Would you like to increase your business’s sales on a budget? Direct marketing is a great way to generate leads and fuel sales without spending too much, giving your business a chance to grow even on the smallest of budgets.

But which type of direct marketing is most effective? A wide range of different direct marketing channels are available for today’s small businesses, from cold calling and email marketing to direct mail, print advertising and more.

Which method offers your business the best ROI? For most small businesses, direct mail – whether through letters, brochures or coupons – offers an ROI beyond that of other direct marketing channels.

Data from Target Marketing Magazine backs up the assertion that direct mail is the best ROI option for small businesses, offering a higher return on ad spend than the other commonly used direct marketing options. Here’s why:

Direct mail is cheap and easy to test on a small scale

Unlike print and television advertising, both of which have costly minimum spends that can affect small businesses, direct mail is easy to test on a small scale with just one or two thousand recipients before scaling up to a larger campaign.

This small-scale testing allows your business to test and optimize its message over time before expanding its campaign. In many cases, you can start a small direct mail campaign for just a few hundred dollars – far less than other mediums.

From testing your call to action to trying several wildly different designs, the cheap cost of testing a small direct mail campaign makes it the ideal channel for small and growing businesses that don’t want to commit to a large campaign right away.

Targeting options make it easy to reach your audience

Unlike many other direct marketing channels, which target a broad audience, direct mail allows you to carefully target your campaign to only reach the audience that is most valuable to your business.

From location to household income, you can target your campaign using a range of variables to reach the right people. This can result in a significantly higher response rate for your campaign and a better return on investment for your business.

From targeting pool owners for pool accessories to targeting large land owners for maintenance and landscaping services, direct mail’s highly defined targeting allows you to only reach the people that are most relevant for your business’s growth.

Once you find a winning campaign, it’s easy to scale it

It’s easy to start a direct mail campaign small, but it’s just as easy to grow it into an immensely successful campaign over time. Because direct mail gives you access to a large audience, it’s easy to scale your campaign to new height as it starts to work.

After optimizing your design and message on a small audience, you can deliver your postcards, brochures or direct mail letters to a significantly larger audience in little time, giving your business the scale it needs to grow rapidly.

From retailers to B2B service businesses, a wide range of businesses can use direct mail effectively to rapidly expand their audiences, locate and inspire new customers and fuel continual revenue growth.