How to add a countdown timer to an email

You will learn

Learn how to use countdown timers to add a sense of urgency to your emails. These work particularly well for flash sales, special promotions, or holiday messaging. Klaviyo does not have a built-in countdown timer feature, so you’ll need to use a third-party tool like MailTimers.

Generate a countdown timer

In this example, we’ll use a countdown timer generated through MailTimers. You can use any countdown timer generator that provides HTML that you can copy and paste into an email template. 

1. Create an account with MailTimers.
2. Click Create timer.
3. Choose the date and time you’d like to count down to in the Event date & time field. 
4. Adjust the timer’s appearance as desired, then click Save. 
5. Click Copy Embed Code.
   

Need more help generating a countdown timer? Head to MailTimers’ support documentation. 

Add a countdown timer to an email 

Once you’ve created a timer and copied your embed code, you’re ready to add it to an email. 

1. Open any existing email (i.e., a template, an unsent email campaign, or a flow email).
2. Add an HTML block to your template.
   
3. Delete any existing code in the HTML block. 
4. Paste in the code you copied from the previous section.
   
5. Click the back arrow to apply your changes.
   

Inbox support for countdown timers

Countdown timers are supported in most email inboxes. However, countdown timers may not render correctly in Apple Mail. This is because Apple Mail generally pre-loads emails before they are opened, which can cause a countdown timer to display an incorrect time when a recipient opens it. 

In addition, earlier versions of Outlook (2007, 2010, and 2013) don’t support GIFs, and will simply display the first frame in the GIF.

Additional resources

• How to add a countdown timer to a signup form
• Guide to the email template editor
• Course: Getting started with the email template editor