Whatever micro-niche you belong to, there is always an example of successful companies whose example you can follow and who you can learn from. One of such well-known names in the WordPress market is ThemeREX. Enjoy the #WPDEVMAG interview with Henry Rise, the founder of ThemeREX!
Hi, Henry! Thank you for agreeing to answer a couple of questions about your business. Please, could you introduce us to ThemeRex? How did everything begin?
I started to work with WordPress 10 years ago. The whole team started to work with the CMS about 7 years ago. At the beginning of our story, we were a part of another big template company. However, after several years of working in the field, we had enough knowledge and skills to runt the business on our own. We started our own company.
We joined the Envato market with our first WordPress themes sold under ThemeREX, which was founded in 2013. Some time passed and the inventory of our themes became more diverse. Then, we decided to launch two more projects offering multi-functional WordPress themes – Ancora Themes and Axiom. Today, I am proud to say that all our projects are successful right now.
You are Power Elite Author on ThemeForest and you have created over 300 themes… Tell us more about your portfolio. What is your best-selling item on ThemeForest?
We have a rich portfolio of WordPress themes suited for all types of businesses you can think of. There are ready-to-go designs for blogs and online portfolios. We also offer WordPress themes suited for small to large-sized businesses, as well as large corporate projects.
Jacqueline is one of our best-selling WordPress themes, with more than 3,000 sales and a 5-star rating on ThemeForest.
This is an elegant and refined WordPress theme perfectly suited for the launch of spa and beauty salon websites. It has a beautiful design and powerful functionality that customers love. This is a multi-functional and fully editable WordPress theme that you can adjust to fit any topic-specific website quite easily.
As a bonus for clients we’ve also included premium plugins for free (WPBAkery page builder, Slider Revolution, Essential Grid). It’s fully compatible with the latest web design standards and GDPR demands. The theme includes such functionality as Booked Appointments, which is relevant to beauty and spa center websites.
Your latest theme is “Quanzo”. What “Quanzo” brings and why choose this theme?
Quanzo is an incredible modern portfolio WordPress Theme. It has been released in 2020. We used all the latest technologies during its development, including coding standards and web design trends. The theme has been made with the most advanced Page Builder that we have nowadays Elementor.
Quanzo includes multiple premade demos for any kind of professional that may need an online portfolio: designer, photographer, artist, musician, etc. Moreover, each demo comes in 4 ready-to-use color schemes. So, the end-user may pick one of them or create his/her own one. Above all, we’ve included premium plugins for free. The theme is super user-friendly, SEO-ready, responsive and flexible.
What tools and software do you use in the processes of design and development?
We use XD-editor to design our themes and our own framework for theme development. When used in combination, these two options let us make our web designs more powerful and usable for our clients.
Let’s talk about marketing. What is the best way for you to build a community around your brand? Are you actively promoting your themes!?
Sure, we actively post on social media, popular blogs and run advertising campaigns in Google and Facebook. Also, customers can subscribe to our newsletter and receive important tips and news about our products. We regularly post showcases of our new and top-selling themes.
What’s the most important thing in the process of building a good relationship with your fans and buyers?
The most important thing is to be 100% honest with your audience. We sell items that cost just $40 – $59. So, we need to make people feel comfortable while working with our products and evoke their desire to keep coming back. It doesn’t matter how good you are in marketing. If the customer feels that he was deceived, he/she will never return.
We want to make it easy for both beginners and pros to work with our themes without someone else’s help. We update our themes and the framework frequently. Today, you can modify our themes using any popular drag-and-drop WordPress editor.
In the end, could you give special advice for beginners or message to our readers and fans?
Don’t be afraid to experiment and try something new. The world is constantly changing around us. New technologies and innovations appear. In order to be competitive and attract more customers, we must continuously learn and develop ourselves. If you would like to find your our niche in the web design industry, do not be afraid to take your first step. Think of something unique that would appeal to your target audience and integrate it into your own web product. Success will follow, just try. Good luck!