Episode #89 of the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. Optimize Your Website for More Patients with Aurelie Martin.

Today I’m talking with Aurelie Martin, web designer and the founder of Imagi Web Design studios.

Aurelie’s specialty is helping health and wellness professionals attract patients by optimizing or building their web presence, with an emphasis on creating both beautiful and high converting websites. 

In this episode, we talk about:

  • Making calls-to-action a priority on your website and what types of calls-to-action to use
  • Content ideas to boost your SEO and improve engagement on your website
  • Why an organized website that tells people what do is key for building trust
  • A reminder to look at your website on mobile and desktop regularly to make sure everything is functioning as expected
  • Tips for making your website load faster
  • And more

Show Notes:

🎙️ Listen to Episode #89: Optimize Your Website for More Patients with Aurelie Martin

💙 This episode is sponsored by Jane – the clinic management software and EMR that I use in my practice.

Change is a normal part of clinic life — maybe you’re expanding your team, introducing new offerings, or growing your [patient]* list. As your clinic evolves, it’s important to have an EMR that not only supports those changes but also grows with you.

Jane’s new Balance, Practice, and Thrive pricing plans offer flexibility, allowing you to easily switch from one plan to another depending on your current and future needs.

There’s no long-term commitment, either — just simple month-to-month payments that let you focus on running your clinic. And with every plan, you get features like 1:1 telehealth, email appointment reminders, and unlimited support.

Visit jane.app/pricing to find a plan that fits your needs, starting at $39 a month in the US. And when you’re ready to get started, use my code ACUSCHOOL1MO at sign-up for a 1-month grace period on your new account.

Subscribe to the Acupuncture Marketing School podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

 💖 Love the podcast? Help other acupuncturists find the podcast by leaving a review here.

Transcript:

[MICHELLE GRASEK] (00:05):

Welcome to the Acupuncture Marketing School Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Grasek, and I’m here to help you get visible in your community, take marketing action with confidence and get more patients in your practice and more money in your pocket every week. We both know you’re a talented, passionate acupuncturist and that acupuncture has the power to change lives. So let’s dive right into this episode and talk about how you can reach more patients.

(00:34):

Hi there. Welcome back. Today I’m talking with Aurelie Martin, web designer and the founder of Imagi Web Design Studios. Aurelie has been working in marketing for almost 20 years, and her specialty is helping health and wellness professionals attract patients by optimizing or building their web presence with an emphasis on creating both beautiful and high converting websites so that more of the people who visit your site become real-life patients. In this episode, we talk about making calls-to-action a priority on your website and what types of calls-to-action to use, content ideas to boost your SEO and improve engagement on your website, why an organized website that tells people what to do next is key for building trust, a quick reminder to look at your website on mobile and desktop on a regular basis to make sure everything is functioning as expected, tips for making your website load even faster and more. I really hope you enjoy this episode with Aurelie.

[JANE.APP] (01:35):

Today’s episode is sponsored by Jane, the clinic management software and EMR that I use in my practice. Change is a normal part of clinic life. Maybe you are expanding your team, introducing new offerings, or growing your patient list. As your clinic evolves, it’s important to have an EMR that not only supports those changes but also grows with you. Jane’s new Balance, Practice, and Thrive pricing plans offer flexibility, allowing you to easily switch from one plan to another depending on your current and future needs. There’s no long-term commitment either, just simple month to month payments that let you focus on running your clinic. And with every plan you get features like one-on-one telehealth, email appointment reminders, and unlimited support. Visit jane.app/pricing to find a plan that fits your needs, starting at $39 a month in the US. And when you’re ready to get started, you can use the code [ACUSCHOOL1MO] at signup for a one-month grace period on your new account. And of course, I will put all the links in the show notes along with the code to make it easy for you. Alright, let’s get into this episode with Aurelie. Hi Aurelie, how are you?

[AURELIE MARTIN] (02:48):

Great. How are you, Michelle?

[MICHELLE] (02:50):

I’m good. Thank you so much for joining us today. You are a web designer who works primarily with wellness practitioners, is that right?

[AURELIE] (03:00):

Yes, that’s correct.

[MICHELLE] (03:01):

I’ll give you a chance to introduce yourself for the audience and then we can dive in with some questions.

