Door prizes: get your foot in the door with a tried-and-true promotional tool

Entrepreneur, April, 1996 by Jerry Fisher

Not since 1993 has a reader asked me for suggested improvements on a promotional door-hanger, that dangling annoyance with the hole at the top that nevertheless can be an effective attention-getter--with the help of a little creativity.

However, if it's lacking originality, a door-hanger can rank right up there with the flier-placed-under-the-windshield-wiper for the Advertising Object of Scorn Award. So I'm delighted to revisit the format and even resurrect an interesting idea I recommended way back then. With the use of a little imagination and some personalization, the door-hanger can be a stellar performer that greets arriving homeowners with a motivating sales argument.

That's my message to Harlan Giese of Urbandale, Iowa, who recently sent me his company's door-hanger for evaluation. Giese is in a business I didn't know existed. His firm, Action Concrete, has a technique for hydraulically raising sunken concrete slabs--by pumping a special concrete mix under them--where ground water or various other erosive occurrences have caused the slabs to sag. This is not merely a cosmetic problem but a structural hazard as well. Giese's sales pitch is that he can raise the slab--be it in a driveway, garage or a part of the house--for one-third less than the cost of breaking up the old slab and replacing it with new concrete, and obviously with far less hassle.

Giese says he and his wife used to cruise local neighborhoods of suburban Des Moines looking for homes that had slab problems, then placing one of their door-hangers on the front door handle. But even in the friendly Midwest, Giese says, people did not take kindly to strangers walking up to their front door and hooking one of these tawdry paper necklaces on their doorknobs. So nowadays, Giese leaves his door-hanger only as a sales reinforcement when he has been asked to come and estimate a job in the owner's absence. He attaches the estimate sheet to the hanger and hooks it onto the door for the homeowner to see when he or she returns.

But is there a way to improve on Giese's door-hanger? Yes, of course, even though he's got what seems to be a pretty hard-working piece. There's also a question of even greater gravity: Is the door-hanger forever doomed as a prospecting device? Not by a long shot.

IT'S IN THE NUMBERS

My idea for Giese's new door-hanger is to combine personalization with an official confirmation of the problem as a way to get attention. Here's how personalization on a door-hanger would work:

The front of the piece would have the following large headline: "Your sunken slab at (then a handwritten house number) is in need of a lift!" Then, using a takeoff on David Letterman's Top 10 List routine, the subhead would read: "The TOP TEN REASONS to use Action Concrete for the job." This would be followed by an arrow symbol inviting readers to flip the card over to review Giese's Top 10 reasons. Giese simply uses a broad- tipped marker to fill in the address blank I've indicated, and suddenly the piece has an extremely personalized message.

However, the question remains: Can this idea be used for pure solicitation purposes without someone leveling a shotgun at you as you approach their front door? Absolutely, although I'll take Giese's word for it that door- hangers better serve him as a so-called "leave-behind" piece after an estimate. But there are a few professions I think might benefit mightily from the address-personalized door-hanger.

House painters could canvas a neighborhood for homes that look ready for a new coat, and use a door- hanger that says: "When people drive up to (fill in address), impress them with a beautiful, freshly painted home." The back of the hanger could have a headline saying something friendly like: "Hi, my name is John Wagner. I've painted the ex-teriors of a number of homes in your area, and I'd love to make yours look more beautiful--and valuable--too."

Gardeners and landscapers, upon targeting homes that look like they could use some regular maintenance in the lawn-and-garden department, could use hangers that say, "When people drive up to (fill in address), impress them with a lawn that looks like a million bucks." The back of the card could say, "My name is George Rose, and I'd like to show you how I can make your lawn and garden look even more beautiful with my professional care."

Other businesses that might make this idea work are roofers, contractors and other home improvement purveyors. The person who delivers the door- hanger simply carries a marker with him or her and fills in the address while approaching the front door. (Of course, if this suggestion spawns a proliferation of personalized door-hangers, and then a lot of copycats, they'll all neutralize each other, and we'll have to go back to the drawing board to break out of the box again.)

THE NEUTRALIZER

As you're confronted with advertisement after advertisement in newspapers and magazines . . . and as you "zone out" in front of commercial after commercial on television (11 in a row during the breaks in a recent TV movie I watched!), are you aware of how these ads do, indeed, neutralize each other in your mind? With each ad having the same basic architecture, like a long row of tract houses with little to distinguish one from another, they become a blur in your consciousness. You rarely remember what you saw--even right after you saw it.