April 2021

Page A10 APRIL 2021 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A XL industries inc. Call: 406-449-4100 • Visit: www.XLIndustries.com Available Through Quality Suppliers Ladder Racks with adjustable shelves Basket Stands Portable Folding Register Stands Made in USA Quality & Value - Built Just for Funeral Homes! Providing the Best-Designed Tools for Your Services Since 1926. Dozens of products that give you years of service and store compactly when not in use. Lightweight and easy to take to gravesides or churches. Nesting Stands Free Supplies. FREE Operator Training Video. Settlements can now be used to purchase cremation supplies from our affiliate company, New England Cremation Supply. Customer Loyalty Rewards Program Family Owned and Operated since 1995 Cremation Metal Recycling 800-664-8365 cremation metal recycling - responsible recycling charitable foundation cmr@metrocast.net www.cremationmetalrecycling.com Are You Talking About Yourself Too Much? FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS www.nomispublications.com Monthly Columns online at Dr. Troyer’s free library of Facebook tutorial videos can be found at www.JasonTroyer.com. Dr. Jason Troyer is a grief expert, author, former psychology profes- sor, and therapist. He helps funeral homes and cemeteries connect with their communities through Facebook content and grief support materials. He frequently provides community presentations, profes- sional workshops, and trainings across the country. In addition to providing his Facebook content service and pre- sentations, he also works at Smith Funeral & Cremation Service & Grandview Cemetery in Maryville, TN. Dr. Troyer can be reached at DrJasonTroyer@gmail.com. You can view all of his video tutorials and learn more at www.JasonTroyer.com. By Jason Troyer, PhD Facebook Made Easy overcoming adversity, local history, nostalgia, etc. The first and primary goal should be to post content that your local families are interested in. Once you have done that, you can now begin to mix in content that focuses on your firm and the services you offer. In most cases, I think you should aim for a 90%/10% mix. Ninety percent of your Facebook content should focus on topics that your community wants to see; ten percent can be about you and your services. This al- lows you to earn the right for them to view the 10% of the content that is about you. Does this take some work and time? Yes. Yes, it does. But funeral homes and cemeteries that invest some time on a regular basis can create a Facebook page that reaches thousands of local families on a weekly basis. counted price on fluoride treatments (“THIS MONTH ONLY!!”). On the fourth day, you’re back to the ad about whitening. How long are you going to keep following this Facebook page? There isn’t any education about preven- tive care or things you can do, these are just promotions for their own services. Has anyone ever thought, “I really need more commercials and ads in my life”? But are you doing the same thing on your Facebook page by posting too much about your products and services? Marketing research groups suggest the average Ameri- can sees over 5,000 marketing messages each day. Do you remember how many you saw yesterday? You probably don’t, because we have gotten really good at tuning out marketing messages. Especially when the ads are online, our eyes quickly scan past the banner ads, the sidebar ads, the pop-up ads, and more. In order to not get bogged down by these 5,000 media messages, we have trained our brains to look past them. Now don’t get me wrong. There is a time and place for paid ads on Facebook. There are also times you should post content about yourself and your services. But I can guarantee you that the if you talk about yourself 100% of the time, people will tune you out. But that doesn’t mean you should never post about your business. Instead, the most important thing you can do is post Facebook con- tent about topics your community is interested in. In my professional experience working with funeral homes in 25 different states, there are some common topics that all communities are interested in: grief support, communi- ty events, local veterans’ events, local businesses, inspira- tional stories and quotes, local school sports, stories about I am going to talk about the second biggest problem facing most funeral home and cemetery Facebook pag- es. More importantly, I am going to share with you the easy and simple answer to solving this problem. I have looked at hundreds of funeral home and cem- etery Facebook pages and the biggest problem facing most of these Facebook pages is not posting frequently enough. For example, if there have not been any new posts within the last few weeks, that’s a big problem. Although what is even worse is not having any posts at all on your Facebook page. But