How We Gave Our Digital Marketing Agency Onboarding Process a Glow Up and Boosted Proposal Conversions by 47%

You know at Oh My Digital, we believe in radical transparency, so we’re lifting the lid on the exact changes we made to our onboarding process that led to a 47% increase in proposal conversions. Whether you’re a fellow service-based business looking to create smoother first impressions, or you’re just curious about how we turn new enquiries into raving brand fans, we’re breaking it all down today.

And if you’re ready to implement a similar system? We’ve included some affiliate links that’ll help you save money and make money, with some exclusive EOFY offers from our trusted onboarding stack.

Affiliate Disclosure: This blog post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything using our affiliate links or discount codes, we’ll receive a small commission. We have personally used every tool included in this post, so you can trust that these recommendations comes with the OMD seal of approval. It is your personal responsibility to evaluate whether any affiliate offer, including the products recommended in this blog post, are right for you or your business. As always, we encourage you to do your own research and due diligence before making any purchase decision.

What Our Old Process Looked Like

We’ve always had good intentions—welcoming every new lead with warmth, care and intention. But behind the scenes? Our onboarding used to be a lot more manual, inconsistent and time-consuming:

• Proposals were created from scratch each time
• Contracts and invoices were sent in multiple emails
• Clients would sometimes take days to sign our contract or pay their deposit
• Internal delays meant momentum got lost

It worked—but it wasn’t scalable. And it didn’t reflect the premium, values-led service we deliver.

Our Onboarding Process Now

Step 1: Discovery Call

Future clients join Katy on a 30-minute discovery call to chat through your business goals, challenges and big dreams. If it looks like we might be a perfect match, we’ll send through a proposal with the next steps to get started!

Psst… If you’re not a client but want to be, book your very own free 30 minute call here.

Step 2: Strategy Session

Our partnership kicks off with a Strategy Session where you’ll get to meet every team member working on your account. We’ll pick your brain about your goals and ideal client to get to know your business like it’s our own!

Our Strategy Session are also available as a standalone service with no ongoing commitment. Learn more and book instantly online here.

Step 3: Digital Marketing Playbook

We’ll then develop a 12 month marketing roadmap to achieve your business goals, while honouring your brand and lifestyle goals too!

From here, you can choose to implement the plan yourself, or hand it over to our team.

Our Digital Marketing Playbook is also available as a standalone service with no ongoing commitment (and includes a bonus Strategy Session!) Learn more here.

Step 4: Monthly Management

Want a long-term commitment? Yes please!

With your Marketing Playbook in place, our team will be ready to hit the ground running and roll out your strategy for you every month!

Want to see some examples of our most popular packages, and examples of our work? Download our Service Guide here.

What We Changed (And Why)

We wanted a process that aligned with our values: honesty, empowerment and clarity. So we implemented two new tools that completely changed the game.

TidyCal for Discovery Calls

We previously used Calendly to let potential clients book in a discovery call with us. The only issue? If the lead wasn’t really qualified, it was kind of awkward (and not the best client experience) to cancel calls.

After this, we tested adding an additional qualifying quiz before Calendly, so the link was only available to business owners ready to work with us. This process was a bit *too good* at gatekeeping our calendars, and caused us to miss out on a lot of good leads because we made the enquiry process too hard.

Now we’ve finally found our happy medium! We switched from Calendly to TidyCal, which has a feature allowing us to approve or reject any new bookings. This means we can easily set the right expectations with potential clients upfront, providing a better experience for them, while still protecting our time.

Ignition for Proposals and Automatic Payments

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know we were using Dubsado for YEARS. In our freelancer phase it was amazing, but as we’ve grown we need a more reliable and polished system.

Ignition allows us to manage the proposal > contract > payment flow into one seamless experience. Some of our fave features:

• Really nice proposal presentation, including the ability to have multiple package options, optional add-ons, embedded videos and more
• Easy payment options for clients, including autopay
• Our clients can review our proposal, sign our contract, and pay their deposit all in one step!

Ignition: Use our referral link before June 30 to save up to 50% off your first 3 months. Try Ignition.

Foundd Legal for our Service Agreements

This one isn’t so new, we’ve been using Foundd Legal’s templates for all our contracts for YEARS now! As part of our onboarding process, we use their Service Agreement for Creative Agencies to:

• Reinforce our values and unique agency process
• Provide a crystal clear scope, and prevent scope creep
• Inform clients about how payments work, and make sure we get paid on time
• Protect our business, our team, and our clients!

The Results

Here’s what changed after we launched the new onboarding system:

Metric	Before Ignition	After Ignition
Average Time to Sign	3–5 days	<24 hours
Time to Onboard	3+ hours	<1 hour

We’re not exaggerating when we say it revolutionised our first impression.

And perhaps more importantly? Our clients feel the difference. They trust us sooner. They commit faster. And they’re excited to start.

Real Talk: What We Learned (The Hard Way)

Because we value transparency, here’s what we wish we knew earlier:

• Don’t try to DIY proposals forever—Ignition is saving us so much time
• Get your proposal templates right first, then automate
• Schedule regular reviews of your onboarding workflow (we now audit ours every 6 months)
• Don’t make your enquiry process feel like a chore!

Deals to Help you Implement These Tips

We’d love for you to take what’s worked for us and make it your own. Here’s how to start:

• Foundd Legal: Score 30% of legal templates PLUS one month free membership for The Legally Legit Lounge when you spend $150 or more. Use code EOFY30 at checkout, and shop the exact template we use (Service Agreement for Creative Agencies).
• Ignition: Use our referral link before June 30 to save up to 50% off your first 3 months. Try Ignition.