You may have the most brilliant business idea in the entire world but without an ability to advertise that idea, that’s all it will be, an idea. So how does the small business owner, who doesn’t have a ton of operating capital to begin with, market and advertise their idea or their product? Billboards, radio, television and magazines can be cost prohibitive. The answer is in your mailbox. A direct mail piece can hit your intended target and costs a lot less than the other options.

There are many benefits to direct mailing. First of all you can precisely target your recipients. Even if your business is a niche product, you can hit that audience with direct mail. You can be very precise with everything from the demographics to the zip code. A direct mail campaign can also happen fast and once you see who is responding, you can contact them again and again with new offers or products. It’s super easy to figure out the response rate to direct mail, you just compare the amount of responses you get with number of pieces you sent out. Statistics show that on average every campaign will have between a 2.5% and a 5.5% response.

Now at first that may seem low, but not so much so when you look at the numbers. Say you spent around $2000 on your direct mail piece. Your mailer is promoting your business which sells a product that sells for $25. If there were 5,000 people on your list and you had a 2.5% return, you would have made $3,125. Take out your $2000 cost and your profit is well over $1,000. Keep in mind that is on the low end of your anticipated return.

With that 5.5% response rate, you could make almost $5,000 in profit! Direct mail is the go-to approach for inexpensive and effective advertising for your business. The cost is right, the ease to do it is there and knowing you are hitting your target audience each time out is a great relief. And with a good, traceable return rate, you’ll be able to see results almost instantly with your direct mail piece.