A Christmas light flyer needs 5 lines: a headline the homeowner reads from the doormat, one offer, one proof line, one call to action and the fine print. LightQuoter's flyer page describes three layouts and gives you one headline to rebuild yourself. Below are five complete texts to paste into Canva or your printer's template, the print specs for a 4.25 by 11 inch door hanger, the CASL and CAN-SPAM rules for what happens after the scan, and the Ottawa by-law on drops and lawn signs.
These are words, not image files. Set them in your own colours with a photo of a house you actually lit. No stock photos, no Street View, no satellite shot; the proof line only works if the picture is real.
The five templates at a glance#
| # |
Template |
Format |
Headline |
When to drop it |
| 1 |
The neighbour drop |
4.25 x 11 door hanger |
We just lit the house at [number] [Street] |
The evening you finish a job, 20 doors each way |
| 2 |
The early-bird flyer |
8.5 x 11 or 5.5 x 8.5 flyer |
Book your Christmas lights before the snow does |
September to mid-October |
| 3 |
The permanent lighting flyer |
8.5 x 11 flyer |
Lights that never come down (until you change the colour) |
Any month; spring and summer work |
| 4 |
The re-book hanger |
4.25 x 11 door hanger |
Same lights, same house, one text to book |
August, on last season's customers only |
| 5 |
The missed-you leave-behind |
4.25 x 11 door hanger |
We were on your street today |
After a measure or an install nearby, any time |
Every template ends with the same call to action: a QR code and a short link to your quote request page, where the homeowner uploads a photo of their house and gets a mockup back. The mockup guide covers how to make that mockup from their photo in a few minutes. The flyer's job is to get the photo; the mockup's job is to close.
Template 1: the neighbour drop#
Drop this on the 20 houses each way the evening you finish an install. The lit house is the proof; the hanger just points at it.
Headline: We just lit the house at [number] [Street].
Subhead: Look left tonight. That is [warm white C9 LED on the roofline and peaks], installed and taken down by [Company], and it took us one afternoon.
Offer: Book before [date] and takedown in January is included.
Proof line: [12] homes lit on [Street] and [neighbouring street] last season. Ask [first name] at [number].
Call to action: Scan the code, send us one photo of your house from the driveway, and you will have a lit-up mockup and a price by tomorrow evening. [short link]
Fine print: [Company legal name], [mailing address], [phone]. Photo-based footage is an estimate we confirm on site before we install. Licensed and insured.
Ask the homeowner whose house you just lit before you print their name on the proof line; most say yes when the lights are on. Change "takedown included" to whatever your offer actually is. Ours changes by the week in November; the flyer's offer should have an end date so the drop has a reason to act.
Template 2: the early-bird flyer#
Mailbox or handout, September to mid-October, for people who book before the rush.
Headline: Book your Christmas lights before the snow does.
Subhead: Professional roofline and peak lighting, installed in [October and November], taken down in [January and February], stored until next year if you want.
Offer: Book by [October 15] and choose one: takedown included, a free timer, or [10]% off a three-season lease.
Proof line: From $[8] per foot of roofline. A typical bungalow front runs $[1,500] to $[2,500]; a two-storey with peaks $[2,000] to $[3,500]. Every quote comes with a mockup of your own house.
Call to action: Scan the code, send one driveway photo, get your mockup and your price. No visit needed to quote. [short link]
Fine print: [Company legal name], [mailing address], [phone], [website]. Prices before tax. Photo-based footage is an estimate confirmed on site. Minimum job $[1,500].
The from-price and the ranges are yours to set. The numbers in brackets are GlowBid's default seasonal C9 rate ($8 per foot of roofline) and its default $1,500 minimum job; installers set their own. Print a range, never a flat price, because you have not measured the house. The per-foot pricing guide shows how those ranges come out of a rate card.
Template 3: the permanent lighting flyer#
Year-round, because the product is. Works in June, when nobody else is talking about Christmas lights.
Headline: Lights that never come down (until you change the colour).
Subhead: Permanent LED nodes in a colour-matched track along your roofline. Warm white for every night, any colour for the holidays, from your phone.
