How to respond to inquiries and how to treat those names. (DM Notebook).

It's a truism of direct marketing that response lists are always the preferred choice. People on those lists have what a colleague likes to call "the most valuable of all education, the ability to send a check in the mail." But the very best names of all are inquiries coming in over the transom.

* Act fast. These people are "hot" when they ask for information. The tendency in small offices is to let inquiries pile up until the pile is large enough to be "worth the effort" of dealing with it. Fight that temptation. At Personal Finance, they try to turn inquiries around in 24 hours. At the least, get your response in the mail by the end of the week received. (Personal Finance also responds with a two-issue "mini-subscription" with its own "renewal series"--proving you actually can ask people to "renew" before they subscribe in the first place.)

* Send them your control package. It's a judgment call, but most newsletter marketers have found that sending "a sample issue and an order form" isn't enough. If your control package doesn't include a sample, you can consider adding one to inquiry mailings, but these folks can benefit from the strong selling message in your package.

* Key point. When you use your control to respond to inquiries, always add these five key words, "INFORMATION YOU REQUESTED IS ENCLOSED." I once had some spiffy blue-on-silver pressure sensitive seals made for this purpose.

* Follow up. Of course you add these names to your house list. But also give them a "second chance." Four to six weeks later is a good time to send a "Recently you inquired about..." letter, a one-pager restating the key reader benefits, the "special offer," and an order form. Response is small but very worthwhile.

* Response rates. When I was the newsletter association, I pictured every inquiry letter or phone call as someone handing us a $50 bill (our basis dues rate times response rate from inquiries). At the close of one year, I reported proudly to the board that we had converted 13 percent of inquiries to membership.

"Not good enough" I was told to my surprise. We "improved" our inquiry effort. Instead of sending the control package in our #10, we mailed it flat in a 9 x 12", in glossy folder, with a letter from the president, sample issue of the newsletter, details about various association publications and services, etc.

In-the-mail costs quadrupled and response rate went directly into the toilet. I never did honestly figure that one out. Perhaps we were providing "too much information," making joining the association seem too large a commitment and/or getting rich publishing a newsletter sound harder than they thought. In any event, after six months, remembering that direct marketing is a "what" business, not a "why" business, I scrapped the new program and returned to what had worked.

* Looking for more. Since inquiry names are so valuable, is it worthwhile to mount a concerted effort to gain more of them? For consumer titles, usually "yes." At Old House Journal, Clem Labine prepared "ready to print" newspaper articles complete with line drawings of older homestyles that many papers ran and which brought beaucoup information requests.

At one point Bill Donoghue considered changing the name of his flagship title to Donoghue's Money Fund Report of Holliston MA 01746 so when financial writers cited it, prospects could reach him.

On the other hand, for specialized high-ticket business newsletters, "publicity" doesn't usually turn into orders even, as one publisher commented, "being cited by name on the evening news." Today, however, more and more inquiries are coming from the internet.

* Incoming from cyberspace. The jury is still out on the value of inquiry names gleaned online. Most find e-mail inquiries to be valuable. It's the 21st century form of writing a letter. Inquiries generated from the publisher's web site are also good. If, however, your site is linked to many others, you may find a much lower quality of inquiry names. Experience will show you how to regard those names.