6 Tips to create an effective Countdown Timer

Nishil Mistry - March 24, 2023, 378

Before actually creating your countdown timer you need to know a few important things so that you can create an effective countdown timer without wasting your time and energy!

In this blog, we will cover the basic and important questions about the countdown timer-

What your countdown timer headline should be?
Where does the countdown timer appear correctly?
At what time and for how long should it be there on the screen?
What should be the label of your countdown timer?
What message should it convey?
What should be the CTA?

So let’s begin answering the first question

1. What your countdown timer headline should be?

The headline of your countdown timer should be very attractive and appealing. When we say ‘attractive’ we mean that you must use those persuasive words which stops your visitor at the countdown timer and read it through patiently.

For example– the words could be like- ‘sale’, ‘offer’, ‘discount’, ‘grab this deal before it ends’, etc. etc. or you can have any other personalised headline as well. But it should be simple, easy, quirky, or attractive enough to grab the user’s attention.

2. Where does the countdown timer should appear correctly?

Your countdown timer should appear at the top if you are sending it for email purposes. Otherwise, if it’s for your website then it should be at the very centre of the screen and if it’s for any particular product then it should appear under that product with a relevant emoji or symbol to grab the attention.

Position of the countdown matters because it is going to interrupt the attention of your user so it should not annoy them. Don’t try flashy and dark colours, let the important words in red, green, blue or purple in colours and use subtle colours. Also, don’t make your countdown timer cover the full screen, that is the most annoying thing for any visitor.

Once we saw a countdown timer covering most of the screen and it was annoying as it interrupted our attention for no good!

3. At what time and for how long should it be there on the screen?

Timing is the key to having your customer make a purchase. It’s a cycle like once they will see the timer appearing at the right time, in the right position with the right words and design then no one’s stopping them to have a look and think about making a purchase.

Let it appear after a few seconds of a customer looking at your website. Don’t forget to use the attractive clock or time ticking on the countdown timer. All of them are counting down to something, but their sense of urgency differs. Timers can be small yet powerful.

For example- if you’re counting down to something further away, simply use the number of days, and as the promotion nears its completion, add hours, minutes, and seconds.

4. What should be the label of your countdown timer?

For the same reasons why clear messaging is important, you should make sure that each countdown timer has a time label. The amount of time left before the timer expires must be communicated to the users. It’s that easy.

Don’t forget to include days, hours, minutes, etc., this will make the countdown timer much clearer to the reader. Just using numbers can be confusing and make the countdown timer useless.

5. What message should it convey?

If the messaging of your countdown timer is not clear to the user then it is of no use at all. Your message should be clear about what you want to convey to the users. Be smart and place a very plain sign indicating the timer’s purpose close to it. Messaging should be in bold and highlighted manner so that even if they don’t want to give much time in reading it then also they can understand the message just by those highlighted words.

6. What should be the CTA?

CTA is the final step which a user will take on your countdown timer. If it’s under your product then you don’t need the CTA that much. But if it’s on the website and you want them to take action by clicking or choosing any options then you must use your CTA cleverly.

Either use a formal or a personalised CTA. Give them not one but two options to choose from- one to opt in and one to not opt in. In this way, you’ll know about your much-interested audience and the not-interested ones. Although, one CTA works great but if you want to use a personalised CTA then go for two CTAs. Highlight and keep the CTA in a perfectly lined box with good colour and you are good to go.

Conclusion

Maybe it’s your time to take action..

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