Marketing

Hep’s Internet Marketing Tips for Funeral Service

Internet Marketing Funeral Service This is a bonus section from the Funeral Blogging 101 Teleseminar. It starts with how I beef up each blog / website that I launch and then gets into the the hard core Internet Marketing! Follow along with the notes below.

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Advance Blog Promotion Tips:

The first 5 things that I do after launching a (WordPress Blog / Website):
1. Install Sitemap Generator plugin – and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools
2. Install Google Analytics plugin – to track traffic and trends
3. Install All-In-One-SEO plugin – makes site even more Search Engine Friendly
4. Create a Feedburner Feed for RSS – so others can subscribe to your blog:
  - They can visit your website / blog to read your article
  - They can receive that same message via email
  - They can read your message in their “FeedReader” like “Google Reader“
5. Claim your blog at Technorati:
  - My Technorati page: http://technorati.com/people/technorati/FuneralFuturist

Internet Marketing – Bonus Section:
What is the biggest tool/attribute that can draw people to my website?

Online obituaries with “Condolences may be offered at www.YourFuneralChapel.com
Viral Obit Marketing – view Funeral Marketing free tutorial
Have an active blog
Create an Online Newsletter – see how Hep can help!
Online Video to dominate search results – see how Hep can help!

What is the best email marketing company available?

Aweber – it is what I use, Johnson Consulting uses, all of you have been exposed to Aweber as that is what I used to set up the call
Check out my Newsletter and Email Marketing Options here

Do You Want Your WebsiteTo Rank Higher in Google?

Check out my “10 Steps to Higher Rankings in Google” manual and save $20

Ask Your Questions on the Funeral Futurist Forum!

If you have other questions about Funeral Home Internet Marketing, visit the Funeral Futurist Forum under Internet Technologies section and under the topic, Funeral Industry Internet Marketing and I post all of the questions, answers, and related resources there.

Get Started Today!

I am offering 2 very inexpensive hosting packages to get you started – no more excuses!

$1 – 90 day trial, to get you blogging by next week – after the 90 days, it is only $19 / month – but what you will also get is a 10 week course on funeral blogging – sign up here
But, if you are serious, you can pay only $97 for a year’s hosting and including the 10 week course as well – sign up here
Note: you will need a domain name for your blog, and if you don’t have one, visit www.FuneralFuturistDomains.com ($9.99 / year)

Remember, please leave a comment below and let me know how you liked the teleseminar – thanks!

…Hep

Online Casket Retailer Spamming Funeral Homes with Negative Reviews

This is a video showing an online casket retailer who posts negative online reviews of funeral homes who have had issues with the retailers caskets.

If this has happened to your funeral home, I would suggest that you do two things:

1. Post a reply to the negative review such as:
“This is not a customer that we served. This is a fraudulent review that this user has posted to numerous funeral homes.”

2. Report the reviewer by clicking Report – Block and then choose either:
This profile is impersonating someone
OR
This profile violates other User Content and Conduct Policies – Unwanted commercial content or spam

If this has happened to you, please let me know what the results are after completing these steps.

This is the link to the alleged fraudulent user: https://goo.gl/VLo20A

Update – Another Spammer Found

This is the link to the alleged fraudulent user: https://goo.gl/ylSnIw

Press Release: The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Funeral Home Marketing Strategy

What Your Funeral Home Competitor Hopes You’ll Never Discover:
The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Funeral Home Marketing Strategy

Local funeral homes just got their wakeup call: Funeral Futurist Robin Heppell launches his best training program to date: The go-to reference and resource for marketing and advertising for Funeral Homes – the Funeral Marketing Blueprint – Home Study Edition. http://www.FuneralMarketingBlueprint.com

Victoria, BC – Robin Heppell knows funeral home owners and managers have a choice in which programs they invest in for their firm’s growth. With funeral homes investing hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars every year in professional development, the Funeral Marketing Blueprint program has been developed to give members a complete road map for their marketing initiatives. It is based on over 25 years experience, over $70,000 of education, the development of over 200 funeral websites, and the creation of a multimillion dollar preneed program.

John McQueen of Anderson-McQueen Funeral Home in St. Petersburg, FL, said, “After taking the program, I know that I made the right choice by investing in Rob and the Funeral Marketing Blueprint program. Any funeral professional out there that wants to be successful for years to come in their market should make sure that they take the Funeral Marketing Blueprint program.”

Robin Heppell, the creator of the Funeral Marketing Blueprint proclaimed, “What makes this program a really unique learning experience is that it is a complete plan with a consistent message that can be implemented. It can be applied at a very high level to an entire marketing plan or down to creating a simple ad for a church bulletin or hospice flyer.”

