Cover Story : A Healthy Relationship

NAMI's acceptance and understanding of mental illness aids in online data capture

“Membership data comes from affiliates and states where we have a distributed membership management system,” Lamm adds. “The states and affiliates manage their data via the Web, and it all goes into a central database for direct mail and everything else. E-mail marketing and online marketing is all driven through the Web site and is all opt-in marketing.”

One of the main changes Lamm has noticed during the past year at NAMI is that the communications team has worked together to refine “our message by trying to show a connection between their donations and the good work that we do” and to increase e-mailed donation requests, which redirect recipients to the site’s donation page. “We’ve probably doubled our asks,” he estimates.

The Final Frontier
The more data nami.org users provide, the more NAMI can tailor its content to fit their needs. So, Gay says, the organization recently began scheduling its editorial focus and content around those topics, lasering its communication efforts on funneling people into areas of the site where they’ll find the information they want.

For instance, nami.org is one-up on the new push among direct marketers for user-generated content. Its registered users have been helping each other out in the “Communities” area of the site for years, which Gay says already provides the site with great search engine optimization. However, that always can be improved, and Gay plans further outreach in the social networking arena.

“I think, really, the main point of the success of the NAMI marketing team right now is … that it’s been a team effort,” Lamm concludes. “I think everybody gets it; everybody gets the Web. People on the Web are not so siloed that they don’t understand print. We’ve got a lot of people that have a lot of experience in different media. They all have a good understanding of all of the different components—from PR down to copywriting. … I think we’re just seeing the culmination of efforts to build a cross-functional team.”

So, in answer to the often asked, “Is there a doctor in the house?” In NAMI’s case, there seem to be quite a few.

• MORE ON
• DATABASE & CRM