On January 22nd, 2015, I joined a group that no one wants to be in. It’s the group of parents who have lost a child.
If you read my newsletter about bribing a Russian judge to finish adopting a little girl, that was her. Jess was 20 years old, and her loss was devastating. If you missed that newsletter, it’s on my blog.
Suddenly, and for the first time, I needed to choose a funeral home to take care of my family.
When my mother passed away in 2009, she had already made her arrangements, so there was no choosing to be done.
When my father passed away in 2014, one of my brothers made the arrangements.
Now, on a bitterly cold January day with my family in shock, it was my turn to choose a funeral home.
The pastor of the church we were attending at the time recommended a funeral home. I called them first.
They didn’t do anything wrong on the phone, but it felt like calling a stranger at a time when I really needed a friend to lean on.
I decided to call the only funeral home in the area where I had a relationship, Borek Jennings Funeral Home. They had the dubious distinction of being my first funeral home client way back in 2003.
I hadn’t spoken to them in years but decided to give them a call.
Even though they were 40 miles from my home, more expensive than other funeral homes, and their facilities were just ok, that was the funeral I choose.
It was a good choice. They gave Jess a beautiful farewell, and I will always be grateful.
I choose them because they had a high KLT score. KLT stands for Know, Like & Trust.
I knew them, I liked them, and I trusted them. Which is why on that horrible day, I called them.
KLT is the deciding factor whenever a crisis happens, and you need to make a major decision.
For day to day decisions, KLT is important, but you might also consider convenience or cost or a bunch of other factors.
But when stuff hits the fan, your KLT score is critical.
Which is the reason why Facebook needs to be part of your marketing strategy.
Personally, I don’t spend much time on Facebook. But 2.6 billion people are active Facebook users spending hours on it every day.
Professionally, I believe Facebook is a tremendous marketing tool. We manage our clients’ pages and do everything possible to build their KLT score with people in their local area.
Last week I wrote about how our approach to Facebook content is very different and far more effective than the method used by the big marketing firms in the funeral industry. That newsletter is also on my blog.
One of the hardest things with Facebook is that it is a constantly changing game. What worked five years ago does not work today.
If you want to keep building relationships with local families, you have got to change along with Facebook.
That’s what is wrong with 99% of funeral homes’ Facebook pages. They’re posting content that Facebook liked five years ago but doesn’t like today. It doesn’t get past the Facebook AI censor, so people never see your content.
Here’s something you should be aware of…
Facebook is changing again. The new user interface they rolled out recently confirms what we have been suspecting for the past six months.
The curated content approach we use is still the right method, but now there’s a new opportunity that Facebook has opened up. I am convinced that this new opportunity has the potential to push your Know, Like & Trust score through the roof.
We have a strategy to take advantage of this opportunity, and we have been beta testing it with two clients over the past few months. So far, I’ve been blown away by the results.
Hockey fans will recognize the name, Wayne Gretzky, arguably the greatest player of all time.
When Wayne was young, a reporter asked Wayne’s father what the key to his success was. His father replied that most players chase the puck, but Wayne anticipates where the puck is going and gets there first.
That is similar to what we’re doing with Facebook. We’re anticipating where they are going, and we’re putting things in place to take advantage of the new opportunity.
We’re ready to roll this strategy out a small handful of new clients. If you’d like to be one of them, go to my website and schedule a time for us to talk.
By the way, this strategy works best if you have an After Care and Pre-Need person. They can be the same person, but someone from your team needs to be involved.
Facebook is how you build Know, Like & Trust in our world today. Get your KLT score as high as possible so that families call you and wouldn’t even consider calling someone else.
Until next time,
John
PS: Remember, don’t chase the puck. Anticipate where it is going and get ahead of it. It’s true for hockey, and it’s true for Facebook as well.
