Event Countdown

Event countdown campaigns are a powerful way to spark excitement and create a sense of urgency ahead of an upcoming event or sale. By adding a real-time countdown timer, nearby store locations personalized to each customer, and tailored product recommendations, you can keep customers engaged in the lead-up to the event and motivate them to take action.

What You’ll Learn

In this guide, you’ll learn how to:

• Add countdown timers to highlight time-sensitive offers or deadlines.

• Include store locator sections showing each customer’s nearest location.

• Insert personalized product recommendations based on customer preferences.

Before you begin

• Prerequisites:

  • Access to Email by Optimove

  • Access to Dynamic Widgets from Optimove

  • Access to Optimove Personalize for product recommendations

• Required information:

  • Email template design that you want to use for this use case

  • In order to include Store Locations in your email you will need to have details in CSV format

  • Defined strategy for the countdown timer (either a static end time for all customers or a dynamic end time).

Setup Process

Step 1: Prepare the email template

1. To get started, head over to Email by Optimove in your Optimove instance.

2. Build your email template as you would normally by pulling in text and graphics onto the email template builder.

3. Leave spaces for where you would like to include the countdown timer, store locator elements, and product recommendations.

Step 2: Create and Add the Countdown Timer component

1. Within your template from above, drag the “DynamicMail” content block into your template where you want the timer to appear.

2. Click the “Start DynamicMail” button.

3. Select “Countdown Timer” from the available components.

4. Give your countdown timer a unique and descriptive name (e.g., “Black Friday 2025 Countdown”).

5. Select your Countdown type:

   1. Static end - the countdown timer has a defined end date and time that is the same for all customers.

   2. Dynamic End (advanced) - the countdown timer end time can be personalized based on personalization tags or from the first open time.

6. Using the “Static End Time,” set the desired end date, time, and time zone - the countdown timer will show the time remaining until this date and time.

7. Set a Click-Through URL (optional). This is a link that users who click on the countdown timer will be directed to.

   1. Optionally, you can also include dynamic tracking parameters such as template IDs, campaign identifiers, or customer identifiers to the Click-Through URL by entering them in the “Tracking Parameters” field.

8. Under the Countdown Settings, configure the following settings:

   1. Background and Size

      1. Color: use a color background and define the desired height and width of the countdown timer.

      2. Image: upload an image and overlay your time on your desired graphic (in this case, the size of the timer is dictated by the image dimensions).

   2. Date format and placements

      1. Select from a list of predefined formats or use the “Individual Placement” option to place the digits where you want, include a custom separator (or none at all), and even hide any of the digits that you don’t want to show.

   3. Font family, colors, and sizes

      1. Font family: select any of our predefined fonts or even upload a custom branded font to use.

      2. Colors and Sizes: click the “Change Element Placement” button to launch a modal that gives you access to editing the format, size, color, and placement of each digit on the countdown timer for complete customization.

9. Under Countdown Label Settings, define if you would like to include labels on your timer and what those labels should be, as well as their font family, colors, and placements.

10. When the timer has ended you can define the Expiry Image (optional):

    1. By default, the countdown timer will end with a static image of all zeros.

    2. You can upload an expiry graphic and even include a different Click-Through URL for when the timer hits zero.

11. When you have completed the setup of your countdown timer, click the “Update Preview” button to see your changes reflected in the preview panel on the right.

    1. At the bottom right of the preview panel, you can change the preview type to see what your timer will do when it expires.

12. If you are happy with your timer, click the “Generate Code” button.

13. On the following screen, click the “Insert in Email Template” button to place your timer.

Step 3: Create and Add Store Locator component

1. Within your template from above, drag the “DynamicMail” content block into your template where you want the timer to appear.

2. Click the “Start DynamicMail” button.

3. Select “Location Images” from the available components.

4. Give your Store Locator a unique and descriptive name (e.g., “Geo-Located Store Maps”).

5. Select your Geo-Locating Option:

   1. IP Address - less accurate due to use of IP address masking and geo-locating, but available globally.

   2. Zip / Postal Code Tag - available for US and Canadian postal codes, which use a Zip Code or Postal Code to locate the customer’s closest store.

6. Define the dimensions and responsive behavior of your map (either fixed size no matter the screen size or fluid so that it will shrink to fit on smaller screens).

7. Set your Locator Radius so that only relevant nearby stores are shown or set it to the closest store regardless of distance so that a store location is always shown.

8. Select if you want multiple map pins to appear at once. This is useful if you have locations that are very close to each other.

9. Select the “Google Navigation” option as the “Click-Through URL” so that users will be able to navigate right from the email.

10. Upload your store locations in a CSV file format.

    1. For this feature to work, the CSV file must contain the following columns:

       • address: Text location (Street, city, state, zip, country)

       • lat: Latitude of the location. Blank allowed.

       • lng: Longitude of the location. Blank allowed.

       • link_type: 'None', 'Custom' or 'Navigation'. 'Navigation' is Google Maps link.

       • link: If link_type is 'Custom,' this column is the CTA URL. URL required if link_type is 'Custom.'

       • image_type: 'Google', 'Bing', 'Custom' or 'Pixel'

       • image: If image_type is 'Custom,' this column is the image URL. URL required if image_type is 'Custom.'

       • icon_color: If the image_type is 'Google,' you may select an icon color from this list:

         • black, brown, green, purple, yellow, blue, gray, orange, red, white

11. When you have completed the setup of your Store Locator, click the “Update Preview” button to see your changes reflected in the preview panel on the right.

12. If you are happy with your store locator map, click the “Generate Code” button.

13. On the following screen, click the “Insert in Email Template” button to place your store locator map.

    

Step 4: Include Product Recommendations in your template

In addition to the back-in-stock item, you can include Optimove Personalize recommendations to further personalize your email campaign.

This requires two additional steps. If you only want to include the back-in-stock item, skip this section.

1. Create a placement

   1. In Optimove Personalize, create a new Placement by going to Recommend → Placement Manager → New Placement.

      1. Placements are used to deliver product recommendations. You can configure recommendation models to recommend items that match your campaign strategy (e.g., recommend personalized popular items).

      2. For more details on creating placements, read the full article on how to create a placement.

2. Create a Smart Banner

   1. In Optimove Personalize, create a new Smart Banner by going to Smart Content → Widget Library → Visual Banner Editor.

      1. Banners are how you can design and embed recommendations into your email campaigns.

      2. Configure:

         1. Banner Name (unique)

         2. Select the placement created in the previous step

         3. CTA URL (fixed, templatized, or dynamic)

         4. Define the number of items and grid layout

         5. Dimensions (match them to your email container to ensure fit).

      3. Design the banner. Similar to Email, use a drag-and-drop editor to design your banner, including merge tags to include recommendation content from your connected placement.

      4. Preview and QA your banner (sample profiles and edge cases before launching your campaign).

      5. Save the banner.

      6. To place the banner within your Email+ template, simply open the template, drag an “Opti-X Banner” content block into the template, and select the banner you want to place.

   2. For more details on creating Smart Banners with the Visual Editor, see this article:

      Full article on how to build a Smart Banner with the Visual Banner Editor

      

      Now, simply choose from your existing Opti-X Smart Banners

      

Testing and Previewing

Before deploying your campaign, use the built-in tools in Optimail to preview your template as different customers. Use the instant preview option to see how your email will render across multiple inboxes or even send yourself a test send to see it live in your own inbox.

Related Articles:

• Creating Templates in the Visual Editor

• Countdown Timer

• Location Images

• Using Tracking Parameters

• Creating Placements

• Creating Smart Banners