18 Questions Your Funeral Home Website Must Answer
January 22nd, 2013
In a world where 97% of consumers turn to your website before making a purchasing decision, making sure your funeral home website answers all of their questions is essential to having a successful online presence.
Chances are, when you visit a website, you have some questions in mind that you’d like to have answered; preferably without digging around for hours through layers of poorly designed web pages.
The #1 goal of your funeral home website should be making sure families have the answers to their questions when choosing a funeral home. And it’s important that you answer them in a clear, engaging manner.
Not sure if your funeral home website hits the mark? Check out these must-answer questions and see if your website answers all of them:
1. Why should I stay on this website?
When someone visits your funeral home website, make sure their experience is memorable. You don’t want a dull or bland website that makes you look like the average, run-of-the-mill undertaker. If there is no meaning or purpose to your website’s content or design, rethink it.
2.Who are you? What does your funeral home believe in?
About Us pages are tricky because most funeral home websites have them all wrong, or don’t have them at all. Tell your potential client families what your funeral home stands for, how you can help them, and how you’re involved in your community so they get a feel for who you are. Don’t go overboard, though! No one wants to read about the 100 years of history your funeral home has; keep your About Us page clear and concise.
3. What types of services do you offer?
According to web analytics company KISSmetrics, 50% of online sales are lost because visitors can’t find what they’re looking for. Display your funeral home’s offerings in an engaging way (i.e. videos or simple, direct website copy) so visitors know what you have to offer within seconds of clicking on your site. As you can see below, O’Connor Mortuary does a great job of showcasing their service offerings in an engaging way.
4. Are other people in my community choosing your funeral home?
If your funeral home didn’t open it’s doors for the first time yesterday, there’s a good chance you’ve (hopefully) had a customer or two. Tell your community about how many client families you’ve served. This helps build a sense of comfort with client families because they know that others have turned to you to serve them in their time of need.
5. …And what are they saying about your funeral home?
It’s a fact – 61% of consumers read online reviews before choosing a product or service online. Providing customer testimonials and reviews on your funeral home’s website is going to build credibility and trust with your potential families… making it easier for them to choose your firm with no doubts.
6. What makes your funeral home unique? Why should I choose you?
We all know competition is fierce in the funeral profession, and you’ve got to find a way to stand out above the crowd. Think about the ways your funeral home is different – also known as your Unique Selling Propositions – and integrate them into your website content.
For example, if you offer unique services that your competition doesn’t, show them off on your offerings page. Tell your website visitors that you offer the widest range of unique services or else they’ll never know!
7. What does your funeral home look like?
Would you ever choose a wedding or party venue without seeing pictures of it or visiting it first? Probably not, and the same goes for your family when choosing a funeral home. Don’t plaster your homepage with pictures of your landscaping, staff and coaches, but use your “About Us” page to give potential families a “virtual tour” of your funeral home, whether it’s through pictures, videos or an interactive virtual tour.
8. How can I get to know your firm’s personality?
If you want to humanize your funeral home’s brand and build great relationships with families before you meet them, join the social media bandwagon… now! Once you do, provide links to all of your accounts encouraging your community to “join the conversation.” If you have a blog or a newsletter, make sure you provide a link that allows them to subscribe to it.
9. If I don’t need your services right now, how can I stay in touch with you?
If your website visitors don’t need your services immediately, give them an option to stay in touch with you. Create a form on your website that allows potential client families to leave their name, email and phone number with you.
Make sure there is something in store for them, though – offer them information that makes them want to return to your website. Provide them with content on funeal etiquette, a preplanning guide or an online subscription to your newsletter or blog.
10. Are you a real funeral home? How do I know you’re not a scam?
I’ll start by asking this… have you ever even thought about clicking on one of those horribly designed pop-up ads that encourage you to “CLICK HERE AND WIN ONE MILLION DOLLARS INSTANTLY”? Probably not. Generally, the (for lack of a better word) uglier your funeral home website’s design is, the more likely your visitors are to assume you’re a scam. Take the website below, for example.
If you didn’t take the time to make your website design look professional, your website visitors will assume your funeral home represents that same level of professionalism and go to someone else’s site.
11. How can I contact your firm and where are you located?
I did an incredibly unscientific experiment and visited 5 funeral home websites that I randomly selected when Googling “funeral homes Kentucky”. 3 of the 5 didn’t have their phone number or location visible at first glance. Remember that for the most part, your website visitors have probably just experienced a death and don’t have time to click around your website to find out how they can contact you.
As a best practice, make sure your funeral home’s contact information is “above the fold” of your website. In other words, make sure your website visitors can access your contact information without having to scroll down the page. If you have multiple locations, list them all on their own dedicated page in a clear, simple manner.
