What is the standard door hanger size?
The standard door hanger size is 3.5 x 8.5 inches. It is tall and narrow, about the width of a business card and a little shorter than a sheet of letter paper. At the top is a round hole with a slit, so it slides over a doorknob and stays put.
The second common size is 4.25 x 11 inches. It is a quarter of an 11 x 17 sheet, so it has noticeably more room. Restaurants use it for a menu. Contractors use it for a list of services plus a coupon.
Those are the two sizes on our door hanger page: 3.5 x 8.5 for the classic hanger and 4.25 x 11 when you need more space. Both are printed on 14PT or 16PT card with a UV gloss finish and the doorknob hole cut in.
If you are unsure, start with 3.5 x 8.5. It costs less per piece, and a short message is usually stronger anyway.
What should a door hanger say?
Think about the moment someone finds it. They are coming home with keys in one hand and bags in the other. You have about three seconds.
Put these on the front, in this order of size:
The offer or the problem you solve. "Gutter cleaning this week only, 10% off for this street" is stronger than your logo alone. Use your real offer, and make it specific.
Your business name, so they know who you are.
One way to act: a phone number in large type, a short web address, or a QR code. QR codes work well here, because people are standing right at the door.
Use the back. Door hangers are usually printed on both sides, and the back is free space for a short list of services, reviews, a map of your service area, or a coupon with an end date. The end date matters, because it gives people a reason to call now and lets you track which batch worked.
Keep the top of the card clear around the hole. That area gets cut out.
Does door hanger marketing work?
Door hangers work best for one kind of business: one that serves homes in a small area and benefits when neighbors see the same name. Lawn care, pool service, pest control, window cleaning, roofing, painting, HVAC, plumbing, pizza and takeout, and real estate agents are the common users.
The big strength is reach on your terms. You pick the exact streets. If you just finished a job, you can hang cards on the 20 houses around it with "We just did your neighbor's roof" and a photo. That kind of local proof is hard to buy online.
The weakness is effort. Someone has to walk the route. And results vary a lot by offer, design, timing, and neighborhood, so treat any response rate you read online as a guess, not a promise.
The honest way to know if it works for you: run a small test. Print a few hundred, cover a few streets, use a unique code or phone line, and count the calls. Then decide whether to scale up.
How do you run a door hanger campaign?
Here is a simple plan that keeps the guesswork low.
Pick the area. Choose streets that match your best customers: home type, age of houses, yard size, or near a job you just did.
Count the doors. Walk or map the route and count homes, then order a few extra for mistakes. Our runs on the door hanger page start at 250.
Write one offer. One clear reason to call this week, with an end date.
Make it trackable. A code, a short web address only on this card, or a number you only use for this run.
Time it well. Hang them when people are home soon after, like late afternoon, and avoid days with rain or strong wind.
Hang them right. On the doorknob, not in the mailbox, not tucked in a gate where they blow away. Skip homes with no-soliciting signs.
Follow up. Many people need to see a name more than once. Hit the same streets again in a few weeks, or pair the hangers with a mailed postcard to the same area.
Door hangers vs postcards vs flyers: which should you use?
Each one fits a different job.
Door hangers are hand-delivered, so you pay in time instead of postage. They are hard to miss, because they are physically on the door. They suit tight areas you can walk.
Postcards go through the mail, so they reach homes you cannot walk to and land with the day's mail. You pay postage, but nobody has to walk the route. Our postcards come in sizes from 4 x 6 up to 6 x 11 inches.
Flyers are the cheapest per piece and the most flexible, but they are thin paper. They work on counters, in bags, and on community boards more than on doors, where they blow away.
Many local businesses use two of these together: door hangers right around a job, and postcards to the wider area.
One rule applies to all of them: do not put anything in a mailbox without postage. Federal law (18 U.S.C. 1725) bars unstamped items in mailboxes, and some cities have their own rules for handing out flyers, so check yours before you start.