It is not easy to create a newsletter that captures the attention of the recipient even during the peak shopping season. How to get your customers’ attention in a flood of emails from your competitors? One of the options you can try out is a countdown timer. Here are the five reasons why it’s worth using in email marketing and what benefits it will bring you. 3, 2, 1… here we go!
1. Motivation to take action
A countdown timer in your emails will create a sense of urgency and an interest to visit your website where they can, for example, make a purchase or book a place at an event. This tactic is based on the FOMO theory (fear of missing out). This offer only lasts for a limited time and it would be a shame to miss out on such an opportunity. Giving the exact duration of the event looks better than a general sentence “Only a few days to go…”. Place the countdown timer ideally right at the beginning of the email so that the customer notices it as soon as they open the message.
Read more about setting up a countdown timer in your template
#tip: When using a countdown timer, always be honest in your emails and never lie. Countdown timers with a fake ending time are a direct way to lose your customers’ trust. If your newsletter states the end of a limited-time offer on October 31 at 11:59 pm, keep in mind that the promotion may not end any sooner or later
2. Simple way to create an online countdown timer
You can use an online tool to create a countdown timer. It is easy to create a countdown timer – you can create one within a few clicks. There are plenty of online tools on the internet that will generate a counter for you completely free of charge. Some of those are Sendtric, CountdownMail or Motion Mail.
Learn how to easily insert your custom countdown timer directly into our editor.
Inserting a countdown timer from www.sendtric.com into an email takes just a few seconds and it is very intuitive. Just enter your email, time zone, date and time of the end of the event, language and color of the elements. You can then insert the countdown timer into the newsletter using only the HTML code that is automatically generated.
3. A great helper for special promotions and discounts
Discount coupons and other promotions encourage the use of the countdown timer in e-mailing. Whether it’s the popular Black Friday, Christmas, post-Christmas discounts and sales or other special offers not just during the peak shopping season, your recipients will always appreciate knowing how long the promotion is valid until and how much time they have to think before taking advantage of the offer. Remember that their inboxes often fill up with a plethora of newsletters and if they open the email, you need to get their attention right away and ideally prompt them to take the desired action.
#tip: It can sometimes be a challenge to get attention from your recipients during big marketing events such as Black Friday. To reach your recipients in the most effective way, be sure to boost the effectiveness of your countdown timer by adding appropriate CTA. Place the CTA as close as possible to the countdown timer, so the customer does not miss it. It can be, for example, a button with a CTA to purchase, or register for a course.
4. More tempting newsletter design
Thanks to the countdown timer, you can easily turn an ordinary email into a visually interesting newsletter. A countdown timer can often suggest more than just words, which is crucial in today’s hectic times to get the interest of the recipient.
#tip:Background color of your countdown timer can be customized to match the background color of your newsletter. For example you can use the Color Picker for Chrome extension to find out the exact background color of your newsletter.
5. Universal tool
Some email marketing strategies don’t usually work across different businesses. What will help you boost clothes sales might not work so well for selling tickets for a workshop, which will be targeted to a smaller group of people.
Countdown timers are one of the most universal email communication tools and are perfect for a limited time offer, regardless of the industry. Whether you choose to use them as a tool to motivate customers to make a quicker purchase for an online grocery supermarket or to offer a language course, for example, they will serve their purpose.
Remember, that too much of anything is harmful. This applies for countdown timers in email marketing as well. While this tool is a very effective way to quickly get your recipients to act, avoid overusing them. If you start inserting countdown timers into every newsletter that will be sent out several times a week, it is more likely that your customers will become annoyed, discouraged and they will lose interest very soon. Some may even label your messages as spam.
