5 Must-Haves For A Successful Funeral Home ‘About Us’ Page

We want to let you in on a famous funeralOne secret of ours…

When it comes to the success of a funeral home website, you can tell whether or not a website is of value to families just by looking at one page. No, it’s not the pricing page, the products page, or even the services page. It’s the ‘About Us’ page.

See, too often funeral homes think that their ‘About Us’ page is a chance to write out the entire history and biography of their location and their funeral home staff. They fill the page with dates of graduation, number of years in service, total staff on call, and a nice photo of their location with a shiny hearse right out front to top it all off.

But little do they know, that’s not what their families are coming to their ‘About Us’ page to see. They are looking to be educated about the value that a funeral home and their staff can provide and, ultimately, why they should choose your firm over another in town.

Here are five ‘About Us’ page must-haves that will help you educate them on just that…

1. An Introduction To Your Staff

I know… we just spent the beginning of this article talking about how most funeral home’s get their ‘About Us’ page wrong by making it all about their staff and history. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t feature your staff and funeral directors on your website at all… you just need to learn how to feature them in a way that delivers trust and value to families.

Randy Schoedinger of Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Services has a great example of a funeral home bio that shares his person history and why he is so devoted to this profession.

 

How to do this successfully: Instead of just featuring your employees’ names and roles at your funeral home, showcase their passions and purpose. Why did they get into the funeral profession in the first place? What part of a life celebration ceremony is their favorite to plan for families? Why do they believe funerals are so valuable to families? These are personal anecdotes that will show families why your staff truly is best fit to serve them.

2. An Introduction To Your Facilities

In addition to showcasing the value of your staff, it’s also great for families to understand the value that your facilities provide. This doesn’t mean just listing off the make and model of vehicles in your lineup, or telling them that you have a product room that they can come check out. Actually spell out the experience and value behind each of these facility features.

Schoedinger uses a cinematic video on their About Us page to walk families through their facilities and explain the value of what they offer. Click here to check out the video for yourself.

 

How to do this successfully: Walk your families through the highlights and features of your facilities, and most importantly, why they should care about them. For example, instead of telling families that you have a video room, spark ideas in their head about what they could do with it: “A cinematic video room where your friends and family can come together to view Hollywood-style Life Tribute videos, personalized with the videos and photos that make up your loved one’s life. Come together to share the memories, stories and moments that will last a lifetime.”

3. What Sets You Apart

Once families meet you and your funeral home, the next thing they want to learn is why you are the best choice in town to help their family. And you don’t answer this by listing off your educational background or how many years you have served in the profession. (After all, this isn’t going to set you apart from any of the other funeral directors in town, at least in the eyes of your family.) Instead, you should focus on your why… specifically, why you do what you do, and why you are the person that is going to make a difference for their family.

Schoedinger doesn’t just showcase their history… they share their vision, passion and commitment to the families they serve, as well.

 

How to do this successfully: Look at the thing that differentiates your firm from others in town. Is it the products and services that you offer? The attitude that you approach funerals with? A focus on funeral personalization? No matter what it is, make sure your families know why you focus on it, and why they want to go with a funeral home that values it like you do. For instance, “Here at Smith Funeral Home, we understand that a funeral should be as unique as the life lived. With us, you will never have a ‘fill-in-the-blank’ funeral service, because your loved one’s life was anything but fill in the blank. It was a life that deserves to be celebrated, honored and memorialized in the most personal way possible. And we can help you do that with our personalized funeral services.”

4. Testimonials From Families

We all know the saying, “If you’re going to talk the talk, you better walk the walk.” You can talk all day long on your funeral home’s ‘About Us’ page that you’re the best funeral home in town, and that you go above and beyond for your families. But at the end of the day, families want to see you walk the walk. After all, 78% of Americans report that online reviews help them decide whether or not they should make a purchase. So make sure that you are putting these reviews right on your ‘About Us’ page for everyone to see.

A testimonials page is a great way for families to read about first-hand exceptional experiences from their community members. Image via Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Services.

 

How to do this successfully: If you are delivering exceptional service to your community, you should have no problem finding families who are willing to write out a short testimonial on your behalf that you can post to your website. The next time a family thanks you for your services, let them know that you hope to be of as much value to others in your community, and that their testimonial would help you connect with more families who could benefit from the service that they received. Before you know it, you’ll have a collection of testimonials that you can put on your website that will showcase your value for you.

5. Events Happening In Your Community

Last but not least, don’t just tell families what sets you apart from other funeral homes in town. Invite people in to see for themselves. Be sure to showcase the upcoming events that you are hosting at your your funeral home right on your website, so that families can connect with you in person. Not only are community events a great, informal way to connect with new families in your area, but it allows you to make an introduction and an impression in a less high-pressure setting.

Embrace your community by hosting events and workshops right at your funeral home. Image via Schoedinger Funeral and Cremation Services.

 

How to do this successfully: If you are not already hosting events or open-houses at your funeral home, begin thinking of different ways that you can invite the outside in to see your facilities and meet your staff. For example, you could host grief support workshops or memory bash events. You could even offer to host events on behalf of clubs or organizations in your community, just as a way to get the public into your funeral home. The options are endless.

If you are looking to transform your funeral home’s ‘About Us’ page into a valuable tool that actually brings families into your business, we want to talk. f1Connect’s websites are built with the educational, valuable resources that your families are already looking for when they come to a funeral home website.

To learn more, click here to contact one of our website specialists today!

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  1. Daphne Gilpin

    Thanks for explaining that good funeral home websites will detail what sets them apart from the others because that’s often the next thing families want to know after the initial meeting. I’m helping to plan the funeral for my aunt with some other family members who live nearby, and I want to make sure we find the pest possible home to perform the services. I’m glad I read your article because you helped me feel more prepared to learn about and evaluate the different funeral homes we’re considering.

  2. Krystal Penrose

    Hey there Daphne, I’m so glad you found this article to be helpful! We’re hoping that more and more, funeral homes will begin to embrace the kinds of technologies we mention in this article, and then funeral planning will be so much less stressful for all! Blessings to you and your family.