Custom Die-Cut Door Hangers

Designing for a Custom Outline

A die-cut shape needs a little planning. Text and important images should sit at least 5 mm inside the cut line, because the knife can drift a fraction during cutting. Narrow necks and thin spikes are fragile, so we keep any part of the shape at least 10 mm wide unless it is purely decorative.

The neck that goes around the door handle needs care too. A round hole with a slit to one side slips over most handles and lever latches. Make the hole around 35 to 40 mm across so it fits chunky knobs, and keep the slit short so the hanger does not fall off in a breeze.

Send us your artwork with the shape drawn as a separate outline, or send a sketch and we will draw the cutter line for you. The free design proof shows exactly where the cut will fall against your print. You receive a free proof with the cutter line over the artwork on both sides.

Card Weight and Finish for Custom Die-Cut Door Hangers

A door hanger lives outdoors, sometimes for days. Thin paper curls in damp weather and blows away. We usually recommend a heavy card around 350 to 400 gsm, which stays flat and hangs straight. For hotel signs that are used over and over, an even thicker board or a laminated card lasts far longer.

Gloss lamination makes colours punchy and shrugs off light drizzle. Matt lamination gives a softer look and is easier to write on if you leave space for a handwritten note. Uncoated card is cheapest and takes a pen perfectly, which suits tradespeople leaving a handwritten message about a missed visit.

Think about the colour of the doors in the area you are dropping. A bright hanger shows up on a dark front door, while a deep navy or black hanger can disappear against one. If your brand colours are dark, a white or light border around the shape keeps the outline visible from the pavement. Our board guide has card weights and laminates explained for damp doors.

What to Print on Each Side

The front is for the hook: a short headline, a strong image and your brand. The back is for detail: an offer, a phone number, a QR code to book or order, and any terms. Keep the front sparse. A shape already does a lot of work, and cramming text into it undoes that.

For campaigns where you want to track response, print a short code or a specific phone line on the back. Even a simple word like the street name of the drop area lets you see which streets respond, which helps plan the next round.

Hotels have different needs. A do not disturb sign is read in a corridor by housekeeping staff, often from a few metres away, so a short message in large letters matters more than detail. Printing the reverse side with a make up room request, or a breakfast order panel, turns one hanger into two useful signs. The same artwork can run on die-cut flyers for the same campaign handed out in town.

Distribution Tips

Door hangers work best when they are delivered in a tidy, logical route and hung the same way up on every door. Hang them so the front faces outward and the hole sits snugly over the handle. Avoid doors with no handle or with a sign asking for no flyers, as that does your brand more harm than good.

Timing matters. Takeaway offers do well late in the week before evenings in, while trades and gardening services tend to get calls at weekends when people are home and looking at their homes.

Count your drop area before ordering. A team of two can cover a few hundred doors in an afternoon on terraced streets, far fewer in a spread-out village with long driveways. Ordering slightly more than the round needs leaves spares for doors you miss and for a quick second pass a few weeks later, which often brings in responses the first drop did not. Where a voucher matters more than the shape, door hanger flyers with a tear-off are the economical choice.

Drop a Test Batch on Two Streets Before You Cut Thousands

Shaped hangers cost more than rectangles on the first order because of the cutter, so a short test run pays for itself. Choose the shape, keep the handle hole around 35 to 40 mm with a side slit, and put a different tracking code or phone number on the back for each test street. Drop a few hundred, measure the response, then order the larger run in the shape that worked. Supply artwork with 3 mm of bleed past the cut line and text kept 5 mm inside it. If the hanger carries a voucher, a perforated strip at the bottom of the shape tears cleanly. Plain rectangular door hangers in the same card are the lower-cost comparison for the control streets.

Send the shape, size, card weight and quantity, and a custom quote comes by email within one working day. The free proof shows the cutter line over both sides. Production takes 4 to 7 working days after approval, hangers arrive by tracked courier to UK mainland addresses, and misprints or damage reported within 10 days are reprinted or refunded.