How do You Set the Offer Expiration Date in Your Email and Website?

In online marketing, creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective ways to motivate potential customers to take action. One tool that perfectly supports this process is setting the offer expiration date. In this article, you’ll learn why it’s a good idea to use time limits, how to set up a countdown timer, and how you can do it with the Apresly tool. What’s more, you will learn in practice how to use a timer in your campaigns.

Why the Offer Expiration Date is a Game Changer in Selling Products Online?

The answer to this question is very simple, and the key element is FOMO.

Time-limited offers work based on the so-called FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect, or the fear of missing an opportunity. This is one of the most effective psychological tools in online sales, which motivates customers to act faster. Why? 

People have a natural tendency to put off buying decisions, especially if they don’t see a clear reason to act “here and now.” However, when they know that an offer has a clear expiration date, time pressure builds up, effectively reducing procrastination.

This mechanism can be observed in many industries. For example, in e-commerce, promotions such as “until midnight only” or “ends in 24 hours” significantly increase the conversion rate. 

In the online course or digital product industry, customers are more likely to purchase if they know that access to the offer may not be available or more expensive later. This effect is confirmed by numerous psychological studies – time pressure not only reinforces FOMO but also builds a sense that the offer is unique and hard to access.

So if you’re a digital product developer looking to increase sales and build greater engagement among your customers, implementing a time-limit mechanism for offers should be your top priority. 

Remember that a properly planned offer expiration date is not only a sales tool but also an effective strategy for building loyalty and maintaining interest in your brand.

Solutions to Implement Offer Expiration Date (You Just Need to Know Them)

Creating urgency is an art that requires the right tools and a well-thought-out strategy. To effectively implement an offer expiration date, you should use dedicated tools. Here are some of them:

Personalized countdown timers in emails and on the sales page

Dynamic countdown timers, which visually indicate how much time is left on an offer, are one of the most effective tools for building urgency. They can be easily embedded on product pages, landing pages, or in marketing emails. Studies show that the sight of “running out” time strongly influences motivation to take action, as it activates the time pressure mechanism.

Unique deadline for each lead in email sequences

Using unique offer expiration dates, customized for each customer, is a great way to automate evergreen campaigns. For example:

• Newsletter subscription – A user who subscribes to a mailing list gets a personalized deadline, after which the offer expires.
• Webinars – When you sign up for an event, you may get a special offer that is only available for a certain amount of time after the webinar ends.

This approach keeps campaigns fresh and works just as effectively with more users. In a nutshell, email sequences enhanced with timers with unique deadlines can work in evergreen campaigns without requiring constant supervision.

Landing page with active pop-ups

Effectively designed landing pages that visually highlight the limited-time offer are key. However, you can enhance them with:

• Social proof pop-ups – small windows that tell you that other users have just made a purchase, which builds credibility and reinforces FOMO.

• Emotional pop-up – messages that appeal to the user’s emotions, such as “Don’t miss this unique opportunity!” or “Your time to decide is running out!”.

These types of elements not only emphasize urgency but also enhance user engagement and build user confidence in the offering.

Set the Offer Expiration Date with a Few Clicks with Apresly 

If you are still looking for a multifunctional tool that will guarantee you all that I described above – you can sit back and celebrate success: the search is over! Meeting your expectations is Apresly, a tool that will help you create effective sales funnels and automate campaigns to make money while you sleep. 

With literally a few clicks you can set the offer expiration date and create a personalized countdown timer to reinforce the sense of urgency. 

Apresly isn’t just about timers, but if we’re already talking about them….The ideal countdown timer, or what kind of countdown timer?

