I was wrong about countdown timers.

GM! Paperboy here 🗞️

I always thought countdown timers were a bit of a gimmick.

Not useless. Just a nice to have. I figured they moved sales a bit (maybe 1 or 2%) and I never had the data to say otherwise.

Then I ran a test across 1.1 million sends…

9-Figure Brand Countdown Timer Test

I worked with one of my 9-figure clients to settle it: Does adding a countdown timer to sale emails drive more revenue?

We tested across ~700k subscribers and 1.1 million sends (not every subscriber got every email).

Note: this brand runs promos regularly and already uses timers on and off, so there's no shock factor here.

Based on Klaviyo data, including a countdown timer lifted revenue ~21.5% during the sale.

I also checked Shopify revenue for these two cohorts 2.5 weeks later. Customers who got the timer spent about 5% more overall in that time period.

Quite the gap, but it tracks.

Email is one of many levers in a sale, and as much as I'd love for them to, not every customer checks their email. Some of these people were buying either way, some will come through an ad, etc. That will dilute the results of any test, and that’s ok.

I'll take a 21.5% bump with customers who do read emails, and 5% more total revenue, any day. That's a win in my books.

Tip: Try this with offers in your flows

Build an evergreen countdown timer (dynamic end time based on flow entry), drop it into your welcome or winback offer, and AB test it against no timer. You should get data back pretty fast.

Run shorter promos with more emails

A timer is useless if you only send one email. And it baffles me how many brands refuse to send more than one email about their promotion.

They'll run a 7-day promo, send one email on day one, and leave it at that. Anything more than that feels annoying to them. Well let me tell you my thoughts…

You are leaving so much money on the table.

The best brands do the opposite. Short 2-4 day promos, emailing daily (at a minimum). I've seen some send as many as 3 emails in a single day of a promo.

But there's a big BUT here.

Not every customer is in market or cares about your sale.

If you spam your full list over and over, you’ll spike your unsubscribes and tank deliverability. A.k.a. lazy email marketing.

Instead, hit the full list once or twice, tops. From there, segment down to warmer audiences. People who clicked the first email. People who haven't purchased in 90 days. Anyone who subscribed in the last 30. Whatever counts as engaged for your brand’s purchase journey.

Then vary what you send them. Best sellers, a testimonial, us vs them, a deep dive on one hero product. Mix up your angles to keep it fresh through the sale. Just make sure to keep the deadline in every single one.

Making the deadline clear

There's an old public speaking rule I like:

Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them.

Do that with your sale timelines.

Tell them it's starting. Tell them it's running. Tell them it's about to end.

The nice thing about using a countdown timer is it does the reminding for you automatically, so the rest of your emails can focus on selling and storytelling.

Someone who opens a few of your emails sees that deadline over and over. Even if they're not consciously thinking about it, the pressure is building.

By the last day they've had your product and the offer deadline in their head for days. Your last chance email doesn't have to convince them of anything. It just has to show up in their inbox.

This is also why long sales kill you. No pressure gets built, and you train customers to think "I can get that deal anytime, it'll be around for a while."

Urgency doesn't have to be gimmicky, and it doesn't have to be the main focus of every campaign. Just make sure you mention it properly.

Meme of the Week

That’s all for now,
Paperboy 🗞

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