Program members will gain easy, step-by-step knowledge on all of the following:

How to incorporate all marketing channels including print, direct mail, websites, search engine optimization, social media, email marketing, mobile marketing, and online reputation management into an easy-to-implement marketing plan
How to educate potential client families to choose one firm instead of their competitor
How to easily track the effectiveness of the funeral home’s advertising and eliminate the “guessing of what half of the advertising” works
How to have the Funeral Home “Top Of Mind” at the very moment that a client family chooses a funeral home
How to access what strategies are right for a specific market and how to implement them immediately to get maximum results

Jeremy DeBord, 4th Generation Funeral Director & Owner from Lancaster, PA. stated: “Way too often funeral home owners are unable or unwilling to adapt to the changing environment but spending some time with Heppell really was a breath of fresh air of someone who is in fact a forward thinker. I enjoyed the “flow” and “order” of the Funeral Marketing Blueprint starting with the marketing “legends” which have pioneered the world of marketing and the strategies and theories that they follow.”

The Funeral Marketing Blueprint reveals insider secrets and proven techniques to making a funeral home’s marketing plan more effective and easier to follow.

This home-study program is delivered with a combination of a hardcover binder – filled with all of the training slides, checklists, worksheets and other resources – together with access to a private, online membership website with all of the training videos, live and recorded question and answer sessions, plus additional how-to tutorial videos and resources to allow funeral homes to put these strategies into action as quickly as possible.

When asked about her thoughts on Heppell’s Marketing program, Anne Geib of Geib Funeral Homes of New Philadelphia & Dover, Ohio said, “Rob’s done an excellent job of not only telling about very technical details but providing overview, how it can fit into your entire marketing plan. We’re learning why you do things, how to measure them, and how it’s going to benefit your company, which I think has been exceptional for me. Not only has he given us very specifics, but he’s allowed your mind to wander and to figure out how it fits into your organization. It’s been incredibly helpful.”

In particular, members will receive:

All Funeral Marketing Blueprint Worksheets, Checklists & Resources
Funeral Futurist Online Price Comparison System
Funeral Futurist Turnkey Online Review Generator System
Funeral Futurist Social Media Maximum Effectiveness – Minimum Effort System
Online Membership Area to access all multi-media and editable resources
8 Live-Online Q & A webinars
2 Live-Online Marketing Makeover webinars where I will review your current advertising assets

The current enrollment of the Funeral Marketing Blueprint program will be open until December 1, 2014. Complete program details can be found at http://www.FuneralMarketingBlueprint.com/

For a sample of the worksheets, the 2015 Funeral Marketing Calendar can be downloaded for free at: http://www.FuneralMarketingBlueprint.com/calendar/

On Tuesday, November 25, 2015, there was a free Funeral Marketing Q & A Teleconference available to all members of the funeral profession. To get instant access to the replay, go to: http://www.FuneralMarketingBlueprint.com/replay-teleconference/

About Robin Heppell

Robin Heppell, CFSP of FuneralFuturist.com is recognized in the Funeral Profession as a marketing strategist and thought leader for positioning funeral homes to embrace the future and has spoken in front of thousands of funeral professionals on topics of Marketing, Strategy, Competition, Websites, Social Media, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Google AdWords.

For a brief overview of the Funeral Marketing Blueprint and the 7 Ms of Funeral Home Marketing, go to http://www.FuneralMarketingBlueprint.com/poster to download the Blueprint Overview.

For media inquiries, please visit http://www.FuneralFuturist.com/connect/ for immediate download of the Funeral Futurist infographic.

Do You Guarantee Your Funeral Services?

Guarantees are powerful marketing tools. Reversing the risk from potential client families and placing the responsibility on you and your staff is one great way of building trust. Often though, when I share these thoughts with funeral directors, a number of them are hesitant to guarantee their services. They feel that families will take advantage of the guarantee. For those who offer guarantees, I asked how often have they been called on their guarantee, and I get the same answer – maybe one or two times – and they say that those were legitimate complaints from the client family.

Then I ask those he don’t have a guarantee if they have ever had to give a refund on some services due to a complaint and oddly enough I get the same answer – one or two times. The differences that that this group who doesn’t want to promote having a satisfaction guarantee still has the obligation of a guarantee but they’re just not getting the marketing benefit from promoting it.

Now don’t worry about having to give all of the money back if something goes wrong, it just applies to the services that are in question. Here is the wording that I have come up with and shared with many clients.

[Firm Name] of [City / Town] is committed to service beyond expectation before, during and after the service. We guarantee that if you are not 100% satisfied with any aspect of our service, we will make every effort to correct the situation. If we cannot correct it to your satisfaction, you will not be charged for that particular service item.

One situation this can be used in would be if people were hesitant about embalming or viewing – maybe because they had a bad experience in the past with how someone looked. As you know, if a family says no to embalming, it has a negative ripple effect on the contract total. They probably then won’t want to viewing, and then they probably won’t want to purchase a casket, and they would then probably be less agreeable to having a traditional service and may turn that into a memorial service or worse just a cremation only.

On the other hand, if the family says yes to embalming, there is a better chance for viewing or visitation, and potentially a better casket and then there’s no reason not to have the casket present at the service.

So why not mention your guarantee the next time someone is on the fence about embalming or viewing. I was at a recent continuing education program where I presented my, Marketing Embalming program with this suggestion and the strategy was well received. (Note: Let me preface this though that it does not have to apply to people who are severely disfigured or burned beyond recognition.

