Timers counting down to the end of an online promotion have recently come under fire for being misleading and pressuring customers into spending money. The furore is detracting marketers from the value this marketing tactic provides to shoppers when used correctly and ethically.

Countdown timers are a persuasive feature you can add to your emails, if you have the technology in place to do so. They are animated clocks that count down time, often until the end of a sale. Countdown timers use animated GIF files to work out how much time is left on the clock. Birthday Countdown. We have made it easy for you to count down to your birthday with this birthday countdown clock. Simply enter your name and date of birth and our countdown website will do the rest! You will be taken to your unique website page counting down the days until your birthday. Is a friend or family member looking forward to their. Countdown Pro is an extremely flexible timer/reminder for your desktop. It comes with a screensaver that can be designed freely. Design your own countdowns, make standalone applications and give.

Only recently, the CMA accused Booking.com of using countdown timers as a ‘pressure-selling’ tactic to mislead customers by giving false accounts of the popularity of rooms. A separate study by consumer lobby group Which? discovered that kitchen and bathroom retailers were using countdown timers to push various ‘time-limited’ promotions that were in fact still available even after the deadline had passed. Similarly, a BBC investigation into fashion brand Boohoo found that promotions did not end when the countdown timer reached zero.

These examples do not mean that retailers should abandon countdown timers all together. When used correctly, they drum up excitement in the same way as Boxing Day and Black Friday sales, encouraging shoppers to head to the digital high street to bag a bargain before it’s too late. Countdown timers can tap into people’s propensity for FOMO and encourage hesitant shoppers to complete a purchase. They are a familiar and proven eCommerce marketing tactic that many brands leverage in one form or another to highlight flash sales, advise of shipping cut-off dates or draw attention to early access to limited edition products. There are so many opportunities when retailers can use countdown timers to make a campaign more persuasive.

However, what these well-publicised controversies do mean is that retailers need to be transparent and honest when using countdown timers. To be successful, brands should keep in mind the following lessons when deploying this proven eCommerce marketing tactic.

Stay genuine

Remaining honest in the use and application of a countdown timer is critical to its effectiveness. It might be tempting to create a fake deadline to boost short-term sales but doing so risks the integrity of the brand and could lose customers for good. Setting clear parameters around limited time offers and ensuring promotions close as advertised will help retain customer trust in the brand.

Less is more

In a similar vein, marketers should be mindful of how often they use countdown clocks within their campaigns. Incorporating timers too often could mean the excitement driven by the tactic is lost. Part of the role of a timer is to inject urgency, but if customers are presented with a countdown clock each time they open an email, it will quickly be ignored and fail to deliver the intended call to action.

On this occasion, less is more. Identifying the occasions where a countdown timer will have a significant role in boosting sales – whether that’s to mark a significant day in the retail calendar or to create a buzz around a new product launch – will help keep customers engaged.

Keep it relevant

As with other real-time marketing tactics, it is important to deliver content that is relevant at the moment of engagement, both during and after the end of the promotion. This can be achieved by defining different creatives for different scenarios. If shoppers engage with the email or website during the promotion, they will see the timer. Once the countdown clock reaches zero, shoppers should see a different creative, for example a banner promoting another offer.

Looking for unique instances where other brands might not be using timers will also bring some differentiation to a brand. Flash sales or shopping peaks like Black Friday have an obvious role for countdown clocks. But brands could also consider adding a countdown to provide service information, for example to make shoppers aware of how long they have left to complete an order to receive the product the next day.

Don’t irritate

The physical location and design of a timer are other key considerations that will impact effectiveness. Keep in mind that the ultimate aim of the tactic is to encourage a purchase, so its execution must avoid interrupting the customer journey as far as possible.

Triggering a website banner with a timer promoting a relevant offer will be more effective if the customer has had the opportunity to view a couple of web pages rather than displaying it as soon as the shopper lands on your website. Alternatively, displaying a limited time offer for free delivery when a customer has added an item to their basket could be the incentive to secure the sale.

From an aesthetics perspective, timers should be visually appealing and eye catching – after all they are meant to signify something exciting to the consumer – with the design harmonising with the overall look and feel of the brand.

Whilst countdown timers may have hit the headlines lately, marketers shouldn’t be quick to dismiss their role within digital campaigns. Approached correctly and keeping these considerations in mind, they are a powerful tactic that provides useful service information and nudges customers towards a purchase.

