Funeral Marketing 101: How To Excite Your Audience

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We all know there are limits to what you as a funeral home owner or operator, can do to promote your firm. Or are there? Perhaps we’re just crippled by our own myopic thinking. And considering how tough things are out there, we just can’t afford to be nearsighted.


Here’s what I’ve learned from some of the leading marketing firms around today. To excite your audience, you need to get personal and use unconventional ways of connecting with your community.


Unorthodox Marketing? Or Just Plain Tacky?

You may want to be unorthodox, but you don’t want to be tacky. While many of the funeral directors appreciated the humor within the following two funeral home advertisements, the general public (for the most part) was underwhelmed by them. There’s a fine line we have to walk, between being memorable, and disturbing potential client families. Consider this billboard from a Berlin subway:


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Or this one, from an American firm:


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Alexandra Gekas, the author of the Woman’s Day online article, 10 Controversial Billboards where I found these images, made her feelings quite clear. When writing about the Thomas R. Dobie billboard, she says “The message is loud and clear here—it’s just totally tactless. While we all can agree that everyone is going to die and it’s best to be prepared, this was a little over the top.” And the Bergemann & Son Funeral Services billboard fared no better. “(They) seem to have no shame when it comes to finding new customers, as can be seen from this billboard in the Berlin subway. It’s one thing for a funeral home to help you after death, but it’s a whole different story for them to help you get there.”


But what if I were to tell you that you don’t have to shock anyone to get noticed? That there was an easy way to become the most-trusted, most-turned to, most relied-upon funeral home in your community?


Two Words: Inbound Marketing

Embrace the power of inbound marketing by becoming a resource on all things related to funeral and memorial services, pre-planning, and grief support. Your funeral home website can help you do that, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Recently, Joe Joachim shared his thoughts on the marketing value of educating your community, and I’ve got to agree with him. But, I’d add three points about the nature of the educational content on your website:


Seek to solve a problem. It’s always good to focus on how your services can help others, rather than bragging about your funeral home’s best features, no matter how cool they are.

Make it share-worthy. It’s all about the “share value” in social media. Be sure to use easily-recognized and prominently-placed social media icons so your website visitors can easily “share” the educational content on their social network.

Have a conversation. Engage your community online with social media, and with the educational content on your funeral home website. Don’t forget about hosting live events. I’m always inspired by those funeral professionals who step up to the podium to share what they know with members of the community who are hungry for the information. And those firms who provide expertise in grief support, estate planning, elder care, or any of the other topics of interest will naturally be seen by the community as the “go-to” funeral firm.


This echoes the words of Facebook’s Paul Adams, who argues the demise of in-your-face marketing and advertising is close at hand, to be replaced by a form of advertising that depends on “many lightweight interactions over time.”


In order to reach potential client families, your funeral home needs to start using inbound marketing tactics to build relationships with them rather than simply grabbing their attention with an attempt at funeral humor, as in the earlier billboard advertisements.


In other words, you should be progressive rather than aggressive, by adding Participation to the traditional marketing mix of Product, Price, Place and Promotion.


Your Turn: Let us know what you’re currently doing to market your funeral home, both online and off!

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  1. Anonymous

    Another great article!

  2. Top 10 Shockingly Controversial Billboards – BlaBla Trend

    […] In a seemingly creative way to attempt to create their own customers, Bergemann & Son Funeral Services has caught a lot of backlash for their billboard in a Berlin subway station. People that see the advertisement have been both humored and disgusted by the tongue-in-cheek placement of the advertisement. The ad itself is very simplistic with the phrase “Come a little closer” in black lettering on a plan white background. The genius and controversy of the billboard comes from the fact that it is positioned behind the tracks of the subway. Many feel the billboard to be too morbid and disturbing because of its subliminally suicidal message. Likewise, in a billboard promoting Thomas Dobies Funeral Home, the phrase “You’ve always said you wouldn’t be caught dead in that dress” is positioned above the phrase “You’d better tell them now.” Many believe this advertisement to be tasteless and don’t find much humor in joking about death. Whether or not the billboards have been detrimental to the companies’ reputation, one has to admit that they have been extremely successful in getting the companies’ names out there.[1] […]

  3. Top 10 Shockingly Controversial Billboards – Listverse

    […] In a seemingly creative way to attempt to create their own customers, Bergemann & Son Funeral Services has caught a lot of backlash for their billboard in a Berlin subway station. People that see the advertisement have been both humored and disgusted by the tongue-in-cheek placement of the advertisement. The ad itself is very simplistic with the phrase “Come a little closer” in black lettering on a plan white background. The genius and controversy of the billboard comes from the fact that it is positioned behind the tracks of the subway. Many feel the billboard to be too morbid and disturbing because of its subliminally suicidal message. Likewise, in a billboard promoting Thomas Dobies Funeral Home, the phrase “You’ve always said you wouldn’t be caught dead in that dress” is positioned above the phrase “You’d better tell them now.” Many believe this advertisement to be tasteless and don’t find much humor in joking about death. Whether or not the billboards have been detrimental to the companies’ reputation, one has to admit that they have been extremely successful in getting the companies’ names out there.[1] […]

