Newsletter - October 2008
October 21, 2008
Welcome to the Future of Funeral Service Newsletter!
The October 2008 newsletter is here. Since we are in the Thanksgiving Season (between the Canadian and American Thanksgiving Holidays), I want to show my appreciation and thanks to you! I have a ton of free tutorials and videos for you for this edition.
If you feel that someone else could benefit for this information, please feel free to forward it to them. If you are not a subscriber, get your own copy: Sign Up Today!
Don’t forget to check out the free teleseminar that I am hosting with Mike Kubasak this Thursday (October 23). Mike is going to share the 10 Biggest Mistakes Funeral Directors make when dealing with Price Shoppers.
>>>Register Today <<<
Mistakes Made with Price Shoppers - I hope you don’t make them - Free TeleseminarWinning or losing price shoppers can found a profound effect on your firm - the more you win, the more profitable you will be AND at the same time, you are weakening the competition!
Mike Kubasak and I held a teleseminar in August about Price Shoppers: “Handling Price Shoppers is Easier When You Differentiate Yourself” - over 400 funeral professionals registered! Read More
5 Reasons to have Careers on your Funeral Home WebsiteRecently, I created a “Help Wanted Ad” for some a support position to help me with the growth of my business and posted it to my website. Instead of the old way of posting ads with newspapers and then sifting through a stack of job-seeking-tire-kickers, I wanted to elevate the relationship level to one of someone who was familiar with my work (via my website) or at least to get a referral - friend of a friend.
So why I am telling you this story? Well it seems to be a topic of interest lately - getting good caliber staff - and we seem to turn to our traveling sales reps and ask them if they know of anyone looking. As funeral directors, we forget that we have a large volume of “eyeballs” checking out obituaries on our websites and leaving condolences. Why not have a “Careers” or “Job Opportunities” section on your website? Read More
Wanted: Entrepreneurial SupportAlthough I have posted this under the “Careers” category, it probably should be called “Opportunities” or “Internet Apprenticeship” but at least with “Careers” you will know that I am looking for some help.
You see, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes as Web 2.0 and the funeral industry collide - actually “mesh” together - all of it beneficial to the funeral profession! But to make sure that I play my part in the most efficient manner, I need some help. Read More
Part 1 - Intro: Relationship Marketing for Funeral HomesThis is the follow-up presentation to my live presentation at the Selected Independent Convention in Washington, DC. I have decided to break up this presentation into 5 parts as the recording of the web seminar was almost 2 hours long. I would strongly suggest that you watch them in order. Please provide your feedback and also - PLEASE - if you do apply any of these strategies, please let me know - I love it when people take action! Read More
Video Tributes & YouTube Web Seminar
As a follow up to two of my presentations at the New York State Funeral Directors Convention, I am hosting a web seminar today. This online seminar will be a step by step demonstration that will show you how to create a Video using a commercial software program. This process will be applicable to creating Video Tributes for your families or also to create an infomercial for your firm.
Then once the video is created, we will go through the steps to upload the video to YouTube. I will also field any questions that you have during the presentation… Read More
Viral Marketing for Funeral Homes
I know that I have preaching this for some time, but besides the mere act of putting obituaries on your website, doing this will drive very targeted traffic - and they are the exact people who will want to by flowers, memorial jewelry and other remembrance items. Watch the video and you will see what I mean. Read More
Thanks again for subscribing to my newsletter - I hope that you find the information helpful. I would love to hear your feedback, so if you have any suggestions or comments (or even testimonials), please just fill in the comment box below and let me know - Thank you!
…Hep
Mistakes Made with Price Shoppers - I hope you don’t make them - Free Teleseminar
October 20, 2008
Winning or losing price shoppers can found a profound effect on your firm - the more you win, the more profitable you will be AND at the same time, you are weakening the competition!
Mike Kubasak and I held a teleseminar in August about Price Shoppers: “Handling Price Shoppers is Easier When You Differentiate Yourself” - over 400 funeral professionals registered!
At the end of the call we said that we would address this issue again. So Mike suggested that we tackle some of the mistakes that he has observed over the years. So this Thursday, we are going to have another telesemar…
10 Biggest Mistakes Funeral Directors Make on the
Phone when Dealing with Price Shoppers Teleseminar
Date: Thursday, October 23, 2008
Time: 2 PM Eastern / 11 AM Pacific
Register for the Teleseminar Now!
Also, if you cannot make it on Thursday, make sure that you register anyway so that I can can get a link to you for the replay. From some of the feedback we received from the summer teleseminar, we heard that many firms used the recordings for staff meetings and training - Great Idea!
Register now at: Price Shopper Biggest Mistakes Teleseminar <=== Don’t miss this!
