Countdown timers in Kit (formerly ConvertKit)

Kit, the platform that used to be called ConvertKit, is one of the few senders that ships a countdown timer for email. Whether you need anything else depends on three details in Kit’s own help article: one deadline, your account’s time zone, and a timer record that follows an email when you duplicate it.

Does Kit have its own countdown timer

Yes. Kit’s help article is now titled How to add countdown timers to Landing Pages (Classic), but it still says the timer reaches email: “Countdown timers are available from the content block menu for broadcasts, email sequence emails, forms, and landing pages.”

You choose Countdown Timer from the content block menu, set the end date and time, pick a style (Plain, Squared or Rounded) and colours, and write the message shown once time runs out. The expired message “is limited to 60 characters”. And the time zone “is synced to the time zone set for your account”.

One behaviour catches people out. Kit says a duplicated email keeps the original’s timer record, so “any changes made to the duplicated email will alter the countdown timer on the original broadcast or email sequence.” Add a new countdown timer to the copy rather than editing the one it came with.

The article does not describe a deadline per subscriber, a deadline that starts at signup, or how the timer renders in any particular mail client.

When Kit’s block is enough

If one deadline for the whole list, in one of those three styles and your account’s time zone, is what the email needs, Kit’s block does the job. An outside timer earns its place in three cases:

• A different look. EmailTimer.App’s free plan has the digital and underline styles. Starter adds every other style, including flip, ring and progress bar.
• A deadline per subscriber. Each subscriber gets their own signed image address, held in a Kit custom field. That needs Growth.
• A sequence email. A fixed end date inside a sequence goes stale, which the section on sequences below covers.

Where an outside timer goes in Kit

Kit’s media article describes an HTML Block: “Selecting HTML Block from the content block menu will insert an empty HTML block into your email.” Then “Click the Edit button and enter your HTML in the modal that pops up. When you’re done, click Save.” The same article adds that “You can also add inline CSS to an HTML block”, so the snippet’s inline styles stay.

The Image option opens the media gallery, and Kit describes no field there for an image hosted elsewhere. Kit’s editor FAQ adds that “you can’t view your email’s raw HTML, but you can add HTML code to your emails.” The HTML Block is where that code goes.

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 into the HTML Block 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 Kit 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 Kit

Kit’s Liquid article gives {{ subscriber.first_name }} for a first name. A custom field uses the field’s name, and Kit says to “replace any spaces with underscores”, so a field called Last Name becomes {{ subscriber.last_name }}. The name itself “must contain only Latin letters, underscores, hyphens, and/or numbers” and must start with a Latin letter or an underscore.

A field named et_image_url holding a signed address is therefore {{ subscriber.et_image_url }}, and it goes in the HTML Block like this:

<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>

Kit lists where Liquid works, including broadcast and sequence subject lines and bodies. It does not say anything specific about Liquid inside an HTML Block attribute, so confirm the result with Preview as subscriber before the send.

Fallbacks in Kit

Kit’s fallback form is {{ subscriber.first_name | strip | default: "there" }}, and Kit notes that filters such as default are not supported in subject lines. Its double quotes would close a double-quoted alt or src, so keep it in body text. No fallback rescues an empty image source: if et_image_url is blank, the image is missing, so fill the field for everyone the email goes to.

What breaks in sequences

A sequence email is written once and sent for months, to each subscriber on the day they reach it. Kit’s block counts to one end date in your account’s time zone. Inside a sequence, it is right for the people who reach that email before the date and shows the expired message to everyone after. The same is true of any fixed-date timer, ours included.

A deadline that starts from each subscriber’s own entry has to be a per-subscriber address, written to the custom field before the subscriber reaches that email. Fill the field when the subscriber joins, not on the day the email sends.

An HTML Block snippet has no timer record to share: a duplicated email simply points at the same signed address and the same deadline.

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 Kit 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

A plain preview will not show a per-subscriber timer. Kit says that in preview emails “field shortcodes will show up as [FIRST NAME GOES HERE], [EMAIL ADDRESS GOES HERE], etc.”, and a placeholder is not an image address, so a broken image there is expected.

Use Preview as subscriber instead. Open Preview in the email editor, click Preview as subscriber, start typing a subscriber’s email address and pick it from the list. Choose someone whose et_image_url holds a real signed address, and the preview shows their timer.

Kit’s editor FAQ also lists a test email to an address of your choice among the Preview options. Kit does not say whether that test carries the previewed subscriber’s values. If it arrives with a broken image, judge the field from Preview as subscriber and use the test for layout.

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

Questions and answers

Does Kit have a countdown timer for emails?

Yes. Kit’s Countdown Timer block works in broadcasts and email sequence emails, with an end date and time, three styles, and an expired message of up to 60 characters.

Is the ConvertKit countdown timer the same as Kit’s?

Yes. ConvertKit is now called Kit, and the timer’s help article kept its number when it moved to Kit’s help centre.

What time zone does Kit’s countdown timer use?

Your account’s. Kit says the timer’s time zone “is synced to the time zone set for your account”, so every subscriber counts down to the same instant.

Why did editing a copied email change my original timer?

Kit links a timer to its record, so a duplicated email shares the original’s timer. Add a new countdown timer to the copy instead of editing the one it came with.

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.