November 2018

Page A23 NOVEMBER 2018 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A Dennis Helwig of Wiesner-Massart Funeral Home,Algona and Casco, WI with John Muster (left) of Muster Coaches, Calhoun, KY picking up their new all wheel drive Linclon MKT Hearse. Wiesner-Massart Funeral Home Muster Coaches 1-800-274-3619 Calhoun, KY Experienced in helping funeral professionals with all their shipping needs since 1978. » Domestic Shipping » International Shipping » Removal » Embalming Exceptional Service » No Exceptions (800) 321-0566 www.shipinman.com none of that matters if your website can’t seal the deal. And great content is what allows it to do that. When we talk about marketing in this digital age, we’re really talking about internet marketing. While some old- school (offline) marketing practices certainly remain use- ful to some degree, most people today choose service pro- viders by researching online. And that trend will just keep growing year after year—even for death care services. Traditional forms of advertising are quickly losing mar- ket share in every industry. Even people in their sixties, seventies, and eighties spend a lot of time online these days. That’s where you need to reach them, particularly for preplanning services. To achieve that, you must have a website that converts visitors into clientele. It can’t simply be a place for people to find your phone number and read a short bio about you and your funeral home. Your site must sell your ser- vices to visitors (in a thoughtful and reverent way). A sharp, attractive website is great, but that’s just the foundation. Now you need to build a great marketing tool on top of it. That’s what every business website ulti- mately is today a marketing tool. A content-deficient site doesn’t help your ranking in lo- cal online searches. It doesn’t communicate trustworthi- ness and credibility. It doesn’t differentiate you from your local competition. This is where you seal the deal with both pre-need and at-need clientele and drive case counts—if it’s filled with strong, relevant content. That’s how you get your website ranked higher than your competitors, and that’s how you convert visitors into clientele. The major search engines, especially Google, want to create the best possible experience for users. Thus Google places a massive emphasis on ranking sites that clearly benefit their visitors the most. Most of that determina- tion is based on the quantity and quality of content on the particular site. While text is the first priority when we talk about con- tent, elements such as photos, graphics, and even videos are also important. That’s all content. Using all these as- pects in a complementary fashion lets you tell your story and market your business in the most effective way. You’ll likely find the most benefit in working with a professional copywriter. Good ones know how to write compelling copy that’s appropriate for your particular in- dustry—thoughtful, empathetic, understanding—while also converting leads and getting your site ranked highly in local searches. If you do write your website copy in-house, you must ensure it is informative and grammatical. Search engines have evolved to recognize misspellings and grammatical mistakes, and those can hurt your credibility. Just as criti- cally, errors will undermine your credibility with website visitors. Consider crafting articles that educate and inform peo- ple. What are the considerations for preplanning a funer- al? What do families need to do first after suffering an un- expected loss? What information can you provide to walk them step by step through this process? Look for places throughout your site to include great content. In addition to photos and videos, you can have informative text on all of your pages, plus articles and blog posts. All these things make a huge impact in having a successful marketing campaign. Welton Hong is the founder of Ring Ring Marketing® and a leading expert in creating case generation from online to the phone line. He is the author of Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes. For more information, visit www.FuneralHomeProfits.com. Content is the #1 Priority in Your Marketing Campaign Continued from Page A22