2020 has been a challenging year to say the least. The disruption caused by a global pandemic has made it difficult for businesses to operate and continue to serve. Despite this, there are still many ways you can connect with consumers in your area thanks to different online tools and strategies.
If you’re looking to make the most out of your marketing efforts for 2020 or want to set yourself up for success in 2021, this week’s blog post is all about highlighting some of the biggest opportunities available right now to start connecting with more families.
Your Website Is More Important Than Ever
Think about the last big purchase you made. Chances are you started out by doing some research online. That’s just common practice for most people today. In fact, as many as 88% of consumers conduct some sort of online research before making a purchase. Today we live in an age of convenience where people want to be able to get answers to their questions on their terms.
With so many people relying on the internet to conduct research, it’s important that you make sure your funeral home website is equipped with the tools today’s families expect. Having tools like our Quote Builder or downloadable resources to learn more are both great ways to nurture potential leads and help families learn about their options when considering your funeral.
Start A Blog to Help Get More Website Traffic
While the majority of content published online today comes in video form, written content like blog posts can still be very effective. Adding a blog to your website can help in a couple of different ways. First and foremost, it helps make your website more visible. Search engines like Google want to help users by showing the most relevant and helpful information related to the search. By adding a blog that use keywords and answers common questions, you can improve your website ranking on search engines and ultimately drive more traffic to your website.
The other great thing about blog posts are they’re easily shareable. They’re a useful piece of content you can use across your social media accounts to share content with your followers. By doing so you can offer engaging and helpful information for families in your community and start building relationships.
Your Families Are On Facebook, Are You?
If you’re not using Facebook to connect with families in your community, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. Research has found that 71% of adults in the US are now Facebook users and 74% of users check it daily.
Facebook is a valuable marketing tool you should be using. By doing so, you can start building relationships with families long before they need your services. By building a following on your page, you can let people get to know you and your team better, build trust, and educate consumers about your services and how you can assist them better than anyone else in the area.
Arguably the most powerful aspect of Facebook marketing is the advertising opportunities. Unlike traditional advertising that is difficult to track ROI and and metrics, Facebook advertising is far superior and effective. With Facebook ads, you can build custom audiences of people who fit your ideal customer or someone who might be thinking about preplanning and next steps. By using Facebook to market your business, you’ll have better control of how much you’re spending, who is seeing the ads, and what returns they’re bringing to your firm.
Where Do You Rank Compared To The Guy Down The Road?
Another important aspect of funeral home marketing in 2020 is SEO otherwise known as search engine optimization. Today, your website is the first touchpoint you’ll have with most families. Nearly 90% of people now conduct some form of research online before making a major purchase.
With people turning to the internet to conduct research, you’ll want to make sure your website is ranking highly for common search terms in your area. Studies show that most people don’t scroll past the first results page on search engines and most tend to click on the ones nearest the top of the page.
Solid SEO can make sure your website is ranking highly for the right keywords and that it’s easy for families to find your website online.
Google Advertising – Reaching People When They’re Searching
Just like with Facebook, Google and other search engines are powerful tools to advertise your services to families in the area. You can build custom audiences based on characteristics, past searches, interests, and more. Google offers different types of ads like text or display and can be tailored to reach the specific people you want to. Not only is it a cost-effective way to connect with families, it can bring you a much greater return on investment than more traditional forms of advertising and marketing.
Do You Offer Educating and Engaging Resources?
Today’s families are searching online more than ever before. When they visit your website, it’s because they’re looking to solve a problem. Your website needs to have to tools and resources to help them solve what it is they’re searching for. Having educating and engaging tools on your website like our Quote Builder can make it easy for families to compare their options and build a quote for the service they want. It’s an immersive and modern way to help them preplan and learn about what you offer.
Additionally, you should have different resources available on your website to download. This is lead generation 101. By making these pieces of information available behind a form, you can gather valuable contact information and then start following up and nurturing the lead until they’re ready to come in and complete the arrangement process.
The great thing about having these resources and tools on your website is you can promote them in other places like Facebook or on search engines like Google.
Video Marketing Is Changing Things
Video has completely transformed how we engage with content. According to Oberlo, 85% of internet users in the United States watched video content online last month. In fact demand for video content is on the rise with 54% of consumers wanting to see more video content from brands or businesses they support. Including videos on your website is a great way to educate families, keep them engage, and generate interest in your services.
Video marketing doesn’t just happen on your website. Videos do extremely well on social media and can generate a lot of engagement and shares on a post. In fact, in 2019 internet users spent an average of 6 hours and 48 minutes per week watching videos online.
Landing Pages Increase Conversions
If you want to start getting more leads from your website, make sure landing pages are a part of your strategy. If you don’t know, a landing page is a hyper-focused page that you direct website traffic to from different ads and sources.
When you build a landing page, it should have one goal in mind; getting the conversion. What that conversion is though is entirely up to you. Many of our clients use landing pages quite successfully to get downloads on different resources like preplanning checklists, online quizzes, and other planning resources.
When building a landing page, you’ll want to make sure it’s focused and clear. It should entice the visitor to take action and fill out that form to download the resource. Landing pages are key part of any marketing campaign and the piece that ultimately creates the conversion from visitor to lead.
Traditional Marketing Is Not Dead
Even though digital marketing has been proven to be more cost effective and efficient, it doesn’t mean traditional advertising is dead. In fact, there are many ways to align your online and offline marketing efforts to compliment one another. For instance, if you mail things out to families in your area, create a unique url for them to visit online and get more information. Make sure you don’t share that link anywhere else so you can track who is coming to your website specifically from your traditional marketing.
That’s just an example of one way you can do it. You don’t need abandon traditional advertising altogether. It still has its place in 2020. If you plan to use it though, just make sure its aligned with and complimenting your digital marketing efforts.
Event or Experiential Marketing – You Can Still Do It In 2020
Thanks to Covid-19 events and experiential marketing has become a little bit more difficult in 2020. Events like lunch and learn seminars might not be the safest thing to do in person. But, if you get creative, there are still plenty of ways to hold different kinds of events online and connect with families in your community.
For instance, instead of holding a lunch and learn seminar at your facilities, do it online with Zoom. You could partner with a local restaurant to deliver lunches to each attendee or even provide them with a gift card to order their lunch and attend from home.
If you want more ideas, check out this blog post we wrote on virtual community events for funeral homes!
Need Help With Marketing? We’d Love To Help You!
If you’re interested in learning more about our marketing services, lead generations tools, or digital marketing in general, don’t hesitate to reach out. As the strategic arm behind more than 150 funeral homes digital marketing efforts, our team excels at building a strong online presence for our clients and helping to grow their businesses.
To learn more, visit our website or contact us today to setup a strategy call.
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.
