Countdown timer is a cool way to show product launches, discount deals and any other time limited information. It is easy to insert countdown timer widget in websites. However, sending the information in emails can effectively increase the click through rate and conversion. If you wonder, how to insert a countdown timer in Gmail or any other email client, read on further.
Countdown Timer Widget in Email
Below is how an email from Wix website builder looks with an attractive countdown timer.
- Timer increases the sense of urgency and users tend to purchase your product before your deadline.
- Increases click through rate of emails compared to plain text content.
- Combined with newsletter templates, countdown timer can work well to increase your sale.
If you do not have own products, you can promote affiliate products that offers limited time deals using the timer.
How to Insert Countdown Timer in Gmail?
As you see in Gmail interface, the composing screen contains limited options. You can insert links, images, emoticons, signatures, etc. However, it is not possible to insert a script or HTML widget inside email screen. Therefore, you have to use the countdown timer in a simple GIF image format and insert in email like any other images. Here, we will explain inserting countdown timer from two different services.
Gmail Countdown Timer from MailTimers
MailTimers is one popular option that you can use for inserting a timer in Gmail.
- Go to MailTimers website and click on the “Create a Timer” button.
- You have to register for an account in order to use the service. You can login with Facebook, Gmail or use custom email for signing up a free account.
- If you are using email for signup, you do not need to verify your email. After providing the details, you will directly land on the dashboard section of the website. Again, click on the “Create timer” button on the top.
- MailTimers offer cool and easy to use interface. The process of creating timer is super simple with three steps. You can choose a template, customize and generate the embed code in single screen without navigating to multiple menus.
- First step is to select your template for the countdown timer. You have variety of templates to preview and choose the best one that suits your email content.
- After selecting your template, customize the text/background/label colors and choose the font style. You can choose white color for the background and dark color for text, so that it will blend nicely when you embed in Gmail. Only “Fixed Date” type is free and other options are for premium users.
- Make sure to choose your end date and timezone for your timer. This will ensure showing correct time to your visitors around the world when they open their email.
- Next step is to view your preview and save the changes.
- After saving the widget, you will see the embed code for your countdown timer. As mentioned, it will be a GIF image within HTML image tag. Copy only the source URL part which should be something like https://gifcdn.com/abcd1234.gif.
The dashboard section will show all timers you have created with the number of impressions. Anytime you can login back to MailTimers account and edit previously created timers.
Insert Countdown Timer in Gmail
The next step is to insert your embed code in Gmail.
- Login to your Gmail account and create a new email. Click on the “Image” icon to insert an image in your email.
- Go to the “Web Address (URL)” option and insert the embed code from MailTimers. You will see an instant preview after inserting the URL.
- Click on “Insert” button to go back to your email. Type the email content, fill up your recipients, subject and send the email.
- Recipients will see the countdown timer like below in the email.
Limitations with MailTimers
As you see the timer has a branding text “Powered by MailTimers” in the image. This may be fine for personal emails but not suitable for professional emails targeting to sell your quality products. You have to pay $9.99 per month to remove this branding from the timer. Even with that subscription, you will have a view limit of 150K per month. We recommend trying the premium options, if you have to send emails to large number of users with timer.
Create Countdown Timer with Mara
Though MailTimers is a good option, many users can’t afford the budget to purchase premium plans. Alternate option is simple without any reporting features. However, you can use this for free when you have small number of users.
- Go to getmara email countdown timer website. You do not need to register for creating a countdown timer.
- You have three simple styles for the timer, choose the one you like.
- Set your end date and timezone. You can also customize the colors and labels text.
- Preview your countdown timer and click on “Generate Countdown” button.
- You will get a widget code to embed the timer in your email. Make sure to only copy the GIF image URL path from the embed code. It is the image URL within the double quotes of SRC attribute.
- Follow the same above instructions like MailTimers to insert the GIF timer image in your Gmail.
The advantage is that it is free and the timer does not show any branding information. However, it may not work when you send the timer to hundreds of thousands of recipients. Therefore, use this option only when you have limited number of recipients.
Final Words
If you are an affiliate marketer or selling your own products, we recommend sending campaign emails with a countdown timer. Inserting countdown timer in Gmail is easy with the above services and help to increase your conversion.