Another angle of a guarantee that I have shared with my clients is having a No Hidden Fee Guarantee. This is a strategy that can be used when dealing with price shoppers especially over the phone.

This is how the guarantee is worded:

Funeral and Cremation costs can be very confusing. Often times other funeral & cremation providers will quote what seems like a low price, but actually they do not give you the complete costs and there will be hidden add on charges after you have chosen to utilize their services. We have made it easier to understand by creating our “No Hidden Fee Guarantee” package plans.
These plans include Service Fees, Merchandise and Taxes. We guarantee that the price we give you over the phone or you see on this website, will be the price that you will pay.

Cash advance items and cemetery expenses are not included: What some funeral homes fail to disclose are the additional fees that may be necessary. These include obituaries, honorariums (clergy, musicians, soloists, altar servers), catering, sales tax, etc. We will be more than happy to email you a quote so that you will have an estimate that is as accurate as possible.

What this guarantee does is elevate the level of trust that you have with the caller and it will give you the permission to fully explain your services. The other thing that it does is casts doubt in the potential client families mind when they are contacting your competitors and they might be wondering if this other funeral home has hidden fees.

I really hope that this eases your mind about having a satisfaction guarantee. The only reason why I could think that someone would not want to offer guarantee is that they may not have the utmost faith in their staff. If we are ever to be considered a profession to the public we well at least have to hold ourselves to higher standards. I believe one of the first steps is guaranteeing that your client families will be satisfied.

Whether you agree with me or not I would love to hear your thoughts about this topic. Feel free to e-mail me at [email protected]. Also, in case you were wondering, I practice what I preach, I offer a guarantee on all of my services and my events.

Are You Giving Your Website Visitors the Facebook – Website Runaround?

In a previous article, I’ve shared with you the number one way to get extra traffic from Facebook – even without having a Facebook page or profile. If you need a refresher, all that you do is give your client families a sheet of paper at the arrangement conference and a 20 second tutorial on how to add their loved ones online obituary to their Facebook profile.

Please note that I did not say about sharing it on your Facebook page – even though you can do this it will be 10 times less effective than having the family doing it. The reason why is that the people following your Facebook page may know the deceased, but probably not. On the other hand, the daughter who shares her father’s obituary notice on her Facebook profile, will be of interest to almost all of her friends on Facebook. Multiply this by any other children or relatives of the deceased who do the same.

I have been sharing this strategy for over four years and those who practice it experience a huge spike in traffic. Recently I have been receiving comments from some funeral homes that this strategy doesn’t work well for people using mobile devices. The issue is for funeral homes who have a separate mobile version of their website. If the funeral home and the client family practice the strategy of pasting the link from the online obituary to their Facebook profile and then someone who is a friend of the survivor clicks on the link from their mobile device – expecting to go to the obituary – instead they end up at the homepage of the mobile version of the website. From there they have to navigate to find that particular obituary. The last thing that people want to do, especially on mobile device is have to go through extra navigation steps.

Another issue that has been brought to my attention is that if someone is using a tablet such as an iPad mini, these users are getting redirected to the mobile version of the site which is a scaled down, less graphically friendly, website.

So why should you worry about mobile Facebook users?

In its Q4 2013 Quarterly Earnings conference call, Facebook stated that out of the 1.228 billion monthly active users, there are 945 million (77%) mobile users and almost one-third of them only use their mobile device to visit Facebook.

The leading solution to fix this problem is to make sure that your website has a “mobile responsive” design. This is more than just being mobile friendly, mobile responsive means that the website conforms to the width of the device. So no matter what type of device the person is viewing your website on, whether it be a desktop computer, laptop, tablet, or a mobile phone, the website adjusts according to the width.

For the larger screens the websites will be displayed in its normal layout. With smaller screens such as an iPad mini or iPhone the components will stacked on top of each other and the visitor can just easily scroll through the page.

What is Google’s thoughts on mobile responsive websites?

This is an excerpt from Google’s section “Building Smartphone-Optimized Websites”

Regarding Responsive Design: serves the same HTML for one URL and uses CSS media queries to determine how the content is rendered on the client side. This removes the possible glitches of user-agent detection and frees users from redirects. This is Google’s recommended configuration. (Source: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/smartphone-sites/)

This might seem a little technical, but it is important to listen to Google’s recommendations.

To view some samples of mobile responsive funeral home and cremation websites visit:

When visiting these websites on your tablet or mobile phone see how the sides and contents re-adjust when you rotate your device from portrait (up-and-down) to landscape (side to side). The other benefit that a mobile responsive website has is that the visitor does not need to zoom in and then zoom out by pinching their fingers on the screen nor do they have to scroll side to side when reading content.

So re-visiting the original issue of someone from their mobile device, clicking on a link in Facebook going to a online obituary, in the case of the mobile responsive website the visitor will go directly to that page and that page will conform to the device it is being viewed on.

For more information about mobile responsive websites, visit: www.FuneralGeeks.com/website-packages/