Cremation Strategies, Certification & Tributes

Registration is now open for this year’s Cremation Strategies Conference , which takes place November 12th in St. Pete Beach, Florida. The one-day event is packed with experienced and knowledgeable speakers who will focus their talks on catering to all cremation families and earn you up to 5 Continuing Education Unit (CEU) credits.

If you aren’t reaching out to cremation families and helping them recognize the value of memorialization, then you’ll only have yourself to blame when competitors boost market share at your expense.

FrontRunner Announces New $1.6-Million Dollar Training Facility to Help Funeral Professionals Learn, Grow and Better Their Businesses

As the technological demands on funeral professionals continue to evolve, FrontRunner Professional is creating an opportunity to jump ahead of the curve. Clients will have the opportunity to strategically position themselves to conquer new challenges and meet their communities’ expectations.

FrontRunner has acquired a new 6,500 square foot, $1.6-million dollar facility that will house the new Technology and Training Center. The center represents Frontrunner’s ongoing commitment to set a higher standard, and provides all the tools and resources to help clients truly excel in today’s market.

Simple & Affordable Cremation Options Make Good Business Sense

The last funeral I attended for a close family member was over 20 years ago. My grandmother, in her mid-80s at the time of her death, had arranged everything. There were several visitations with an open and ornate casket, a full service, and a graveside ceremony. She clearly stated that she wanted all the bells-and-whistles because she had lived a full life and deserved it.

Those words have stuck with me all these years later. There’s little doubt that my grandmother considered a full, traditional funeral as the ultimate way to define her status. This was the accepted and preferred funeral arrangement – the status quo. Everyone else she knew in her generation had a big funeral and she wanted one too. She could afford it and wanted everyone to know it.

It All Boils Down to Customer Service

Marketing is a tricky beast. It’s a critical element to any business yet most small and medium sized companies don’t have actual marketing departments. Budgets are limited to the cost of advertising without any room to pay outside marketing firms. The advent of technology has added a new twist to marketing trends and companies are scrambling to find someone on staff to maintain websites, blogs, and social media platforms.

For some, they just throw their hands up in the air and admit defeat. They refuse to embrace new marketing strategies because they don’t have the time or resources. They continue to market their companies just as they have for however many years.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing when the companies instead focus their efforts on providing excellent customer service. It’s one thing to implement marketing strategies but when you get customers through the door, do you create a truly memorable experience? Does your firm ever take extraordinary measures to set yourself apart from the competition? Do you provide a service to your customers that they will then share with their family, friends and beyond?

12 Ways the Book of Memories™ Connects Your Firm to Your Community

It takes more than just a website to successfully compete in today’s changing market. As families and communities continue to expect more for less, funeral professionals are searching for meaningful and affordable ways to make lasting connections.

How can you reach out to potential families without spending thousands of dollars on advertising and marketing initiatives? How can you get your funeral firm name out there in the community as the ‘go-to’ place for all things funeral-related? How can you ensure your company’s professionalism and integrity are showcased?

The answer is simple: the Book of Memories™.

4 Steps to Knowing What Your Community Types into Google

Search engines love keywords. In fact, keywords are critical to any Search Engine Optimization campaign. If you don’t take the time to figure out what words and phrases work best, any plans to attract more visitors won’t get very far. And, all the work you’ve put in to your website will be a waste of time and money if no one is actually finding your site online.

Your Website Design Speaks Volumes About Your Company

As a content writer, it’s hard to believe that I would admit this but a website design can make or break the first impression of your company. While I wholeheartedly believe that effective content is king, I happen to sit with an awesome group of graphic designers who have managed to convince me to rethink what I’ve been spouting for years.

Both design and content are critical to attract and retain online visitors. They work in tandem to engage potential clients and re-engage existing ones.

Sympathy Stores: Hip or Hype?

You have undoubtedly been hit up at one time or another by the hype of promised profits through the use of sympathy stores and other online selling tools. Before you put your firm’s reputation on the line, there are a few things that you need to know.

 

 

Have You Googled Yourself Lately? Your Reputation is on the Line

Once upon a time, just for fun, all of us would search our own names in Google just to see how we ranked. The act of ego-surfing was done on the sly so we didn’t come across as  caring whether we could find anything about ourselves in the first few pages of the rankings.

Today, not taking the time to Google ourselves and our companies is simply irresponsible. Controlling what searchers find and claiming your business name on the major search engines is part of an effective online reputation management (ORM) plan and makes perfect business sense.

So where should you begin? The first step is actually knowing how your firm looks online when families are searching for you. This is the initial stage of your ORM Plan. Yes, this takes more than a few minutes and can be quite extensive but the following steps can help get you started to assess your current online reputation and determine what needs to be done to improve your online presence.

Be Smart about Social Media

Ashley Montroy, FrontRunner Professional’s Marketing and Social Media Manager spoke with Lauren Moore for her article Be Smart about Social Media. The article is published in the March 2014 issue of American Funeral Director Magazine.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project, which has been studying  online adults’ social networking site use since 2005, found that last year, 73 percent of adults that are online are using social networking sites. Like it or not, your customers – and your employees – are using social media, probably on a daily basis. It’s crucial, then, that you consider implementing a social media policy for your funeral home.