[AURELIE] (03:07):

Yes, absolutely. Well, I’m super excited to be here today. Thank you for having me. So my name is Aurelie, and I am the founder of Imagi Web Design studios. And like you said, I help health and wellness professionals, including acupuncture businesses attract clients by optimizing their website, optimizing or building their presence online with new websites. So I’m a web designer and a web strategist and my goal is to build beautiful, but also, well, most importantly, high converting websites. And it’s all about turning all of these visits that come to your website into client bookings. So yeah, and in case you’re wondering, of course, I have an accent. My accent is French and I moved to Miami 19 years ago. This is insane when I say this, feels like forever already. But I grew up in France, moved here 19 years ago. I’m based in Miami and that’s when I started my whole career in marketing, digital marketing. And then I went into websites optimization and my passion for web design started then.

[MICHELLE] (04:17):

Very nice. So have you always been in marketing? Did you have any careers before that?

[AURELIE] (04:23):

Yes, I’ve spent a lot of time working for corporate in marketing, so marketing and digital marketing most importantly. And within time I learned about web design, I had positions where I was in charge of developing and optimizing websites and that’s where I learned, I learned it all by myself. I didn’t go to school to learn web design and little by little it became a passion and I decided to build my own business back in 2020.

[MICHELLE] (04:51):

Very nice.

[AURELIE] (04:52):

It’s been four years, October, 2020, so it’s been four years exactly.

[MICHELLE] (04:57):

Oh yeah, congrats. Happy birthday.

[AURELIE] (04:58):

Thank you. Thank you.

[MICHELLE] (04:59):

Happy business birthday.

[AURELIE] (05:00):

Yes.

[MICHELLE] (05:02):

What made you decide to take the leap and start your own company? Was it gradual or you just quit your corporate jobs?

[AURELIE] (05:09):

It was gradual. I actually started back in 2013, so long time ago. And it was more of a side job for me where I was exploring and trying to do it by myself, because like I said, I didn’t learn, I didn’t go to school for that, and I wanted to see where I could go. So I had a few clients back then on the side of my regular job, but eventually I had to pause it because that’s when I started my family, my firstborn, I have three kids. My firstborn was born in in 2014. And financially I wasn’t ready to go into full-time web design. So I stayed working with corporate for a long time until one time where in 2020 I was just ready. I think it was probably the pandemic. I wanted to change my lifestyle. I wanted to spend more time with my family and that’s when I decided to do this fully.

[MICHELLE] (06:06):

Yeah, I think the pandemic made a lot of people take a second look at their career and their life and decide this is a good transition point to make a big change.

[AURELIE] (06:18):

Yes, absolutely.

[MICHELLE] (06:20):

And what made you decide to focus on health and wellness providers with your work?

[AURELIE] (06:26):

Yeah, I would say my own lifestyle is probably what led me to work with health and wellness professionals. I’ve always admired holistic health approaches in general, and acupuncture in particular. I do go see an acupuncturist myself. And also my husband is also, he’s in the wellness industry as well. So I started working with him and I started having clients that were in the industry. One of my first client was a nutritionist. Naturally, it was a fit and I felt like it is what I enjoy doing. Because I worked with different industries, obviously, I’ve worked with finances, I’ve worked with automobile, different types of industries. But that’s where wellness became more fun for me, more enjoyable. And along the way I’ve learned so much working with health and wellness professionals that now I understand most of their challenges, especially when it comes to the websites.

[MICHELLE] (07:27):

Yeah, I feel like it’s certainly not a requirement for a web designer to have had acupuncture to be able to help acupuncturists, but I think it provides like an extra level of understanding about the specific ways of marketing for acupuncture that work and that don’t work, and where potential patients are with their mindset in different parts of the journey and how you can reflect that on the website. One thing I think a lot of health and wellness providers, probably not just acupuncturists, need to be reminded of, is we really should focus on the symptoms that people are experiencing and how they’re going to feel afterwards. Because patients really just want to know, can this person help with my back pain or fertility concerns? And then having a web designer who’s been through that exact journey and has asked those questions for themselves, I think it is a helpful perspective and can remind us as providers of what language is most effective.

[AURELIE] (08:25):

Right.

[MICHELLE] (08:26):

What is your husband’s wellness specialty? What does he do?

[AURELIE] (08:30):

He’s a fitness, well, sorry, he’s more of a personal trainer. He helps his clients with, of course, personal training in general, like general personal training, but also nutrition. So it’s part of our lifestyle, that’s what we do. Even myself, I like to be healthy. I do work out. I try to have a healthy lifestyle for myself, for my kids as well. Even in like any type of let’s say treatment or if they need to go to the doctor, I would tend to go towards the more holistic approaches first and then we go with the flow, but yeah.

