Creating a sense of urgency is one of the most effective methods of motivating potential customers to take action. One tool that perfectly supports this process is a countdown timer, indicating the expiration date of an offer. In this article, you’ll learn why using a time limit is a good idea, how to add a countdown timer to your website or email step by step, and how to do it with the Apresly tool. Finally, you will learn how to practically apply a countdown timer to your campaigns.
Why is a Countdown Timer on Your Website a Breakthrough in Online Sales?
A key element affecting the effectiveness of online sales is the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect or the fear of missing an opportunity. It’s a psychological tool that effectively motivates customers to make faster purchasing decisions.
People often put off decisions, especially if they don’t have a clear reason to act immediately. However, knowing that an offer has a certain expiration time creates time pressure and effectively reduces the tendency to procrastinate.
This mechanism works across industries. In e-commerce, promotions like “last chance to join” or “offer ends in 24 hours” can significantly increase the conversion rate and do a lot of good.
When it comes to online courses and digital products, customers are more likely to buy if they know that later access to the offer may be more expensive or disappear altogether.
Psychological research shows that time pressure not only reinforces FOMO but also builds the impression that the offer is unique and hard to find, even exclusive. This makes the customer feel the proposition is more valuable and unique.
Therefore, if you’re looking to increase digital product sales and customer engagement, putting time limits on offers should become your priority. A properly planned offer expiration date is not only an effective sales tool but also a way to build brand loyalty and interest.
Countdown Timer on a Website – What Should It Be
When it comes to countdown counters, certain features are worth considering to realize their full potential and effectiveness in marketing campaigns. Here’s what well-designed countdown timers should be:
Synchronized – same deadline in email and website
The timer should work in complete harmony with the rest of your marketing communications. This means that the time counted down by the counter in emails or on the website must be consistent. Inconsistencies can confuse your audience and undermine their trust in your offering.
Thanks to synchronization, customers always know how much time is left on a promotion, regardless of the channel they use.
With a unique deadline for each lead
Individual timing for each user is the key to successful, evergreen campaigns. Each lead should receive a timer that counts down according to its situation, e.g. from the moment it signs up for a newsletter or starts the buying process.
This avoids the problem of expired offers that could discourage customers and increase the chances of conversion.
Create a countdown timer with unique deadline for each lead
Operating automatically
The ideal countdown timer should be fully automated, allowing easy integration with various stages of the purchase path. It can run automatically after signing up for a mailing list, starting the purchase process, or downloading free material.
Automation saves time and eliminates the need to manually monitor offer expiration dates.
Responsive – tailored to desktop and mobile devices
In today’s mobile-first era, a countdown counter must work just as smoothly on mobile devices as it does on computers. Users are increasingly shopping and browsing offers on smartphones, so the counter must be fully responsive to provide a seamless user experience regardless of device.
Aesthetic and readable
The appearance of the counter is of great importance for the reception of your offer. It should be designed to fit in with your brand’s visual identity, while still being readable and eye-catching.
It must not dominate the main message, but should subtly emphasize the time constraint, evoking a sense of urgency in the user.
As you can see, a countdown timer is not just a visual element – it’s a tool that, if designed and implemented correctly, can significantly increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. Keep these five key features in mind to make your countdown timer work for your brand and effectively encourage customers to make faster decisions.
How to Add a Countdown Timer to My Website with Apresly?
If you are looking for a versatile tool that will enable you to create the perfect countdown timers – you can breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate: the search is over! The answer to your needs is Apresly – a tool that will help you create effective sales funnels and automate campaigns to generate profits even while you sleep.
Apresly also offers solutions such as effective pop-ups:
- 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.
What you need, however, is just a few clicks to create a personalized countdown timer in Apresly to reinforce a sense of urgency. It’s just as simple to implement the created counter on your website and in an email. You’ll find out in just a moment.
Configure a Countdown Timer in Apresly
- Create an account with Apresly.
Use this link and follow the instructions on the screen. You can test the system for free.
- 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. For this article, let’s choose Evergreen.
For evergreen campaigns, we need a timer for emails that will count down individually for each recipient.
If someone subscribes to the mailing list, the countdown timer will automatically start counting down. This will ensure that the offer sent will be valid for, say, x days after registration – no matter when it happened.
- 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:
- Select the trigger, that is, the moment when the timer starts counting down
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.
- Choose where you want to display the countdown timer
Point to the site where you want to display the timer, and then to another site that you want to redirect to when the timer expires.
- 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.
- Customize the appearance of the timer on the website.
Now all you have to do is customize the appearance of the countdown timer on the site:
- Implement tracking code on the standing page in the HEAD section.
Then implement the tracking code (you’ll find it in the overview) on your site – to do so, paste it into the HEAD section. You can find the same code in the side menu on the left – “Tracing code”. If you have implemented it before, you don’t need to do anything else. This code is the same for all pages where you want to display Apresly solutions. You can paste it on an unlimited number of pages.
Now you can publish the campaign in Apresly and go to your email marketing system to add a timer in your emails.
Synchronize countdown timers in your emails and on landing pages.
Bonus: How do I Insert a Countdown Timer Into an Email?
To insert a countdown timer into an email message:
- 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).
- 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.
Conclusion: How to Add a Countdown Timer to My Website or Email
Adding a countdown timer is a great way to increase the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, build a sense of urgency, and motivate your audience to make a quick decision. All you need to do is choose the right tool that allows you to easily create countdown timers – both on your website and in your emails.
Apresly will help you not only to set up a countdown timer but also to create advanced sales funnels!
Remember that an ideal countdown timer should be synchronized, responsive, aesthetically pleasing, and automatic, as well as offer the ability to set unique terms for each user. With such features, the countdown timer will not only attract attention but also effectively increase conversions and customer engagement.
By implementing this solution, you will gain a powerful tool to support sales and build loyalty to your brand. Get started today and watch your campaigns gain momentum!
