When promoting your funeral home, whether you are using print advertising, radio, or the Internet, make sure that you have provided an avenue for your potential clients to be brought back to you. Both the world and the Internet are big places. It is extremely easy for customers to get distracted and end up at the door of one of your competitors when they were originally considering your business.
When customers search for a business online using Google, Yahoo, Bing or local directories, they type the business they are looking for and the city in the search line. Up pop a dozen business listings, and that’s only the first page. Even if your funeral home is at the top of the list, there are ads above the list and down the right side of the page that promote your competitors. It doesn’t take much for customers to click on one of these ads and you have lost them.
To offset the negative impact of search page ads grabbing up your potential clients, fight fire with fire. Buy ad space with Google or the other search engines so that your ad shows up among your competitors’ ads at the top or side of the search results page. This doubles the chances that the potential client will click on your business because your funeral parlor name appears both in the listing and in one of the ads.
To beat the competition, you have to provide as many ways as possible for customers to be cycled back to your website and Facebook page. The best way to do this is to have your funeral home URL and Facebook URL on every bit of advertising that you do. They should be on all of your print ads in newspapers and magazines, direct mail, door hangers, fliers, your community newsletter, billboard ads, even your funeral home sign outside your building. Your answering machine should mention both of them. They need to be on the business cards of every member of your staff, all of your brochures, as well as on your business receipts.
Linking your Links
Online, your URLs are even more critical. Place your Website URL on your Facebook page and vice versa. Whenever you link to a partner site, such as a florist or monument website, do an exchange with them so that your URLs show up on their site and are easy for customers to see. When customers are finished with the florist or shopping for a monument, they can click on your URL and be brought right back to your website to finish planning the funeral. In your tweets, mention both URLs. Don’t forget to include them in any press releases, blogs, and articles that appear on other websites.
Always make sure that each URL link is live. Use the complete URL (https://FuneralParlour.com). Nothing frustrates or angers Internet surfers more than to click on a link that doesn’t take them anywhere. An inactive link usually means lost customers.
Your goal is to keep your potential clients “traveling in circles.” In other words, if they check out one of your partner sites, they should be able to easily get back to you. Make sure that there are several ways to swing them back to your site. Besides the standard blue link, you can create a decorative box with a picture or animation and a link to your site. Place a Google ad on partner sites as well as on your own Facebook page. Ask friends and other local business owners if you can place an ad or link on their Facebook pages or websites. Another way to share links is with the banner exchange program, where you place a banner ad on another company’s website in exchange for their banner on yours. Usually this is free and is a win-win for both businesses.
