Why Your Funeral Home Needs A Public Relations Strategy
Part of upholding a stellar reputation is working hard to manage that reputation. Sometimes, this requires increasing community involvement. Other times it requires fostering a more positive attitude towards funeral service. However, you must work diligently to ensure that your funeral home is seen in a good light, at all times.
The goal of public relations is to build a positive relationship between your organization and the public. Public relations helps you shape the general public’s opinion and perception of your business. People tend to buy more from people they like. It does not always come down to cost, quality of service or other product features. If individuals like you for what your company stands for then people will gravitate toward you.
Social Responsibility & Community Outreach
For many funeral homes, community outreach is an important part of their business. Not only does it help support members of your community, but it also lets you connect with families in a positive setting. When it comes to how a funeral home can get involved in their community, the possibilities are really endless.
Some possible ways include:
- Getting involved in events or organizations that support the community
- Sponsoring local teams, schools, or groups
- Fundraising for local charities and causes
When you take the time to get involved in your community, it shows that your firm truly cares about the people in your area. It also creates a way to interact and start building relationships with families. Although they may not need you now, creating these positive experiences can keep you in the back of their minds for later on down the road. Think about it from the family’s perspective. If your firm is willing to go out of your way and spend a Saturday helping others, the family can feel reassured that they’ll receive the same level of care when honoring a loved one.
Funeral Home Reputation Management
First impressions matter. When someone visits your website or looks at your business card, it says a lot about your firm. Branding is a crucial part of funeral home public relations. The way your business presents itself can leave either a positive or negative first impression. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your funeral home’s branding conveys that you are trustworthy and reputable.
One such way to show this is through testimonials on your website, online listings, and social media pages. Social proof is a powerful thing. If people can read about the positive experiences that others have had with your firm, it can help them with their decision making. The internet makes it easy for people to compare businesses, so being able to use funeral home reviews to promote positive experiences is a great way to make your firm stand out. Positive reviews can also be an excellent type of post to share on social media.
Crisis Management
Public relations for funeral homes isn’t always positive. When a crisis arises, how your firm handles it can impact your reputation in the community. We’ve all heard the horror stories of negative experiences and business practices at different firms across the country. Should a situation like this arise, it’s imperative that your firm addresses it and takes action.
Here are some tips for crisis management.
- Take responsibility
- Respond quickly, be direct, and clear
- Demonstrate that you will resolve the problem as quickly as possible
- Good communication is key: say clearly what has gone wrong, what you are doing about it, and the steps you are taking to ensure it does not happen again
- Have a plan on how you will deal with the media.
- Offer a sincere apology
Educating & Delighting Families
Your funeral home’s public relations strategy doesn’t have to just be about corporate social responsibility and charitable causes. There are many ways for your firm to help educate and delight families. For instance, holding a preneed seminar can accomplish two things. The first being it creates a group of leads for your firm. Secondly, it positively impacts your funeral home’s public relations because it shows your firm cares about helping families make informed decisions. If you plan to hold these events, make sure to promote in your local media and online. You can also send press releases to local publications beforehand announcing the event. This might lead to your event being promoted or even some news coverage recapping the event.
Events are not the only way to help with your public relations. Offering newsletters and resources can help paint your firm in a positive light to consumers. If you offer aftercare services, make sure to promote that to your community as well. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather work with a funeral provider that shows they’ll be there for me from the first call until long after the service has ended.
Press Releases for Funeral Homes
If your firm is doing positive things in the community make sure to share a press release with local publications. Who knows, taking just a few minutes to draft up a press release could lead to your firm getting free news coverage for everyone in your community to see.
Another benefit of press releases for funeral homes or any type of business is it keeps your community informed. If you’ve started offering a new aftercare program or service like insurance assignment to help your families, make sure people know about it.
You don’t have to just send press releases to publications either. If you start posting them on your firm’s website, it could give your SEO a boost. Search engines love to show local results to help the user. Publishing press releases online can create the opportunity for your firm to connect with people searching for key terms you might use in your press release.
Need Help With Funeral Home Public Relations?
If there’s ever anything you need help with in regards to your firm’s public relations, feel free to reach out. Whether it’s helping you draft a press release, or coming up with creative ways to leverage your positive funeral home reviews, we’d be happy to help.
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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.