[MICHELLE] (09:11):

Very nice. So what do you feel like are some common mistakes that acupuncturists make with their websites?

[AURELIE] (09:20):

Well, there are of course different areas of optimizations that I can always talk about when it comes to health and wellness professionals’ websites and acupuncture websites. One particular one is call-to-actions. Often the call-to-actions is not visible enough or it’s hard to find. So that’s where there’s a lot that acupuncturists can improve on their website. And basically you have, I mean, the way I think about it is when, ourselves, when we do go shopping and we go online and we find something like a product or a service that we really want, everything looks great. You have a great description, you love the product, but when it comes to the action of buying, and I’m sure we’ve all been through there, you can’t find the button, the “add to cart” button or the “buy now.” So it’s the same for any type of business. If your call-to-action is not visible enough and clients or visitors can’t find it as soon as they land on your website, it will create frustration. And obviously people will just leave and they will go to the next, the corner acupuncturist. Call-to-action is really important. It needs to be clear, it needs to be easy to find, and it needs to guide the client straight into booking or contacting you.

[MICHELLE] (10:53):

Recently I was looking at an acupuncturist website and on her landing page she had some calls-to-action that said, “click here to book a free 15-minute consult.” And those were really the only calls to action that I could see on the landing page, and it was repeated. So in my mind I was assuming that that is how she wants patients to begin their journey with her. That they have to start with their 15-minute consult. So then we were discussing, and she said that actually the consult is optional and she has online booking where they could just select new patient appointment. So we were discussing the importance of choosing your call-to-action based on the action that you really, really want people to take. If you want everybody to sign up for a free consult, then it makes sense that that’s the only thing that you mention. But if that’s optional or not even really what you need them to do, then you want to think about maybe the call-to-action could be “book now.”

[AURELIE] (11:58):

Right.

[MICHELLE] (11:59):

And so do you feel like that is something that people are getting right? I feel like it’s confusing on a lot of acupuncturist websites, is we are giving people too many options for how they can begin their journey with us and then they don’t choose anything, because they’re not sure what is the right thing to do.

[AURELIE] (12:19):

Right. Well, I think it’s all about balance. And obviously, you need to make sure your call-to-action is what you want your patient to do. You want them to take action to book a consultation. If it’s a free consultation, it’s optional. I don’t think that’s what should be everywhere and what should be the most visible on your website? I think it’s important. Your clients will basically want some information. Maybe it’s the first time they land on your website, they don’t even know if your services will help them. And what’s really important is to make sure that throughout the journey online they do understand that the services you will provide will help them, and that’s what will make them the decision to take action into then booking a consultation with you. So I think it’s all about balance and you shouldn’t focus on one particular call-to-action and having it repeated all over your websites.

(13:21):

You should also consider having call-to-actions that will help people discover your services and how you can really help them, because that’s all they want in the end. Your clients, the people that come to your website, they need help with something, they’re looking into a solution to a problem. So that’s where you, as a health and wellness business and as an acupuncture business, you need to make sure you have the right call-to-actions that will make people discover who you are, how you can help them. And that’s where you will need the second call-to-action that will make them click and book the consultation.

[MICHELLE] (14:00):

Ah, okay.

[AURELIE] (14:01):

I think it’s really about balance. And maybe the next time they will come back, they already know your services, they already know they are interested in your service and that’s where you will need to have a call-to-action that’s visible, easy to find where they can book the consultation. So that’s why when I say it’s a balance, you can’t just have one specific call-to-action on the page and you need to think about these different scenarios of people that might come for the first time and are just looking for more information and need to consider those that are already ready to take action and book.

[MICHELLE] (14:41):

So those other calls to action where they could learn more about what you offer and about your clinic, those would be buttons like click here to learn more or click to view our services, like those kinds of calls to action?