13. How much is a funeral going to cost me?
If your funeral home isn’t comfortable putting your GPL online, still offer a way for your website visitors to get a feel for your pricing. List all your different service options so they can see if your offerings are at the right price point for them. Also, be sure to give them information on memorial services and visitation options should they opt for a direct cremation. This will help your firm make cremation a bit more profitable.
And if you want to avoid putting pricing on your website all together, create a form on your site asking visitors for their name, email and phone number if they’re interested in learning more about pricing options at your funeral home.
14. Is your website trustworthy and secure?
Do you have your SSL Certificate and other certificates/badges displayed that show your website is secure? This is extremely important, especially if you have an eCommerce platform on your site. Most website solutions display them, but always double check to make sure your visitors feel safe sharing their personal information on your website.
15. Where are your obituaries?
Chances are, the first thing people are looking to find on your funeral home website are your obituaries. Make sure they’re easy to find them on your website, and that your website visitors don’t have to go through pages and pages to get to their loved one’s individual obituary. Make it even easier for your website visitors by providing an obituary search bar that allows visitors to find the obituary they’re looking for in a click.
16. How can I send my condolences to the family who lost a loved one?
When a death occurs, your website is often the first place people in your community go to check service times, read the obituary and send condolences. Make it easy for your visitors to send condolences by listing your local florist’s information.
Or, if you offer products such as flowers and gifts on your website, provide a link to the page on your main navigation so website visitors can access it quickly. In the picture below, Nie Family Funeral Home & Cremation Service has a “Send Flowers Now” button on the top right corner of their page so it’s immediately visible to website visitors.
17. What are your payment options?
If you’re looking to convert website visitors into client families, make sure you let your potential families know how they can pay for your services. Do you offer Paypal? Do you accept cash only? Do you have unique or flexible payment options? Then let your families know!
18. I have a question about your funeral home… how can I ask it?
Providing a FAQ section on your funeral home website is important because you never want a potential family to leave your website with a list of unanswered questions.
Provide answers to questions like: what to do when a death occurs, planning a funeral, your arrangement process, disposition options, costs of a funeral, payment options, etc. You can also choose a “live chat” software that allows someone at your funeral home to answer questions on the spot during business hours should your visitors have any.
Final thoughts
If you read through any or all of these questions and noticed your funeral home website didn’t answer them, or didn’t answer them simply enough, consider revising your website content.
Your funeral home website has the potential to be your most important business tool, so make sure you make it count! Get a demo of funeralOne’s all-in-one website platform, f1Connect by clicking here or calling us at 800-798-2575, ext. 5.
Are there any other questions we’re missing? Does your website answer all of them? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
I was wondering if you had any tips for me that would help in my search for a good funeral home in salt lake city? My father passed away a few days ago, and I am having to do all of the funeral arrangements, so any help would be appreciated.
Hi Chuck, unfortunately I can’t speak for the quality of the funeral homes in the Salt Lake City area, but your best bet is going to be Googling “funeral homes in Salt Lake City” and choosing ones that rank the highest (because they’re trusted most by Google)
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This is very good information to know. My father is in the final inning of his life. As hard as times are right now, we want everything to go as smoothly as they can. http://www.elmontfuneralhomecorp.com
There are only 17 listed……#12 must have passed on,
Reputation is everything, if I hear anything negative I won’t even think twice, its off the table. I like to be able to know what others thought about the business before I make the jump to use them. When you lose someone it is hard to grieve when you are stressed with planning a funeral. If a funeral service can help take the load off, take them up on it. When my grandfather passed away it was very hard on our family, but with help we were able to grieve in peace. Thanks for the share!
One of my mother-in-law’s sisters recently passed away, and I’ve been trying to do what I can to make sure everything goes smoothly with the funeral. It is a really good point that a funeral home website should provide lots of evidence that they aren’t scammers because this will help people know if they can trust it or not. It seems to me like the more comfortable people are attending a funeral home, the better things will go. Thank you for the information!
Great job for sharing these tips. It’s a great help for business owners of funeral homes that have a website.
Headstones Cincinnati, OH
Hey Joe, it is interesting how you pointed out that a funeral home needs to highlight to potential clients or customers why their business is unique compared to its competitors. My mother is diagnosed with cancer and she would like to plan her funeral before her untimely demise. I will help by surveying for potential funeral homes while taking close attention to how they are unique.
Hey Kristofer, Krystal here. I’m sorry to hear about your mom, but I’m glad she’s able to plan the funeral she truly desires and deserves! Happy to hear you’re helping her out as well, I think this is a beautiful process to go through with your family and there will be lots of teachings and love there. We hope you find the right funeral home!