Are you leaving money on the table?

This is a touchy and powerful question, for two reasons. One, we know you’re not in it for the money. And two, no one likes to hear their leaving money on the table!

But… it’s good to bring your awareness to the aspects of your funeral home or funeral business that you can grow and expand. With me so far? Good.

Now, you already hopefully know about the power of your funeral home website when it comes to value, income and educating families.

And if you’re looking to maximize the value of each visitor, and potentially turn them into future families, then it’s important to have your funeral home website working for you in this way.

Most funeral professionals treat their funeral home website as a 2-d, flat brochure, advertisement or guestbook. But the thing is… your website is so much more! Websites were made for your potential families to engage with, and for you to benefit from that engagement in a sustainable way for your funeral business as well.

Otherwise, we hate to say it, but you are leaving money on the table.

So let’s turn your website into an engaging, thriving, revenue generating part of your business. Try some of these 10 ideas below:

 

Part 1: Increase your funeral home website traffic

You won’t visit a website if you don’t have a good reason to, and neither will your families. How can you make your website an important resource for families? Is it through educational material? A social memorial website for them to engage with your families? A blog? We’ll dive into some more of these ideas individually, but get your creative fire going by asking this simple question before anything else.

 

 

1.Start a blog

One of the first reasons your families will go to your website is to LEARN. They have questions, and they’re probably not going to call you until they know they want to work with your funeral home. A blog is a great way to spark that relationship. Take some of your most asked questions and turn them into blog posts. Then, don’t forget to include a call-to-action (CTA) at the end (we’ll learn more about that later).

 

 

2. Embrace social media in a non-creepy way

How will people know you’re posting some of their most asked questions on your blog? Through social media! Don’t think that just because you’re in the death industry, that it’s okay to use your social media channels as only an obituary feed. It’s not. Try engaging with your potential families and community instead. For more advice on that, check out this blog.

 

 

3. Try your hand at SEO

SEO, which means “search engine optimization” isn’t something many funeral professionals enjoy doing. Essentially, SEO is an art of making your website rank high in Google’s search results. Most people won’t look past page 1 on Google’s results, so this is an important aspect of increasing your website traffic. The above ideas will work to increase your SEO rankings, but it’s important that your website is built to rank. Thankfully, there are website platforms like f1Connect that have been tested and built to rank high on search results. 

 

 

4. Invest your time in your social memorial websites

If your funeral home website uses the magic tool of social memorial websites, make sure you’re putting in the effort to receive the fruits of your website. In order to get engagement, you’ve got to give a little. Be sure to post in every social memorial website, and encourage your families to embrace them, too. This is one of the easiest ways to bring your community to your website, and convert them into potential customers (we’ll get to that next). 

 

Part 2: Convert that traffic into revenue

Once you’ve got some traffic flowing to your funeral home website, it’s time to embrace ways to convert that traffic into revenue, or customers. This is a tricky part of the process for many, but it doesn’t have to be! Try some of these ideas below.

 

 

5. Embrace your Sympathy Store

If you’re using the right Sympathy Store platform, you could be earning up to 25% commissions on every single order that comes through your store. This platform isn’t just a revenue gimmick in the funeral profession… it’s incredibly useful for families, too. Instead of blindly purchasing flowers from whoever they see on Google, they’re embracing your favorite local florist, where they’re more likely to be happy with their purchase.

Read More: 6 Ways Your Sympathy Store SHOULD Be Working For Your Funeral Biz

 

 

6. Start an online course

According to Statistics MRC, the Global E-Learning Market is projected to $275 billion by 2022. That’s huge! What can you create an online course in? Here are some ideas:

• Grief & Healing relief online courses

• Pre-planning online course
• Virtual Death Cafes
• Death Doula workshops

 

 

7. Host workshops (and promote them online)

The same ideas above applies here, however you may find you can tap more into your local community with in-person workshops. We find that the funeral homes who host workshops tend to have a very supportive community who engages with their funeral home regularly. Try it, and see for yourself!

Read More: How to Host Non-Creepy, Effective In-Person Gatherings At Your Funeral Home

 

 

8. Make your products and services easy to purchase online

The first step here involves putting pricing on your funeral home website. Yes, p-r-i-c-i-n-g online… you read right. The more transparency you have from the get-go on your website, the easier of a time the potential client family visiting your website will have choosing you. 

A lot of client families already tend to feel like they’re being taken advantage of by funeral homes when it comes to pricing, so putting your pricing on your website let’s them know your goal is not to hide anything from them, period. Plus, there are plenty of debates that say you increase your online revenue when you put your pricing on your site. So take that!

 

Part 3: Keep your past and potential clients engaged 

All the marketing experts out there always encourage businesses to spend their time nurturing leads they already have rather than searching out new ones. In a lot of ways, this is truth. Here are a few ideas to do just that.

 

9. Try your hand at email marketing

Email marketing isn’t everyone’s game,  but using it is a powerful marketing tool in your toolbox. You don’t have to come up with an epic masterful email plan. A simple monthly newsletter will do. This puts your brand front of mind to families on a regular basis, establishing an ongoing connection.

Try this: Hubspot’s Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing

 

 

10. Daily email affirmations

Email marketing still not your thing? If you use our website platform, f1Connect, or one’s similar, you will have a FREE email marketing tool right at your fingertips. You don’t have to do a darn thing, except of course use the right website platform. The rest is taken care of. Not sure what daily email affirmations are? Check them out on a live client website here.

 

The easiest way to increase your revenue with your funeral home website

Did you know the f1Connect is the funeral profession’s leading website platform? We’d love to connect and find out if f1Connect is a good fit for your funeral business! Click here to reach out to one of our Funeral Success Specialists, or give us a call at (800) 798-2575.

 

How else have you been able to increase your revenue with your funeral home website? Tell us in the comments below!