12 Creative Door Hanger Campaigns to Spark Your Next Idea

You’ve heard about how door hangers can break through the clutter and capture the full attention of your ideal prospects, and you want to create a project. But what makes a great door hanger campaign?

We’ve been the national leader in front door marketing for decades, so we’ve got a treasure trove of fabulous examples of successful door hanger campaigns. In this article, we’ll share a few with you. We’ll also include a variety of door hanger distribution examples — including our tried and true standard 17” x 5.5” stalwart.

Door hangers are more effective than digital media, direct mail, and other forms of out of home advertising because they greet your prospects at their front door — free from all other media distractions. 

Here are a few creative ideas various companies have used to take advantage of that exclusive environment.

Die-cut customized door hangers

A die-cut door hanger is one that gets cut in a customized way to draw even more attention to your business, with a flair of artistic creativity. Good marketing grabs attention and provokes positive emotions. Here are a few examples of door hanger projects that have done this with style and effectiveness.

Fetch the door hanger bone

A doggie day care ran this campaign featuring a door hanger cut to look like a bone. They offer day camps, overnight camps, and grooming services. This creative door hanger includes a coupon for a first-night free for new customers, and existing customers can use it for a free doggie bath. 

Thus, it gives a deal to both types of shoppers. It also includes all their location information, a fun picture with some humor, and other helpful information — way more than you could easily fit in a typical printed ad, and certainly more than you could cram into online ads. 

Can you imagine owning a dog and coming home to find this big bone on your front door? It’s a can’t-miss impression and a great way to introduce the service.

Frozen pancake door hanger

This project distributed custom door hangers with the bottom part shaped to look like a pancake with a bite taken out of it and the phrase ‘Bite Me!’ in huge font. Who’s not going to look at this??

The back offers an amazing deal and shares some additional features and benefits about the product. Paired with the right targeting, a fun campaign like this can create customers for life. 

Coffee bag door hanger

McDonalds sent out a creative campaign with door hangers cut in the shape of a coffee bag. The bottom end of the bag included three coupons allowing consumers to try samples of some of their coffee varieties. 

Ideas like this can work for your own door hangers too. All it takes is a little creativity, and you’ll be selling to targeted houses across whole neighborhoods. 

Door hanger toilets

Got any old toilets? Southwest Environmental sent out this customized door hanger project with flyers cut to look like toilets. There isn’t much more that company could have done — in any advertising media — to be more memorable than this. It remains one of the most creative and fun door hanger designs since we’ve been in business.

Recipients were first hit with an attention-getting statistic about toilet quality and water costs, followed by an fabulous deal on a new high-efficiency toilet. The back of the door hanger gives a simple 3-step set of directions, and includes a coupon rebate code. 

Interactive door hanger campaigns

The built-in excitement that you feel when scratching off a lottery ticket can be replicated on creative door hangers. But unlike lottery tickets, these show up right at your house.

Scratch off coupons

One business developed a project with a lottery-like scratch-and-win game at the bottom of the standard-sized door hanger. The prizes were what we call ‘Business As Usual’ offers. In other words, the actual offer wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But by using a little gamification and style, it makes the deal feel much more exciting to the prospect.

Forced store visit scratch offs

MetroPCS used a similar approach with this project, but required the customer to bring the door hanger in and scratch it off in the presence of a sales associate in order to claim the prize — a free smartphone. What an offer!

Forcing the recipient to bring their new door décor to the store served several purposes. 

First, it gets them into the store, which is always good because it opens up access to all your other products and services, and increases the chances of impulse buys. Second, any other purchases they make will blunt the revenue loss from selling the discount prize. 

What does a campaign cost?

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Third, it provides very accurate tracking data — you’ll know exactly how many people responded to the offer. And fourth, it ensures each person can only claim the prize once.

Free gift door hanger campaigns

Another type of door to door marketing you can create is a free gift or free sample project. These door hanger ideas cost a little more due to the giveaway, but they grab attention and make a very strong and positive impression that is almost irresistible.

If you’re confident that what you’re selling will make up for the loss leader, this is a fabulous way to win at front door marketing.

Flower bouquet campaign

A tech company sent out actual flower bouquets to all customers who joined their monthly service. Because most of these customers will remain with them for many years, the company could justify the higher cost of this amazing door to door marketing campaign.

This project isn’t even selling anything. It’s simply a very personal and creative way to thank people when they join. And the goodwill generated by this will result in more customer loyalty and long-term revenue.

Free bean samples

Bush’s Beans sent out free samples to neighborhoods with high concentrations of their desired target demographic, along with coupons to buy more of their products.

With staple products like this, when you can win over a customer for life, the long-term revenue makes the initial door hanger project investment worth it.

American flag door hangers

AT&T sent out creative door hangers with two holes punched in them and a small American flag inserted, as part of their July 4^th marketing campaign. The content featured a clever line about declaring independence from cable. Thematic campaigns like this can be built around holidays, the start of school, sports seasons and events, and many other ideas.

Eye-catching standard-sized door hanger campaigns 

Even if you create your project using our standard size (which is large and printed with such quality that it’s not really standard at all), check out the impact you can have on an ideal prospect when they reach their house. Imagine seeing this on your front door! It blows away any standard kind of flyer distribution.

LA Fitness seeks new customers

Gyms thrive on recurring membership fees. The challenge is getting new members. LA Fitness sent out this door hanger campaign offering $50 off the initiation fee, lowering the bar for getting started on personal fitness. 

Then, at the bottom, they added a complimentary personal fitness assessment. That lowers the bar even more, because now you’ll get some personal attention and guidance on ways to improve your physical health.  

Notice how the use of color in the design makes both offers equally eye-catching. This project also utilizes the space on the door hanger very effectively.

Grand opening announcement door hanger

Sprint sent out this door hanger campaign announcing the grand opening of a new store. Grand openings are a great opportunity to create a special one-time offer, and to win customers from the competition in the surrounding neighborhoods.

For this project, Sprint offered a $50 bill credit coupon. That’s a great way to inspire people to switch carriers, and they know they’ll make it back on the monthly revenue.

Pharmacy door hanger campaign

Tom Thumb Pharmacy sent a front door campaign to inspire people to start using their business to fill prescriptions — another recurring revenue campaign. 

This temporary ‘door décor’ made a double offer —  a free $25 gift card plus 20% off your groceries after filling three prescriptions. 

Notice how the design includes a map and store hours. This is the kind of helpful information you can easily add to a door hanger because of the extra space, compared to a postcard or other forms of printed advertising.

And unlike direct mail, the recipient sees the entire presentation on one sheet. They don’t have to open or unfold anything. It requires far less effort to see your full offer and all the incentives.

Want to get measurable results?

Get in touch with us and we can talk about customizing your own door hanger marketing campaign, including your offer, target audience, and door hanger designs and ideas like the ones you’ve just seen.