If you’ve ever lived in a suburb or an apartment building, you’ve likely come across a door hanger. A door hanger is a promotional printed piece that’s rectangular in shape, with a perforation or hook that allows it to hang on doorknobs and handles. They’re inexpensive, easy to distribute and hard to ignore, making them a popular choice for people who want to advertise locally. To craft a successful door hanger marketing campaign that can help your business grow, you need to consider a few basic steps. In this article, we’ve compiled a 6-step guide that will help you set up a winning campaign.
1. Set your goal(s)
Before jumping in, you need to figure out and outline your overall campaign goals. What are your expectations for this marketing campaign? What do you want to accomplish? What do you want people to do as soon as they read your door hanger?
You want to set clear and tangible goals and keep them at the forefront of your door hanger campaign planning. Here are a few broad examples that can guide you in setting your campaign goals. You can pick one or more of these suggestions and make them specific to your business.
- Generating more sales
- Collecting contact information or feedback
- Promoting a new product or service
- Advertising an upcoming event
- Boosting user engagement on social media
- Increasing brand awareness
- Increasing your profit margin by a certain percentage
By defining measurable goals now, you can later evaluate the success of your door hanger advertising and determine what’s working and what needs to be improved for future campaigns.
2. Define your targeted audience
Researching your audience is a vital step in your door hanger advertising. Gathering key data like age, gender, income, location and interests will help you craft a door hanger campaign that’s strategically focused on your target audience. This will also help you put together an engaging offer or message and increase your chances of positive responses.
3. Write compelling text and include a special offer
To draw your customers to your offer, you’ll need a catchy headline and intriguing copy – a term often used to describe the text that appears on a marketing piece. These two elements are what will entice customers to try or check out your products and services. To write killer door hanger copy, consider including the following elements, but not necessarily in this order:
A title or headline. A headline should immediately reveal your big offer or tell people what the door hanger is about. Make sure your headline is clear, stands out and is easy to read.
Body text. This represents any text that’s below your headline, which could be in the form of a brief description or a bullet point list that explains your offer and provides further details.
A limited-time offer. Including a time-sensitive offer will encourage customers to respond. This could be a coupon, a special discount, free consultations, etc. You may add this offer to the body text, or to your call to action (CTA) at the end.
A call to action (CTA). A CTA tells your customer how to take the next step – visit a website, download an app, call a number, scan a QR code, etc.
Vistaprint Tip
For your CTA, try to use language that creates FOMO (fear of missing out) such as “limited time offer” or “last chance to buy” etc. to trigger a sense of urgency.
Whatever offer you choose to include, make sure it will be interesting to your potential customers. Don’t forget to add a time constraint of some kind, so that they don’t put it off for later and then forget it. It also goes without saying that you add your contact info and business name to your door hangers.
4. Create and print your design
The very first element that your customer will notice about your door hangers is the design. Of course, door hangers being placed on doorknobs means customers will likely notice them, but you want them to also notice your brand and special offer immediately.
A great design not only grabs attention to your special offer, but also makes a statement about your company, brand and the quality of your products and services.
Your door hanger design should feature:
- Bold and easy-to-read typography that directs the eye to your call to action.
- High-resolution graphics and photos that your customers can relate to.
- Attention-grabbing colors and a clean layout – use your brand packaging, logo or website for inspiration when choosing the colors.
Vistaprint Tip
Don’t be afraid to get creative with your door hanger design. The more creative your door hangers, the higher the chance it stands out.
Once you’ve created an irresistible offer, impressive design and enticing text, find a printer that can produce premium copies. Keep in mind that the print quality of your door hanger can play a big role in enhancing your customers’ perception of your brand, and so it’s best to invest in quality printing.
At VistaPrint, we offer a wide range of professionally designed door hanger templates that you can choose from and customize to your liking. Our door hangers are printed on UV gloss, 14 pt. card stock, and are available 2 size options. We also provide professional design services where you can work with one of our experts to help you create a one-of-kind design.
Vistaprint Tip
Give your door hangers a pop by incorporating interactive elements, like a QR code or a tear-off coupon, to encourage customers to interact with your door hanger.
5. Distribute your door hangers
Once you receive your custom printed door hangers, it’s time to put in the leg work. There are several ways you can accomplish door hanger distribution:
- Distribute door hangers yourself. This is a cheaper option but can be time consuming.
- Get employees to pass them out. This method will help you canvass more neighborhoods in a shorter amount of time, but you’ll have to pay the employees for their efforts.
- Recruit a team of volunteers to help. If you choose this option, it’s a good idea to reward your volunteers with a pizza party or cocktail party afterwards.
- Hire a third-party company to distribute them. This is a more effective option, but it can also be pricey.
6. Track your efforts
Tracking your results is crucial to evaluating the success of your campaign. There are several methods you can use to track and assess your door hanger campaign results. For example, you can add a promo code to your door hangers that’s based on the names of the neighborhoods you’re targeting. When your customers use the code, you’ll know why they converted and which neighborhood they came from. Alternatively, you can track the number of coupons collected, or ask people how they found out about the promotion.
Quick response codes (QR codes) are also an easy and popular option that you can add to your door hangers to help you track results. All you have to do is make sure that your code redirects to a unique landing page. Then, you can measure the number of times the code was scanned digitally with tools like Google Analytics.
By following these steps – and continuing to test, track and tweak your door hangers – you can turn this into a profitable tool to market your products and services.
