With 76 million baby boomers passing through the funeral profession in the next 20 years there is a huge window of opportunity for increased business. But, families have changed; do you know how to effectively market to them?

Check out the following 3 steps to learn how to attract the families of today:

1) Get Found

The first thing your firm must do to attract families is “Get Found” by being in the right place at the right time. Most funeral professionals focus their marketing efforts on the wrong audience, the traditional families of the past.

Traditional families viewed funeral service as a necessary ritual, so attracting them was simple. Their path to selecting a funeral service provider, we’ll call this “the old client family journey” was linear, predictable, and controlled.

But, the families of today are different. Their path to making funeral service selections or “the new client family journey” has an increasing number of digital touch points.

Your funeral home’s website is your most important marketing tool. The phrase “funeral home” is searched over 5 million times per month – on Google alone. Search engines are now families’ best source for finding information at their time of need.

Make sure your website is easily found by optimizing for top ranking by including relevant keywords and phrases within your content.

2) Engage

Bringing more visitors to your website doesn’t always mean more families will select you; when your website isn’t built to engage families, it actually drives them away. In fact, 75% of families who visit funeral websites don’t end up contacting the firm.

The truth is, you’re not going to engage families if your website is focused on your history and pictures of your fleet, location, and staff – that stuff is about you.

So how CAN you engage families? It’s simple – show families how you can help them. Speed up their selection process by showing them how your services honor the life lived and help them heal.

3) Interact

You can actually build a relationship with families by interacting with them through a dynamic website.

When family and friends of a loved one can participate and interact on social memorial websites it creates a unique healing experience they will want to share with others. Interactions such as sharing memories, photos, videos, and growing their family tree not only attract more families to your website, but more families to your firm.

You can also leverage your website to continue to interact with families you’ve already served.  Support them with grief support resources and a permanent online memorial of their loved one. These offerings not only demonstrate your commitment following the service, but keep your families coming back and your firm top of mind.

These 3 steps are tactics some of the most successful firms in the funeral profession use to attract the families of today.

Do you have your own little secrets to attracting families? We would love to hear about them in the comments below, so don’t be shy 🙂

Rochelle Rietow

More Posts - Website

Follow Me: