How a UK digital marketing agency scales without growing pains using Tallyfy

What made you look for a process management solution?

We were 10 people and got to a point where there was a lot of specialized knowledge that needed to be shared around. We needed to be more document and process driven as the team grew.

I could see that we were at a point where we’d be scaling quickly and I wanted to make sure it happened in a way that’s consistently done at a high quality standard.

I wanted to make sure that every customer got the same experience, no matter what day of the week it was and who attended to them.

Agencies like Believe.Digital often find that client onboarding is where consistent processes matter most. Here’s how Tallyfy approaches this challenge:

The before and after

The best thing is that new people can do the work I do, at the standards that I do it. When we bring on more customers, we know that everyone gets the same quality of service.

Half our business is web development and half is internet marketing, so there are a lot of projects in the pipeline at any one time. Managing all of that consistently would be impossible without structured processes.

Dozens of blueprints and counting

We have dozens of procedures defined in Tallyfy. Remote working has made it hard for apprentices to be trained, but now we define blueprints that take people through carrying out different sets of tasks. Tallyfy walks people through how to do things.

Some examples:

• Client onboarding for SEO management
• Client onboarding for Google Ads management
• Create new website pages
• Weekly Google Ads checks
• Monthly Google Ads checks

Example Procedure

Client Onboarding

1Gather Basic Information

2Send Welcome E-Mail

3Conduct a Kick-Off Call

4Conduct a 1 month check-in Call

5Request Feedback

+1 more steps

View template

Example Procedure

Ad Campaign Management and Tracking

1Review current ad campaigns

2Document target audience and goals

3Gather creative assets

4Record budget and spend data

5Note performance metrics

+3 more steps

View template

Example Procedure

Keyword Research

1Keyword research tutorial 1

2Define your target topics

3Generate keyword ideas

4Analyze search metrics

5Group and prioritize

+1 more steps

View template

What features do you find most valuable?

Chatting without losing context - We use Slack but we lose context about which client and project we’re talking about. I particularly like how we can chat about the task, in the task. The context of a discussion within the task is much more useful than emailing, Slacking, or WhatsApping someone about it.

Rapid continuous improvement - People throw comments up against the blueprints, whoever wants to respond can do so, and it’s up there for people to review. We’re able to evolve procedures almost daily. The continuous improvement piece is invaluable.

We now have a culture of chiming in. People that didn’t contribute before are now doing it.

For example, three clients came onboard with the same requirements. We realized we needed to change steps and add steps for a dynamic industry. Using blueprints in Tallyfy we could easily modify the process so that the next person benefited from the changes without having to struggle themselves.

Conditional rules - Digital marketing is very process driven. The same kind of questions need to be asked for each different client, followed by highly technical actions at our end. Previous tools lacked conditional logic, so teams saw long lists of irrelevant questions. That meant friction for both staff and new accounts.

For example, if they’re a Google Shopping customer, we need to gain access to their Google Merchant Center. If they’re not, we don’t need to ask about this. Another example - if they want to advertise locally rather than nationally, they need to link their Google My Business profile to the Ads account. If they’re advertising nationally, that doesn’t need to be done.

With Tallyfy rules, it took 2 minutes to set this up to make sure it was asked when needed. And on top of that, the client fills it out, not us.

How were you managing processes before Tallyfy?

How many tools does a team really need before they admit the tooling isn’t the problem? We used Basecamp, Box, email, and WhatsApp. Before, we had a checklist in Basecamp where some items weren’t checked off because they weren’t relevant. It was never clear whether the work was complete or not. We had to have several small checklists.

That’s why Tallyfy rules are great. At a glance we can see the actions that need to be carried out, the number of steps, and what those steps are.

We all know that task lists with checkboxes never get checked off. But that’s where Tallyfy is different. The ability to conditionally show critical tasks that are relevant specifically to you is very powerful. Tallyfy works because it shows what’s relevant.

We used to send keywords to be checked by clients via email or WhatsApp, occasionally using Basecamp or Box for version control. Now we upload files within the process in Tallyfy and invite a client as a guest. This single forever-link for the client makes it simpler for both of us.

What do your clients think about using Tallyfy?

We were cautious about our clients using any system. But now we use Tallyfy Guests to review and approve keywords. If there are queries about that, task comments are used. A new shortlist of keywords is quickly provided and nothing’s done before it’s fully approved. Everyone sees that in real-time.

It’s much simpler than sending things by email or WhatsApp. After seeing what we can do with Tallyfy, we’ve started recommending it to our own contacts. They’ve been asking us about it.

Quantifying the value

The obvious benefits are personal time savings by people not coming to me for questions. The business is less dependent on me.

I can go camping and not worry about having Wi-Fi. Tallyfy allows me to take a holiday, purely because of the fact that there are processes for how to deal with things.

In terms of scaling, I know that each customer we bring onboard will have the same top experience. Anybody can just come in and pick up work anytime and see full context and history - just like in other apps like GitHub. You can tightly define the goal of the task, swap assignees, and see the history.

Tallyfy has over-delivered on what I thought it would do.

Would you recommend Tallyfy to other agencies?

Absolutely. If you’re a growing agency with specialized knowledge that needs to be shared, you need something like this. The combination of structured processes, conditional logic, and client collaboration has transformed how we operate.

We loved Tallyfy so much that we invested in it.