The strategies for funeral home marketing will vary from market to market. However, trust is essential, regardless of your location. You will not win the call if families don’t trust your funeral home.
Trust is a rare commodity in today’s society. But for the last 15 years, there has been someone in my life that I’ve trusted completely. His name is Lou, and I trust him to keep my family safe and ensure I don’t waste money.
Lou manages the auto repair shop I have taken my cars to for the past 15 years. At one point, when we had four driving-age teenagers at home, I had a crowded driveway and a small fleet of cars to maintain. My wife and I had newer cars, but the kids had well-used starter vehicles.
Suffice it to say that I spent a lot of money with Lou!
I trusted Lou and his mechanics to keep our cars running. I always emphasized that I never wanted my cars to break down, and I didn’t want to get a “the car won’t start, will you come get me?” phone call in the middle of the night.
Lou manages a team of six mechanics. He always has one star, and the rest are good, hard-working mechanics that do an excellent job if you point them in the right direction. For example, one might be good at electrical problems, one at engine repairs, and another might be a brake star (but don’t give him an electrical issue).
Years ago, Lou told me one of his secrets was that he always has his star mechanic run diagnostic tools, interpret the results, leverage his decades of experience, and determine the root cause of the problem. Then, Lou assigns the repair work to the mechanic best suited to the job.
As a result, they have an excellent track record of fixing things right the first time. In fact, in 15 years, there’s only been once that I’ve taken a car back for the same problem, and that was because of a faulty replacement part.
The key lesson I learned from Lou was that diagnostic tools are great, but you need the right person to interpret the results. He said that all cars have problems, and the key is to know which ones you need to fix to solve the customer’s issue.
I was thinking about Lou and his mechanics as I reviewed the output of the diagnostic tools we ran when performing Local SEO Audits this week. Last week I announced that we were currently offering a complimentary audit, and I had quite a few funeral home owners take me up on that offer.
Why should you care about Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
81.8% of people trust Google search results. However, families will not trust you if you are not showing up correctly on Google. It’s that simple.
Along with Andy (my star digital mechanic), we reviewed each audit report, ran some additional tests, determined the root cause of the problem, and wrote up an analysis for each client.
Each client received the full report, plus our interpretation of where the real problem may lie.
The report has the following nine sections,
- Summary – This is your highest-level scoreboard. Seven different areas get a score of Good, Ok, or Poor.
- Links & Website Authority – The critical part of this section is your domain authority. If you have a low score, your chances of ranking well are slim.
- Rankings – The section shows your rank on Google, Mobile, Maps, Bing, and Bing Local.
- Local Business Listings – If your business name is consistent across the internet, it will help your ranking.
- Reviews – Google now uses reviews as a ranking factor!
- Google Business Profile Audit – If your profile isn’t set up properly, you will not rank well.
- On-site SEO – Is your website configured properly for search engines? Most are not.
- Social Channels – A quick snapshot of your Facebook profile and likes.
- Appendix – the complicated technical stuff only a web developer would love (but it also highlights many problems!)
What kind of problems tell you that you need a Local SEO Audit?
Here’s a short list…
- Your business isn’t listed beside the map when someone Googles “funeral homes <community name>”.
- Your business isn’t listed beside the map for “cremation services <community name>”.
- Legacy and/or Echovita outrank your website in the organic search results (under the map).
- Your website doesn’t even appear on the first page of the organic search results.
- Repeat all of the above tests on your phone because your site performs on mobile differently.
- Repeat the same tests using the names of the communities around you and see how you rank.
By the way, none of these problems are solved by getting a new website. In fact, a new site can actually make things worse depending on which vendor you choose.
Years ago, it was critically important for your funeral home to be in every Yellow Pages book in your area. Today, you have to appear in every Google search in your area.
Click here to request a complimentary Local SEO Audit for your funeral home.
Until next time,
John
PS: Here’s a picture of Lou and his team. Lou’s on the far left, and the guy with his arms crossed is Richard, his star mechanic. They’ve earned my trust, and that’s a rare commodity these days.
