Sharon how has this drop in effectiveness (of direct mail) affected the number of mailers you send out or the frequency?

Only time and life situations create motivation, not your direct mail piece.I hit different groups with different frequencies because they don't all respond at the same rate - varies by type of homeowner:-- Absentees - Monthly-- Owner Occupants - Every other month-- Probate - Every 2-3 monthsYou cannot create more motivation by mailing more often.  

Frequency is MOST important.

It is important to understand the frequency of your audiences buy and which message caused them to pull the proverbial trigger. 

Most of the prior responses have listed many factors that may impact the response rate: letter, postcard, color of the piece, day mailed, frequency, hand written, or using an address label, etc.

Its always a good idea to stay above a three frequency when marketing.  

For example determining the frequency (once every 4 weeks is my recommendation) done.

Two things work for me : consistency and frequency.

Posts as I see the “success story” posts, but human psyche isn’t programmed to recognize the frequency or the balance between the two.

I believe this business is all about marketing so beginning tomorrow I'm going to detail for 30 days the marketing types, quantity, frequency and prospect groups.