[AURELIE] (14:55):

Yes, absolutely. It can be a click about to learn more about our services or another very, and that’s actually another topic, another area of optimizations that I think a lot of business could use, is content in general. And having some stories from past clients that explain also how as acupuncture business you’ve helped them. But yeah, I think you can have content that explains to your visitor how you’ve helped certain, treat certain conditions, for example. And you can have call-to-actions that will lend to these pages where people might see a connection because maybe they’re going through the same thing. And in that case, you will want to use terms like learn about a recent, turning more about the client experience and how you’ve helped them. I don’t have the right term right now to tell you, but it’s more about yeah, learn how we’ve helped Michelle release pain through acupuncture So there’s a lot of different ways you can say it. And then there’s also the, you can also use call-to-actions such as learn more about our services. And especially if you offer different services, sometimes some businesses also offer acupuncture, but they can also offer other types of services on the side. It is good to break it down and show all of the different services you can offer.

[MICHELLE] (16:24):

So the thing you were just talking about sounds like a case study, maybe, like learn more about how we helped Kim have a baby or something like that. And then it clicks through to a page or a blog post where it talks about almost like interviewing the patient it sounds like. Or could it just be like a testimonial?

[AURELIE] (16:47):

It could be as well. Well, testimonials in general of course. And that’s definitely something I recommend on any website, is to add testimonials from clients, which is super helpful because it builds trust. But a testimonial itself, it’s hard to have landing page or a call-to-action sending to that in particular. But when it’s linked to a patient’s success story, and it could be a blog, like you said, there could definitely be a blog, I think that’s where you would have your testimonial and it’s really helpful for people to see these stories that they can then identify to, if that makes sense.

[MICHELLE] (17:27):

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[AURELIE] (17:29):

And that’s when the role of engaging content for me is also key. And I’m sure acupuncturists have a lot of stories they can share about their clients’ stories and these are relevant to anybody who’s looking for help.

[MICHELLE] (17:44):

Yeah, and I feel like most of us listening right now could probably think of patients that we have had for a while who are extremely enthusiastic and supportive and they love acupuncture, they love you as a provider. They are the ones who would be willing to sign some paperwork allowing you to publish the interview on your website and sit down for an interview. Or it could be a written interview where you send them the questions over email and they respond. I always encourage my marketing students to make sure they have written permission from someone about being able to share that thing. But I can just guarantee that there’s so many patients out there who would be willing to do this sort of thing and they are happy to help. Like it can feel like a big ask for acupuncturists, but some people are just waiting to be supportive and this is one way they could be super supportive. And I just think about all the keywords that it would put on that page, like interviewing someone about their experience would be great for SEO.

[AURELIE] (18:55):

Definitely. There’s a lot of plus coming from this. Absolutely. And again, it creates something engaging that you can then share with your audience. If you have a database and you are actively sending newsletter, then it’s great stories to share and it shows your expertise as an acupuncturist and it’s something that resonates with the audience in general.

[MICHELLE] (19:19):

I really like that idea for a lot of reasons, but also because I think when we think of content creation, we’re always thinking about SEO, how can I include keywords in this page and how can I be strategic? But content is also about, as you just said, engaging people and really like grabbing their interest. Pulling them into a story is so powerful, builds a lot of trust. And then the keywords and the SEO are almost like a bonus

[AURELIE] (19:54):

Exactly

[MICHELLE] (19:54):

On the back end. Like you wrote this really engaging content piece that’s beautiful and that your audience is genuinely interested in. And then also you’ve got these keywords built into your SEO now. So I think it’s important for people to remember that.

[AURELIE] (20:10):

No, absolutely. And not only that, once you have this piece of content, you can use it in so many different ways on all of your marketing platforms. You can break it down and create a bunch of stories for your Instagram page, for example. You can create email, send emails to your audience, have them on your website. Like there’s a lot of ways you can leverage these stories on your marketing channels.

[MICHELLE] (20:35):

Absolutely. I’m always telling people, stop writing content from scratch for your social media. If you can, if you have stuff written on your website already, you can repurpose that. So many people have pages of evergreen content on their websites that they could use for social media instead of just spending a lot of time and energy writing it from scratch, reinventing the wheel for like an Instagram post or a series of Facebook posts.

[AURELIE] (21:05):

Right. No, no, that’s for sure.

[MICHELLE] (21:08):

So how important do you think it is that people are collecting emails through their website?

[AURELIE] (21:13):

I think it’s really important for any business to collect emails just because that’s a way to then create engaging conversations with your potential clients. That’s a great way to leverage any new services that you put in place. Or if you have any type of promotion, it’s a great way to communicate and get people to come visit you again.

[MICHELLE] (21:39):

And do you feel like it’s very important for people to have a lead magnet? Because I know a lot of acupuncturists have a box where people can sign up for an email newsletter, but a lead magnet, we know what it is, but maybe creating it is a little intimidating. Do you feel like it’s worth the effort of figuring out how to do that on your website?

