ADD A FREE COUNTDOWN TIMER TO YOUR EMAILS

Countdown clocks are just plain cool. Not to mention they are a great way to add a sense of urgency to any campaign.

There are 3 main ways to build a countdown timer,
-Build the animation in photoshop
-Write some java to control some CSS
-Find a free version

Having scoured the web, I believe I’ve found the best free option for a count timer. sendtric.com is a free timer that will generate the code for you to easily drag into your own code.

There are two drawbacks that I can see,
-The countdown date must be within a 30-day window
-There is only one font choice
Both seem reasonable, especially for a free option.

Why I love it-
-They give you a hex color option so you can actually match the clock to the email color pallet. I love that.
-Once you have the code you can actually edit the URL to control the colors and the date. Or you can just fill out the form again, and download again.
-It’s a free countdown timer!

What you should know-
The countdown timer will be given to you in a link. Sometimes your email provider will try to place tracking codes within the link during the upload. This will break the link, or in my case, stop the upload, making things unusable.

To get around this I upload my HTML to my email provider. Then I edit the source code within the email provider, add the code, then turn tracking off on any newly found URL’s.

If you run into any problems the people at sendtric have awesome support so just email them any questions.

I run through this process in my video, so be sure to check it out below.

This quick video will show you two things:

-how to create and use a free countdown timer at sendtric.com

-how to upload without errors to Adobe Campaign

-you can also apply the same logic to other ESP’s , if you have something other than Adobe Campaign that is okay

enjoy

Header photo by Loic Djim