Using Countdown Hero, we’re going to be ‘locking’ our special offer pages so that only the subscribers with an Active Countdown Hero timer will be able to get access into the page.
(Think of Countdown Hero like the bouncer at your local bar, checking for ID)
When setting up an Evergreen timer, there are two main page settings;
- Active Offer Page (Your special offer page)
- Expired Offer Page (The page that Countdown Hero will take your subscribers to when their timer expires)
Just copy and paste the full URL of the individual pages that you’re using for this countdown campaign into these fields.
If you’re using a campaign that requires multiple offer pages, such as those with appearing/expiring bonuses or a ‘fast-action’ discount, you can click the big green ‘Add Another Page’ button to add a fresh set of pages into your Countdown Hero.
(NOTE: Because it’s an advanced technique, adding multiple campaign pages is only available inside our PRO level accounts. If you’d like to upgrade your account to unlock multiple campaign pages, you can click here to upgrade to Countdown Hero PRO)
Do Not Redirect
It’s not always preferable to redirect everyone from one page to the next when their countdown timer expires.
For example, you could be counting down to a webinar STARTING (rather than expiring) and so redirecting people away from the webinar likely isn’t a good idea.
In this case, you can toggle ON the ‘Do Not Redirect’ field, which means that when the subscribers Countdown Hero expires, they won’t be automatically redirected through to the Expiry page and will instead remain on the Active Offer page.
Expired Popup
When the countdown runs out for a subscriber, you may find it useful to let them know before they are redirected to your regular Expired page.
In cases like this, you can enable and customise the 'Expired Popup' which will allow you to customise a popup that overlays and blurs out your offer page with a message, before having it count down and redirect to your Expired page instead.
This is particularly important if you were offering a limited-time discount which is expiring into your normal full-price offer. In adding an Expired Popup like this, you'll be able to alert your subscribers that the offer has closed so that they don't accidentally pay full price when they were expecting your discount (it happens!)
NOTE: This will only affect any subscribers who have had their countdown timer expire. This will not display for any random traffic visiting the page (they will see the 404 Page)
404 Page Alternative
Don’t like the scary ‘404’ page that appears when you try to access a page being locked by Countdown Hero? No problem.
Just add a different URL in the ‘404 Page Alternative’ field and instead, you’ll be taken to that URL instead.
(We typically add our Expiry Page into this field)
Forward Email Address To The Countdown URL’s
In some situations, you’ll want to pass (and keep) the subscribers email address in the URL bar of your webpage.
For example, you may want to pre-fill their email address into a survey or a checkout cart.
In cases like this, you’ll want to check the ‘Forward Email Address To The Countdown URL’s’ box and Countdown Hero will keep the email address present as a URL parameter in the URL bar, whenever it loads or redirects a page.
If you don’t need this, you can leave that option un-checked.
Once you’ve configured each of your page settings, you can hit ‘Save’.
When you do, Countdown Hero will display a new link in a yellow box beneath each pair of pages called the 'Page URL' (previously called the 'Redirect URL').
^^ This new yellow is the link that you will use inside of your emails INSTEAD of your normal page URL.
Once you've added this link into each of your emails, you can click 'Save & Next' to advance to the Design Settings tab.
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PS: Still got questions? Join our Official Countdown Hero Support Group on Facebook! You’ll be able to join and post your question in there and not only are your fellow Countdown Hero users in there helping each other out 24/7 but our support team are in there too. (Heck, you might even find the answer to your question is already in there and you’ll get an even speedier solution)
Join the Group Here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/countdownheroofficial