[AURELIE] (22:04):

I think that it can be beneficial, of course to have a lead magnet because it usually helps to get, people want to share their information. I also think that sometimes just giving a free consultation, even if it’s just a 15-minute phone consultation, is a great way to also collect information without people having to think that they have to download a document. And I think there’s other ways, it does take time to create and then you need to of course leverage this piece of content on your different marketing levels. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do it because I think it’s also a great way to collect information from more potential clients. I’m all for it, but I understand also that it does require time. You need to put it together and it can be sometimes a little intimidating, like you say.

[MICHELLE] (22:58):

And I think a lead magnet is most effective when it’s specific to the patients someone really wants. I’ve seen a lot of very, just like broad or general interest lead magnet. So it’s sort of like you don’t want to spend a ton of time and energy creating a lead magnet that no one is interested in downloading. And so I think that’s a barrier for people because they’re like, well, how do I go about this? But I mean, at the very least, people have to have somewhere where people can opt in and share their email to join an email newsletter or something like that. And I think that most acupuncturists have that on their websites at this point. I’m always trying to get people to send the emails, to actually send regular email newsletters, but at least they are collecting people’s information.

[AURELIE] (23:52):

Yes. And I think also for local businesses like this, like acupuncturists, just collecting email addresses and information while the patient is at the location is also an easy way to collect information because you can really explain to them that by sharing their email, they will probably be the first to know if there’s a specific sale on a service or a product. So it’s always good to also try to get your client’s information when they are visiting you directly.

[MICHELLE] (24:30):

I also try to tell people they do a health fair to collect people’s emails because man, health fairs can be rough. You can be there all day and not get a lot of people to actually make an appointment. Like that’s very difficult, but it’s way easier to get them to provide their email so that they can be entered into a drawing or added to your email list. And then you can really nurture those people through your email marketing later on.

[AURELIE] (25:01):

Yes, definitely.

[MICHELLE] (25:03):

Were there any other mistakes that you see healthcare providers making on their website?

[AURELIE] (25:10):

I would say one important thing, and it’s for any business obviously, is mobile friendliness of your website. People spend their time on their phones and it’s essential basically that your website looks great and functions great on mobile devices. With today, more than 50% of traffic coming from mobile devices, if your website isn’t mobile friendly, then you are missing out on a lot of potential clients. It’s like when you go into a store, for example, and it’s not organized at all. It’s super frustrating. It’s the same for a website. If you visit a website and you can’t find the information you want, or it’s very messy and you’re not sure what to click, what to do, or just the fact that it’s not organized and it doesn’t look mobile friendly, it also doesn’t help with trust. And it is key obviously, that websites are optimized for mobile users. So one thing to do is very simple, is just take your phone, open your website on your phone, and see how it looks and then you can easily identify what needs to be corrected or fixed to make things easy for your clients.

[MICHELLE] (26:29):

Maybe we should all be checking out our websites on mobile and on desktop on a regular basis.

[AURELIE] (26:36):

Yes, I do that often for my own websites.

[MICHELLE] (26:40):

Because sometimes things break and you don’t realize that this whole section’s not even showing or it’s not showing properly or it’s accidentally overlapping something else. Websites go through automatic updates and then things don’t load correctly, so just checking in. I know that my website is uploading pretty slowly lately, and I only know that from visiting it on desktop and mobile. And so that’s just a little red flag for me that I need to investigate how I could fix that. Do you have any tips for that?

[AURELIE] (27:11):

Yes, no, you’re right. It’s very important to have a website that loads fast. My only tip for this is to check, I mean, content, especially content like images or video content, if you have any video content on your website, is usually heavy content. So yeah, by using lower quality images without of course impacting how it looks, there’s ways to keep an image looking nice and crisp on the website, but sometimes just checking the size of the image. And these are some free tools available online that can condense the size. This is what I use. I don’t have one in mind right now, but there’s a few tools online that help reduce the size of images. That would be the first step for me, is to check images, make sure there’s not too much content either, and keep the right balance so it doesn’t impact the loading time of the website.

[MICHELLE] (28:11):

And so would those tools that compress the image, I use WordPress, so would that be a widget?

[AURELIE] (28:19):

I usually use external tools, so like web compressor. On Google, you can find a lot of different free tools that can compress images.

