Any type of online business can take advantage of elements like interactive calculators to improve user experience on their website. Custom calculators bring value to your business by driving more customer data and keeping your users engaged.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits of custom calculators and look closely at some calculator examples widely used for online businesses. We’ll also show you how to build an interactive calculator for your WordPress website.
What is a Custom Calculator?
A custom calculator is a tool that lets users instantly calculate things like values and prices right on your site. If you add an interactive calculator to your website, it will let visitors and clients quickly enter the data and get the information they want to know about your products or services.
What’s good is that you don’t need special skills to build an interactive calculator. There are many calculator builders for websites you can find on the market now. One example is the Cost Calculator Builder. With it, all you need to do is drag and drop the elements to create your custom calculator.
Why Add an Interactive Calculator to Your Site
Let’s check the benefits of adding interactive calculators to your website:
- Create custom calculators for your business easily with no coding
Yes, it is possible to build your own calculator with no coding skills or special knowledge! It is easy and requires you to only use a custom calculator builder like the Cost Calculator Builder.
- Increase revenue by letting users check instant cost estimates
You can boost sales if you let your website visitors get cost estimates instantly. It keeps them engaged and as a result, they stay on your site for longer and are likely to buy your product or service.
- Generate more leads for your business
Creating a custom calculator for your website can help you generate more leads. If you ask users to enter their email after they complete estimations with the interactive calculator on your website, they will receive the results they need and you will collect more leads.
- Display interactive calculators anywhere on your website
Another benefit of interactive calculators is that you can publish them on any page of your website. They offer flexibility and make your site or platform user-friendly.
- Explore and try a variety of calculator templates for all types of businesses
Save time creating a calculator from scratch by exploring a wide range of ready-made templates. Such calculator templates have all the necessary elements and features to fit your business needs.
Industry-Focused Calculator Examples
Here are some helpful calculator examples for various industries:
- Dental clinics: Estimate costs for treatments like cleanings or braces.
- Law firms: Calculate fees for legal consultations or contract drafting.
- Booking services: Allow users to calculate costs based on service hours and locations.
- Cleaning services: Estimate cleaning costs by home size or type of service.
- Hotels: Let guests calculate booking costs with additional services.
- Printing Services: Create an estimation form for users to calculate printing costs based on paper types and quantities.
- Fitness blogs: Add a BMI calculator that lets readers calculate their BMI and decide what products or services to buy.
- Marketing agencies: Use an ROI calculator to help clients estimate potential revenue from their investment, justifying costs and increasing sign-ups.
How to Build a Custom Calculator
Cost Calculator Builder is a tool that lets you design a custom calculator for your business website to provide cost estimation solutions to your users.
To build an interactive calculator for your website, you will need to:
- Determine your goal. What will you achieve with the calculator? How will it help your audience and clients? It must have a purpose whether it’s a BMI calculator for a health blog or a shipping calculator for an online clothing store.
- Make it user-friendly. When building an interactive calculator, make your tool easy to use and intuitive so your customers will not be confused and get a smooth experience. You can add elements with the right labels and instructions.
- Check the performance. Test your calculator to ensure everything works right.
- Publish your calculator. Cost Calculator Builder allows you to insert your tool on any part of your website, whether it’s a landing or pricing page.
With the Cost Calculator Builder, you can create different types of estimation forms on your website. One benefit of using it is that it has ready-made templates for all businesses. There are templates in various categories:
- Booking
- Education
- Finance
- Marketing
- Health & wellness
- Events
This custom calculator builder lets you choose the template you like or import an existing calculator from your website and edit it with many options.
Step-by-step Guide
Let’s start creating a custom calculator for your website with the Cost Calculator Builder:
Step 1. Log in to your WordPress dashboard or sign up to create a new account. Go to ‘Plugins’>’Add New’ from the menu. Search for ‘Cost Calculator Builder’ and click Install Now. Or choose an archive file from your computer and upload it to install the plugin.
