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Campaign playbooks

Six campaigns where a visible deadline changes the number

Each one is a page: what creates the urgency, how we would configure the timer, the snippet to paste, and the three things worth getting right before you send it.

They run from a flash sale, where the clock is the whole message, to birthday and anniversary rewards, where it should be the second thing a subscriber notices.

Animated countdown in the digital style, reading 02 days 03 hours 34 minutes 12 seconds and counting down
The style the flash sale emails playbook uses, at the 600 by 200 size it sends at.
One deadline for everybody

Flash sale emails

A flash sale lives or dies on one number: how long is left. Put that number in the email and it stops being an abstract "ends soon" and starts being a reason to open a new tab right now. Read the playbook
A deadline per shopper

Cart abandonment emails

A shopper who walks away from a full cart has not said no. They have said not yet. A reservation with a visible clock turns not yet into a decision, and it gives your flow something to say that is not another reminder. Read the playbook
One launch moment, with a before and an after

Product launch emails

A launch has one moment and everything before it is anticipation. Counting down to that moment in the email, then switching the same image to "now live" as it passes, means your teaser email keeps working after the launch instead of going stale. Read the playbook
A start time, with a live state after it

Webinar and event registration

The gap between signing up and turning up is where webinars are won and lost. A reminder that shows minutes rather than a date and time does the mental arithmetic for the person reading it, which is most of the job. Read the playbook
A window that starts on their date

Birthday and anniversary emails

Birthday emails get opened. What they often do not get is redeemed, because a gift with no end date is a gift with no urgency. A week on the clock, drawn into the greeting itself, fixes that without making the email feel like a sale. Read the playbook
Tiered shipping cut-offs

Holiday and seasonal campaigns

At Christmas your deadline is not a marketing decision, it is a carrier cut-off. That makes it the most believable urgency you will ever have, and the easiest thing in the world to put in an email. Read the playbook

Written up in full

Longer pieces on campaigns where the deadline is the hard part, each with the sources behind the claims in it.

Countdown timer examples, annotated

All 47 countdown timer designs in the EmailTimer.App gallery, with the deadline each one counts to, where it sits in an email, and what it weighs. Read it

Timers and stock counts in one image

Put a restock deadline and a stock count in one image, keep the number honest as it ages, and see what a live inventory feed would add. Read it

Black Friday countdown timers, phase by phase

Three timer presets for the Black Friday sequence, a send-time playbook, and the caching behaviour that decides whether your clock is right. Read it

Countdown timers for trials and renewals

Countdown timers for trials, renewals and membership expiry, with per-recipient deadlines minted from the API and the honesty rule that applies. Read it

Start from the deadline, not the campaign type

Whether the deadline is the same for everybody or different for each person decides more than the kind of campaign does. The complete guide covers every timer type, how each email client behaves, and how to set one up on any platform. It is long, and it is the one thing to read if you are new to this.

Read the guide