[MICHELLE] (28:30):

Things for me to research.

[AURELIE] (28:31):

I can send…

[MICHELLE] (28:32):

It’s a rabbit hole for me to go down.

[AURELIE] (28:33):

I can send you a link after.

[MICHELLE] (28:36):

It’ll be super.

[AURELIE] (28:38):

When it comes to videos, the best is not to host the video and load it directly on your website. It’s best to use a YouTube link, embed the YouTube link in the page because it will offload directly the weight of the video itself

[MICHELLE] (28:55):

Got you. I know that my website was loading very slowly last year, and one thing that helped was deleting WooCommerce because for a very short time in 2020, 2021, I had an online shop, but I decided it was too much work shipping things. And so I just sort of ignored that part of my website and I didn’t get rid of it and finally realized that that was very heavy. Like you were saying, it really slowed down the website. So deleting all of the WooCommerce and all of those product pages and everything associated with it really helped with load time, but it’s one of those things that took a little digging before I figured out there’s all these pages that I don’t even use anymore and they’re not contributing anything, so it’s okay for me to delete these widgets.

[AURELIE] (29:47):

Yes, absolutely. That’s a good point. There’s a lot of, and WordPress in particular, there’s a lot of different plugins, and like you said, sometimes those might be plugins that were installed back when you needed a specific functionality on your website that is no longer used. So it’s definitely a good to check these and remove the one that are no longer necessary for the website. Now, I know it’s also very intimidating, especially WordPress. So anybody, not anyone can go in the backend of WordPress and do these type of things. In general, I would recommend to always consult with your web designer or somebody who really knows about this, obviously, because you don’t want to break your site.

(30:32):

But when it comes to content, and that’s what I always do with my clients, I do build mostly on Squarespace actually, which is a platform I love and I recommend to service-based businesses because a lot of my clients, they don’t want, they want to have full control of their website after, and they want to be able to create blog articles or add content to their website when needed. And WordPress is great, but it can be intimidating to a lot of people. And Squarespace on the other hand, is, for me, the easiest platform when it comes to updating, for somebody that has no clue how a back office works or how a website works. And I usually provide also tutorials for my clients so they know exactly how to create a post, blog article or how to add an offer on the website, just like easy tools and easy guides that will let them free of updating their website by themselves.

[MICHELLE] (31:43):

Oh, that is so nice. I do know a lot of acupuncturists that I work with through, like, we’re working on marketing and we’ll be discussing updates that their website really needs. And they will have to go through quite a bit of rigmarole to get in contact with their web designer who is the only person who has access to change these things. And I mean, it really, it wouldn’t be a problem except that the web designers are almost always swamped. They’re so busy and people are putting a request for a website update in, and it takes three weeks before that change is made. So I agree that it is really, really important for people to have a website that they can update themselves. It just is so much more efficient and less stressful.

[AURELIE] (32:31):

Right, and less costly in the end too.

[MICHELLE] (32:35):

Yes, because often you have to pay your web designer to make an update or you have them on retainer for certain number of updates a month. Yes, it can get very expensive. So I know that you build websites. Do you also build themes that people can install?

[AURELIE] (32:51):

So I actually do not build themes, but I do have website templates that I set on my websites.

[MICHELLE] (33:00):

Ah, okay.

[AURELIE] (33:01):

And they are Squarespace website templates. So yeah, I do have a few templates that I set on my websites that were built for health and wellness businesses, and they can be used for different types of business. So I do have some that are built for acupuncturists.

[MICHELLE] (33:18):

Oh, nice.

[AURELIE] (33:18):

I have two templates that are on my website right now and my goal is to build more in the future. And these website templates are great for somebody who might not have the finance to, maybe they’re just starting and they don’t have enough money to hire a web designer to build a full website. And it’s great for someone who knows a little bit and is a little tech savvy and can figure it out. It gives a great base and all you need to do basically is update the content once you’ve installed. It’s all about changing images, changing the text, and building the pages yourself with the functionalities that already exist on these templates.

[MICHELLE] (34:01):

So for anyone who’s not familiar, a template is, it’s almost, I think of it as like, if Squarespace is the skeleton or the structure, then a template is sort of like the outfit or the external.

[AURELIE] (34:16):

I love that, yes.

