You've probably seen a countdown timer in an email before. It's a strategy implemented by many marketeers to use people's FOMO (fear of missing out). This way, they can obtain a higher conversion from email. This article explains how you can add a countdown timer to your email in Spotler.
Get started in the messages editor
You can set up the countdown timer in the Messages module.
- Put a row in your canvas.
- Drag the Timer element into the row.
- Click on the element.
- The settings for the timer will appear on the left hand side.
- Click on the button Add timer. A popup will open where you can edit the timer.
- Click on Save to see the timer in your message.
Countdown timer settings
There are different elements you can set up through the editor:
- Date: the date by which the timer will expire
- Time: the time by which the timer will expire
- Timer Style: the style of the timer (colors, fonts, etc.)
- Locale: the time zone and language
- More Colors: the color per element
- Other options: such as showing labels
- Text Style: styling such as bold italic, etc.
- Expiration: an image containing a message that says when the timer will expire
Date
You can set up the expiration date of the timer in the top left corner.
Time
Under the date, you set up a specific time at which the timer will expire.
Timer Style
When you click on Timer style, the settings shown below will appear:
- Background Color: the background color of the timer is white by default, but you can choose any color that fits your template.
- Font: by opening the drop-down menu, you can select a font for your timer.
- Font Size: select the size of the font.
- Font Color: the color of the letters is black by default, but you can choose any color.
Click on Save to save your changes.
Locale
Under Locale, set the language and time zone of the timer.
More Colors
You can set colors in details under More Colors. Label color is the color given to words below the timer, to the words 'days' or 'hours' for instance. You can also set the colors of the time display.
Other options
Under Other options, you can set up the elements shown below:
- Show labels: select whether you want labels to be shown or not. The labels are; days, hours, minutes and seconds.
- Show days: select whether you want to show the number of days. When you choose not to, it will convert the number of days to hours.
- Count Up: instead of a countdown, you can opt for a 'count up' where the time increases.
- Label size: the width of the timer.
- Seperator: a colon is used as a separator in the time by default, but you can select a different symbol if desired.
- Padding: decide how much space you want between the elements.
Text Style
Besides changing the text color and More colors, you can change other details as shown below:
- Stroke color: the color of the text outline
- Stroke width: width of the text outline
- Shadow color: if applicable
- Distance: distance of the shadow in relation to the timer
- Apply To Labels: apply changes to labels separately
Expiration
You can choose to show an image when the timer has expired. You can upload the image you want to show under Expiration. If you don't upload an image, the reader will see that the timer has expired by the time shown as 00:00:00:00.
Adding a countdown timer in the old messages editor
You can set the countdown timer in the old editor by selecting a block and clicking on the hourglass icon.
First select the the place in your block where you want to add the timer. You can add it above or below your text. Unlike a 'normal' image, the timer will automatically scale on mobile devices. You can place the timer in the place where the image is situated by selecting the image.
Now click on the stopwatch icon and as a result, the countdown timer will open in a new window. Read more on how to set the countdown timer.