3 Funeral Home Marketing Ideas to Try in 2022

Most of us know the value of doing good business. Word-of-mouth and referral marketing are incredibly effective for any local business, especially funeral homes.

But, as every year passes by in the 21st century, more and more of the world is moving to digital. As last responders, we are constantly required to be quick on our feet, ready to adapt to these changing times.

We pose the question – as a local business, are you investing enough of your time into funeral home marketing?

81% of consumers research online before making a purchase. Yet, it is reported that nearly 50% of small businesses spend less than 2 hours per week on their marketing efforts.

If your eyes lit up at that statistic, ours did too. If you’re looking for strategies, below are 3 funeral home marketing ideas that your team should look to implement or emphasize in 2022.

1) Build a Beautiful Website

It’s no mistake – the world we live in is becoming more digital every day. In one study, 84% of consumers claimed that businesses that have a website appear more credible.

Should you be one of those businesses?

Absolutely. There are many benefits to incorporating a custom website into your funeral home marketing plan. You can:

• Establish a better digital presence
• Build stronger credibility within your community
• Communicate your products, services, and updates clearly
• Invite more families to get in touch with you

While creating your funeral home’s own website sounds exciting, there are a few other factors that you will want to consider.

Include a Call-to-Action On Your Home Page

Sure, you can build a beautiful website with amazing elements, dynamic photos, and interesting animations. But are you giving families and visitors of your website an easy way for them to get in touch with you?

Apparently, most small businesses fail to do that. Nearly 70% of small business websites don’t include a clear call-to-action button (CTA).

In the example above, the black arrows indicate where the call-to-action buttons are placed. By including calls to action on your website, more families are able to easily connect with you over the phone or through email.

This will help build more trust upfront, and ensure that no business is lost in the long run.

Make Your Site Mobile Responsive

Another fun fact: nearly 54% of all online traffic is driven through mobile phones and mobile devices.

When you are investing in a new website build, you need to ensure that it is also optimized for mobile devices as well. Most small businesses will only build their website to be friendly for only desktop computers.

If you follow the same suit as other small businesses, you’re really only going to be keeping around half of your website’s online traffic from leaving immediately and choosing to work with another local funeral service provider.

To make your funeral home website is mobile-friendly, ensure that you:

• Maintain a simple and easy-to-follow layout
• Keep messaging as concise and clear as possible
• Utilize a responsive design system
• Optimize any images with a large file size
• Avoid blocking any necessary code that needs to be crawled by Google
• Test your website’s mobile performance using Google Search Console

Include an Obituary Page

While many people still view the newspaper and ask for physical copies of obituaries, more and more families are looking to view those obituaries online.

With that shift, funeral homes should include an obituary page on their website. By including an obituary page directly on your funeral home website to honor decedents, you are:

• Preserving a loved one’s memory forever
• Saving families time and heartache from searching for the physical copy of the obituary
• Allowing your team to provide a higher quality of service
  

If you’re struggling to visualize how you can properly set up your obituary page, take a peek at other real-world examples for inspiration. You’ll likely discover how exactly you can set your own page up for your community.

One last key component with the obituary page – it needs to be shareable. Families will want to share the page with other relatives so they can easily view it as well.

2) Set Up Your Online Business Listings

The classic yellow phonebook – everyone remembers it, but very few people still use it. As we’ve discussed above, more families nowadays are searching for local funeral homes through online channels.

Your new website is a great first step when it comes to funeral home marketing. The next step is to set up your free online business listings such as Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, Yelp, and Bing. When you set up these business listings, you allow your customers and families to leave reviews for your business, visit your website, and even contact you directly.

The more reviews your business garners, the higher chance your business has to be discovered online by other families.

Google Business Profile

Similar to other listings, it doesn’t take long to set up your Google Business Profile. When people search for a specific type of business on Google, local listings often pull up similar to the example above. Look familiar?

You can include your business hours, your website, photos of your funeral home, and even post regular updates for people when special circumstances arise. To continue promoting your business to your community, it is recommended to reach out to families two to three weeks after their service and ask for them to kindly leave a review for your business on Google.

Apple Maps and Yelp

Do you know anyone who searches for local businesses using Apple Maps? We do.

SEO professionals have researched this and estimated that 75 million people use Apple Maps in the United States. This can be particularly useful for local businesses. To verify that your funeral home is listed on Apple Maps, there are a few key steps to take:

1. Go to https://register.apple.com/placesonmaps/
2. Sign in with your Apple ID and password
3. Verify that you are the business owner or that you are authorized to set the listing up
4. Enter your business details (business hours, website, photos, special updates)
5. Complete your listing setup, and you’re done!

However, your funeral home marketing doesn’t stop there. Apple Maps integrates with Yelp and displays any business reviews that are garnered from Yelp, so this is very much a two-piece equation for the time being.

First, search for your business on Yelp to see if it is already registered. We don’t want to duplicate our work here. If you do not find your business listing, here is how you can register your business on Yelp:

• Visit https://business.yelp.com/ and select “Verify my free listing”
• Enter your important business information
• Click the “Add Business” button

Bing

Although the majority of internet users prefer to use Google to discover local businesses, there is still a sizeable chunk of people who use Bing (around 2.47% of all search engine traffic). For that reason, your business should still hold a presence on Bing as well.

The process to register your local business listing on Bing is standard to the other procedures listed above, and will only help provide your business with more visibility to your target audience.

3) Connect With Families Through Social Media

While many people in your community use Google on a daily basis, they also use social media. Facebook and Instagram, and many other social platforms have proven to host an enormous audience. 

Facebook

Approximately 180 million people use Facebook in the United States. After creating a Facebook page for your funeral home, you can post different types of content to connect with your community on a deeper level:

1. Company updates
2. Shareable obituaries for loved ones
3. Meaningful quotes about life
4. Photos of your team and funeral home
5. Videos of your team getting involved in the community

Plus, similar to the online business listings, you can include all of your business information (business hours, a business biography, a link to your website, and more). By providing all of this information on your funeral home’s Facebook page, you’re making it even easier for families to connect with you.

Instagram

While plenty of people are on Facebook, upcoming generations are transitioning to Instagram, the platform that is quickly gaining popularity every year. There are several dynamic features that draw everyone’s attention to Instagram, such as:

• Stories
• Reels
• Highlights

After creating an Instagram page for your funeral home, you can begin following other local businesses and community members, posting regular updates about your business, and building more awareness of your funeral home.

Boost Your Funeral Home Marketing With a Team That Knows How to Connect You to Your Community

For funeral homes, it can be difficult to find a partner who truly understands what it takes to be a sustainable business.

At Gather, we pride ourselves on being able to help funeral homes with some of these tasks that may seem impossible. Not only do we boost funeral home marketing with our custom websites, we also provide the best case management platform in the industry.

When you pair great funeral home marketing with even better case management, you enrichen the lives of everyone around you – your team, your families, your community, and yourself.

Our experienced team can help with your marketing, case management, and even livestreaming all-in-one. Schedule a free demo with Gather today and gain peace of mind knowing your funeral home is set up for continued success.