As a funeral director, you know how to see things from other people’s perspective. This is a vital aspect of your work. You are able to empathize and deeply understand what someone else is thinking and feeling. You depend on this ability for insight as to how to broach sensitive subjects with your grieving families and to enable them to make critical decisions about their loved one in a timely manner.
It is important to remember that your website represents you to people you can’t talk with in person. As such, it should read the way you would speak if you are talking one-on-one with someone who just walked through your door. When your funeral home website was put together, numerous elements had to be selected, revised and shifted around to make it look right and operate properly, so that when visitors clicked on something that caught their eye, they would end up on the right page.
One of the mistakes that business owners make when they develop their website is that they get so caught up in creating eye-appeal that they often lose the essence of what they are trying to say. As a result, the website that potential clients see is a far cry from what your business really stands for. Frequently the wording of the website attempts to say too much and comes across as dry and boring, or else it is overly-hyped up, sounding like a used car salesman— very different from the caring, empathetic approach you have when you first greet your clients.
Too often, in the flurry of trying to put together a website that will “wow” your visitors, you end up with colors and photos that really do not express who and what you are. The unfortunate result of this is that your website fails to draw in the very people you are trying to reach. In person, you are a very effective funeral home director and grief counselor. Make sure that your website reflects you and your funeral home staff accurately and genuinely.
People are very sensitive to colors and design. Websites that use dark, moody colors like navy blue, grays and black risk further depressing grieving folks who are already subconsciously associating dark colors with death and mourning. If your website has a darker color scheme, make sure that you balance it out with color photos and images of caring people. Otherwise, your funeral home will be psychologically linked with misery and hopelessness and you could lose the battle against your online competitors in the first 30 seconds.
Aim for up-lifting color palettes, ranges of muted garden colors, or nature hues. Include healing pictures like ocean waves or sunrises, even videos with peaceful background sounds. Use accent colors that are in the same color family to bring the attention of your site visitors to key points and coupons. Always include pictures of people so that your potential clients can identify with the people in the photos and so that your funeral home will be perceived as people-oriented.
The best and most effective way to tweak your funeral home website is to put yourself into the shoes of your prospective clients. If you had just lost a loved one and you were hunting for a caring funeral home that you can trust to have your best interests at heart, which website style and wording would you feel most comfortable with? What color scheme and types of photos would catch your attention? How much patience would you have to read the text? Would you skip over long dry paragraphs? Would you rather have short paragraphs with blue links to click, that would take you to the page that has the details?
You know your clients better than anyone. That means that you are the best judge of what wording and design would make them feel that your website has the answers they are looking for. Your website is not set in stone. Don’t be afraid to tweak it so that it will touch the hundreds of grieving families who need your services.
