The Client
StellarMark Agency is a mid-sized digital marketing agency based in Chicago, managing paid acquisition and SEO campaigns for over 45 high-growth eCommerce and B2B clients. With a core team of account managers and media buyers, operations are the engine that keeps campaigns running.
The Challenge
Over a 14-month scaling period, StellarMark's CRM setup and lead capture systems began showing significant friction:
- Broken Zapier Flows: Custom integrations linking Facebook Lead Ads and Webflow forms to HubSpot had degraded. API errors meant 3-5 leads dropped off daily, and manual data copy-paste tasks consumed 12+ hours weekly.
- HubSpot Database Bloat: The database held over 14,000 leads, of which 8,200+ were duplicates. Email campaigns had high bounce rates, and SDRs wasted hours calling contacts who were already active clients under a different record name.
- Delayed Operations: Lead assignment and account matching took 24–48 hours, stalling campaigns and hurting sales velocity.
Our Solution
TVAs — Tech VA Services matched StellarMark with a dedicated Technical VA skilled in HubSpot, Zapier, and automation QA. The VA executed a 3-step operations transformation:
1. Rebuilding the Integration Architecture
The VA deprecated the clunky, single-step Zaps and built a unified 12-step multi-path Zapier workflow. This new workflow verified email formatting, auto-assigned territories, created HubSpot contacts, generated Slack notifications for the sales channel, and sent instant calendar invite confirmations to the lead.
2. Database Cleanse & Deduplication
The VA executed a full deduplication audit in HubSpot using smart merging criteria. They cleaned the data, built automated active lists for client segments, and set up Webflow collection syncing to prevent duplicate creations at the source.
3. Pipeline Monitoring System
To prevent future API dropoffs, the VA built an error-catching webhook that alerts a dedicated Slack ops channel the second a tool integration encounters an error, allowing immediate troubleshooting.
The Impact
Within 60 days of deploying the Technical VA, StellarMark experienced a massive reduction in operational lag:
| Metric / Process | Before TVAs VA | After TVAs VA |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Sync Time | 3 - 5 Hours (Manual) | Instant (< 1 Min) |
| SDR Lead Assignment | 24 Hours | Immediate (Auto-routed) |
| CRM Database Cleanliness | 8,200+ Duplicates | Clean (Weekly Auto-dedup) |
| Operations Work Reclaimed | 0 Hours | 18 Hours / Week Saved |
With clean CRM pipelines and automated lead assignment, SDR outreach velocity doubled. StellarMark recorded a 340% increase in pipeline conversion over the next 60 days, and has maintained zero manual data entry errors for 6 consecutive months.