#022: Marketing Funeral Homes: Balancing Sensitivity with Strategy

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Transcript

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Welcome to two a million and beyond. This is Matt Willis.

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Marketing funeral homes, balancing sensitivity with strategy marketing. A funeral home has several inherent challenges. How do you sell something? People resist thinking about. Plus there's a real fear of offending potential customers by reminding them of grief and mortality. This concern is well-founded as we live in a society that believes profiting off others'. Misfortune is immoral making marketing funeral services feel at best delicate. Yet, if you're looking to grow faster than 4%, compound annual growth rate, marketing is essential. But how can you promote your services while respecting these sensitivities? Transactional marketing, the direct pitch. Many funeral homes stick to what's known as transactional marketing, which is designed to prompt an immediate sale. This type of marketing highlights the service and price, and often includes a disclaimer, apologizing if the timing is not ideal. This approach minimizes the risk of offending potential customers as its devoid of emotion. Examples of transactional marketing include cremation starting at 7 99, written on billboards on the freeway, a Google ad targeting keywords like cremation near me or mailers encouraging retirees to sign up for pre-need. While these tactics are unlikely to offend. Transactional marketing presents a few unique challenges in the funeral industry. First, low differentiation. If your potential customer sees you as just another funeral service company, you're left sacrificing your profit margin to win. Clients this game is a race to the bottom that the conglomerates will always win since they have deeper pockets and greater efficiency. Second. Grudge purchase. Since no one wants to think about funeral services and people don't see you as any different from any other funeral homes, they're unlikely to sign up for pre-need with you. Additionally, relying heavily on digital marketing like Google Ads is a losing game, especially for independent funeral homes. These types of marketing are priced like an auction. The more people are willing to spend to be promoted, the more search engines charge. Deep pocketed conglomerates have a strong advantage here. Transactional marketing reduces your services to a commodity. The lowest price wins the relational marketing alternative. Building trust and familiarity. Leaning more heavily into relational marketing offers a more sustainable and profitable path to growth for funeral service businesses. Instead of focusing on the 5% of people who are actively in the market, relational marketing seeks to build connections with the masses, fostering familiarity and trust over time. Strengths of relational marketing. Number one word of mouth. Since people talk, if you connect with people on an emotional level, they will refer their friends and family to you as they enter the market. Two, emotional connection. When people know, like, and trust you before they need what you offer, pre-need becomes the natural next step bypassing Google. You will know your relational marketing is working as you see your direct organic traffic increase. This means your potential customers have a bias toward working with you and your competition isn't even considered. Another benefit. There are inexpensive ways to reach broad audiences at much lower cost than digital examples of relational marketing approaches. Relational marketing allows you to share stories and values that reflect the heart of your funeral home. Below are a few examples of message strategies that can build trust while being conscientious of the topic. Reflective storytelling. Like the following, ad sharing stories and values your funeral home were founded upon, and how you're living them out can be incredibly powerful with building trust and respect in the community.

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He raised the light bulb and gazed into it like it held some special power. I figured it was something master electricians did, but then he said, whatever you do, let your brilliance shine bright.'cause people are gonna see it if you serve them well. They'll remember at the time, I didn't appreciate what he was trying to teach me. I guess that's the way it can be with kids. By the time I understood it was too late to thank him, he said, true brilliance means no shortcuts. You have to be willing to sacrifice. Treat every job and every customer. Like your reputation depends on it.'cause it does. That's how you earn the right to help others. I'm David Hutton. You've probably seen our blue and orange trucks, the ones with the bright light bulb and my dad's name on the side. When your home's heating, air conditioning, or electrical system needs help, it would be an honor if you'd let me show my dad I was paying attention.

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Hutton Electric heating and air, go to call hutton.com. That's call H-U-T-T-O n.com.

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Two. Authenticity and vulnerability being real helps people relate to you and dispels the belief that you're trying to capitalize on heartache. Three happy stories. Sharing stories of your team going above and beyond. To provide comfort and guidance to grieving families can put future customers minds at ease when they enter the market. Tact and empathy are required when employing these approaches, but with the right execution, they can help you create meaningful connections and loyalty. Leading to pre-need sales and increased calls. Why relational marketing pays off. In marketing, it's often said that in the absence of an emotional connection, people will always choose the cheapest option. Funeral services are no different. By leaning into relational marketing, you can connect with customers more genuinely. While seeing exponential growth in your pre-need and profitability, relational marketing gives people strong emotional reasons to choose you lessening the impact of price on the purchase decision. Let's put it all together for funeral homes, the path to predictable sustainable growth lies in a comprehensive marketing strategy with a focus on relationship building at scale. While transactional and digital marketing have their place in most marketing strategies, they should ideally be limited to less than 40% of your marketing budget. Mastering this combination of relational and transactional marketing. Will lead to the maximum calls with the highest profitability for your funeral home if you're hoping to eventually sell your funeral home. Investing in relational marketing is even more important. A steady track record of growth from a community who knows, likes and trusts you will drastically increase your valuation. In short, creating a marketing strategy based on relational marketing isn't just about avoiding offense. It's about being seen as the vital and caring presence in the community that you are. It's about fostering trust and inspiring confidence in the community that when they need what you offer, you'll be there to support and serve them.