the focus on this month is the second biggest problem facing funeral homes and cemeteries on Face- book: focusing too much on yourself . Some funer- al and cemetery professionals discover Facebook and seem to think this is a place where I can freely advertise my services all the time . I have seen funeral homes and cemeteries post direct sales and preplanning ads on a daily basis. I would ask you to put yourself in the places of the families in your community. Imagine you have a den- tist that your entire family uses. Over 20 years, this dentist has helped you out on a weekend when you broke a crown and has helped your children get over their fears of getting braces. When you see your dentist has a new Facebook page, you decide to follow it. The next day, you notice their post about a special price on their teeth whitening service (Okay – maybe I’ll think about that). The next day is a post about their spe- cial deal on electric toothbrushes (No thanks, I’ve al- ready got one). The third day is a post about their dis- Affordable Funerals Network Mobile App Launch INDIANAPOLIS,IN— Affordable Funerals Net- work (AFN) is proud to announce the launch of their AFN Mobile App. The first of its’ kind app will be ac- cessible free of charge to the 250,000,000 Apple and Android users. With the United States being one of the countries most impacted by the global pandemic, the $20 bil- lion funeral services industry is being forced to meet the changing needs and desires of the modern- day consumer. The funeral industry was very much steeped in tradition, but with the realities of COV- ID-19, many firms are exploring new and innovative tech-driven ways to keep their clients and families safe. Enter the Affordable Funerals Network App. AFN will introduce the industry’s first mobile app designed to provide its users with immediate access to “COVID-conscious” funeral service providers across Program in partnership with a highly respected na- tional disaster cleaning company. According to The Foresight Companies’ 2020 Fu- neral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study, 75 percent of consumers now want pricing online, a prac- tice virtually unheard of today, and 52 percent say they will only do business with companies that provide on- line pricing options. The “Cost Sensitive” firms on the AFN App will make their general price list available along with other pricing options. This app is going to be a great marketing tool for the firms that want to reach the average smartphone owner who uses 30 apps each month according to techcrunch.com. A recent re- port by builtfire.com, the largest builders of apps and the builder of the AFN App, stated 49 percent of peo- ple open an app 11 plus times each day and 57 percent of all media usage comes from mobile apps. According to Chris Cruger, Foresight partner and COO, “We’re experiencing a sea change in consumer behaviors with long-term implications for technology and physical infrastructure, as well as the deployment of human resources for the funeral and cemetery pro- fessions, webcasts and on-line pricing have gone from nice-to-haves to minimum expectations overnight. You can’t put that genie back in the bottle.” Founded in 2013, Affordable Funerals Network is an online community dedicated to bridging the gap be- tween funeral homes and the families that need them. AFN knows how important it is to have the right people in their corner to ensure that the process of laying a loved one to rest doesn’t add to the painful grieving process. They set out to make sure their client’s experience dur- ing their search for the perfect funeral provider is both professional and seamless. To learn more about the AFN, visit AFNfunerals.com or email info@afnfunerals.com. the country in their time of need. With a net- work of top-notch affili- ates across the country, the AFN App will make it easier to connect con- sumers with “COVID- conscious” funeral homes that are working hard to ensure their client’s safe- ty during these challeng- ing and uncertain times. They need more partic- ipating firms who will go above and beyond to slow the spread of CO- VID-19 via the AFN-ap- proved Certified Cleaned Park Lawn Corporation announces February 2021 Dividend TORONTO,ONTARIO— Park Lawn Corporation (TSX:PLC) announced that the monthly dividend of $0.038 per share will be payable on March 15, 2021 to share- holders of record as at February 26, 2021. PLC provides goods and services asso- ciated with the disposition and memo- rialization of human remains. PLC and its subsidiaries own and operate busi- nesses including cemeteries, cremato- ria, funeral homes, chapels, planning offices and a transfer service. PLC op- erates in five Canadian provinces and fifteen U.S. states. Digital Directory Now Available Download instantly at www.nomispublications.com Save on Shipping!