse

2018 to 2019 - £50,000 - Technical Marketer of Agency

2019-2020 - £60,000 to £80,000 - Partner of Agency (revenue share)

2020-2023 - £70,000 - Inhouse - Director of Digital

2023-2024 - £125,000 - Paid Search and CRO specialist - Freelance

2024-2025 - £85,000 - Growth Marketing Manager - Inhouse

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I quickly transitioned to the B2C side of my first company to do performance marketing, focusing on Google Ads and Facebook ads across UK, US, and Australian markets. This foundation at a Fintech startup led me to agency life where I spent another 3 years honing my skills in growth marketing.

How much do you earn today? What's your job title?

£85,000 - Growth Marketing Manager - Inhouse

What's single biggest salary jump you've made? (either from job-hopping or a promotion/raise)

Between: 2020-2023 - £70,000 - Inhouse - Director of Digital 2023-2024 - £125,000 - Paid Search and CRO specialist - Freelance

Although the form shows this as my biggest jump, the most significant career advancement actually came a year after joining the growth marketing agency, when I was made partner. This gave me a slice of the revenue alongside my salary, resulting in a substantial increase.

What is your most valuable skill?

My technical skills are probably my most valuable asset. In the UK, marketing often gets a bad reputation as a field for "school dropouts" or people who couldn't succeed in other subjects. While I haven't personally encountered completely unprofessional marketers, I've noticed that many lack technical skills.

I'm able to audit websites, create data-driven strategies based on analysis, install tracking pixels, use Google Tag Manager and WordPress, work effectively with developers, and craft detailed scopes of work in language they understand. These technical abilities have particularly helped me excel in growth marketing.

What's the best book you've ever read on writing, marketing, sales, business or productivity? (Feel free to suggest more than one!)

I don't really read many books, but my favorite one to date is from April Dunford, Obviously Awesome. What really boosted my learning for my career was directly learning from people more advanced than I am (be it courses, blogs, hiring a freelancer to teach me...).

Very early on in my career I signed up to Market Motive (now defunct, or part of the Simplilearn family), which had a very advanced course on Technical SEO and I think to this day I'm still using some of the techniques!

One of my valuable skills is reaching out to people in the community who know more than me instead of going down research rabbit holes. Most people are willing to help, and it's the fastest way to learn.

Have you had a career mentor/coach? If so, how did you find them and what have you learned from them?

Unfortunately, no, I had to be largely self taught. Whenever I needed to learn something I reach out online via a forum or enrol in a course. I've never found a mentor, though people in my communities have recommended some. I've learned more from my peers than from formal coaching.

What skills or habits help you thrive at work?

I document everything I learn. I create Trello boards and Google Docs to summarize new subjects, noting down all the steps for future reference. Since digital marketing strategies are often repeatable from Company A to Company B to C, having these documented processes is invaluable. I'm still referring to Trello boards I created 10 years ago.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to join the $100k club?

Level up on your marketing skills. When I got my first full-time job as a digital marketing executive, I thought I had "made it," but quickly realized there was still so much I didn't know. I spent my evenings taking courses and developing new skills, especially at the agency where clients came from diverse backgrounds with different problems.

To join the £100k club, you need both technical abilities and soft skills. Later in my career, I had to learn how to manage up and down because there comes a point where hard skills alone aren't enough anymore. You need soft skills to convince people, get buy-in, and earn a seat at the table with C-level executives.

Being able to articulate your ideas clearly, put them on paper, and chart a detailed roadmap of what you would do has helped me tremendously in advancing my career.

Where do you live?

London, United Kingdom

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