Offer: Measured and quoted from one photo. Book an install for [month] and the Wi-Fi controller is included.
Proof line: [Number] homes in [neighbourhood] run our track. Drive past [Street] after dark.
Call to action: Scan the code, send one photo of your house, and see it lit in [warm white / red and green / your team's colours] before you spend a dollar. [short link]
Fine print: [Company legal name], [mailing address], [phone], [website]. Product warranty [x] years, labour warranty [1] year. Footage from a photo is an estimate confirmed on site.
Swap the controller offer for whatever your product line's dealer terms let you give. The permanent lighting per-foot guide has the default track rates if you want a from-price on this one too.
Template 4: the re-book hanger#
August, and only on the doors of last season's customers. It is the cheapest job you will book all year.
Headline: Same lights, same house, one text to book.
Subhead: Your [C9 warm white] display from last December is in bin [number] in our shop, checked and ready.
Offer: Re-book by [September 1] and your price is [last season's price], no increase. After that our [2026] rates apply.
Proof line: Last year we installed your [130] ft of roofline and peaks in [2] hours and took it down on [January 14].
Call to action: Text "[YES]" to [number] or scan the code and pick your install week. [short link]
Fine print: [Company legal name], [mailing address], [phone]. Reply STOP to any text to opt out.
This one works because every bracket is a real number from their record. If you cannot fill the bin number and the takedown date, you are not ready to send it. The re-book pricing guide covers what to charge in year two.
Template 5: the missed-you leave-behind#
For the door you knocked on and nobody answered, or the street where you measured a house and the neighbours watched.
Headline: We were on your street today.
Subhead: [First name] from [Company] measured a roofline at [number] [Street] this afternoon for Christmas lights. We can quote yours from a photo without coming back.
Offer: Send one photo this week and the mockup is free, whether or not you book.
Proof line: [Number] homes lit in [neighbourhood] last season. Photos at [website/gallery].
Call to action: Scan the code or text a photo of the front of your house to [number]. Mockup and price by the next evening. [short link]
Fine print: [Company legal name], [mailing address], [phone]. Photo-based footage is an estimate confirmed on site.
The free mockup is the offer here, not a discount. It costs you minutes and it is the thing no one else on the doormat is giving away.
Print specs for the door hanger and the flyer#
Ask your printer for their template file before you lay anything out. The numbers below are the common ones; the hole position and exact bleed differ by shop.
| Item |
Door hanger |
Flyer |
| Trim size |
4.25 x 11 in (large standard; 3.5 x 8.5 in is the small one, per 4over4) |
8.5 x 11 in, or 5.5 x 8.5 in for mailbox drops |
| Bleed |
Add the printer's bleed on all four sides, commonly 0.125 in |
Same |
| Safe zone |
Keep text at least 0.125 in inside the trim, and clear of the hole and slit |
Keep text 0.25 in inside the trim |
| Hole |
Die-cut at the top; the headline goes below it, not around it |
None |
| Resolution and colour |
300 DPI, CMYK, fonts outlined or embedded |
Same |
| Stock |
Card stock heavy enough to hang flat in wind; 14pt is the common default, 16pt for a premium feel |
Text weight for mailbox drops; card stock for handouts |
| Sides |
Both. Back: three "what's included" bullets and the QR code again |
Both |
| QR code |
At least 1 in square, tested on two phones before the print run |
Same |
The QR code goes to your quote request page and nowhere else. Not your home page, not Instagram. One page, one form, one photo upload. Put the short link in plain text under it for the people who will not scan.
What CASL and CAN-SPAM mean for the follow-up#
The paper is not the problem. The follow-up is.
Canada (CASL). A printed flyer is not a commercial electronic message, so CASL does not cover the drop. It covers everything after the scan. ISED's consent guidance says an inquiry gives you implied consent for 6 months and a purchase for up to 2 years, and that every commercial email or text must carry your business name, a current mailing address plus a phone number, email or website, and an unsubscribe mechanism you action within 10 business days. It applies to texts as well as email. Put an unchecked consent box on the quote request form so the six-month clock stops mattering. The CASL follow-up templates have the exact wording for the box and the five follow-ups.
