How a startup helped online businesses of website builders thrive in the new reality of Covid-19

The emergence of Covid-19 has led physical business owners to quickly realize the need for a professional online presence. As the offering of in-person services has become obsolete and online e-commerce has become the safest way to buy goods, professional website builders have become the unsung heroes, building websites online. effective and ultimately saving many businesses from ruin during the pandemic.

I recently interviewed Yoni Luksenberg, CEO and Founder of Elementor, the leading open source website building platform. Yoni founded the company alongside Ariel Klikstein, in 2016, with the vision to create the ultimate platform for professional web creators to use their full potential through open source WordPress, and to establish their own skills and design companies, creating professional websites for their own clients.

I asked Yoni to discuss how Elementor is providing web creators with a way to meet the unprecedented demand caused by Covid-19 and how the rush of small and medium businesses to accelerate their online presence has affected Elementor and web creators as a whole. Here’s what Yoni had to say.

Gary Drenik: What is Elementor’s mission?

Yoni Luksenberg: Our mission is to empower professional web creators – designers, developers and marketers. We provide them with a platform to build their future. We provide the opportunity to optimize their work so that they can build beautiful, highly functional WordPress websites in a flexible and streamlined way. The platform does this while providing a rich array of learning materials, tutorials, and an engaged community to help them not only use the platform better, but also develop the business skills that will help them succeed on the market. field.

We want to give passionate web creators an all-in-one platform, basically the canvas for their work to thrive. The idea that we are part of the future of the Internet and that we take an active role in improving the creation of websites for these professionals to facilitate individualization is what motivates us and we have become a essential part of the process.

Now, Elementor’s platform facilitates an 8 million strong community that will undoubtedly shape the future web landscape.

Drenik: Who are the users of Elementor? What do Elementor users want to achieve?

Luksenberg: Elementor’s community comes from diverse backgrounds, specializing in everything from web design and marketing to web development and more. Elementor is special to them because it makes website building both accessible and sophisticated and does so in a culture and spirit of collaboration.

The community helps creators push their limits, learning from others and collaborating on projects. We provide members of our community with mutual and collaborative help, such as access to community tutorials, webinars and performance-oriented courses that help them learn how to best implement WordPress optimization so that they can develop personally, professionally and financially.

Our users range from no experience to very experienced in coding, design and marketing, but the platform is designed for everyone to not only achieve their goals, but push themselves even further, whether to increase their e-commerce opportunities for their small business or agencies, or reach an online audience to read their writing.

Drenik: How could Elementor help web creators before Covid-19 and during Covid-19? What is the impact of Elementor on their business?

Elementor’s mission to empower our website builders has been cemented throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Throughout the global pandemic, the platform has been able to serve designers and other web professionals across many industries, including essential services helping end the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, nearly one in eight respondents aged 35 to 44 who influence the purchasing of the company they work for will invest in a website within the next 6 months. This underscores the importance of the work these website builders do. Covid-19 has made people realize that their website is so much more than just a staple. Elementor has been a natural fit for helping people start new businesses or move their existing businesses online.

Drenik: How is Elementor’s platform unique compared to other website building platforms?

Elementor’s platform provides a complete all-in-one design solution through an open source platform. Our platform has been actively installed over 8,000,000 times. More recently, a report said that 5.5% of websites worldwide are created by web creators using Elementor. By making professional website building seamless, we enable professional website builders to develop strategies for growing their own business and have time to develop the next big innovation in website building, for the sake of their customers and for a better and more inclusive Internet. On top of that, nothing compares to our dedicated user community which includes experts spread across 154 countries and 5 continents. The camaraderie that comes with using Elementor to build a website is truly unlike anything I’ve seen before on any other website building platform.

Drenik: Are there any specific stories where a website builder using Elementor was able to provide a small business client with financial stability during Covid-19?

Luksenberg: Many website builders themselves are small businesses, whether they run a one man show or are part of a design company with fewer than 20 people, Elementor has had a direct impact on their business in this pandemic, helping them streamline processes as other businesses rushed to connect. One website builder that comes to mind that may have had a direct impact on another business is Angela. Angela is a webmaster for a mountaineering school. She was able to help them take the classroom portion of their avalanche training online. She coached them on how to divide the material into various lessons and create compelling videos. This not only allowed them to interact with the students remotely and securely, but it was an incredible success. Traditional field course registrations doubled from the same period last year, and they were able to offer the classroom portion online to an additional 2,500 people around the world. Elementor not only makes an impact on passionate web creators themselves, but it also helps web creators feel fulfilled by helping others.

Drenik: How is Elementor influencing the potential of companies that have built their websites through the platform to grow after Covid-19?

Digitization is not going backwards. In addition, we are increasingly used to personalized and interactive online experiences. So, with the right tools, web creators can continue to grow their business. Elementor has enabled business leaders in many fields to quickly adapt to the new digital standard and will continue to improve usability in site design, turning web design professionals into architects of a future. digital – fully equipped with the tools, methodologies and skills to compete in a dynamic and demanding ecosystem. With Elementor in the designer’s tool belt, they have not only given businesses the chance to survive during Covid-19, but also a chance to thrive, after Covid-19. According to a recent Prosper Insights & Analytics survey, 84% of participants rated the website user experience as a very important / important quality for online shopping sites. Maintaining website appeal and user experience has never been easier for website builders. This can have an exponential impact on the website builder’s business and allow his customers to grow into what they imagined to be brick-and-mortar stores that have gone online, to now, to both.

Drenik: Thank you, Yoni, for your ideas on the value of an online presence and raising awareness of the dedicated web designer community who have worked tirelessly to help businesses stay afloat.