Small town communities are making a comeback.

For the last decade, the local-made, hometown shop owner has been struggling to keep up with the eCommerce giants of the world who enticed shoppers with things like two-day shipping and bottom-dollar prices. (We’re looking at you, Amazon and Walmart.com.)

But it seems as though the cracks in the “shop faster and cheaper” mindset are finally starting to show.

With all of the chaos that’s going on in the world, and another heartbreaking hometown disaster popping up on the news every other day, nothing sounds more comforting and refreshing than a little small-town support. So in an effort to make hometowns great again, many consumers are going back to their roots and are craving ways to support their local communities.

For funeral professionals, who have always been at the heart of local community support, this is great news. After all, there are very few businesses out there that have as many ties to their local hometown quite like funeral homes.

Here are just a few ways that your funeral home can showcase the “Support Local” mindset to the families that you serve, simply by supporting your community in the ways that you always have.

1. Help Families During Their Time of Need

Supporting the local community is literally in the job description of every funeral professional. When families lose a loved one and need help navigating through the waters of loss, grief, funeral planning and more, they turn to funeral professionals because no one can support them better.

So when you are marketing your funeral home, don’t focus on things like the latest and greatest products you sell… get to the heart of what you do and have always done — support your community.

Use messaging that puts local at the heart of your marketing, such as “Helping Springfield’s families since 1960,” or “From our family to yours. Family operated since 1960.” This will remind your families that you aren’t just a business, you’re their local support system. You’re in their neighborhood, and you’ve grown up alongside them. They don’t have to explain to you how important the local college football team was to Grandpa, because your Grandfather went there too and you know all about the importance of local allegiances.

These details may seem little, but they are just the local comfort that families are looking for when they are going through a loss.

2. Show Your Support For Other Local Businesses

The “shop local” movement doesn’t just mean that consumers are looking to support businesses in their hometown. They also want to support businesses who “think local” in all that they do. In the restaurant world, this means going to eat at restaurants that source all of their ingredients from local farms and markets.

In the funeral world, this means supporting other local death care professionals when making recommendations to families. For example, recommending a local florist, or making it easy for family and friends to shop from a local florist when making Sympathy Gift purchases on your website.

With The Sympathy Store, funeral homes are able to choose which florists in their local community they want to support and recommend to families. So when a family member or friend logs on to your funeral home website to make a purchase, they can rest assured that their order is being fulfilled by someone that your funeral home knows and trusts, and they are making a purchase that supports a local florist in their loved one’s community.

To learn about how you can get The Sympathy Store on your funeral home’s website, click here to talk to one of our website specialists.

3. Provide Grief and Healing Support

Your funeral home is not the only place where grief and healing takes place. In fact, a lot of the support that people need after losing a loved one comes in the weeks and months after the funeral has ended. So make sure that you are being that long-term beacon of support for your local community. Luckily, there are several ways that you can do this.

First, show up in the areas in your community where grief is apparent. For example, dropping off grief and healing guides at the local high school after a student passes away, or dropping off a tray of cookies to the local police station after a local community service member’s passing. Make yourself present and available to the people who are experiencing the loss, either immediately or in the weeks that follow. These little gestures can mean a lot and can open the door of conversation for grief support.

Second, offer your entire community online grief support from the comfort of their own home. You can do this by sharing helpful articles and guides on your funeral home’s Facebook page, or even by offering digital grief counseling workshops on your website.

With f1Connect’s e-Aftercare, your families can watch interactive grief videos created by well-known grief counselor Dr. Virginia Simpson that are tailored to the specific grief that they are facing (ie. spouse, child, parent). To learn more about the benefits of e-Aftercare for your families, or to learn about how you can get this helpful tool on your funeral home’s website, just click here.

How does YOUR funeral home support your local community? Get a discussion going and share tips with other funeral professionals in the comments below!

Rilee Chastain

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