Page A6 January 2023 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS Se c t i on A www.vischerfuneralsupplies.com By Welton Hong Does your funeral home marketing content serve long-term needs for potential clientele, or do you work constantly to publish content for the here-andnow (no pun intended)? If you’re doing the latter, you’re likely working too hard for a lesser return. Evergreen funeral home marketing content holds its value through the seasons and years, just as evergreen trees hold their leaves and needles. This type of content—when done correctly—is better for your deathcare firm because it continues to convert long after you publish it. Funeral homes and other deathcare firms are lucky because marketing in the niche lends itself well to evergreen content. Here are three tips for ensuring you’re creating this content correctly: 1. Pay attention to keyword and search trends. You know the saying about death and taxes, so you probably realize that general content about funerals, caskets, or other related services and products is naturally evergreen. How people search for this information and what specifics they might be interested in does differ over time, though. Conduct ongoing keyword research so you understand how people search for these services regardless of the change of seasons and trends through the years. 2. Write content that is up to date but long-lasting. Once you know what long-term trends look like, create content that aligns with searcher needs. Ensure your content is up to date and reflects the authority and expertise of your funeral home. It’s okay to include references to current statistics or funeral home technology, for example. However, ensure that even without those bits of information (or if those pieces of information were to become obsolete), the rest of the page continues to serve the reader well. 3. Regularly update parts of content that might be outdated. Keep an index of your content and audit it at least once a year. Take time to update those potentially outdated portions, such as statistics or discussions about new trends or technology. If you’re doing this right, you only have to replace a few sentences or paragraphs, so the bulk of the content you created still works for you and you’re spending less time creating content as you move forward. When in Doubt, Repurpose! According to the EPA, around 75 percent of the garbage generated in America could be recycled. But, as a nation, we’re consistently recycling less than a third of it. You might be generating that kind of waste in your funeral home marketing processes if you’re not repurposing. Repurposed content isn’t unwanted content you take out of the gift closet and dust off because you forgot to create something for this week’s blog post. It’s actually your best content from the past repurposed for new value. Here are some examples of repurposed content: • A blog post on preplanning from five years ago that you update with all new fact and stats and republish • Pulling major facts and stats from a blog post to create separate social media status updates • Turning the steps of your step-by-step preplanning download into an abbreviated infographic version Here are three ways you can repurpose funeral marketing content: Content Fundamentals: Evergreen & Recycled Powerhouse Marketing with Welton 1. Reduce research investments. Every minute you put into (or pay someone to put into) content creation costs you money. That includes keyword research or gathering the latest industry statistics. Reduce how much time is spent on data gathering with organized processes that ensure everyone has access to the information and can use it across all channels and content types appropriately. 2. Reuse images. If you paid for professional marketing or sales images of caskets, urns, or various rooms in your funeral home, make the most of that investment. Add them to social media posts, blog posts, downloads, and infographics. You can use photo editing tools to crop images or update lighting to make them appropriate for different channels and ensure your content is consistent without being too repetitive. 3. Recycle preplanning content. If you have a download or handout on the preplanning process, turn it into multiple pieces of content. Important steps become a checklist or infographic. Details of each step—such as what documents you need or how to discuss preplanning with family— could become blog posts. Each benefit of preplanning might be a social media post. 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 InternetMarketingforFuneralHomes. Formore information, visit www.FuneralHomeProfits.com. F U N E R A L H O M E & C E M E T E R Y N E W S w w w . N o m i s P u b l i c a t i o n s . c o m Monthly Columnsonline at www.derma-pro.net sales@derma-pro.net Nadene Cover-Up Cosmetics Ltd. A name you know. . . . . . Products you trust 800-531-9744 Fax 903-641-0383 did not die of natural causes. “Mrs. Foster and her family have experienced so much tragedy already, and the mishandling of her beloved husband’s remains and destruction of his brain add insult to injury,” said Ken Abbarno, a DiCello Levitt partner and plaintiffs’ co-counsel. “The defendants in this case had one job to do, and their gross negligence and incompetence are nothing short of horrific.” The lawsuit, which also names the local funeral home’s operator and director, along with ACORD Corporation, which issued an insurance policy to the defendants, accuses the defendants of improper embalming and handling, and improper storage and disposal of human remains, as well as negligence of funeral home hiring and supervision. “A full year later, significant questions remain as to why Mr. Foster died in the back of that police car,” Abbarno added. “Pickens County still owes Mrs. Foster and her family answers regarding her husband’s death. That the family now must also contend with the mishandling of his body is truly heartbreaking.” The case is Anny Pamela Foster v. Carriage Services, Inc., Carriage Services of Louisiana, Inc., Carriage Services, Inc. d/b/a Garden of Memories Funeral Home, Carriage Services, Inc., d/b/a Jacob Schoen and Son Funeral Home, John Appel, Jr., and ACORD Corporation, in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans State of Louisiana. Submitted by Baretz + Brunelle Legal Industry Advisors and DiCello Levitt. Lawsuit is Filed on the First Anniversary of Foster’s Death in the Custody of Alabama Law Enforcement Authorities NEW ORLEANS,LA— Publicly traded funeral home company, Carriage Services, Inc (NYSE: CSV) failed to properly embalm and care for the remains of ex-national football league player, Glenn Foster, Jr., according to a civil lawsuit filed on December 6, 2022 in New Orleans. The suit, brought by Foster’s widow, Anny Pamela Foster, alleges that not only did the funeral home fail to properly prepare the body of the former New Orleans Saints player, but it also destroyed his brain without consent or authorization, in breach of the contract between the parties. DiCello Levitt serves as co-counsel with Ben Crump Law LLC. Foster died on December 6, 2021, in the custody of the Pickens County, AL police department, while being transported in the back of a police car. His death came two days after he was arrested for allegedly speeding and resisting arrest in Reform, AL prompting his family to suspect he was having a mental health episode. The day before he died, a Pickens County judge ordered Foster held without bond and ordered him to undergo a mental health assessment. A year later, the circumstances surrounding Foster’s death remain in question, as the initial autopsy findings indicated that he Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home & Crematory Offered Free Rides to the Polls ROANOKE,VA— Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home & Crematory, provided free rides to the polls for Roanoke City residents on Election Day, November 8, 2022. “If someone would like to vote, transportation should not be an issue. We are just trying to do our civic duty,” says CEO and Owner Michael L. Hamlar. “This is non-partisan effort.” Since 1952, Hamlar-Curtis Funeral Home & Crematory has served the Roanoke City, Roanoke County, Salem, New River Valley and Franklin County community including in alphabetical order Boones Mill, Calloway, Ferrum, Glade Hill, Hardy, Henry, Penhook, Rocky Mount, Union Hall Wirtz and surrounding localities.
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