Social Media and Your Funeral Home

BY JACQUI ATKIN

Social media marketing is a necessity for funeral homes. Why? Because creating relationships is at the very heart of the funeral profession, and an excellent social media strategy will accomplish that endeavor. Your community should have the opportunity to get to know you and your staff before they require your services. Then, when an at-need situation arises, they’ll think of your funeral home first and know exactly whom to call.

Years ago, I went kicking and screaming into setting up my first social media account. At the time, I just wasn’t interested. I figured if I wanted someone to know what I was doing, I’d tell them in person, send them a text, or (gasp!) call them on the phone. My husband and his business partner are licensed funeral directors and the owners of several funeral homes, and I assist them with their marketing efforts. After enrolling in courses for social media for business and digital marketing, I realized we were missing out on a fast, relatively inexpensive, and incredibly effective way to reach families in our service area. Jumping in and committing to social media was truly the best marketing decision I ever made. The positive feedback was immediate and encouraging. Every funeral home, no matter how small, should definitely be including social media in their marketing strategy.

Facebook and Instagram are excellent platforms that allow funeral homes to reach a large percentage of people in their service area. According to smartinsights.com, 4.8 billion people around the world now use social media, and the average daily time spent using social media per person per day is a whopping two hours and twenty-four minutes. Your community is no exception.

Quality social media posts engage users and help to create top-of-mind awareness of your funeral home within your service area. Sproutsocial.com reports that 78% of consumers are willing to buy from a company after having a positive experience with them on social media. This statistic definitely applies to funeral homes. And these days, it may also be argued that people tend to look for a business on social media even before visiting their website.

Additionally, social media allows you to create relationships with the families you serve and connect with your community. It allows you to participate in conversations that would not otherwise occur. When a family member leaves a comment on a post or sends a question directly to your funeral home, an opportunity arises for you or a member of your staff to respond and to personally connect with the individual. These types of interactions leave a lasting impression of trust and goodwill.

Need more convincing? Posting obituaries on Facebook directly from your website allows families to quickly and easily share their loved one’s obituary with family and friends, which in turn drives more people to your website. More website traffic is a definite win for your funeral home! Increased visits to your website will eventually lead to more people coming through your front door, whether for pre-need or at-need.

Maintaining a consistent presence on social media is very important. Consistent posting helps demonstrate your funeral home’s reliability and dependability and cultivates a solid relationship between your funeral home and your community members. Social media is also an excellent tool for advertising the advantages of pre-planning, thus increasing the volume of your pre-need leads without spending a fortune.

It’s important to remember that your social media posts should be relevant, engaging, and industry-specific. Engaging posts will showcase your funeral home and grow your reach - establishing you as the leading expert within your community and creating familiarity with your name. But remember, more is often not better. Incessant and inferior “filler” content will drive your audience away. I’ve seen some pretty strange funeral home posts in my day, including a quote about finding a way to be less afraid of dead bodies.

Yikes! Probably not what your audience wants to come across while scrolling through Facebook. To create the best posting strategy, be sure to include a variety of insightful, well thought-out content.

Here are my top five tips:

• To ensure that your posts are consistent, consider hiring a social media professional that understands the funeral profession. Funeral directors are some of the busiest people on the planet. You may have good intentions to do it yourself, but we all know that’s easier said than done.

• Keep informative posts short - remember, people are “scanning” more than “reading” your content.

• Ensure that all posts are relevant to the funeral industry. No one is coming to your page looking for cleaning tips or gardening advice.

• Hire a professional videographer to film a series of funeral home shorts that can be shared to your social media pages. Videos get excellent engagement, but you want to make sure they look professional and are recorded by an expert.

• Last but not least, make it personal. Don’t forget to share employee spotlights and showcase your staff participating in activities in real life. It’s great for people to see the neighborhood funeral director out of a suit!

Whether you’re a funeral home owner already on board the social media train or one that requires a lot of convincing, the statistics don’t lie. Social media is here to stay and plays a prevalent role in the lives of billions of people each and every day, including those in your service area. As author Lori Ruff states, “Social media is here. It’s not going away; not a passing fad. Be where your customers are: in social media.”

Don’t wait for your competitors to beat you to the punchbegin developing your social media presence today. And even if they have, it’s never too late to get started.

Remember, when it comes to social media, funeral home owners have two choices - keep up, or get left behind. FBS

Jacqui Atkin is the Owner of Social Media Solutions for Funeral Homes and is certified in Social Media for Business and Digital Marketing. Jacqui is the proud wife of a licensed funeral director and funeral home owner, and she has lived in many a mortuary! She enjoys creating quality content for funeral homes and understands the unique challenges associated with marketing and the demands of funeral home ownership. Contact her directly with any questions at (435) 705-1252 or smsforfuneralhomes@gmail.com. Visit her website at https://www.smsforfuneralhomes.com.

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