Generating Leads for Your Funeral Home Services
Whether you own a funeral home or a crematorium, you need to generate consistent leads.
Many funeral directors rely solely on walk-ins and referrals to find clients; this is fine, but these channels don’t have the reliability of active marketing.
You need to help your clients find your services; after all, they can’t use your services if they don’t know your company exists! A well-planned marketing strategy can consistently bring new clients to your funeral home.
In this article by Funeral Home Media, we’ll offer a few tips to generate leads for funeral homes in the digital world.
Ways to Get More Leads for Your Funeral Services
1. Optimize Your Website
The internet has made the world more connected than ever, and its usage among consumers has skyrocketed! This means that online marketing for businesses has gone from being a useful tool to an absolute necessity for success.
Did you know that 97% of consumers will look up a local business online before anything else? This means funeral businesses that don’t have a website will be left in the dust by their competitors that do.
But simply having a website isn’t good enough for lead generation; your site needs to be accessible and easy to navigate. On top of that, it should run smoothly and load quickly when opened, so you don’t lose any leads from people who are in a hurry.
There are optional things you could include on your website as well to boost lead generation, like having a built-in chat function where potential clients can ask questions.
If you don’t have the expertise to create and run a website for your funeral business, consider hiring a professional digital marketing team to do so.
2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
When people are looking for funeral homes – whether they’re dealing with a sudden loss or preplanning – the first thing they do is open their phone or laptop and search online.
If your site doesn’t show up within the first few results on Google when someone searches for ‘funeral homes in (your area)’, you won’t benefit from getting as many leads as you could.
This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. Unlike PPC campaigns, where you pay to have your site rank higher in search results, SEO is what’s called ‘organic’ traffic.
The main way to improve your SEO is by implementing relevant keywords and keyword phrases on your website. So, if you have a funeral home in Louisville KY, you’ll want to make sure your website contains geo-relevant keywords on all its pages.
A great way to improve your ranking on Google is to…
3. Create a Blog with Great Content
To improve your SEO, you can’t just haphazardly throw the words ‘Louisville Funeral Home’ all over your website. This is called ‘keyword stuffing’, and search engines like Google are designed to detect it. This will actually harm your website’s ranking.
Your site needs to have a balance of keywords and relevant content. That’s why creating a blog with well-written, relevant content is a great way to boost your ranking and lead generation.
In addition to helping your business rank higher in Google search results, blog articles will attract potential clients who search for those topics.
And, when clients see that your business puts out valuable information, it’ll create a sense of trust in your expertise. This can be considered the start of the customer journey.
4. PPC Marketing
PPC is short for Pay-Per-Click. This is a form of paid marketing on search engines like Google and Bing.
Essentially, you’ll be paying to ‘bid’ on a certain keyword (for example, ‘Funeral Home in Louisville’). By doing this, you’ll automatically appear higher in Google search results.
As the name implies, you’ll only be paying every time someone actually clicks on your ad. This means you want to make sure the right people are clicking your ad, however, so you’re not paying for dead-end leads.
You’ll want to create a targeted ad campaign and have your PPC ads show only to searchers who fall within the demographic you set in order to have the best chance at success.
PPC ads aren’t a passive tactic, however; you’ll need to continually experiment with different ad copies to see what works best, and update your ads to target keywords that are relevant at the time.
While PPC campaigns can be a very effective tool for lead generation, we don’t recommend starting one unless you have professionals managing it for you. This is because running effective Google ads has a large learning curve.
5. Social Media Marketing
It’s no secret that social media sites like Facebook are a great place to spread the word about your business. It’s become an increasingly popular method of lead generation in recent years.
Facebook is particularly great for marketing a funeral business. Why? Because it allows you to effectively target people within an older age range.
Physical direct mail was the go-to marketing tactic for funeral homes not too long ago. But now, that method is much more expensive, slower, and less effective than social media marketing.
Some Facebook ideas for funeral homes: You can share your website’s blog content on there every time a new post is made, and you can also post them in local community groups (depending on the group’s rules).
If you’d like, you could also run ads on Facebook. This form of lead generation is very cost effective, especially when compared to traditional methods like direct mail.
With Facebook ads, you can target specific demographics, selecting who sees your ad based on certain factors. For example, some factors include age, sex, location, interests, and more.
If you choose to run ads on Facebook, make sure you have a professional who can quickly respond to leads that come in. On social media platforms, people expect a quick, almost immediate response.
Leads come in quickly and expire quickly on Facebook, so make sure to respond to all messages in a timely manner!
6. Manage Your Reviews & Reputation
Last year, a survey showed that 93% of people looked at online reviews for local businesses when they needed a service or product. 93 percent! This is why it’s imperative that your online reputation is solid and you have glowing reviews.
On the same token, a few bad reviews can cost you valuable leads and harm your local reputation.
This is where reputation management comes in.
Not only do more positive reviews improve your reputation and make your business look good, but it also helps your search engine rankings! The more high-quality reviews you have, the more visibility you’ll have on Google.
Increasing your positive reviews on Google
There are a few ways to get more reviews for funeral homes on Google.
First, you could simply call and ask appreciative clients to leave you a review if they’re happy with your service.
On the other hand, you could hire a professional marketing company to manage your online reputation and get you more 5-star reviews on Google.
No matter what, be sure to respond to the reviews you get! If a client takes the time to leave a review, you should respond to it, whether or not it’s positive.
In fact, respond to negative reviews by leaving your phone number and asking the unsatisfied client to contact you to find a solution. This shows potential clients who would’ve otherwise been turned off by the negative review that you’re dedicated to customer service.
Conclusion: Strategies to Generate Leads for Your Funeral Home
In today’s modern era, there are plenty of ways to get the word out about your funeral home services. Older methods like direct mail are more expensive and less effective for lead generation than online marketing.
There's also the traditional word-of-mouth method by attending community events where your target audience is likely to be.
However, there’s a huge learning curve with online marketing. Unless you have professional experience in online lead generation, you’d be best off to hire a digital marketing company that specializes in funeral home marketing.
Contact Funeral Home Media today if you own a funeral home or crematory and need professional digital marketing services. We can help you find more leads and boost your company’s reputation!