If you enroll your book in KDP Select (Kindle Direct Publishing Select) you can enroll your book in two types of promotions. You can run either a Free Book Promotion or a Kindle Countdown Deal. To my understanding, you are permitted to enroll a book for 7 days per three month period, into either or both of these promotions.
Kindle Free Book Promotions
A quick word about running a Free Book Promotion. Unless your book is the first of a series and you have already published one or more sequels to the book, don't waste your time.
The first time I ran Forager Book Onein a Free Book Promotion, I saw 800 copies downloaded, and zero follow-on sales. However, once I had published Infiltrator, Forager Book 2, I put Forager for free on B&N, iTunes, Kobobooks, Free-Ebooks and Smashwords, and Amazon soon followed suit by price matching the book to zero. Since then, I have promoted Forager Book One on numerous free and paid advertising websites, and have seen consistent follow-on sales of both Infiltrator, Forager Book 2 and Expatriate, Forager Book 3. In conclusion, the best way to sell the first book you write is to write a sequel, and then promote the first book on its free days or price-matching free days, which will then sell the sequels.
Kindle Countdown Deal Promotions
Websites The Complete Forager Trilogy was submitted to during its 99c Kindle Countdown Deal.
Once I had completed all three titles in the Forager Trilogy, I combined the three titles together to form The Complete Forager Trilogy. I decided to enroll The Complete Forager Trilogy in a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal. I was treating my book as a 'new release,' and the prices listed below are what I believe I paid at the time. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Digital Book Today $30.00
Readcheaply Free
Bargain Booksy $35
eBook Lister $10.00
eReader News Today $15
Korner Konnection Free
Flurries of Words Blogspot $5.00
People Reads $8.99
The Fussy Librarian $14.00
This is a snapshot of The Complete Forager Trilogy's ranking on Amazon's Best Sellers Rank list just after it had hit its highest point (it had got up to 2,450) durinng the Kindle Countdown Deal week. I sold over 230 copies of the book. Unfortunately, I do not know which of the listed websites brought in the greatest numbers of sales, apart from eReader News Today, which brought in 89 downloads in one day.
More Comprehensive List of Sites to Submit a 99cents Kindle Countdown Deal
Here is a more comprehensive list of websites to which you can submit your ebooks to during a 99cent Kindle Countdown Deal. Note that prices are subject to change, and vary according to the book's genre and promotional package ordered.
Addicted to eBooks free but queue
Ask David $15?
Author Marketing Club $49 for a day
Awesome Gang $10
bargainbooksy.com $35
Bargain eBook Hunter $15
Best eBooks Free free
Book Basset $22
Bookbub Many options
Book Goodies free Book Gorilla $50
Book Sends $40
Books on the Knob free
Digital Book Today Many options
eBook Lister from $5 to $20
Ereader Utopia from $5 to $15
eReader News Today/ $15
Fiverr BKnights $10
Free Kindle Books and Tips $25
Flurries of Words from $5 to $15
Free Discounted Books Varies
Girl and Kindle Book Promos $5 and up
Kindle Nation Daily $99 +
Korner Konnection.com free
People Reads $8 and up
Pixel Scroll $15
Read Cheaply free submission
Sweet Free Books $5
Sweeties Picks $5
The Fussy Librarian.com Varies
The Kindle Book Review $40
Things to Note:
Important Note - Many websites recommend that you increase your Kindle book's price immediately before the Countdown Deal, and then lower it immediately after the sale. eg. Book's price is normally $2.99. You change it to $5.99 before the sale so that when it is discounted to $0.99, it seems a better deal. After the sale you change the price to $2.99 to try to keep sales going. Please note that Amazon have clamped down on this unscrupulous practice. If you change the price on a Kindle book, KDP will not permit you to enter the book into a Countdown sale for the next 30 days. Furthermore, as soon as a Countdown sale is concluded, the book's price is locked for 2 weeks.
Bookbubis reputed to be the best place to submit Kindle books on their free days and Countdown Deal days. Sadly, I cannot personally report on their results, because each time I submitted a book to them, the rejection email came back so quickly that the ink had not yet dried on the submission I'd sent to them. Things that may help in your book getting accepted by them are: have a professional looking book cover, have the book professionally edited, have a ton of 5-star reviews.
Facebookboost page/post advertisements. I tried once, and got back 10% of the 'likes' per $5.00 that Facebook had anticipated I would get. None of those 'likes' equated to sales/downloads. I cancelled the ad before the day was out.

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Facebook Groups. There are many Facebook groups for authors to post their books during their free or 99c days. However, be aware that most of the people who follow those groups are authors and therefore have zero interest in the books you post on the group's page.
Fiverr. Be careful of Fiverr ads. Some ads promise top results, but when you examine the sites they submit your book to, you may find that they submitted your book to sites that require payment, such as Bookbub. And as they obviously did not pay, those submissions were ignored.
Twitter. Firstly, I would like to thank all who tweeted and re-tweeted my tweets about the Forager line of books. However, on only a couple of occasions when my book was tweeted as being free was there a small increase in downloads, and when the trilogy was tweeted at 99cents, there were zero sales. And to be honest, it is no surprise. So many twitter accounts follow 2,000 accounts and have 2,000 followers themselves. Unless you are a celebrity, your tweets simply get lost in the crowd.
Banner Ads, I tried this once on a website that had high traffic, but it resulted in zero downloads of Forager, even though it was advertised as being free on the ad. Let's be honest, when is the last time you clicked on a banner ad?
Book Blog Tours sound promising, but I had no success with them. I submitted Forager to a promotional book blitz tour when it was $2.99. It was featured on 37 websites, but resulted in zero sales. A mere 8 people listed it on their to-read list on Goodreads. One positive thing from book blog tours, though, is that some of the hosting sites may review your book. Although

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Forager got a few reviews that way, most bloggers simply listed an except from the book rather than reading and reviewing it.
I have also had a great deal of experience in promoting Forager after it was price matched by Amazon to free. Since then I have seen over 6,500 copies downloaded. I may at some stage write a post about which sites I used and the successes I had with them.