  4. Top 10 Shockingly Controversial Billboards – Myraplanet.com

    […] In a seemingly creative way to attempt to create their own customers, Bergemann & Son Funeral Services has caught a lot of backlash for their billboard in a Berlin subway station. People that see the advertisement have been both humored and disgusted by the tongue-in-cheek placement of the advertisement. The ad itself is very simplistic with the phrase “Come a little closer” in black lettering on a plan white background. The genius and controversy of the billboard comes from the fact that it is positioned behind the tracks of the subway. Many feel the billboard to be too morbid and disturbing because of its subliminally suicidal message. Likewise, in a billboard promoting Thomas Dobies Funeral Home, the phrase “You’ve always said you wouldn’t be caught dead in that dress” is positioned above the phrase “You’d better tell them now.” Many believe this advertisement to be tasteless and don’t find much humor in joking about death. Whether or not the billboards have been detrimental to the companies’ reputation, one has to admit that they have been extremely successful in getting the companies’ names out there.[1] […]

  5. Top 10 Shockingly Controversial Billboards – 10topmost.com

    […] In a seemingly artistic solution to try and create their very own clients, Bergemann & Son Funeral Providers has caught a whole lot of backlash for his or her billboard in a Berlin subway station. Folks that see the commercial have been each humored and disgusted by the tongue-in-cheek placement of the commercial. The advert itself could be very simplistic with the phrase “Come a little bit nearer” in black lettering on a plan white background. The genius and controversy of the billboard comes from the truth that it’s positioned behind the tracks of the subway. Many really feel the billboard to be too morbid and disturbing due to its subliminally suicidal message. Likewise, in a billboard selling Thomas Dobies Funeral House, the phrase “You’ve at all times stated you wouldn’t be caught useless in that gown” is positioned above the phrase “You’d higher inform them now.” Many imagine this commercial to be tasteless and don’t discover a lot humor in joking about loss of life. Whether or not or not the billboards have been detrimental to the businesses’ status, one has to confess that they’ve been extraordinarily profitable in getting the businesses’ names on the market.[1] […]

  6. Os 10 principais outdoors chocantemente controversos – Replicario

    […] De uma maneira aparentemente criativa para tentar criar seus próprios clientes, a Bergemann & Son Funeral Services capturou muita reação por seus outdoors em uma estação de metrô de Berlim. As pessoas que veem o anúncio têm sido humilhadas e enojadas pela colocação explícita do anúncio. O anúncio em si é muito simplista com a frase "Chegue um pouco mais perto" em letras pretas em um plano de fundo branco. A genialidade e controvérsia do outdoor vem do fato de ele estar posicionado atrás dos trilhos do metrô. Muitos acham que o outdoor é muito mórbido e perturbador por causa de sua mensagem subliminarmente suicida. Da mesma forma, em um outdoor promovendo a Casa Funerária Thomas Dobies, a frase "Você sempre disse que não seria pego morto naquele vestido" está posicionada acima da frase "É melhor contar a eles agora". Muitos acreditam que esse anúncio para seja insípido e não tenha muito humor ao brincar sobre a morte. Independentemente de os outdoors terem sido prejudiciais à reputação das empresas, é preciso admitir que foram extremamente bem-sucedidos em divulgar os nomes das empresas.(1) […]

  7. Most Controversial Billboards in Existence – Naijastay

    […] In a seemingly creative way to attempt to create their own customers, Bergemann & Son Funeral Services has caught a lot of backlash for their billboard in a Berlin subway station. People that see the advertisement have been both humored and disgusted by the tongue-in-cheek placement of the advertisement. The ad itself is very simplistic with the phrase “Come a little closer” in black lettering on a plan white background. The genius and controversy of the billboard comes from the fact that it is positioned behind the tracks of the subway. Many feel the billboard to be too morbid and disturbing because of its subliminally suicidal message. Likewise, in a billboard promoting Thomas Dobies Funeral Home, the phrase “You’ve always said you wouldn’t be caught dead in that dress” is positioned above the phrase “You’d better tell them now.” Many believe this advertisement to be tasteless and don’t find much humor in joking about death. Whether or not the billboards have been detrimental to the companies’ reputation, one has to admit that they have been extremely successful in getting the companies’ names out there.[1] […]