This Countdown Timer WordPress Plugin Boost Sales With Scarcity Principle

You have only one day to read the amazing, sales skyrocketing content in this post before I DELETE IT FOREVER!

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How did that sentence make you feel?

Did you feel like you might miss a chance to read something valuable if you waited too long?

If you did, you just experienced something called the scarcity principle.

In marketing, scarcity is a scientifically proven concept where people see things as more valuable if they’re limited. So when you do something like put a time countdown on the availability of something, people are going to want it more.

Question:

• What does that mean for you as a blogger?

It means that if you implement scarcity, you can generate more email subscribers, more sales, more… whatever!

So now the question becomes:

• How do I implement scarcity on my blog?

And that’s what today’s post is all about. I’m going to dig into a WordPress plugin called Evergreen Countdown Timer. It lets you easily add countdown timers to your landing pages and funnels. These countdown timers will make your pages more effective, which means more leads and sales for you!

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It has both free and paid versions. I’ll show you how the free version works and then tell you what bonuses the Pro version offers at the end.

Let’s take a look…

Create Personalized Countdown Timer For Every User To Maximize Scarcity

There are plenty of ways to implement a basic countdown timer. By basic, I mean you set an end date, and every visitor sees the timer count down to that same end date.

This is fine if you’re advertising something that really does have a specific end date. But, if you’re promoting something that’s always available, this type of countdown timer doesn’t really help you.

That’s where this plugin comes in. It displays a personalized countdown timer for every single visitor that starts from the first time they visit your site.

Once a user comes to the page with your countdown timer, the plugin will remember them (either by cookie or IP address).

So no matter when an individual reaches your content, they will always be shown the countdown timer that’s relevant to them. This offers some incredibly powerful options for adding scarcity and boosting your lead generation or sales.

Setting Up Evergreen Countdown Timer WordPress Plugin

You can install the free plugin just like any other plugin.

After that, the first thing you need to do is create a new timer. The first details you enter are about the functionality of the timer:

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• Name: The internal name for your timer. Because you can create unlimited timers, this helps you stay organized.
• Type: The free version only allows a “Date” type timer. I’ll tell you about the Pro version types later.
• Evergreen: This lets you set if the timer should be Evergreen or not. If it’s turned on, the timer will always be there adding scarcity. If you turn it off, you can have the timer just count down to the same date for every user.
• Detection method: You can choose to remember users by either cookie or IP address. The Pro version lets you use both for more accuracy.
• Expire countdown in: This lets you set how long the countdown timer is. Remember, the countdown timer is unique to each visitor. So if you set it for 3 days, each visitor will see the countdown timer for 3 days from the first time they visit.
• Redirect URL: After the timer reaches zero, users will be redirected to this page. You could use this page to try a different tactic to convince the user to convert.

After you set up the functionality, you can choose how the countdown timer looks in the next section:

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The free version only lets you pick between white and black colors. The Pro version allows for unlimited colors. I didn’t change any of the other options, but I imagine they’re helpful if you need to translate the text on your countdown timer.

Once you’re happy with everything, you just hit “Save” at the bottom of the page to create your timer:

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How To Add Evergreen Countdown Timer To Post/Page

After you’ve created your countdown timer, it’s easy to add it to a post or page. You just need to copy the shortcode from the “Manager” tab:

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Then you add that shortcode wherever you want it to appear. For example, if I add it here to a test post:

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Then the live post will look like this:

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The timer appears in that exact spot and starts counting down based on the cookie it sets for each user.

To take things further, I tested whether the cookie tracking functionality worked correctly by opening an incognito tab. The incognito tab started at 3 days. Whereas if I opened a new “regular” tab (which has the tracking cookie), the countdown timer only had 2 days and 23 hours left. This means that the cookie tracking is accurate.

The timer is personalized based on the tracking cookie.

Get Even More Powerful Scarcity – Pro Version features

The Pro version costs $37 for one site and adds these powerful features:

• Countdown based on spots/tickets instead of time. This is useful for boosting webinar attendance or adding limited availability to a course you’re offering.
• Unlimited colors.
• Automatic resetting time. After a countdown expires, you can have it reset back to normal after a certain period of time.
• Custom CSS. Style the countdown timer to fit your site perfectly.
• Track by Cookie AND IP Address. The free version only lets you use one at a time. The Pro version lets you use both at the same time for better accuracy.

Final Thoughts

Scarcity is a powerful tool for making your content and marketing more attractive. And the Evergreen Countdown Timer allows even normal bloggers to easily apply that principle to a new area: Evergreen content.

Because the plugin’s free version is plenty powerful and it only takes a few minutes to create your own countdown timer, I think it’s definitely worth experimenting with on your blog.

Try it out and let me know: How’s it working for you? Is the scarcity principle helping you to increase your readers’ engagement? Tell me about your experience in the comments below!

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