Powerful Results to Expect From Content Marketing
Before committing to a new idea for your funeral home, you want to know it will be worth your time.
Because when you’ve got families to serve and a business to run, you can’t afford to waste time or settle for subpar results.
A marketing strategy can help you reach families without sacrificing your budget or service. But there’s one strategy that excels at building brand awareness, increasing trust with families, and growing your preneed program – content marketing.
We’ve recently written about content marketing and how it can help your funeral home. Our series has explored the basics of content marketing, the best plan for creating and sharing your content, and more.
In short, content marketing is a great way to serve families, make your funeral home stand out online, and achieve other results. According to Forbes Advisor:
– 74% of companies believe content marketing increases their lead generation
– 70% of B2C (business-to-consumer) marketers use a content marketing strategy
– 177% average return on investment for companies using content marketing
So, if you don’t have a content marketing strategy, you need one. And it’s not too late to get started.
Find out more about how content marketing can improve your brand awareness, trust with families, and preneed program.
Better Online Brand Awareness
One of the main goals of any funeral home marketing plan is to keep your business top of mind with families so that you are their first choice when a need arises.
Content marketing can help funeral homes reach a wider audience and attract new families by sharing valuable content with families on social media – and on a consistent basis!
By sharing frequently, families can start to feel familiar with your brand, keeping you top of mind. The cherry on top? Seeing more likes, comments, and followers on your social media pages!
The same goes for your website. If they find educational content that answers their questions, families will see your website as a trustworthy source and visit more often.
Your content can even improve your website’s SEO ranking.
When search engines recognize your website content is valuable to users, your website can have a higher search engine optimization (SEO) ranking and appear near the top of search results.
Bonus: If a family searches for “funeral home near me” or “cremation options,” your funeral home might even be a top result for more added exposure.
Ultimately, the more website visitors and social media engagement you have from your content, the more likely you are to know that your content marketing strategy is working to improve your brand awareness.
And don’t be surprised if a family reaches out to you based on seeing the content you’ve posted online. That’s exactly what happened with one of our clients, Curry Belk of Belk Funeral Home.
“I wasn’t expecting our social media to affect our preneed. I always thought Facebook was a good way to keep your funeral home active with the community and remind people that you’re there when they need you. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised. Social media has really opened doors for a lot of our funeral home’s business, especially our preneed.”
More Trust with Families
The more families see you share valuable content that doesn’t focus solely on selling a product or service, the more they will think you care about educating them. They’ll see that you want to provide them with the most accurate information so they can make the best decision possible.
And if families think you care about them, they’ll begin to trust you.
A content marketing strategy can build trust with families through every blog, article, video, and social media post you share. Families will get the answers they need through your content, which can lead to more families trusting you, seeing you as an expert, and thinking of you as a go-to source for funeral-related information.
Over time, families who know they can find answers in your content might feel confident relying on you for their other needs.
Ivy Hurley, with Primrose Funeral Service and another of our clients, believes the content her funeral home shares has greatly impacted how families see her business.
“Our main goal is to educate families, and families appreciate information and resources about funeral topics. We’ve seen more likes and engagement from families on our social media, especially educational posts. Our content helps show that we’re heavily involved in the community and that our biggest concern is caring for families.”
>>> Learn more about the success Primrose Funeral Service has seen!
Greater Potential for Preneed Leads
Your content marketing strategy can build brand awareness and trust with families, but it can also generate more lead opportunities for your preneed program.
However, your content marketing strategy needs clear calls-to-action and lead-capturing resources to do so.
After a family has read or watched your content, they may wonder what to do next. Calls-to-action can guide families toward their next decision and prompt them to take action by encouraging them to visit your website, explore your offerings, schedule a meeting, or even download a valuable resource.
Offering families valuable, downloadable eBooks, guides, checklists, and other content is the next step in capturing leads. By having families fill out forms to get their copy, you’re encouraging them to stay in contact with you so you can send them even more valuable information.
For Jonathan Quier of Ludwick Funeral Homes and Cremation Care, Inc., his business started seeing increased preneed opportunities after adopting a content marketing strategy with us.
“Usually, our community would look into preneed if their loved one was about to go into a nursing home or maybe if they were a couple in their 60s and 70s. But since changing our content with FDL, we’ve seen families from a wide range of backgrounds and ages explore their options with us.”
>>> Find out more about how Ludwick Funeral Home increased their preneed leads!
Using calls-to-action and downloadable content can create more opportunities to capture families’ information, but you also need a plan to follow up with the leads you obtain through content marketing to see full results.
Designate someone on your staff – from a preneed professional to a funeral director – to manage, organize, and contact any leads you receive from your content downloads. Chances are, the families who fill out your lead-capturing forms are likely your strongest leads, so you need a plan to avoid missing out on serving them.
Just remember, before your funeral home sees results, you must commit to creating and sharing quality content with families and have a plan for following up!
Turn Educated Families into Served Families
While content marketing may sound daunting, it can produce beneficial results for your funeral home. It can help you be top of mind with families, turn you into a trusted expert, generate preneed leads, and secure your business for generations to come.
And content marketing combined with digital marketing is a game-changer.
We can help.
At Funeral Directors Life, our digital marketing packages feature content families will find valuable. Once created, we’ll share this content on your social media, website, and other platforms so families will see it. And if you need a preneed professional to follow up with leads, we have you covered.
Remember, content marketing is a process. You have to build awareness, educate, and grow trust with families BEFORE they become leads.
It doesn’t happen overnight, but over time, content marketing should yield results.
Discover how higher engagement, trust, and preneed leads can help your business now and in the future. Request a demo to learn more!
