Countdown timers in Drip emails

Drip does have a countdown timer. It is in the onsite pop-up builder, it runs on your website, and it never reaches an inbox. For an email, the timer is an image from elsewhere, and Drip gives you three places to put one, depending on which builder the email uses.

Does Drip have its own countdown timer

Not for email, as far as Drip documents. Its Countdown Timer article sits in the Onsite Pop-up Builder section of the help centre. It says the timer “is compatible with all campaign types and positions, including Sticky Bars”, and that it works “in your campaign’s Teaser and Success Step”. You drag the Countdown element onto the pop-up, set an end time, and choose either a message or switching the campaign off when it reaches zero.

That runs in a browser on your store. An email client runs no code, so a countdown in an email has to be an image drawn on a server when the email is opened.

Where the timer goes in Drip

Drip has three email builders, and each takes a timer differently.

The Visual Builder’s Image element. Drip’s Visual Email Builder article says that once an image is placed, “Source lets you swap the current image for another in its place. Or, you can enter the URL to an external image you might be hosting outside of Drip.” For one deadline across the whole send, paste the signed address into Source, then set Link and ALT text. The Visual Builder’s element list has no HTML element.

The Text Builder’s source view. Drip’s HTML Email Builder article points to a Source button in the Text Builder’s text editor, shown as < >, and uses it to paste a block of code into a Text Builder email. A timer snippet can go in the same way, without converting the whole email.

Custom HTML. The same article describes a Custom HTML editor that “is exclusive to the Text Builder and can be used for single emails, email series, and one-off emails”, and Workflow and Rule Automation emails built in the Text Builder too. You reach it with Switch to Custom HTML, and the confirmation prompt is worth reading: “If you switch to Custom HTML, whatever you type or paste will be what Drip sends.” And “switching views will delete the current email content.” Drip will not save a Custom HTML email without an unsubscribe shortcode such as {{ unsubscribe_link }} and a postal address shortcode such as {{ postal_address }}, so put those back in a template pasted from elsewhere.

For a deadline per subscriber, use the Text Builder or Custom HTML. Drip does not say whether a Liquid tag typed into the Visual Builder’s Source field is filled in, and in HTML you write the src yourself.

One deadline, or one per subscriber

A timer from EmailTimer.App is an image whose address is signed, and the HMAC signature covers every parameter in it.

One deadline for everyone is one address, pasted as it is. The free generator makes one without an account: the timer works for 500 opens without signing in, and for 1,000 once you sign in and claim it. A free account covers 5,000 image opens a month. Readers still see the time left at their own open, because the image is drawn when it is fetched.

One deadline per subscriber cannot be built by putting a Liquid tag inside the image address.

Instead, generate one signed address per subscriber before the send, with the REST API’s batch endpoint or from a CSV of recipients, and store each in a Drip custom field. That field’s tag becomes the entire src. This route needs Growth, at $49 a month, or Agency. The tiers are on pricing.

Liquid still belongs in the link around the image and in its alt text, because neither is signed.

The Liquid tag in Drip

Drip’s Liquid Objects article lists the profile fields, such as {{ subscriber.first_name }} and {{ subscriber.email }}. A custom field is called by its identifier, as Call Custom Field Value with Liquid shows with {{ subscriber.custom_field_identifier }}. Its own example is a field with the identifier shirt_size, called as {{ subscriber.shirt_size }}.

A field with the identifier et_image_url is therefore {{ subscriber.et_image_url }}:

<a href="https://yoursite.com/offer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src="{{ subscriber.et_image_url }}" alt="Your offer ends soon" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />
</a>

Use the identifier, not the label you see on the profile.

Fallbacks in Drip

Drip’s Liquid Filters article documents default, which inserts a value “when computed Liquid results in a nil value or an empty string”, as in {{ subscriber.first_name | default: "there" }}. Its double quotes would close a double-quoted alt or src, so keep it in body text.

Without one, Drip says an empty profile field means “the liquid will render as a blank space”. In a src, a blank is a missing image, so fill the field for everyone the email goes to.

What breaks in workflows and email series

An email in an Email Series or a Workflow is written once and sent for months, to each person on the day they reach it. A fixed deadline is right for the people who reach that email before the date. After that, every new arrival gets the timer’s ended state, and nothing in the workflow will tell you when it crossed over.

A deadline that starts from each person’s own entry has to be a per-subscriber address, written to the custom field before the person reaches that email. If your store or integration writes the field, make sure it runs before the email step, not alongside it.

Every EmailTimer.App timer loops: after a short run of seconds it starts again from its first number. Show the smallest unit the deadline needs, and put the deadline in the email text too.

What your subscribers will see

Once Drip has delivered the email, the mail client decides what the image does. For Outlook, Microsoft’s support page says “If only the first frame of the animation appears, you have animations, or animated GIFs, disabled.” A reader in that position still sees a correct number, because the first frame of a timer from here is drawn with the time left in it.

The email client support page covers Gmail, Apple Mail and the rest, from what the mail vendors document rather than from renders in real inboxes.

Test before you send

Drip’s Visual Email Builder article has one instruction to follow exactly: “In order for personalization Liquid shortcode to render in a test email, you must first select a person under the Preview as drop-down before using the Send a test feature.” Skip that step and a per-subscriber timer arrives as a missing image.

Drip’s preview article adds two details. Preview As is available in Email Series, Single Email and Automation emails, and “To preview an email as a specific person, they must be added as a Recipient to the Email Series Campaign or Single Email Campaign.” Pick a person whose et_image_url holds a real signed address. Send a Test takes one address or a comma-separated list, and Drip says it is “not meant to test deliverability”.

Send the test to a Gmail address and an Outlook address in the same pass, and check the number on the first frame.

If you also send from AWeber or Kit, each has its own page: AWeber and Kit.

Questions and answers

Does Drip have a countdown timer for email?

Drip documents its Countdown Timer in the Onsite Pop-up Builder, for pop-ups and sticky bars on a website. In an email, use a timer image with an external Source URL or an image tag in HTML.

Where do I paste timer HTML in Drip?

In the Text Builder, either through the text editor’s Source button or by switching to Custom HTML. The Visual Builder has no HTML element, but its Image element takes an external image URL in Source.

Why is the timer missing from my Drip test email?

Drip renders Liquid in a test only after you pick a person under Preview as. Choose someone who is a recipient of the campaign and whose custom field holds a real signed address, then send the test.

Can I put a subscriber field inside the timer image URL?

Not inside a signed address. A value written in at send time breaks the signature, and every subscriber gets a blank, transparent image. Store a complete signed address in a custom field and make {{ subscriber.et_image_url }} the entire src.

Which plan covers a timer in Drip?

One deadline for everyone fits the free plan, which includes 5,000 image opens a month. A deadline per subscriber needs Growth, at $49 a month. The tiers are on pricing.