Countdown timers in SendPulse

SendPulse has a countdown element, and it is in the wrong builder for email. The email template builder has none, so a timer in a SendPulse email is an image from somewhere else, pasted into a text element’s source code.

Does SendPulse have its own countdown timer

Not for email, as far as SendPulse’s knowledge base documents. Its Countdown pop-up element is described as a way “to show how much time is left until a certain event”. It has a fixed end date and time, with the time zone set to your account’s or the visitor’s, and a dynamic mode that starts counting when a visitor sees the pop-up. That runs in a browser on your website, not in an inbox.

The email template builder article lists the elements you can drag in: Text, Button, Separator, Video, Socials and Checkout. A timer is not among them. SendPulse’s own blog covers the gap in a December 2022 post, Test Drive: 5 Email Countdown Timer Tools, which walks through timers made with outside services and pasted into a SendPulse email.

Where the timer goes in SendPulse

In the drag-and-drop builder, the route is a Text element’s source code. The blog post gives the steps: “Add a new text element. Go to the Source code in the block settings.” Then “Copy the code from your email countdown timer tool and insert it into the field.” The builder article describes the same toolbar option as “Expand the source code of a text block to edit it.”

SendPulse’s Automation email article gives the same instruction for an image whose address arrives as a variable: “In the drag-and-drop builder, add the Text element. Open its source code (<>) and insert your tag.”

For a template written by hand, the HTML editor is under Add a Template. SendPulse says it “supports a limited set of tags and CSS properties” and warns: “Do not use JavaScript or embedded content, such as <iframe>.” Its supported attributes list includes img with src, width, height, border and style. It does not list alt, so check in a preview that your alt text survives.

Variables and fallbacks

SendPulse writes variables in double braces, such as {{name}}, {{email}} and {{subscriber_id}}. In the builder, select Variables in the text toolbar and choose a system or custom variable. Custom variables are the ones in your mailing list, and SendPulse’s campaign article is strict about them: “variable names must match in mailing lists and templates completely”. Its example is capitalization: a list that uses {{Name}} needs {{Name}} in the template.

The same article adds a limit: “You cannot use mailing list variables when sending a campaign to course students or CRM contacts.”

SendPulse documents no inline default value for a variable. Its fallback is a conditional, from the smart personalization article:

|[IF:{{name}}]|{{name}}, we have good news|[ELSE]|Friends, we have good news|[ENDIF]|

SendPulse notes that you can “add nothing between ELSE and ENDIF”, which shows or hides the first block, and that criteria typed by hand must not include “extra spaces”.

A deadline per subscriber

A timer from here is an image with a signed address, and the signature covers every parameter in it. A variable placed inside that address is filled in after signing, the signature stops matching, and every subscriber gets a blank, transparent image instead of the timer.

So the whole address travels in a variable. On Growth or Agency, generate one signed address per subscriber with the REST API’s batch endpoint or from a recipient set exported as a CSV. Add the addresses to your mailing list as a variable named et_image_url, then make that variable the entire src. The conditional hides the image for anyone whose value is empty, instead of sending an image tag with no source:

|[IF:{{et_image_url}}]|<img src="{{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;" />|[ELSE]||[ENDIF]|

SendPulse’s examples put conditionals around text and tables rather than a lone image tag. Check the result with the test route below before the real send.

What breaks in Automation 360

In a flow, an image address can arrive in an event variable instead of the mailing list. SendPulse’s Automation article sets four conditions on that address:

• “Save the link to a String variable of up to 255 characters. Longer links are truncated and become invalid.”
• “Send the full link with https:// in the variable value. Don’t add the protocol before the variable in your template.”
• “Encode spaces and other special characters in the link.”
• Template variable names must match the variables the flow starts with. “If the variables do not match, then the subscriber will receive an email without them.”

The 255-character cap is the one to measure. A signed address carries its parameters and a signature as well as the image path, so check the length of yours before you build the flow around an event variable. The article does not say whether mailing list variables have the same cap.

There is no native countdown to go stale in a SendPulse flow, but a fixed-date timer from anywhere will. A subscriber who enters the flow after the deadline is counted down to a moment already past. An address with a deadline signed in per subscriber avoids that.

What your subscribers will see

The mail client decides what the image does after delivery. Microsoft’s support page says “If only the first frame of the animation appears, you have animations, or animated GIFs, disabled.” The first frame of a timer from here is drawn with the time left in it, so that reader still sees a correct number. The email client support page covers the others, from what the mail vendors document rather than from my own inbox checks.

Testing before you send

This is where SendPulse catches people out. The campaign article says “variables for personalization are not displayed in test campaigns”, and the HTML editor article says “Variables do not work in test emails.” A test of a per-subscriber timer therefore shows no timer at all.

SendPulse’s advice is to send the campaign “to a test mailing list that has your own addresses and variables filled in”. Put a real signed address in et_image_url for your own row. Note also that “You can only send emails to addresses you have added as the sender address in the system”, and that “Each campaign may take up to 30 minutes to moderate before being sent.” The number is drawn when each reader opens the email, so a delay in moderation does not make it wrong.

Questions and answers

Does SendPulse have a countdown timer for emails?

Not in the email builder. SendPulse documents a Countdown element for pop-ups, and its email template builder lists Text, Button, Separator, Video, Socials and Checkout, with no timer.

Where do I paste timer code in SendPulse?

Into a Text element’s source code in the drag-and-drop builder, or directly into the code of a template made in the HTML editor. SendPulse rejects JavaScript and embedded content such as iframes, and a timer image needs neither.

What is the variable syntax in SendPulse?

Double braces, such as {{name}}, and the name must match the mailing list exactly, capitalization included. A variable named et_image_url holding a signed address is {{et_image_url}}.

Why does my timer not show in a SendPulse test email?

Because SendPulse does not fill variables in test emails. Send the campaign to a small mailing list containing your own address with the variable filled in.

Which plan covers a timer in SendPulse?

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