Funeral home marketing and funeral home advertising can be challenging. While you want the community to know about the services you offer, it has to be done in a dignified and respectful way. As a result, most marketing campaigns tend to look and sound the same, making it difficult to set yourself apart from others offering similar services.
Here are a few ways that progressive funeral homes can distinguish themselves and offer services to generate additional revenue.
More Personalized Experiences
Most funeral homes have standard packages for memorial services. Today, people are interested in different experiences to capture the personality and life of their loved ones. Creating personalized memorial services that are less serious and more focused on a celebration of life can attract different types of families.
Some funeral homes provide event space for families to gather after memorial services, even accommodating food and beverage services. One West Coast funeral chapel is marketing itself as an event center and has applied for a liquor license.
New Approaches to Keepsakes
Many funeral homes sell keepsakes such as memento urns, jewelry, rosaries, and other tokens of remembrance. Customizing pieces for families can create a more personal touch and serve as a reminder to others of how you care for families during their time of need.
You may want to consider partnering with local artists to create one-of-a-kind pieces upon request. This helps spread the word about your funeral home with your local artist community and provides different options for families to purchase.
Live Video Streaming
Adding live streaming video is a way to let loved ones who cannot attend a memorial service take part remotely. With the technology available today, this is an easy and inexpensive strategy. It expands your service offerings and can set you apart from your competitors in your funeral home marketing.
Eco-Friendly Options
People are seeking more eco-friendly solutions in all walks of life, so it’s not surprising that they may inquire about more environmentally-friendly funerals as well. Besides cremation as an alternative to traditional embalming, caskets, and burial, green funerals are a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact.
Green funerals most commonly do not use chemicals during preparation, use biodegradable coffins or containers and, in some cases, allow bodies to decompose naturally in specially prepared areas. If you want to pursue natural burial, you will want to check the laws in your state. While natural burials are legal in Washington state, for example, they are not legal in California.
Whether or not you offer natural burial, offering a green funeral as an alternative can create a unique marketing niche that is attractive to an increasing number of families.
Educational Content and Seminars
Today, when people have questions about funeral services or are looking for information, they use a search engine like Google. By engaging in content marketing, which creates relevant and valuable information for people, you can establish yourself as an authority. Providing real advice without trying to sell your services demonstrates your knowledge and caring, which can make a lasting impression.
Another way to market your services is to conduct in-person educational seminars. Educational events can revolve around pre-need planning or subjects related to aging. For example, you might sponsor events for those turning 65 for advice on Medicare or families considering nursing care. These seminars can be presented as providing independent information with no sales pitch and establishing your funeral home as an authority on sensitive topics.
Therapy Dogs
Families deal with complex emotions when a loved one passes. Research shows that therapy dogs can provide comfort and lower anxiety, and some funeral homes are embracing the idea. The American Kennel Club (AKC) even has a formal program for training and selecting therapy dogs for funeral homes.
Not only can you provide comfort in a special way, but you can also carve out a unique market position in your funeral home advertising by providing a therapy dog upon request.
Whole Body Donations
Organ donation options are well-known. You are asked if you want to be an organ donor when you get your driver’s license. Fewer people are aware of whole body donations. Besides living organs, tissue and other part of the body can make a significant contribution to science. Bodies are used for medical and scientific research as well as education and training for medical students and surgeons. Many medical breakthroughs have come as a result of whole body donation.
By offering whole body donations, you may help families with limited resources. By working with a non-profit agency like United Tissue Network (UTN), you can ease these concerns. UTN pays for the storage and transportation of bodies and for cremation and the return of ashes after research is concluded.
Letting families know this is an option as part of your funeral home marketing provides another way to distinguish yourself in the marketplace and provide a valuable service.
If you would like to know more about whole body donations, contact United Tissue Network today at 877-738-6111 or visit our website.