Email guide
How to add a countdown timer to Mailchimp
Mailchimp doesn’t ship a built-in countdown timer, but it renders external images in every layout — which is all a tikio timer needs. You design the countdown once, paste one image URL into your campaign, and every open shows the real time left.
-
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.
-
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.
URLhttps://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif -
Insert the timer into your Mailchimp campaign
In the Mailchimp email builder, add a Code content block where you want the timer and paste the snippet below. (Image blocks in Mailchimp expect uploads to the Content Studio, so a Code block with an <img> tag is the reliable way to use an image by URL.) Wrap the image in a link to your offer so the timer is clickable.
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 a personal deadline per subscriber — e.g. “24 hours from your first open” — pick Personal timer in Get code and choose Mailchimp: the code carries Mailchimp’s *|UNIQID|* merge tag as the recipient key. Mailchimp replaces it with a unique ID per subscriber at send time, and each recipient gets their own countdown that doesn’t reset on reopen.
<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?uid=*|UNIQID|*" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />Evergreen countdown timer in Mailchimp automations
Mailchimp has no built-in countdown block. In a Customer Journey or other automation, subscribers reach each email at different times, so create a Personal timer in tikio and choose Mailchimp: *|UNIQID|* gives each subscriber their own window from their first open, and reopening does not reset it.
<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?uid=*|UNIQID|*" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />Timer that starts when the email is sent
For “this code expires 24 hours after this email”, the deadline should count from the send, not from the open. Create the link through the REST API or MCP with a deadline that comes from the recipient and offset_seconds: 86400, then put *|DATE:U|* (unix seconds at send) — the send time — into target= in the image URL. tikio adds the 24 hours, so there is no date arithmetic in your platform. A personal timer is different: it counts from each subscriber’s first open.
<img src="https://t.tikio.io/e/a1b2.gif?target=*|DATE:U|*" alt="Offer ends soon" width="480" style="border:0;max-width:100%;height:auto;" />FAQ
Questions, answered
What does *|UNIQID|* do?
It’s a Mailchimp merge tag that resolves to a unique identifier for each subscriber. tikio uses it as the recipient key, so each subscriber’s evergreen countdown starts at their first open and stays consistent across reopens.
Will the timer keep updating after I send the campaign?
Yes. The timer is rendered at the moment the email is opened, so every open shows the exact time remaining. You can also change the deadline after sending — emails already sent pick it up within minutes — or pause the link to hide the timer everywhere.
Does it work in the Mailchimp free plan?
Yes — the timer is just an image URL, so it works in any Mailchimp plan and any template.
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