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 we were growing.

I could see that we were at a point where we would be scaling quickly and I wanted to make sure it happened in a way that is 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.

How has your business changed since using Tallyfy?

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. This mirrors what we hear from other digital marketing teams - one agency described their previous onboarding as taking weeks instead of days, with the CEO saying he “shot himself in the face every single time we acquired a new customer” before implementing structured workflows.

What processes do you run on Tallyfy?

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

What features do you find most valuable?

Chatting without losing context - We use Slack but we lose context about which client and project we are 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 is up there for people to review. We are able to evolve procedures almost daily. The continuous improvement piece is incredibly invaluable.

We now have a culture of chiming in. People that did not 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. Other marketing agencies we have worked with struggled with the same issue - teams saw long lists of irrelevant questions because previous tools lacked conditional logic, causing friction and frustration for both staff and their new accounts.

For example, if they are a Google Shopping customer, we need to gain access to their Google Merchant Center. If they are not, we do not 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 are advertising nationally, that does not 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?

We used Basecamp, Box, email, and WhatsApp. Before, we had a checklist in Basecamp where some items were not checked off because they were not relevant. It was never clear whether the work was complete or not. We had to have several small checklists.

That is 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 is 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 is 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 is done before it is fully approved. Everyone sees that in real-time.

It is much simpler than sending things by email or WhatsApp. After seeing what we can do with Tallyfy, we have started recommending it to our clients. Clients have been asking us about it.

How would you quantify the value of Tallyfy?

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 are 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.