Although the concept of “ideal” is quite relative, in this case, it is worth knowing what the countdown timer should be, so we maximize its potential:

• Synchronized – to ensure consistency of communication across all channels, e.g. email, website, ads,
• With unique deadlines – each lead receives an individual deadline, eliminating the problem of expired offers and lost conversions,
• Should run automatically – e.g. after signing up for a newsletter, starting the purchase process, or downloading a free e-book,
• Responsive – the counter must work equally well on computers and mobile devices, which is crucial in the mobile-first era,
• Aesthetically pleasing and legible – the countdown timer’s design should blend in with the brand’s visual identity so as not to distract from the main message.

How to Set the Offer Expiration Date and Configure the Countdown Timer in Apresly?

1.  Create an account with Apresly. 

It’s easy – use this link and follow the instructions on the screen. You can test the system for free! 

2.  Create a new campaign in Apresly.

When your account is ready, select “Campaigns” from the side menu on the left, and then the appropriate campaign type. My favorite campaign type is Evergreen (you can find out about the effectiveness of Evergreen campaigns by reading this article), so we’ll use that as an example. 

For evergreen campaigns, we need a countdown timer for emails that will count down individually for each recipient.

If someone subscribes to your email list, the countdown timer will automatically start counting down. This will ensure that the offer you send will be valid for, for example, 3 days after the signup – regardless of when it happened.

3. Name your campaign and set the time.

Go to the campaign configuration and the “Deadlines” tab, name your project, and choose a category for it to make it easier to navigate between all the campaigns. Set the countdown time and time zone: 

4. Select the trigger, that is, the moment when the timer starts counting down.

You can’t skip this step. This is important especially if you want to use a countdown timer for emails in an email sequence in an evergreen campaign. You can choose:

• A countdown timer that starts counting down when an email is opened (this setting will be useful for short OTO offers),
• A countdown timer that starts counting down when a user joins a selected email list – to select this option, you must first integrate Apresly with your email system.

5.  Customize the appearance of the timer in an email message

Choose the template you like best or set the colors to match your brand image. You can easily and intuitively customize both the look of the timer itself and the captions. 

Now you can publish the campaign in Apresly and go to your email marketing system to add a timer in your emails.

How do I Insert a Countdown Timer Into an Email and a Page and Sync Them? 

To insert a countdown timer into an email message:

1. Go to your campaign if you want to send a one-time email to a selected group, or the automation section if you want to create an email sequence. Then, in the message edit box, go to the source code (if you’re using MailerLite Classic) or select the place in the email body where you want to add a timer, click the plus box, and select the HTML/code block from the list (if you’re using MailerLite New, ActiveCampaign or Kit and others).

2. Copy the Email Countdown Timer Code from Apresly and paste it into the appropriate place in the email. 

NOTE: Make sure you copy the HTML code every time you want to display the email timer. If you do not copy the code every time, the timers will not display the correct date in the emails.

When you’re done, you can save your changes and schedule an email.

To insert a countdown timer on the website and synchronize it:

All you need to do in the wizard in Apresly is to indicate the site where you want to display the countdown timer, and then another site to which you want to redirect when the timer expires. 

Now all you have to do is customize the appearance of the countdown timer on the site:

And then implement the tracking code (you’ll find it in the overview) on your site – to do this, paste it into the HEAD section. 

Quick and trivial, right? 

Conclusion: Take Advantage of the FOMO Effect and Sell Through Emotion 

You already know full well that the FOMO effect, or the fear of missing an opportunity, is a powerful tool you can use in your sales strategy. Time-limited offers, dynamic countdown timers, personalized deadlines, and email sequences reminding you of an ending promotion are effective in engaging customers and prompting them to take action. The key lies in skillfully building emotions – time pressure, a sense of uniqueness of the offer, and appealing to the customer’s needs are the foundations of successful sales.

Remember that sales are not just about numbers, but more importantly about emotions. Create a sense of urgency, build FOMO, and see your results go up!

Using offer expiration dates is a proven way to increase the effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Apresly’s tool allows you to not only set advanced countdown timers but also integrate them into your sales funnels to create personalized and effective campaigns. Try it today and see how you can increase conversions through urgency!