It’s 2021. Every business needs a website.
That may sound blunt, but it’s absolutely true. In 2020, 93% of consumers used the Internet to find a local business. If your business isn’t online, that 93% of consumers just won’t find you.
That’s not a spot you want to be in.
Every business needs a website. Funeral homes, in particular, are well-served by websites. The reason? Those consumers are looking for local businesses. Funeral homes are inherently local – very few people have destination funerals.
We’re going to break down, in detail, some of the most important reasons for your funeral home to get a website if you don’t have one – and why you should update your old, existing website if you already do. Let’s get started.
Client acquisition
Funeral homes provide an essential service. That means you don’t have to generate interest in funerals, in general – you instead have a (more or less) consistent pool of potential clients that are divided up among all funeral homes in a given area.
Your goal, then, is to get those people to use your funeral home instead of other people’s funeral homes. Having a website is essential to these efforts because, as we saw, a vast majority of people go online to find local businesses.
More specifically, people use Google (and other search engines) to find local businesses. By using an SEO service, you can get your funeral home to rank higher than other funeral homes in the search results. To the surprise of no one, the highest result for a given term gets the most clicks – and those clicks can convert.
You can also use your website to specifically target certain types of clients. Many funeral home owners are trying to sell pre-planned funerals – it’s a measure of guaranteed money. Optimizing pages on your website for people interested in pre-planning can help you target these valuable clients.
Customer service
According to Help Scout, more than 6 out of 10 consumers use digital self-serve tools as their go-to for simple questions. We’re not going to ask what more than 6 out of 10 means (how’d they get a fraction of a consumer?), but we will focus on the fact that a majority of consumers prefer digital customer service for simple questions.
You’re in the service industry, so you know how this works – great customer service means more business. These self-help tools can also be used 24/7, so clients can get answers while you sleep. They’re also a great client acquisition tool, since you can get in touch with clients who need more elaborate answers to their questions.
Of course you’re open 24/7 – death waits for no one – but these tools enable you to help with less pressing questions without disturbing your sleep. You can only use these tools if you have a website – and your website can also provide contact information, like your phone number and email address.
Reputation management
Your website can also be a hub for the reviews and testimonials you get from your clients. According to Qualitrics, 93% of consumers say online reviews influence their purchasing decisions – there’s that 93% again, found in a totally different context. It hammers the point home – virtually everyone uses the Internet to guide their purchasing decisions.
Publishing your best reviews on your site can move the needle in your favour.
A hub for content
Consumers are always looking for more information – especially when it comes to funeral homes, some of which have a reputation of being untrustworthy. You can put content pages on your website that:
- Display obituaries for people who have used your funeral home’s services
- Provide information about choosing a funeral home, pre-planning funerals, grieving, and other relevant subjects
- Give consumers an overview of your funeral home’s story
And, of course, you can do a whole lot more – there’s a lot of content to be written about the death care industry.
The above has only been a brief overview of how websites act as a gateway to some of the most important marketing services for funeral homes. We could write a thesis on any one of the topics we’ve looked at so far – and there are topics we didn’t even have time to touch on.
Want to learn more? Keep reading our blog, and/or get in contact with us – we’d love to talk to you about how digital marketing can boost sales for your funeral home.