So that was 2017, over and done with. It was quite a year in Funeralworld. We lost one of the brightest stars, the founder of the Death Cafe movement, Jon Underwood, who died on 27th June 2017, tragically young at 44. Jon’s legacy is not only his two beautiful children, but the continuing spread of Death Cafes around the world; over 5,600 have been held so far, offering tens of thousands of people the chance to drink tea, eat cake and talk about death. We saw the appointment in Scotland of the new Inspector of Funerals Directors, Natalie McKail, in a step towards the regulation of the funeral industry north of the border, something we are sure will be watched with interest in England and Wales. We watched Dignity’s share price tumble by more than 25% over 12 months, opening at the beginning of the year at 2,447 and closing on Friday at 1,820 after CEO Mike McCollum warned of increasing competition eroding their pricing power. We were informed of the disappearance of the CEO of the National Association of Funeral Directors, Mandie Lavin who is no longer in position – although as yet no explanation has been given to members. We’ve seen the re-emergence of Howard Hodgson as a player behind the scenes of the Hospice Funerals franchise scheme, something we will continue to monitor and challenge as we go forward into 2018. We will be publishing the results of our survey early next month. As for the Good Funeral Guide – well, we’re still here, watching and observing, participating in discussions and debates and doing the work that we are dedicated to; supporting, empowering and representing the interests of dying and bereaved people living in the UK. We have added a further 12 funeral directors and two burial grounds to our recommended lists after they went through our stringent accreditation process, and we have several more companies waiting to be visited in the new year. Membership of the Good Funeral Guild has doubled in 2017, and there is a thriving networking group where thoughts, ideas and best practice are all freely shared. Funerals are changing, there is no doubt of that, and it is largely thanks to the efforts of dedicated, challenging, committed individuals who are determined to give bereaved families the best possible experience at the worst time in their lives. We are proud to be associated with so many of you, and we will continue to support you as best we can using the platform that we have. As we head into 2018, we have ideas and plans for new ways to keep the momentum going. We have meetings and collaboration planned with colleagues in the church, in celebrant organisations, with the Natural Death Centre charity and with SAIF, and we’ll be working hard to ensure we all go forward together with the best interests of bereaved families at the heart of all we do. We’re adding more information to our website so people can access free, unbiased and accurate guidance about funerals, and we’ll continue to publish our thoughts and opinions without fear or favour on this blog. And lastly, we’re leaving some things behind. We’ll no longer be involved with the Good Funeral Awards. We think it’s time for new ways of celebrating what is good in the world of funerals. Watch this space. Happy New Year from all at Team GFG
Another year older and closer to death.. published first on YouTube via Tumblr Another year older and closer to death..
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As the New Year gets going, think about experiencing a Death Cafe as one of your bucket list items. It’s an opportunity to relax over some coffee or tea, some cake or cookies, and join in a group discussion to talk about what’s on your mind about mortality issues. Participants always give the event high marks! […] via Tumblr Jan. 20: Albuquerque Death Cafe On this Christmas Eve here in New Mexico, families are lining the sidewalks in their neighborhoods with luminarias, simple paper bags with sand in the bottom and one votive candle. It’s a beautiful Christmas tradition, designed to direct the Christ child to the family’s home. You may enjoy this Mortality Minute video I did about […] via Tumblr Celebrating Christmas with Luminaria and End-of-Life Discussions Coffee and cremated remains, urns and cremation jewelry… Among my favorite exhibitors to visit at funeral trade shows are the friendly Khan family, proprietors of LoveUrns®. The fact that they usually have an espresso bar offering free caffeinated delights in their booth always scores big points. LoveUrns® is known for their creative, beautifully-designed solid brass […] via Tumblr LoveUrns Offers New Cremation Urns and Jewelry Funeral professionals have a 365-day-a-year job. Taking a vacation is tough. And finding time to focus on productivity? That seems like a pipe dream. Thankfully, you’re not on your own. There are a number of tools out there that will not only help you keep your New Year’s resolutions to get better organized and uncover […] Continue reading Transform Your Funeral Business in 2018 With This Resource on funeralOne Blog. Transform Your Funeral Business in 2018 With This Resource published first on YouTube via Tumblr Transform Your Funeral Business in 2018 With This Resource As the New Year gets going, think about experiencing a Death Cafe as one of your bucket list items. It’s an opportunity to relax over some coffee or tea, some cake or cookies, and join in a group discussion to talk about what’s on your mind about mortality issues. Participants always give the event high marks! […] via Tumblr Jan. 20: Albuquerque Death Cafe Social media is ‘marketing.’ It’s not the new marketing, it’s the current state of marketing, and funeral homes and deathcare companies can no longer afford to ignore it. There are so many reasons why deathcare companies need to get their heads out of the sand and start engaging on the platforms used by over 68% of all Americans. But first let me frame this up for you: you are a business owner (doesn’t matter what your business is, but almost all who are reading this are in the deathcare space) and as a business owner, you need attention from the consumer, so they know you exist. Pretty simple, right? No attention equals no business. So, understanding that means you should understand that you are a media company before you are anything else. That’s right before you are a funeral home, crematory, cemetery or pet cremation business you are a media company. Meaning, you must be producing content on the platforms where your target audience is hanging out and devoting hours of their time every day. The number one platform you should be focusing on is Facebook. Over 1.37 billion (with a B) people every day are logging on to Facebook. In the United States, 80% of internet-using adults engage on Facebook. In the deathcare space, we know that 65-75% of people shopping for deathcare services are women between the age of 45-65. Just over 75% of women in the US between 45-65 who have internet access engage on Facebook. Yet, we spend, in this profession, 95% of our marketing dollars trying to find and reach the 25% who aren’t using Facebook daily. That doesn’t make sense. Need more convincing to make Facebook a central part of your marketing strategy for 2018 besides the fact that your prime target audience is fully engaged there? Here are a few of the other benefits you get from marketing on Facebook correctly: Increase Brand AwarenessFacebook is the best way to build your brand in today’s market. Facebook lets you advertise and have an open dialogue with consumers and generate meaningful content and relationships. If you don’t have a Facebook Paget for your funeral home or death care business, you’re already behind. Bring attention to your business by establishing your brand on Facebook. Improve Brand LoyaltyThis is the new word of mouth. Brand loyalty is about knowing more about your consumer than your competition does. Creating valuable content that consumers can engage with leads to a deeper relationship with clients; the more you know about someone, the more complex the relationship becomes. Focusing on creating organic content and humanizing your brand allows funeral companies to better educate the consumer and establish a deeper relationship. Humanize Your BrandConsumers connect with people and connect with a story. Use your Facebook Page to get personal with your audience. Showcase your staff members so consumers can get to know your funeral home. Transparency is so important in this field; transparency is what will attract consumers to your brand. Establish Your Brand as an Authority and Thought LeaderThe amazing thing about the internet is that there is no hierarchy. Users can do whatever they want with the knowledge they acquire. Producing content that is entertaining and engaging will set you apart from your competitors. Funeral homes can position themselves as a leader in the community by putting out more content than any other competitor. This establishes them as an authority and a thought leader. Keep in mind that consumers can see right through BS, so be real and be transparent. Targeted AdvertisingTargeted advertising allows brands to target a specific demographic with ads. Funeral homes can choose who their ads target based on age, race, gender, income, and interests. This is such a valuable tool; once you go through that checklist, Facebook will only show that ad to the specific person you are trying to reach and, therefore, saves money. A smaller pool of people are targeted, so you’d be spending less money and reaching a more specific group of consumers. For example, at DISRUPT Media, we ran an ad for a funeral home in South Carolina that carried a Gamecocks casket. It was shared many times, and people were tagging family members in the comments to tell them that this was the casket they wanted for their funeral. One man, in particular, loved it but had already made pre-need arrangements at another funeral home. The funeral home was able to message that user privately and switched his pre-need to their funeral home. This targeted advertisement, towards older males, brought in business for this funeral home. RetargetingRetargeting is the type of advertising that makes you think “Man, how did they know that?!” If you were just online shopping for a new computer and you get on Facebook and see that same computer in an ad, you have been retargeted. Freaky, but it works. If that product you were considering buying keeps showing up, you are more inclined to buy it. Facebook allows every ad account to do this. At DISRUPT, we tried this with a few funeral homes by using cookies to track the consumers that visited the obituaries section of their website for 90 days. This gives the business valuable information about the consumer that can be used to better target them when creating new ads. Improve Preneed and Atneed SalesBrand loyalty and transparency are what improve sales. Shopping and buying habits consumers have don’t change when it comes to funeral services. The way consumers look for reviews, referrals, and testimonials from friends and families are the same. So, to improve sales is to improve the quality of the content. If a consumer is engaging with the same funeral home every day or every week, why would they call a different funeral home when they are ready to pre-plan or are in an at-need situation? According to the NFDA 2017 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Study, “Only 18.9% respondents contacted more than one funeral home in their time of need.” If they are already connecting with your brand, they aren’t going to go somewhere else when it comes to their at-need or pre-need service. Cut Marketing CostsThis graphic below shows how much money you save by marketing on Facebook rather than traditional forms of advertisement. They calculated the CPM for seven different advertising mediums to show how much money you would have to spend to reach 1,000 consumers. This study shows that it only costs $0.25 to reach 1,000 consumers on Facebook. This statistic should cause businesses to reconsider their marketing strategy; this has the potential to allocate their funds to different categories in their budget, resulting in businesses being able to spend more time focusing on the consumer and their needs. Ok, so hopefully after reading the text above you understand and realize how important and how valuable social media, specifically Facebook, is for your business. If not, well you can just put the forsake sign out front now. For those of you that get it, here are some tips and trends you should embrace in 2018: Facebook is KingStop worrying about what comes after Facebook or what happens if Facebook goes away. Who cares? Currently billions of your potential customers engage there every single day which means you should too. It’s the large social platform on the planet, and there is a massive upside for the deathcare companies that learn how to engage their audience first. Post More VideoVideo has become a very vital form of content for Facebook. One of the best ways to reach users and generate engagement is to post a video. You may not know where to begin, so here are a few pointers:
Questions/Topics
When recording these videos and answering these questions and topics, feel free to have each team member answer a question they feel most comfortable talking about. Instead of focusing on one member answering everything, this allows multiple faces for your audience to get comfortable with and learn about personally. This is important, as the biggest thing you can do aside from the normal process of marketing, is build a personal relationship with your audience. Go Live!Going Live on the page to users = real-time content. Facebook Live is powerful because it is prioritized in the Newsfeed and will notify your users of the activity. Each time you go Live on your page, users will get a notification to encourage them to watch along. People are spending 3X longer watching live video than native video. Post Content That is ShareableALERT, ALERT: THIS IS NOT OBITUARIES!!! Post content that is real-time and engaging. Content that shows the real you and is personable and it’s ok to add some humor. Facebook Ads and Boosted ContentFacebook is the best place to reach your target audience. Women over 45 are the ones that are looking into funeral homes; they’re your biggest audience. Women in that demographic can’t get enough of Facebook. Cater to them by investing the time and the small amount of money it takes to reach your audience because it will absolutely pay for itself in the long run. Start Playing with InstagramTo win you need attention and trust. It’s a circle. Attention…trust, they feed each other, and without one, you don’t get the other. You’ve got to be able to capture attention, but you also need your audience to trust you. The marketing element in which the funeral profession has been terribly lacking is in building trust. All of what we hear mainstream about the funeral profession is negativity. Being able to capture somebody’s attention while building trust is extremely, extremely valuable when it comes to engaging with the consumer and securing business for now and for the future. Your marketing needs to be focused in the place where consumers, your customers, are giving their attention at scale. Instagram is a completely attention-driven network, and that holds a lot of value. The demographic you want to target so badly, those 45-65-year-old women, are starting to scale very quickly on Instagram. They make up the largest demographic on Facebook, and now they are beginning to turn their attention to Instagram. What’s next for funeral home marketing? It’s absolutely Instagram. Attention is the game, and Instagram is the arena. About Ryan Thogmartin: Ryan Thogmartin is a deathcare entrepreneur and the CEO of DISRUPT Media and creator of ConnectingDirectors.com. | Follower of Christ | Husband | Father | Entrepreneur | Host of #DISRUPTu! and #FUNERALnationtv | Lover of Skittles About DISRUPT Media: Most deathcare companies struggle with Facebook marketing. We provide a process for creating personalized Facebook content that will drive community engagement and measurable leads ensuring growth and profitability. 5 Social Media Tips and Trends Deathcare Companies Should Embrace for 2018 published first on YouTube via Tumblr 5 Social Media Tips and Trends Deathcare Companies Should Embrace for 2018 It’s tempting to dedicate the last few weeks of December to New Year’s Resolutions and lining up your goals for the New Year ahead. But there’s one essential step that you can’t skip out on between wrapping up 2017 and kicking off 2018 with a bang… Before you start creating your January productivity checklists and […] Continue reading Your Biggest Funeral Takeaways From 2017… Do They Match Up With Others? on funeralOne Blog. Your Biggest Funeral Takeaways From 2017… Do They Match Up With Others? published first on YouTube via Tumblr Your Biggest Funeral Takeaways From 2017… Do They Match Up With Others? A look back at FUNERAL hustle’s 2017. From coast to coast and everything in between. Watch the progression and shift in the industry towards digital marketing and especially Facebook marketing. Your audience is there and you should be too. Learn more about DISRUPT Media: http://www.disruptmedia.co About Ryan Thogmartin: Ryan Thogmartin is a death care entrepreneur and the CEO of DISRUPT Media and creator of ConnectingDirectors.com. | Follower of Christ | Husband | Father | Entrepreneur | Host of #DISRUPTu! and #FUNERALnationtv | Lover of Skittles Watch FUNERAL Hustle: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... About DISRUPT Media: Most deathcare companies struggle with Facebook marketing. We provide a process for creating personalized Facebook content that will drive community engagement and measurable leads ensuring growth and profitability. JUST THE BEGINNING | FUNERAL hustle 017 published first on YouTube via Tumblr JUST THE BEGINNING | FUNERAL hustle 017 Coffee and cremated remains, urns and cremation jewelry… Among my favorite exhibitors to visit at funeral trade shows are the friendly Khan family, proprietors of LoveUrns®. The fact that they usually have an espresso bar offering free caffeinated delights in their booth always scores big points. LoveUrns® is known for their creative, beautifully-designed solid brass […] via Tumblr LoveUrns Offers New Cremation Urns and Jewelry |
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