Here’s a challenge! I have an established client for whom I built a little web site years ago. It’s a two-location funeral home and I update the obits regularly. They are interested in creating a separate web site for each — one urban and one suburban. Overall objective of client is to offer services to multiple faith groups. It seems Protestants use one funeral home and Catholics another and then there are the favorites among the various Protestant groups.

I suggested blogging because the drive web traffic, but client is fearful — it’s kind of a fearful field. 

I think they could blog about things and be helpful: faith customs, grieving, support groups, differences in funeral traditions, inspiration — but it’s a hard sell.’

Client said he studied the competition and he is convinced it’s not the way to go in the suburbs. I have suggested copying the competition is not going to help his overall objective.

It’s a pretty sensitive field. Any advice, folks?! Thanks in advance!

@judithgotwald Personally, I would take the stance that if you really care about grieving families then you need to be doing something to help them through the process.
The easiest way to allay fears, superstitious, and emotion turmoil is to write about it. Explain the process the clients/prospects will be relieved.

@judithgotwald I had a friend who was a mortician. They take their work and reputation very seriously. If you ever thought a banker was nervous about what people thought of them, funeral home directors are WORSE!

Talk about educating the clients. Tell them it’s not about marketing, it’s about helping people in the community understand more about what they do, about traditions, expectations, and even history. Also, the ideas you suggested were spot on — traditions, support groups, etc.

Here’s how I would sell it to them:

1) Fewer people are using the Yellow Pages, they’re searching online. Blogging will help you win search.2) Many funeral homes are trying to offer more resources, not just funerary services. A blog will help you offer those resources for when people are at home and are searching for more information.3) Many people are unaware of what to expect during a funeral or how to act. You could educate people on what is expected of them, and even serve as a resource to other funeral homes. Remember, it’s not just the immediate family who will be looking to your for guidance, it will be people who attend the funerals. They may have questions about what’s expected during services or at the gravesite, what the driving rules are during a funeral procession, or even the traditions in funerals for other religions.

@judithgotwald The advice @erikdeckers has is very good. I used to live in a small somewhat rural town that also had two funeral homes, although they were divided more along racial lines of preference.

They began to embrace the web, after years of writing an “advertorial” newspaper ad column every week. This actually did focus on various customs from different religions. They also added a Condolences feature for each family, which became hugely popular, especially with out of town people.

They could also curate content about grieving, the stages, what’s healthy, etc. I know I had to seek advice about my mother’s grieving state several months after my father passed. Some of us are not “born” to handle these situations.

It sounds like a golden opportunity for them to lead the way — the question is whether they want to.

In my networking group the other day the funeral director in the group gave a presentation. It was all about Pre Planning. Which not only makes so much sense, it’s a great topic because it can be compared to things like estate planning, financial planning — because it really does fit in with those areas of life. Plus he quoted a statistic that something like 80% of people don’t plan — and yet imagine how much easier it is for your loved ones when you do.

His presentation was excellent because it contained both sensitivity and practicality plus he had this excellent pre planning work book. Some of that stuff could be put on line for people to see and use.

And if noone else in their industry is doing it — wow. What an opportunity.

Cheers,
Stef

@stefaniefrank @kristi-hinesYes, I see nothing but opportunity here! But it is so hard to talk about even with the people who deal with this every day.

Thank you all! I’m going to take another stab at it — gently — because client seems strongly opposed. Only reason I’ll take one more try is that I am convinced it is the way to meet his stated objective — of offering services to other faiths than his 100-year-old funeral home currently serves. It is a challenge, but perhaps one worth pursuing . . . and one that could be very helpful to a lot of people.

It might be useful to ask local religious leaders to guest blog about the funeral customs of different faiths. I like @kristi-hines suggestion about talking with hospice services people. 

Hey Judith,

You have some great ideas on what type of topics to blog about.  I did a quick search and found a few blogs for you that seem like the information they share is helpful and the comments/views back that up:

http://www.robertsfamilyfh.com/blog/ - integrate video into their blog and share event and supprt information.http://www.shaughnesseybanksfuneralhome.com/blog/ - seem to get a good number of views.http://www.gramerfuneralhome.com/blog/ - good content

I don’t think any of these blogs appear to be focused on gaining endorsements or selling.  They seem to be truly helpful and sometimes inspiring.  Maybe share some examples of posts or blogs that you find would be helpful for someone grieving and remind your client that blogging is about the sharing of information and ideas, not really selling (unless you set it up that way).