I hope that you can join us on the call on Thursday! I’m sure that this will be an entertaining session as well.
…Hep
5 Reasons to have Careers on your Funeral Home Website
October 15, 2008
Recently, I created a “Help Wanted Ad” for some a support position to help me with the growth of my business and posted it to my website. In stead of the old way of posting ads with newspapers and then sifting through a stack of job-seeking-tire-kickers, I wanted to elevate the relationship level to one of someone who was familiar with my work (via my website) or at least to get a referral - friend of a friend. So why I am telling you this story? Well it seems to be a topic of interest lately - getting good calibre staff - and we seem to turn to our travelling sales reps and ask them if they know of anyone looking. As funeral directors, we forget that we have a large volume of “eyeballs” checking out obituaries on our websites and leaving condolences. Why not have a “Careers” or “Job Opportunities” section on your website?
Here is a list of the reasons why you should have a Careers section on your website:
- It’s free! Well, depending on how your site is set up you may have to pay your web developer to create this section, or if you use a Content Management system like WordPress - it’s completely Free.
- Gives visitors an insight into your company. Even if someone isn’t looking for a job - maybe they are trying to decide what funeral home to choose and if you communicate in your Help Ads that you need a certain type of person that will go above and beyond for your client families, they may see that is a deciding factor - “Attracting Families through Help Wanted Ads”
- The job seeker will get a better understanding of your operations since they are already at your website (although if someone comes in to an interview without researching you on your website, maybe you should keep looking).
- The Referral - maybe someone has been to your website to leave a condolence and they see your Careers tab and they know of someone who may be perfect for funeral service and they are already familiar with your company via the website (this referral will never happen if you only used help wanted ads).
- Good Economic Community Member - in economic times like this, it is good to show that you are investing back into the community - Job Creation (even if it is a replacement situation for you, you don’t have to tell everyone that)
I am sure that there are other benefits to posting job opportunities on your funera home website. Can you think of any other reasons? Please leave a comment below.
Here are some steps that you should remember:
- Let the firm’s caring, empathic personality come out in your ad, and describe what it is like to be apart of your team (others are reading it too)
- After the position has been filled, leave it up as a sample and still offer to accept resumes
- Embed or link to the Lynch’s “The Undertaking” documentary video clips from YouTube or PBS - these hold the entire profession in a more positive light
- Create a “Footer” link to your Careers section for each page - visitors’ curiosity will make them check out what’s available
- Secret tactic: use Social Network sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and even Twitter to direct people to your new job posting
I hope that this has been helpful - again please add your thoughts by leaving a comment below - thanks.
…Hep
Wanted: Entrepreneurial Support
October 9, 2008
Although I have posted this under the “Careers” category, it probably should be called “Opportunities” or “Internet Apprenticeship” but at least with “Careers” you will know that I am looking for some help.
You see, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes as Web 2.0 and the funeral industry collide - actually “mesh” together - all of it beneficial to the funeral profession! But to make sure that I play my part in the most efficient manner, I need some help.
This position experience may be perfect for someone who is looking to re-enter the workforce or looking for a more flexible work schedule.
Position Details:
- $17 to $20 per hour
- 20 hours per week (could be increased if desired)
- Additional incentives for specific projects
Required skills:
- Highly organized and self-motivated
- Ability to manage and oversee projects
- Able to follow (and create) systems / procedures
- Excellent communication skills, both oral & written
- General computer skills and ability to be trained on new systems
Duties:
Your number one job is to help FuneralFuturist.com acquire and keep customers
This is a list of some of the general tasks and duties (training will be provided if necessary):
- General administration and bookkeeping
- Article submission to article directories
- Article distribution for trade journals and associations
- Transcription of audio and video recordings
- Enrolling funeral directors in online continuing education programs
- Project management of website development
- Project management of email newsletters
Skills gained (applied):
- Relationship Marketing
- Internet Marketing and how it applies to traditional bricks & mortar companies
Skills gained (by osmosis):
- Negotiating
- Risk taking
- Creating & seizing opportunities
- Entrepreneurship
Specific software / web services will be used (previous experience not necessary - free video training provided for all apps)
- Aweber: Autoresponder and email marketing
- 1ShoppingCart: Shopping cart administration
- Traffic Geyser: video uploading
- MindJet: Mind mapping software
- Muvee: Video editing software
- Google Apps - Awesome Resources (and Free too!)
- WordPress - World’s Best CMS System
- Word, Excel, PowerPoint
- Simple Accounting
- Amember - Membership software
- Infusionsoft - Customer Relationship Management
This position is best suited for someone residing in Victoria, BC.
For more information, email me at admin@funeralfuturist.com or call 250-744-3595.
