WP Calorie Calculator Pro
Services
WordPress plugin development
Gutenberg block
Mailchimp API
Client
Internal BDA project
Year
2021
About The Project
The plugin we have been developing is meant to serve as a tool for improving the UX and marketing of the sites that have it installed. It allows adding a calorie calculator on a site so that visitors could use it to calculate their daily calorie intake norm. The plugin increases user satisfaction by entertaining site visitors, helps suggest more personalized services and provides the functionality for the collection and use of the users’ emails.
Location
International
Competence
WordPress development
Industry
Web development
Goals
The plugin had to answer the needs of both site owners and visitors. It involved developing the functionality that would arise interest in users and, at the same time, serve a marketing purpose for the plugin subscribers.
We chose to target the healthy living sector that includes a wide range of businesses from dieting to sports & fitness. Therefore, our team decided on developing a calorie calculator for WordPress sites.
Solution
We made email collection the core of the marketing value of the plugin. If users can share their contact information, it should be possible to use it for communicating with them. For that purpose, we integrated Mailchimp into WP Calorie Calculator Pro.
The visual properties of the calculator should be customizable so that it could fit equally well into any site design. We ensured that and made editing easy by providing a handy Settings page for the plugin.
User-end Functionality
The plugin calculates calories based on the individual parameters that users provide in the calculator. Apart from that, the formulas account for the activity level and dieting goals (e.g., weight maintenance, loss or gain and the speed of the process). That ensures users receive highly accurate and personalized information, which can serve as a basis for personalized service offers.
Select Formula
The calorie calculator allows for both displaying results instantly and sending them via email, depending on how the admin of the site with the plugin sets it. The admin can also select which formula the calculator uses or let users choose their preferred one.
Free & Pro plans
The Pro calorie calculator works based on the annual subscription, which is available for purchase on the main WP Calorie Calculator Pro site. The Get Started button adds the plan as a product to the cart on-click and links directly to checkout.
Easy Update & Upgrade
When the new release is out, the update becomes available on the Plugins page of the admin dashboard. Unlike it is with many premium plugins, updating doesn’t require installing the new version and uninstalling the old one manually. If the Pro version is installed along with the free one, it automatically deactivates the free WP Calorie Calculator plugin. So, when upgrading from free to Pro, the plugin subscriber doesn’t have to deinstall or deactivate the initial one.
“The plugin offers two plans: free and premium. The former allows site owners to try and see how users will react to it. Thus, they can build an image of the potential outcome with the Pro version. The free calorie calculator can also be a great start for the tight-budget strategy.”
Marketing
Apart from entertaining the users, the Pro plugin can also facilitate the marketing activity for the plugin subscribers. Since there is an option of sending the results by email, we integrated Mailchimp in WP Calorie Calculator Pro. Thus, the plugin subscribers can use the emails received via the calculator form for contacting the users – their potential clients.
Gutenberg Block
To make the work with the plugin more convenient, we developed a custom Gutenberg block for the calculator. This is what the admin or editor can use to create the first calculator on their site.
Settings & Customization
The WP Calorie Calculator Pro settings are highly flexible, which makes it easy to fit the calculator on any site with any style properties. The plugin comes with four default calculator templates and the functionality that allows saving custom templates. In each of those, admins can change the color of every element: there are up to 16 separately customizable colors, depending on the template selected. All these settings, along with other ones, are available on the Settings page of the plugin.
Feedback Collection
We would really like to develop the plugin, taking into account what our clients want to see in it. That’s why we offer everyone interested in it to leave their suggestions for what to add in future updates. People can submit their ideas in the form on the main WP Calorie Calculator Pro website. Once the new idea makes it to our plan, we add it to the Roadmap displayed right above so that the plugin users know what is next to come.
Result
We’ve developed WP Calorie Calculator Pro – a WordPress plugin that suits perfectly for the marketing of health or fitness-related sites.
It ensures a higher level of user satisfaction with their experience on the site and lets the site owners build their client email database that comes integrated with Mailchimp.
Due to the flexible settings of the calculator, it can fit any website perfectly. All changes apply instantly without shortcode replacement for the convenience of the plugin subscribers. Similarly, updating and upgrading is made as simple as possible.
We keep on improving WP Calorie Calculator – both free and Pro editions – and always take our clients’ opinions into account.