Email guide

How to add a countdown timer to any email platform

If your email platform can show an image, it can show a tikio countdown. There is no SDK and no integration: the timer is a live-rendered image behind one URL. The link stores the deadline, and the URL only adds what differs per recipient — a recipient key and, if you like, a language.

Create your free countdown Jump to steps

  1. Design your countdown in tikio

    Create a timer in the tikio editor: pick colors, fonts, labels and the languages you need. What you see in the editor is exactly what lands in the inbox — the timer is delivered as a regular animated image.

  2. Get the code

    Click Get code, choose “In an email”, pick how the countdown works — until a date, a personal timer per subscriber, or repeating on a schedule — and copy the code. The link stores the timer, so you can change the deadline any time, even after sending: emails already sent pick it up within minutes.

    URL 
    https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif

  3. Insert the timer into your email

    Paste the snippet below wherever your editor accepts custom HTML — a code/HTML block, the template source, or an image block that takes an external URL. Wrap it in a link to your offer.

    HTML 
    <img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />

Per-recipient evergreen deadlines

For per-recipient evergreen deadlines, pass your platform’s recipient-ID merge tag as uid. Any stable per-recipient value works — a subscriber ID, a hashed email, a CRM contact ID.

HTML 
<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?uid=YOUR_MERGE_TAG" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />

FAQ

Questions, answered

Which email clients support the timer?

The timer is a standard GIF, supported everywhere images are. Clients that don’t animate GIFs (some legacy Outlook versions) show the first frame — which is rendered with the correct remaining time at the moment of open.

Can I use the same timer on a landing page?

Yes — embed the same design on your site as an iframe. One design, one deadline, synchronized between the email and the page.

Which URL parameters are there?

With the code from Get code, the link stores the timer and the URL only carries what differs per recipient: uid (recipient key for a personal timer), lang (label language baked into the design) and v (an optional cache-buster). Deadlines taken from a merge tag, count-up timers and custom intervals are set up through the REST API — the developers page lists every parameter.

Other email platforms

Your first countdown is minutes away

Free during early access — no credit card required. Design once, paste one snippet, and the timer ticks on every open.

Create your free countdown