[MICHELLE] (34:16):

So that’s the really beautiful layout and it’s the beauty of those kinds of things. On WordPress, we call them themes. But it sounds like on Squarespace they’re called templates. The beauty of that is you are a designer and you’re a web person, so you know what is the format of an effective homepage. And so that’s what the template is, and then people can just go in and update it so it reflects their business, their location and their content, their specialty. But it’s so nice because then they don’t have to build every section of their website by themself. They don’t have to do the research for like, okay, at the top of the page, what should I put, what should go at the bottom? So it’s already prebuilt and it is, gosh, it’s so much easier if you can use a template.

[AURELIE] (35:07):

Yes, absolutely. And each template comes with also a set of tutorials to guide people on what to do next. Because once it’s installed, what do I do with it? Where do I go? It comes with a series of video tutorials that you can access through the member space on my websites. So we try to make it as easy as possible for anyone to be able to build their own websites.

[MICHELLE] (35:35):

I love that they’re acupuncture specific because the theme that I use on my WordPress website was originally built for I think, personal trainers. I liked the layout, but I had to change everything. It’s much nicer when it’s already built out for your profession. I think that’s easier.

[AURELIE] (35:53):

Yes, definitely. And it comes with images that can be reused as well.

[MICHELLE] (35:58):

Oh, nice, beautiful.

[AURELIE] (35:59):

But when it comes to images, because that’s also a challenge, not a challenge, but something that of course, not every business is ready to, with images, we need content creating writing is not too complex, but when it comes to images, in order to reflect your own business and your own brand, it can become challenging. But there are a lot of platforms where you can find free images or even paid images, obviously. But I do use that a lot as well when it comes to my clients that don’t have any images reflecting their own business. And I use these as well on the templates.

[MICHELLE] (36:43):

I mean, that is one of the things that I had to change on the theme that I bought, is everything was photos of personal trainers, and so none of that was relevant. I knew that every single image had to be changed. So really having the acupuncture images already in there is helpful. Do you feel like it helps conversion on a website if people do have photographs of like their office and themselves? Because as you said, and not everyone can afford a full-blown photo shoot, but sometimes I think it helps build trust.

[AURELIE] (37:18):

Yes. I always recommend my clients to at least have one image that show the office space. So yes, people can picture themselves, like you said, it builds trust and it’s a great way to show who you are as a business.

[MICHELLE] (37:38):

Yes, and I think if you can do a trade with photographers locally, if people are comfortable with trades, I have found that to be super helpful in the past. It just makes it really affordable.

[AURELIE] (37:51):

Yes, that’s a great idea.

[MICHELLE] (37:54):

Well, I have one more question for you, and that is, what is your definition of success?

[AURELIE] (38:01):

To me, success is all about work life balance, healthy lifestyle. It’s all about the time that I spend working with my clients, but also the time that I spend with my own family. And of course, when it comes to my business in particular, my goal is to help my clients grow their business. I want to, by growing my business, I’m helping you growing your business. So it’s, yes, that’s definitely rewarding when you hear success stories from clients and that’s the most important thing in the end.

[MICHELLE] (38:40):

Well, thank you so much for being here and sharing all of your tips and your wisdom. I really appreciate it. Where can everyone find you and your work? How can they connect with you?

[AURELIE] (38:51):

So you can find me online on imagiwebdesign.com and my Instagram is Holistic Design_Imagi Web

[MICHELLE] (39:03):

And Imagi is [I-M-A-G-I].

[AURELIE] (39:04):

I-M-A-G-I [Imagi] Web, yes, Imagi Web.

[MICHELLE] (39:13):

We will put all the links in the show notes so they’re easy for people to find. Thank you again so much.

[AURELIE] (39:18):

Oh, thank you so much. It was great. It was a pleasure.

[MICHELLE] (39:25):

If you missed the Acupuncture Business Planathon this past weekend, no worries. You can still watch the replay and go through the 90-day planning workbook at your own pace. And of course, many thanks to everyone who is able to make it live. We were a nice small group, and it was a very cozy and productive time together. So if you like that vibe, I think you’ll really enjoy the replay. In the planathon we review your 2024, determine what worked and what didn’t to grow your practice, release anything that didn’t work out, and of course, celebrate your wins. Then we start prioritizing aligned goals for 2025 to move your business forward, and we break these goals down into manageable steps that you can get started on right away after the planathon. If you love the fresh energy that New Year’s planning brings, you will really enjoy this workshop. The link to register is in the show notes. As always, let me know if you have any questions.

(40:16):

Have a great week.