Over the past few years we have used one simple holiday tradition to help our clients increase their conversions. We decided that we would share this tradition with you by building a simple Christmas countdown timer that you can download and instantly implement on your site!
We often preach to our clients, as well as our readers, that creating a sense of urgency for your users can often increase conversions. An effective tool to achieve this sense of urgency around the holidays is a countdown timer until Christmas. Here’s a snappy widget that you can use to test on your traffic this holiday season.
The element:
Here’s the countdown:
[iframe src=”https://conversionvoodoo.com/Clients/blogposts/smalltimeralt/small_xmas_timer_alt.html” height=”90px” width=”280px”]
And here’s a larger version:
[iframe src=”https://conversionvoodoo.com/Clients/blogposts/largetimeralt/large_xmas_timer_alt.html” height=”220px”]
Why does this work?
It emphasizes urgency by utilizing content that is both dynamic and relevant.
Here’s a simple experiment to make the point. Try to do any task in one minute. Now try to do the same task while having your friend audibly countdown the time left for you every second. The latter scenario is far more stressful. Your heart starts pumping, sweat starts beading on your forehead, and adrenaline starts coursing through your veins. While we’re not trying to invoke stress in our users, we do want them to notice the urgency. Typically conversions increase when your users have slight pressure to make a time-sensitive decision as soon as possible.
For years advertisers have known that it pays to announce “Limited time offer!” We’re taking that same concept to the next level.
It catches their eye.
Movement is another important aspect to capturing someone’s attention. A hunter will often wear camouflage and sit as still as they can when wild game approaches. Any slight movement by the hunter will alert the prey to their presence. We are programmed to respond to movement and this can be a powerful tool when trying to emphasis specific elements on your site.
The Downside to this test: Post Christmas blues set in… You’ll have to turn this winning variant off after Christmas now that it has lost its relevance. However, there is always next year!
Here’s our Christmas gift to you
If you’d like to use this on your site, just download the files below. We’ve included 4 different sets of timers (2 designs, 2 different sizes) that’ll be sure to match your site. Feel free to customize the code snippets however you please! Merry Christmas!
Download the source files right here!
[CSSBUTTON target=”https://conversionvoodoo.com/Clients/blogposts/cv_xmas_timer.zip” color=”ff0000″ float=”left”]Download[/CSSBUTTON]
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By Jon Correll
