Hey, everyone. Welcome to the template customization module.

I'm really excited about this one, because this is actually how I started my agency.
Uh, cause I definitely didn't have a designer and projects I was taking on were had smaller budgets. Um, and so this is a great option.
If you want to take on a client, if you think that you can get some, uh, marketing retainers or if they just have a smaller budget and you want to take it on, this is a great way to cut cost down because you don't need a designer.
Um, if you know, front end code and you know how to customize it. So this is really geared for front end developers to be able to design a site for a client without having to design it from the ground up or work with a designer.

Um, so I'm going to show you guys an example. This was one of my clients. This is an older site.
This was actually one of the original sites we built for them. They have a unique pillow, neck pain relief. Um, so this is the old site, what it looked like.
You could see obviously social proof, um, all the videos. And so you can tell it obviously needed a facelift. So the client approached me, wanted to redesign their site.
I thought it was a great idea. So we started with the customer avatar session, figured out their ideal customer. Um, since this was a higher priced item for this pillow than a traditional pillow, we needed to make sure that the site kind of exuded more of a luxury feeling, right to create trust and just give it a modern look and feel the client didn't have a big budget.
So we decided, Hey, I think what will work best is if we take a template and customize it and so kind of kill two birds, one stones it's sped up the entire development process and design process, uh, and also fit within the client's budget.
So after we did the session, I then went immediately to ThemeForest and this is what I use for all templates that I need to purchase.
And then customize, um, you'll notice here that they have WordPress templates. I actually stay far, far away from those. And the reason why is they typically have a lot of bloat, there's a lot of plugins it'll load slow.
It kind of gets in the way. It's something you can definitely use if you're comfortable with page builders, but I just find the messy and unnecessary.
I like to start with just a straight HTML it's only front-end code and then integrate WordPress into it. So for this site, you'll notice here.
Um, I just hovered over HTML and retail was, um, what they, they call retail e-commerce um, yeah, so I came in here.
I usually sort by all and just start looking now, if you have this pillow, example's a little tough because there isn't anything it's not necessarily an industry.
So let's say you were working with an attorney, right? Um, you just go into HTML and search attorney, um, and you can sort by best match, best sellers or newest.
Um, and you can just start to see do any of these match, the kind of look and feel of what your client has told you.
And if you think it does, you can preview it and purchase it. Um, so what's great about this is oops, this whole entire HTML template, $17.
So you can have an entire website, the front end built out for $17 and you just go in and customize it to make it your own.
Um, so with this client, I ended up and I'm going to go to my downloads because it's gonna be a little harder to find because you've got a bunch in here.
Um, so we found this template, they see commerce template that the client really liked someone. Let me show you a live preview, give you kind of an example.
So they've got 30 different, uh, examples. I'm trying to find the one, we kind of took a bunch of different elements.
Ah, here we go. So you'll see that here is what the original version looks like. Um, and what was great about this is there were so many assets and elements that we could take it and make so many different things out of it.
So here's the new version of their site. So we kind of made this top bar myself, you see the logo we wanted to simplify the, uh, navigation.
We didn't like this. Um, there are so many different elements and you can check them all out here. Um, but I really like this block on block of text for the hero.
So we did that and then we found an image on Unsplash, which is free to use. I recommend this for all of your, um, any images that you need.
Um, if you don't want to use like a stock photo, I use Adobe stock and Unsplash, but I always start with Unsplash first because I love the way that their photos look.
Um, and so I just searched sleep. Um, and I found this image right here. And the reason I like this image is because you can't really tell if she's like excited about asleep or nervous and it really just catches your eye.
So we put that here, we updated the fonts. I wanted something that looked a bit more luxurious. You could see the call to action.
Again, here's the logos we wanted to put in trust with their Trustpilot reviews, their different pillow options. Um, we learned that people are tired of waking up throughout the night with neck pain.
Um, and then this client was featured on an episode of the doctorate. So we put that there, um, the benefits of right we're talking about their after state look forward to sleeping.
So we talk about the great things about this pillow, um, call to action of, Hey, save $10 on your first purchase.
So we're email list building. We get them into an automation, um, again, more reviews, uh, from Trustpilot, which I highly recommend, uh, discover which pillow is right for you.
So you can see, we just took elements and then from this template and customize it. And with this one, there was so many different options that there were limitless.
And so we took the best ones and really just created it. So if you know, um, HTML and CSS, you can really leverage, um, ThemeForest to make these sites and make them look amazing and specifically for your client.
Um, and it cuts the cost down greatly because you're not starting in Photoshop or something else. This is something I love doing.
Um, I actually still, sometimes I take these projects on and do it myself just because it's fun. It keeps me sharp.
Um, another thing too with e-commerce is you don't actually even have to design out the cart and checkout flow. And the reason why is, and I'm going to put a, there'll be in this module, there'll be a link to this.
I use a, a checkout plugin that allows, um, it's a checkout plugin that makes it look like Shopify. Um, and so you get the best of both worlds, cause I don't really like working with Shopify, but their checkout experience is great.
So, um, I'll put the link down in the action items, but let me just show you how great this checkout process works.
So again, we customize a product page out of their reviews, so we're just going to select these different options. So you can see what this plugin does, how great it looks.
So taken directly in there, we're running a mother's day promotion right now. Um, you put in your information, Okay. And so this plugin does it all for you.
I actually use this for all e-commerce WordPress sites. It's amazing have different templates that you can use. Um, and it, the plugin is called checkout WC.
The link is down below. I highly recommend this for all of your e-commerce sites, especially if you're using WooCommerce. Um, it's got some great stuff where, uh, it filters in your address using Google maps.
So, uh, it's much easier for people to enter in their information, helps with conversion. So this is the process that I use for finding an editing.
Now, when I need to submit a design to the client, you have a couple of different options. Sometimes I literally upload the code and give them an interactive demo on a domain name that they can use and click around with, if you're don't want to go that far, uh, I've got this plugin, this Google Chrome extension, and I just take a screenshot of the entire page and I upload that to base camp.
So similar to what I do, uh, what I did on the previous module for the custom design, I'll do this as well.
If I don't want them to interact, I want them to see the whole thing. And I want to explain each section it's really up to you.
So you kind of have two different options. And then once I've got each page approved, I've got all the front end approved.
I then submit, send that information over to my WordPress developer and then they integrate it and I'll give details. But from there, it's just handing off and having that, having them make it function the way you need it to.
And that's pretty much how I leveraged theme forest. Um, next week we are going to be covering all things WordPress.
So now we've done the customer avatar session, the proposal agreements, getting it approved base camp. How to come up with a design, all the questionnaires you need.
Now you've got to design. Now you got to make it actually function. So next week we're all folk. We're completely focused on making this function.
And you've got a couple of different options on there and I'm going to help guide you on kind of like the old way versus the new way, the much easier way versus doing it on your own.
And how do you can easily scale up your agency so you can focus more on building your business, not so much managing your people in team.
Um, and so that'll be super exciting and I'll see you on the next module.