It is commonly cited that the average person in the US is exposed to as many as 10,000 ads a day. That’s 624 an hour, assuming a person sleeps 8 hours a day. Most people are unaware of the unrelenting marketing assault they face each day. Fortunately for them — but not for marketers — people filter out the majority of those encounters. In fact, several studies suggest that people recall only about 100 ads each day. And that number is on the high side of the research. That’s terrible to hear, as cost per thousand increases, inbox open rates decrease, and privacy restrictions continue to limit third-party targeting.
Taken together, they create structural problems for a national brand’s marketing. It means:
- Digital reach is deep but shallow
- Engagement is fragmented
- Attribution is challenging
- Competition for attention is relentless.
What is a marketer to do? How can brands cut through the noise and competition? What tactics will place their ads among the 100 or fewer that can be recalled?
The answer is as close as the front door.
Front Door Media Creates Instant Engagement
To-the-door media is the answer most marketers are seeking. It includes tangible deliverables, such as sticky notes on doors, door hangers, pizza box toppers, inserts, and other physical items delivered to a consumer’s door.
But why does it work? A big reason is engagement. To-the-door marketing is a physical piece that prompts physical engagement. People have to grab it to remove it. Once it is in the hand, it’s only natural to read it. Once that happens, the engagement and impact are created. It’s like sending out a piece of mail, but it gets a 100% open rate. But even better, it’s never lost in a stack of postcards and letters. It lives on its own, competing against nothing else in the moment of interaction.
Getting your marketing piece into the hands of the audience is a big deal. How big? Let’s turn to the science of neuromarketing research. That’s the application of neuroscience and cognitive science to marketing. It analyzes a consumer’s subconscious, emotional, and physiological responses to branding, advertisements, and products.
Neuromarketing Research Shows Physical Media Improves:
- Brand recall
- Emotional engagement
- Perceived trust
Bottom line, touching a piece of marketing, as audiences must do with to-the-door marketing, increases memory encoding.
Which is Better: To-the-Door Marketing or Direct Mail?
To-the-door marketing is often evaluated next to direct mail. Both are cost-effective tactics that can target very narrowly defined audiences.
While both have a place in the marketing mix, to-the-door marketing has clear advantages over direct mail.
For one, to-the-door doesn’t require postage, making it more affordable to distribute. What’s more, to-the-door marketing is almost assured audience exposure. Direct mail gets lost in stacks of more important mailings, like bills. It is always competing for attention. Conversely, to-the-door materials are prominent, from a sticky note on the front door to being at the very top of a pizza box. To-the-door marketing lives in spaces with zero competition or crowding from other messages. It is among the few media options with a 100% open rate.
Lastly, to-the-door marketing materials can be conceived, produced, and deployed more rapidly than direct mail. That creates agile-response marketing opportunities tied to severe weather, inventory challenges, flash sales, and more.
Customer Engagement with Message Longevity
Physical marketing materials are successful because of their long shelf life. Digital ads are scrolled by in milliseconds. Radio spots can be as short as 15 seconds. A typical TV commercial is only 30 seconds. But to-the-door marketing materials can live for days, weeks, or even months, depending on their message/content. Rarely is the information disposable. Often, it includes coupons, sale flyers, or other information that remains relevant for a long time. Plus, it gets passed along to other household members. Intentionally and unintentionally, people see to-the-door marketing pieces on a kitchen counter, the office desk, or stuck to a fridge. That creates a wider audience and repeated exposure, further enhancing the likelihood of a successful conversion.
Data Drives To-The-Door Marketing
Effective marketing budgets are allocated using data, not instincts. The ability to employ data and refine audience targeting is among the significant advantages of to-the-door marketing. Yes, targeting can be as simple as by zip code — but it also can go much deeper.
Data Driven Audiences
- Target by household income
- Filter by homeowner vs renter
- Segment by family composition
- Align offers by demographics
Using those factors and others allows media planners to transform their message distribution from blanket coverage to micro-market penetration. Using data, marketers can offer bundle meal offers to families, single-serve orders to apartment renters, and premium upsell offers to high-income households. Using data not only impacts delivery but can also shape marketing content so it resonates most effectively with the recipient.
To-The-Door Marketing is Cost-Effective at Scale
We’ve mentioned that to-the-door marketing is cost-effective. Now it’s time to prove it. Many attributes make it a cost-effective platform when compared to other options. From production to media buy to delivery, it’s a budget-friendly tactic that delivers excellent impact and ROI.
The value is especially great for national chains with thousands of locations.
What Makes To-The-Door Marketing Cost-Effective
- Creative can easily be localized by store location to maximize relevance
- Quantities can be dynamically allocated based on performance
- Assets can be printed on demand
- Distribution can be sequenced geographically as a test or as the budget allows
- Inventory waste is minimal
Marketing Messages Delivered with Precision
The success of any marketing campaign comes down to execution. It can be affordable, timely, attractive, and well-produced, but it fails if sent to the wrong people at the wrong time. Or worse, left totally undelivered. Execution failure is never a concern when working with a proven partner such as Momentara.
They implement technology, such as GPS trackers, to deliver certainty with their to-the-door marketing programs. Momentara verifies that materials followed the exact routes and were delivered to the locations promised in the contract. That deep level of accountability and field execution performance is a unique and important differentiator.
Best Uses of To-The-Door Marketing
A good marketing tactic can be successfully deployed by almost any organization. The use cases for to-the-door marketing are almost infinite within the realm of consumer products and services. However, there are certainly sweet spots that have been proven by time and performance.
Best Industries for To-The-Door Marketing
- Quick-service restaurants (QSR)
- Home services
- Professional services
- Grocery stores
- Healthcare providers
- Retail stores (especially grand openings)
- Government messaging (health and safety)
What To-The-Door Marketing Accomplishes
- Drives traffic
- Supports limited-time offers (LTOs)
- Activates new markets
- Increases per purchase amount
- Enhances message recall
In a world of ignored notifications, deleted emails, and missed commercials, to-the-door marketing achieves direct engagement.
Ready to Drive To-The-Door Media ROI?
To-the-door marketing is just one aspect of in-the-moment marketing — a strategy created by Momentara. We turn in-store, out-of-home, and event promotions into useful touchpoints that sync with the customer’s routines to encourage behaviors. The Momentara approach makes your marketing messages a welcome, impactful, and natural part of the customer’s day.
Whether your media buying needs are focused on to-the-door marketing or you’re intrigued by the in-the-moment opportunities offered by Momentara, we invite you to reach out. We bring you the technology, experience, production, scale, resources, and national presence to build certainty and programmatic success.
