How To Create Funeral Preneed Leads With Facebook

by Tommy Heigh

July 5, 2019

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Prior to social media, direct mail, seminars, and referrals were common practice and still great to channels and tactics to use today for preneed funeral service leads. With that being said, Facebook is another great tool that our clients (and plenty of other funeral homes) have used to create quality preneed leads for their firms (at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising).

Nowadays, nearly everyone has a smartphone and carries it with them regularly. Furthermore, with 68% of adult social media users on Facebook, it’s a great way to reach your target audience. In fact, the 55+ demographic is one of the fastest growing on the platform.

3 Easy Ways To Create Preneed Funeral Leads On Facebook

There are plenty of ways to start driving more preneed leads from Facebook. Below are three easy ways for even the busiest funeral director to use Facebook effectivley.

Share Content And Direct People To Your Website

Facebook is a great way to easily share content and direct people to your website. Whether it’s through organic or paid posts, make sure to include links to your funeral home website, specifically any pages on preneed planning. There’s plenty of different kinds of content you can share. Whether it’s a preplanning quiz or a resource to download; using Facebook is an easy way to promote your funeral home services and content to people in your community.

Share Videos or Create A Facebook Live Video

Video content has taken over the majority of the content on the internet. In fact, by 2020, experts predict more than 80% of all web content will be video. Facebook Live videos are easy to create as all you need is the smartphone in your pocket. Facebook Live has also been shown to be more engaging than standard videos. According to Wired, Facebook Live videos typically generate 10 times more comments. Another benefit of Facebook Live is that the video stays on your page for people to watch after the live broadcast ends.

So what kind of videos should you post to help create preened leads for your funeral home?

Think about your target audience and the questions they may have. If someone’s considering preplanning their funeral, they likely have questions. However, they might not be comfortable calling the funeral home to ask. Consider creating panel discussions or interviews to explain the hows and whys of funeral preplanning. As mentioned above, during the video make sure to try and direct viewers back to the preplanning content on your website. Once there, they can download resources and you can collect their contact information to follow up with a call or email.

Promote Your Events and Preneed Seminars

Lunch and learn events, open houses, and preneed seminars are all popular ways for funeral homes to meet with people and create preneed leads. Rather than paying to run an ad in your local newspaper or other traditional formats, use Facebook. You can reach a much greater audience for a more affordable cost than through traditional advertising.

Start by creating an event page on Facebook and pay to advertise and promote your event. Make sure to check out our recent posts on Facebook Ads For Funeral Homes or 6 Easy Ways To Promote Your Funeral Home Event Online for more tips and tricks to advertise your events for less.

Stop Pitching, Start Persuading

If you plan to share content about preplanning on Facebook, try to keep it educational. Don’t try to “sell” your services, instead try to nurture people and persuade them by explaining the benefits of preplanning a service. This can be done in many different forms by using emotional and expertise (credibility) messaging.

If you plan to try and persuade with credibility, keep these tips in mind with the content your share.

• Demonstrate expertise: Earn a family’s trust by offering your knowledge through sharing preplanning resources that help answer common questions and discuss what they want to learn about.
• Be easy to understand: Not every family will understand the terminology you use day in and day out. Remember most families aren’t funeral experts so keep that in mind and make sure to explain things clearly.

If wish to persuade through emotion, consider the following.

• Use stories to highlight the emotional value: People love to hear stories. Try to demonstrate the emotional value of preplanning by explaining how funeral preplanning is something you can do for those you will leave behind.
• Be authentic: Remind families that you actually care and are there to help. Don’t try to be too pushy. Make sure to convey that funeral preplanning offers many benefits for the family.

Need Help With Funeral Home Social Media?

If you’re looking to reach more families in your community and start creating a consistent list of preneed leads, we’d love to help. As the strategic arm behind funeral homes across North America, our social media marketing team has the expertise and experience to assist you and get results.

To learn more about our Funeral Home Social Media Marketing services and how we can help you meet your goals, please visit the Funeral Home Social Media Marketing page on our website for more information and schedule a demo or strategy session.

Looking for even more advice on funeral home marketing? Subscribe to The Pulse for FREE monthly funeral home marketing tips and resources delivered directly to your inbox.

Tommy Heigh

Tommy holds a Communications degree from Laurentian University and an Integrated Marketing Communications Graduate Certificate from St. Lawrence College. He is a Content Marketing Specialist at FrontRunner and focuses on producing engaging content that funeral homes can use to connect with families. In addition, Tommy crafts SEO content for clients and specializes in helping the general public connect with the death care industry as a whole.