Step 2. Once you install the plugin, activate it to build your interactive calculator. On the dashboard menu, you’ll see the Cost Calculator tab, open it and click Add New.
Step 3. Here you can import an existing calculator or tap on Create New and choose from an extensive collection of ready-to-use templates. Browse through categories, search for a certain template, for example, ‘Discounts’, and select the one needed for your type of business.
Step 4. Edit the calculator template you selected with customization options in the builder. Check the elements, manage their order, and fill out the fields. You can remove or add new items, and change the name of your calculator. Save the result and embed it on your website.
Step 5. In order to build a custom calculator from scratch, click Add New on the dashboard menu. We will design an interactive calculator for your company or online business. Give a name to your calculator, and pick elements you want to see in your form.
Step 6. Scroll down to check all the elements like text, quantity, validated form, dropdown list, image dropdown, radio select, switch toggle, checkbox, and more. You can just drag and drop the items to add them to your estimation form. There’s also another way to put elements: simply click on them.
- Choose dropdown menus for options like package types or service levels.
- Sliders for selecting quantities or ranges, such as number of participants or duration of the service.
- Checkboxes for additional services or add-ons like guided tours, extra features, or support options.
- Text fields for user inputs like location or specific preferences.
Step 7. If you tap on any element like ‘Radio’, it will open the menu with three tabs: Element, Styles, and Settings. Specify the labels, write descriptions for your field, and make some options required for your customers. After you’re done editing the ‘Radio’ field, save the settings and continue with other elements.
Step 8. Choose multiple fields and create a formula based on values. Cost Calculator Builder lets you tap on field shortcodes without having to manually write each field. Write a name for the formula you’ve created and set additional classes if needed.
Pro tip: Generate formulas easily with an AI Assistant feature integrated right into the formula field.
Step 9. Cost Calculator Builder includes a conditional logic feature that allows you to show or hide fields based on user selections, making the calculator more interactive and intuitive.
To configure conditional logic, click on the field you want to apply conditions to and go to the Conditional Logic tab. Here set conditions based on other fields like ‘Show an “Additional Services” section only if the user selects a premium package’.
Step 10. Customize the appearance of elements in your custom calculator. Open the designated tab, here you will find themes and different options to change the box style, colors, fonts, and field layouts. Make sure your interactive calculator matches your website design or brand.
Step 11. You can check your custom calculator in desktop or mobile preview and see how it will look on your site visitors before saving it and putting it on your pages.
Step 12. Before going live, test your custom calculator thoroughly to ensure all fields and formulas work as expected. Check how it performs on multiple devices.
Step 13. In order to embed and publish the calculator you’ve just built, copy the shortcode provided in the Cost Calculator Builder plugin and paste it into your website or any post where you want your interactive calculator to appear.
Tips for Optimizing Your Interactive Calculator
Creating a custom calculator is just the beginning. To make the most of it, consider the following tips:
- Keep it simple. Avoid overly complicated forms that overwhelm users with too many fields or complex formulas.
- Highlight key features. Use visual cues or icons, and images to emphasize important fields and features.
- Add clear call-to-action. Create and add buttons like “Get a Quote” or “Calculate Now” to guide users through the process.
Conclusion
Interactive calculators can bring you significant value and improve user experience and customer engagement on your website. Almost every business that offers services or products online needs a custom calculator to help customers understand their potential expenses.
One effective way to improve your site and make it user-friendly is by adding a custom calculator. You can use the Cost Calculator Builder to design an interactive calculator and implement it yourself on your WordPress site without any coding skills. It helps you design clear and organized estimation forms and customize them with extensive options.
This custom calculator builder will make your site significantly more interactive and let customers use the pricing calculator to complete calculations seamlessly without leaving your page.
Ready to build your custom calculator? Get started with the Cost Calculator Builder plugin today and upgrade your website!