Remember when you had to buy a calculator and have it on you at all times when you were in school? It was one of the most important things you needed to have, and it was often a big deal to make sure you bought that special Texas Instruments version with all the fancy buttons and calculations for math and science classes!
For Texas Instruments, this was a dream come true, as they simply had a product that students and teachers needed to have, and there wasn’t a need for much marketing behind it. Until the mobile device came along that is…
With the introduction of the mobile device, anyone can quickly pull up a calculator or even download an app for more advanced or specific calculator tools. This has opened a whole new world of opportunity for businesses and brands to reach new audiences by offering quick and easy tools to solve complicated problems.
The smartest businesses and brands in the world today are using these methods to not only generate more value to their audience, but also to increase traffic, leads, sales and revenue in the process. It’s not just about the products or service a company is offering, it’s also about the creativity and marketing behind them as well.
With this in mind, today we are going to take a look at three different businesses and brands in three of the world’s most lucrative and sought after markets (business, health and beauty, and finance). Each has created unique calculators of their own, to not only provide value to their audience, but to also increase engagement, sales and brand loyalty in the process.
Business – Time Scheduling and Cost Savings
When running a business of any type, it’s all about minimizing costs and maximizing profits. This often comes down to how much money you are spending on employees and on-going projects, versus how much they are actually bringing in.
For most organizations, this isn’t something they often have the best numbers on. They know they need employees and they know they need to get the work done, but how effective is it really being for the ROI of the business?
To help with this process, we can take a look at this time scheduling calculator from Deputy, which specialized in time management and scheduling tools. Through the use of the tools on their site, it allows for anyone to try employee scheduling tools for personal, business and organization use.
It allows anyone visiting the site to enter the number of employees they have, their average weekly hours, how much they are paid and more. After submitting the numbers, it then spits out an immediate report on Monthly Cost Savings, Annual Cost Savings and ROI.
For the end user, the advantage to using a calculator like this is that it makes it super fast and easy to change employee numbers, hours worked and rates, to see how it could make a big financial difference for the business. And for the site offering the service to users, they aren’t just offering a quality experience, they also have a service in place to further help optimize such tracking as well.
Health and Beauty – Weight Loss and Dieting
Have you attempted to start a new diet or tried to exercise in the past few months? If so, you aren’t alone. The weight loss industry is one where people are always coming and going non-stop. However, when it does come to physical fitness and seeing weight loss results, it really does come down to the numbers you are taking in, and then putting out.
By this, of course we mean your calorie intake. The more you eat, the more you need to burn… otherwise it turns into fat.
The concept is easy enough to understand, but once you have a calculator to help understand the process, you will likely improve your eating habits and see better results across the board.
To see a perfect example of this, take a look at this weight loss calculator from Lifespan Fitness, which is a fitness website that helps individuals plan out how they would like to lose weight, exercise and meet their goals.
Unlike other sites that might have a similar calculator for figuring out BMI or calorie intake, this one is a big more advanced.
In three simple calculations, the site allows you to create the right plan for your weight loss. It starts off with a gender profile and goals, how hard you are going to exercise and work, and also your diet plan and exercise. Based on these calculations, the tool will then provide you with an estimate on how many calories you can eat per day and the amount of calorie burn and exercise needed.
The addition of the weight loss calculator to this site is just added value to visitors and customers of the brand. Lifespan Fitness offers exercise equipment through their site and this is just an extra added value for everyone to experience without the need to purchase anything.
Finance – World Currency Calculator
To think that your business and preferred currency is the only one in the world would be quite naive. Instead, there are roughly 180 different currencies in the world today and millions of businesses and individuals are likely converting their money daily.
This is often due to traveling and global business transactions, but there is still a need for quick and easy currency transactions without the need to look each one up individually and then pulling out a calculator of your own.
A real-time example of this can be seen with the Yahoo Finance currency converter tools offered on their investing, stock marketing and personal finance section of their site. It’s one of the easiest and most simple tools out there, but it provides the end user with the exact info they are looking for.
While many of the other calculators featured in this article are quite advanced, this currency one is quite simple. All you need to do is select the two currencies of your choice and then input your values. The tool will instantly convert accordingly, and if you happen to put it in backwards, you can click the flip button for an easy switch. Historical charts for currency changes are also available.
With Yahoo Finance already having a heavy focus on world investments, stocks and currencies, adding this feature to their site was just another added bonus and reason for users to keep coming back to the site.
How to Grow Your Brand and Business with a Calculator
No matter what type of business or brand you might currently have, if there are any reasons why someone might need a calculator in reference to your services, products or information, it’s a great idea to try and add one to your site. Not only is it a free service that offers extra added value to your site’s user experience, it will likely also get shared and referenced to from other authority sites as well.
Best of all, there are already plenty of pre-made widgets and scripts available for different calculators out there. This means you can get one live on your site much faster and cheaper than if you were to have one custom coded. After all, you don’t need to have the flashiest looking calculators and forms on your site, you just need to have one that works.
Take a moment to look through each of the examples above and see how a custom calculator might be able to grow your business across the board.