United States (CAN-SPAM). The FTC's compliance guide lists seven requirements for commercial email: accurate header information, a truthful subject line, the message identified as an ad, a valid physical postal address, a clear opt-out, the opt-out honoured within 10 business days with the mechanism working for at least 30 days after the send, and responsibility for anyone you hire to send on your behalf. Penalties run up to $53,088 per email. The guide covers email only; texting in the US falls under different rules with a stricter consent standard, so check those separately before you text a US lead from a flyer form.
Both laws are the reason the fine print carries your legal name, mailing address and phone. Print them on the paper, put them in the form's footer, and the first email is compliant before you write it.
The Ottawa by-law note#
Three rules apply to a drop in Ottawa, and the pattern repeats in most Canadian cities under different numbers.
- No-admail signs. Under the City's Voluntary Admail Reduction Program by-law (2003-493), as quoted in search results, a distributor may not leave unaddressed advertising on a property where the owner has posted the prescribed no-admail sign, and may not distribute between 9:00 pm and 8:00 am. Skip the sign, drop in daylight. The same by-law text says distributors use driveways and walkways, not lawns and gardens.
- Lawn signs. The Temporary Signs on Private Property by-law (2004-239), as quoted in search results, says no person shall place a temporary sign on a premise zoned residential. That is the "we did this house" lawn sign. Use template 1 instead; it does the same job from the doorknob.
- Mailed flyers. If you use Canada Post unaddressed mail rather than walking it, the Consumers' Choice program lets any household stop it with a note on the mailbox, and the carrier honours it for you.
One more for the people who knock. In Ontario, a contract over $50 signed in the home carries a 10-day cooling-off period from the day the customer gets a written copy. Leaving a hanger and quoting from a photo later keeps you outside that; signing on the porch does not. The clause library shows where the cooling-off sits in the cancellation clause.
A worked example: 500 hangers, in arithmetic#
This is arithmetic, not a response rate. Nobody publishes a verified response rate for lighting hangers, and we will not invent one.
| Line |
Number |
| Hangers dropped (template 1, five evenings, five finished jobs) |
500 |
| Scans at 1 percent |
5 photos received |
| Mockups sent (every photo gets one) |
5 |
| Booked at 2 of 5 |
2 jobs |
| Revenue at GlowBid's default two-storey example ($1,910.20 each, C9, 130 ft roofline, 72 ft peaks, 3 jumps, timer) |
$3,820.40 |
| Deposits collected on signing (30%) |
$1,146.12 |
Change the 1 percent and the 2 of 5 to your own numbers after the first drop; the arithmetic is the point. If a 500-piece run of hangers and one evening's walking returns two jobs at $1,910.20, you know what the next drop is worth. Draw the neighbour's house in the free roofline tool the same evening to have the price ready when the photo comes in.
Mistakes we have made or watched others make#
- A stock photo of a mansion with icicle lights. The neighbour knows what your work looks like; it is next door. Use it.
- The QR code to the home page. They scan, they scroll, they leave. One form, one photo upload.
- No end date on the offer. "Book early and save" is a wish. "Book by October 15" is a reason.
- A flat price on the hanger. Footage from the doormat is a guess; the contract says photo measurements are estimates confirmed on site, so the flyer should too.
- Dropping at 9:30 pm in November because the crew finished late. In Ottawa that is a by-law call, and it looks like it.
- Calling takedown something else on the paper. Homeowners search for takedown; installers say takedown; the word on the hanger should match.
- Texting every lead from the form with no consent box and no STOP line. That is the CASL problem, and the flyer caused it.
- No legal name and mailing address in the fine print. It is required on the follow-up email anyway; print it once and stop worrying.
When the photo arrives, GlowBid turns it into the mockup, the footage and the price on one canvas, sends the quote with the drawing on it, and runs the follow-up texts with the STOP handling built in. The founding price covers Core, Pro and Ultimate, and the quote request page is what the QR code points at.
