Countdown timers in Emma

Emma does not ship a countdown timer, so the question is only where an image from somewhere else goes and how to personalize it. Emma’s help centre answers both, with two details that are easy to trip on: the quote marks inside its tags, and which blocks accept those tags at all.

Does Emma have its own countdown timer

No. Emma’s Content Tab article lists fifteen content blocks for the drag and drop editor: Title, Paragraph, List, Image, Button, Table, Divider, Spacer, Social, HTML, Video, Icons, Menu, RSS and Events. None is a timer. Emma’s own blog post on countdown timers, dated 8 January 2020, sends readers to an outside vendor rather than to a feature.

The editor matters too. Emma replaced its legacy editor with the drag and drop editor in April 2022, and new campaigns built from scratch can only be created in the new one. The steps below are for the drag and drop editor unless they say otherwise.

Where the snippet goes

Emma’s HTML block article is the route. Open a drag and drop draft from the Campaigns tab, click the HTML icon in the right panel, drag it into place, and type or paste your code into the HTML Properties panel. In a legacy campaign, drag the HTML block in from the left panel, click Edit HTML, paste, and save.

The editor cleans what you paste. It closes tags left open and strips code that cannot be used, “such as script tags or iframe tags”. An image is allowed: img is on Emma’s list of permitted tags, with src, alt, width, border and height among its accepted attributes, and style is accepted on every tag.

<a href="https://yourstore.com/sale" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src="https://img.emailtimer.app/i/k7mQ2pXd.gif?w=w_8ha3fq&v=3&sig=YOUR_SIGNATURE" alt="Sale ends Friday at 9am" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />
</a>

Replace the src value with the address the countdown timer generator gives you, unchanged. Like every timer from here, it loops. Emma’s warning applies: “Emma Support cannot provide troubleshooting or guidance for custom code”. Change as little of the snippet as you can.

Where merge tags may go

The image address from here is signed, and the signature covers every parameter. A merge tag typed inside it is filled in after signing, so every recipient is served a blank, transparent image from the Worker in front of the image service, with an HTTP 200 that gives Emma nothing to report. Merge tags in images explains the mechanism.

So use one address for the whole send, which the free plan covers, or one address per recipient minted before the send on Growth or Agency and stored in a contact field. Merge tags are safe in the link and the alt text, which are not signed.

The field tag in Emma

Emma’s standard tags take the form [% member:first_name default="" %], and Emma says “you can use any of the contact fields that you have set up in your account as a personalization or merge tag”. The name inside the tag is the field’s shortcut name. Emma’s personalization article shows where to find it: in the Audience tab, open Contact fields, create the field, and click its name to see the shortcut name. Import the values with “Add & update” as the import type.

For a field whose shortcut name is et_image_url, the tag is [% member:et_image_url default="" %]. It contains double quotes, so the attribute around it needs single quotes:

<a href="https://yourstore.com/offer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src='[% member:et_image_url default="" %]' alt="Your offer ends soon" width="600" height="200" border="0" style="display:block; width:100%; max-width:600px; height:auto; border:0;" />
</a>

Four cautions from Emma’s own pages:

• The personalization article says tags “can be used in paragraph, list, title, and button blocks”. The HTML block is not on that list, so a real send is the only proof that the tag resolves inside it.
• “Recently created contact fields can take up to 24 hours to appear in your list of available personalization tags.” Typing the tag by hand works in the meantime.
• Tags “do not always work as expected on landing pages, in custom API-created fields, or for some legacy accounts”. Create the field in the Audience tab rather than through Emma’s API.
• For a link built entirely from a field, Emma says the stored value “CANNOT contain http:// or https://”, because Emma adds it. That rule is written for links and says nothing about an image source. If a test shows a doubled https://, store the address without its scheme and type https:// in front of the tag. The scheme sits outside the signed part, so that does not break the signature.

What breaks in automations

An email reused in an automated workflow is sent for as long as the workflow runs. A shared deadline pasted once stays fixed and goes stale after the date passes. A per-recipient address solves that only if it is on the contact record before the email sends, so the import runs ahead of the workflow.

What your recipients will see

The mail client decides what happens after delivery. Classic Outlook on Windows shows only the first frame of an animated GIF, and timers from here put the real time left into that frame. Apple Mail Privacy Protection and Gmail’s image proxy can both affect when the image is fetched. The email client support page has the detail. It is drawn from documentation; I have not watched a timer from here render in a real inbox.

Test before you send

Emma’s pre-send checklist puts it plainly: “Always test your campaign before you send it to your audience.” Click Send test at the top of the editor, fill in the recipient and subject line, and send. Messages to a test group arrive with [TEST] in the subject.

Sending a test also runs Emma’s proofer, which checks for problems with personalization tags and for links it thinks are malicious. Emma warns that long strings after a question mark can trigger that check, and a signed address has one. If the proofer flags the timer, do not trim the address: the signature is in that string, and a shortened address fails for every reader.

Questions and answers

Does Emma have a countdown timer block?

No. The drag and drop editor’s fifteen content blocks include none. Put a timer image from a timer service in an HTML block.

Why is my Emma personalized image blank?

Usually because the contact field is empty, or because the tag uses the field’s display name rather than its shortcut name. Check the shortcut name under Audience, then Contact fields.

Can I put a merge tag inside the timer image URL?

Not inside a signed address. Store a complete signed address in a contact field and make its tag the whole src, inside single quotes.

What does a timer cost here?

One deadline for the whole send is on the free plan, with 5,000 image opens a month, and a deadline per recipient needs Growth. The countdown timer generator works without an account for 500 opens, or 1,000 once you sign in and claim it. Plans are on pricing.