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Learn how to use countdown timers to add a sense of urgency to your emails and forms. These work particularly well for flash sales, special promotions, or holiday messaging. While Klaviyo doesn't have a built-in countdown timer functionality, there are a couple of ways you can add countdown timers to your Klaviyo templates.
Use a third-party countdown timer generator
There are several third-party countdown timer generators you can use. These services allow you to input the parameters of your timer (how long you'd like it to run for, etc.) and produce a snippet of code that you can add to your Klaviyo template. Two popular options are CountdownMail and Sendtric.
Add a continuous countdown timer to an email template
This option is only available in email templates. If you use this method to add a countdown timer to your emails, it will continuously count down to the date you specify, no matter when the email is viewed. When the timer runs out, it will display zeroes for the day, hour, and minute values.
For this example, we're going to use a free timer from Sendtric.
After you create your timer, copy the code shown on the right. Then, paste it into the Source area of a text block in your email template.
You can center your timer by slightly modifying the code snippet. Click into the text block where you pasted your timer code. Click the Source button, and add the following snippet to your image element.
style="display: block; margin: 0 auto"
Example of a centered timer from Sendtric:
<img src="http://gen.sendtric.com/countdown/nxzpxc4w44" style="display: block;
margin: 0 auto" />
Example of a centered timer from CountdownMail:
<img alt="countdownmail.com" src="http://i.countdownmail.com/369v9.gif" style="display:
block; margin: auto 0" />
Add a timer that counts down from open/load in a signup form or email
Use this technique to add a signup form that counts down from the moment an email is opened or a form loads. Note that if the email is reopened or the form is reloaded at a later time, the timer will restart. If you’d prefer to use a timer that counts down continuously to a specific time, use the method below: Add a Timer to a Text Block in an Email.
For this example, we're going to use a free timer from CountdownMail.
After you create your timer using CountdownMail, copy just the URL from the source code. You can see the URL highlighted in the image below.
Add an image block to your template or form. For the image source, select Upload / Import and then click Import from a URL. Paste the URL (not the entire image source) into the box and click Import Image.
Once you import the image, it will be visible in your email template or signup form.
You can control the alt text, image link, alignment, and other image styling using the options in the left side panel.
Custom code your own timer
If you are technical or have a custom developer at your disposal, you can custom code your own countdown timer to use in your Klaviyo templates. Once you've created the code, you can insert it into the Source area of a text block as shown above. Again, this option is only available in email templates.
Klaviyo does not support Javascript or certain CSS elements in email templates.
Use a GIF
It is possible to create a countdown timer as a GIF file and use it in an image block in your email template. To do this, create a frame by frame countdown sequence by changing one aspect of the image at a time (i.e., the numbers on the clock). Then, stitch these images together using a tool like gifmaker.me, or convert a video into a GIF using a tool like Blog GIF.
One thing to bear in mind is that GIFs will automatically reset when a recipient leaves the page and will remain constant no matter when a recipient opens the email – if you send the email at 11:00 PM with a countdown for one hour and a recipient opens the email at 11:30 PM, the clock will still read one hour.
Lastly, earlier versions of Outlook (2007, 2010, and 2013) don’t support GIFs, they will simply display the first frame in the GIF.