Creating a sense of urgency and engaging users on a sales page are key elements of effective online marketing. One of the simplest, yet highly effective tools is a personalized countdown timer. In this article, we’ll show you step-by-step how to create a personalized countdown timer on the website, as well as the benefits of implementing it.
Personalized Countdown Timer on The Website in a Few Steps
No matter which page builder you use, you need a tool that will help you create effective personalized countdown timers. Ideally, they should be synchronized with countdown timers in emails. This will increase your credibility and thus influence better results. Unfortunately, the countdown timers that popular page builders offer do not have a synchronization option. On top of that, they usually don’t look perfect. What if you want to create a sticky timer that will attract users’ attention with an unconventional look, and on top of that, it will be synchronized with the countdown timer in the email?
Literally in a few simple steps, you can create a personalized countdown timer on your website thanks to Apresly. You don’t need to know coding or advanced tools to properly implement the created timer on the website. I’ll prove it to you right away.
Create a personalized countdown timer on the website.
Step I: Create an account in Apresly and create a new campaign
You can test the tool completely free of charge. Use this link and follow the instructions on the screen.
Once your account is ready, go to the “Campaigns” tab in the side menu on the left and select the appropriate campaign type. You can choose from five options:
- Evergreen – each subscriber will receive a personalized timer that will start counting down from the moment they sign up for the email list. This option is ideal if you want the offer to be valid for a certain number of days after registration, regardless of the date. It is especially useful for auto webinars where the user automatically receives an email offer with a link to the details after signing up for an event.
- One-time Offer – a campaign with a limited duration, perfect for short-term promotions, for example, for 15 or 30 minutes.
- Fixed – a campaign with one fixed term valid for all subscribers.
- Periodic – a campaign term is activated on a selected day of the week, allowing you to organize regular promotional activities.
- No deadline – a campaign without a specific end date, with the possibility of adding pop-ups to attract the attention of your audience effectively.
Choose the type of campaign that best suits your marketing goals! We will configure a permanent campaign together.
Step II. Name your campaign and set the time.
Go to the campaign configuration and “Deadlines” tab, name your project, and decide a category for it to make it easier to navigate between all your campaigns. Set the countdown time and time zone.
Step III. Select the page where you want to display the countdown timer
Decide what will happen when the timer stops counting down. Then indicate the site where you want to deploy the countdown tool and another site you want to redirect to when the timer expires.
Step IV. Customize the appearance of the countdown timer in the email
If you want to connect your campaigns and maintain consistency across your sales page and emails, it’s a good idea to synchronize your countdown timers. Here you can customize the appearance of the countdown timer in the email and download the HTML code to implement it in your email campaign.
On the other hand, if you only care about the personalized countdown timer on the website, you can skip this step.
Step. V. Customize the appearance of the countdown timer on the website
Depending on your needs, you can choose a sticky timer or an inline timer.
- The sticky timer is “stuck” to the bottom edge of the screen and remains visible even when you scroll the page so that the user has a view of the countdown all the time. It is an ideal choice when you want to keep the viewer’s attention on the promotion’s time limit no matter where they are on the page.
- The inline timer is embedded in a specific place on the page, such as in the body of an article, an offer section, or a form. It does not move as the page scrolls, so it is only visible when the user is in its location. It works well in situations where the timer is to be an integral part of the page content, such as next to a product description or purchase button.
Using the sticky timer example, I’ll show you how easy it is to customize the look of your timer.
First, choose the color palette that suits you best.
You can also set the colors yourself to match your brand image. Brand consistency is a very important element, so make sure your countdown timer stands out while matching your website.
If you want your countdown timer banner to have a CTA (Call to Action) – you can set it right there. Is it worth doing it? Of course! A CTA can significantly increase the effectiveness of a campaign. A countdown timer instills a sense of urgency, and a well-designed CTA allows the user to take the expected action right away.
Apresly countdown timers are also distinguished by the ability to add a personalized avatar. This can be your company’s logo, a striking emoticon, or your course’s trademark.
Remember that you can also set labels to, for example, tailor the language to your audience.
Step V. Implement tracking code on your website.
Next, implement the tracing code (you can find it in “Overview” or under “Tracing code” in the side menu) on your website – to do so, paste it into the HEAD section. This code is unique to your Apresly account. It should be added to your site or individual pages.
NOTE: This code is identical to the one in the “tracing code” tab and is independent of your site address. You don’t need to do anything else if you have already placed the code copied from the “Tracking code” tab on your site.
Publish your campaign in Apresly and check the results! Simple, right? 🙂
How to Use a Personalized Timer on the Website?
Is it a must-have? No, but… a well-designed countdown timer that not only looks nice but is also useful, is a real game-changer for marketing campaigns. A sense of urgency can be a game changer, and there is scientific evidence to prove it! Where can you use it?
Timed promotions
The countdown visible on a sale or special offer page induces a sense of urgency, which can significantly increase conversions. A customer seeing that a promotion ends in a few hours or minutes feels more motivated to make a purchase decision faster so as not to miss the opportunity.
Countdown to events
A countdown timer is perfect for counting down to important events, such as new product launches, campaign launches, or webinar starts.
This type of countdown timer helps build tension and engagement among users who are eagerly awaiting the launch. You can additionally connect the countdown timer to a registration form to encourage users to sign up for the event.
One-Time Offers (OTOs)
OTO offers are designed to get the recipient to take action immediately. In this case, a countdown timer counts down the amount of time the recipient has to make a decision, such as after opening a message or visiting a page. Well-constructed OTO offers encourage purchase through a sense of urgency, but also exclusivity.
Evergreen campaigns
The evergreen campaign is one of the most advanced uses of a personalized timer, which allows you to customize content and countdowns based on individual user actions.
You can run a sequence of countdown timer emails with a unique deadline for each lead. The countdown timer will start counting down, for example, when a person joins your email list, allowing you to tailor your communications to the path of the individual user.
If you synchronize your countdown timers and use email links, you are assured that the user will see the same time regardless of the device they are using.
Create a countdown timer with unique deadline for each lead
Conclusions
A personalized countdown timer is a real ace up your sleeve when it comes to increasing the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. It’s a simple tool that not only looks great on the page but most importantly builds a sense of urgency and motivates users to take action. If you’re wondering how to add such a countdown timer to your site, rest assured – it’s easier than you think. Especially if you use a tool like Apresly.
Apresly allows you to create not only beautiful and customized countdown timers for your site but best of all – it allows you to synchronize them with emails. This way, users see the same countdown time whether they’re visiting the site or checking their email inbox. Fewer than that, you can create a countdown timer with a unique deadline for each lead.
The whole setup and implementation process is extremely pleasant, fast, and simple. The sense of urgency works, and by synchronizing everything in one tool, your users will have an unambiguous and consistent experience no matter where they see the countdown.
