The Meaningful Funeral Issue 16 | Fall 2020

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N E W F R A Z E R C O N S U LTA N T S W E B S I T E

We launched a brand-new website! With our new website design, it’s easier than ever for you to find resources on topics you’re interested in, learn the ins and outs of our products and services, and get answers to frequently asked questions.

VISIT OUR NEW WEBSITE!

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I N F O @ F R A Z E R C O N S U LTA N T S . C O M


ISSUE 16

Table of Contents

to Show 06 How Families You Care

This Holiday Season One way is hosting a holiday remembrance program, whether it’s inperson or virtual.

and Advice for 09 Tips Planning a Holiday Remembrance Program During COVID-19

Even though your event will look different this year, there are still ways to honor the deceased.

13

F E AT U R E A R T I C L E

The New Normal: Funeral Planning During the COVID-19 Pandemic Check out these tips for planning socially distanced and virtual funeral services.


Tips 22 Cybersecurity for Your Funeral

Your Funeral 35 IsHome’s Website in

Hackers can ruin your funeral home’s files and and steal your families’ sensitive information.

If your website is in the right decade, it should include these features.

the Right Decade?

Home

25

Our Website Builder Tool Creates More Customization With our website builder, your website can be as unique to your funeral home as possible.

28 Employee Features

Meet two members of our Frazer family — Jenny and Alex — and learn about their roles at Frazer and how they spend their free time.

31

QUIZ

How Much Do You Know About Websites? Take this quiz to see how much you know about funeral home websites!

Top Three 41 The Funeral Technology

Solutions Your Funeral Home Needs If you are considering updating your funeral technology, it should be these three solutions!

to Increase 45 Ways Your Funeral Home’s Revenue

A few ways are to have an online payment platform and flower ordering on your website.


Letter from the Editor Dear readers, Welcome to The Meaningful Funeral magazine, an exclusive publication by Frazer Consultants. Our goal with this magazine is to be a resource for your funeral home and to help you learn new skills, keep up with funeral trends, and serve your current client families in more meaningful ways. With the COVID-19 pandemic drastically impacting all our lives, we postponed new issues of The Meaningful Funeral. This way, we had more time to focus on timely resources for funeral directors related to funeral planning while social distancing. As we all continue to adjust to the new normal since social distancing isn’t going away any time soon, we wanted to bring back The Meaningful Funeral since it’s such a valuable resource for funeral directors. During the pause on new issues, we also used it as an opportunity to rethink how we develop each issue. Instead of focusing on one main topic in each issue like we’ve done in the past, we’re covering a variety of topics in each issue. This way, funeral directors can all find content on topics they’re interested in. In this issue, a few topics you will learn about are how to plan a holiday remembrance program during the pandemic and a new tool that can help create a more customized funeral home website. Want to read The Meaningful Funeral on the go? Every issue is available for free on our website, all you have to do is visit frazerconsultants.com/meaningful and click the “magazine” tab. I hope you enjoy reading this issue of The Meaningful Funeral, and I look forward to hearing your feedback. If you have any suggestions for future magazine content, we would love to hear them — just email us at marketing@frazerconsultants.com. And if you really love our content, visit frazerconsultants.com/meaningful and sign up for our newsletter to have fresh content and funeral news delivered to your inbox every week!

M AT T F R A Z E R P R E S I D E N T, F R A Z E R C O N S U LTA N T S


ORNAMENTS

Give families a holiday keepsake they’ll cherish forever. Our glass and crystal Holiday Remembrance Ornaments are easily customizable in-house. Every ornament comes with its very own gift box for safekeeping. With our ornament stands, families can display their ornament year-round.

O R D E R YO U R O R N A M E N T S !

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How to Show Families You Care This Holiday Season The holiday season can be an especially tough time for families who lost a loved one. It may remind them of all the traditions and special times they had with their loved one in years past. Now, it feels like the holiday season is incomplete without them. That’s why it’s so important for funeral directors to go out of their way to show families they care this time of year. By showing warmth and compassion, you’re bringing a little light to some of their darkest days. Here are a few ways your funeral home can go above and beyond this holiday season. G I V E T H E M A H O L I D AY G I F T

One way to honor your client families’ loved one is to give them a holiday memorial gift. If you’re hosting a socially distanced holiday remembrance program this year, they could be available then. If you’re having a virtual program this year, they could be sent via mail, or you can choose a virtual holiday gift option. A few ideas are holiday treats, a donation in their loved one’s honor, a holiday recipe book, and remembrance ornaments. Remembrance ornaments are a simple, yet effective way to show families your funeral home cares. We offer a variety of handblown ornaments to choose from including a glass angel, dove, and butterfly and a crystal snowflake. All our remembrance ornaments come with decals so you can personalize them with a name, date, short saying, poem, or

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scripture. Also, we offer ornament stands, so families can easily display the ornament yearround. Whether you give these to families at your event or send them via the mail, they’ll cherish them forever. H O S T A H O L I D AY R E M E M B R A N C E P R O G R A M

Hosting a holiday remembrance program, whether it’s an in-person or virtual event, is a great way to provide a sense of community for grieving families. If your event is in-person, you can hang your remembrance ornaments on a tree for the service. Just make sure to order extra ornaments in case more families show up than planned or if one were to break. You could also buy additional ornaments and offer them for purchase if families want more than one. This could help you offset the event costs. S E N D T H E M A H O L I D AY C A R D

Spread some holiday cheer by sending the families on your mailing list a holiday card from your funeral home. You could include a group picture of your staff or a cute picture of your grief therapy dog curled up by the fireplace. Even if you’re hosting an in-person socially distanced program, this is still a kind gesture that will put a smile on your families’ faces.


EDITH SITWELL

Winter is the time for comfort S H A R E M E A N I N G F U L H O L I D AY Q U O T E S O N SOCIAL MEDIA

Give families something to reflect on by posting meaningful holiday quotes on your funeral home’s social media accounts. Choose messages that will provide a sense of warmth and comfort during their difficult time.  T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

frazerconsultants.com/meaningful

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Tips and Advice for Planning a Holiday Remembrance Program During COVID-19 Even though your holiday remembrance program will look different this year, there are still ways to honor your families’ loved ones this holiday season. We brainstormed some ideas for planning a holiday remembrance program this year, whether that means it’s a socially distanced or virtual event. We also spoke with a funeral home to get their insight on their program this year and give you some ideas for your own! Note, some options may work better than others depending on your state’s restrictions. If you have a socially distanced event, use your best judgment to keep everyone safe. These ideas are just suggestions, and you should follow the advice of healthcare professionals before anything else, like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I D E A S F O R S O C I A L LY D I S TA N C E D P R O G R A M S

One option is to host a socially distanced inperson event. If you do this, make sure to have established guidelines that families know of before attending the event. If they don’t follow them, make it clear that they’ll be asked to leave the event. For example, two guidelines you may want to require are that everyone wears masks and stays six feet apart. To make this easier for families to follow, make sure your tables or chairs are far enough apart.

You also can have masks available for those who need them. If you normally serve a meal or snacks, consider having pre-packaged snacks and bottled waters instead. These could already be set on the seats, or you can have people form socially distanced lines with markers on the floor, so everyone stays six feet apart. And don’t forget to have plenty of hand sanitizer available. Even though this may be tough to do, it also may be a good idea to cut down your guest list. One simple way to do this is to have a limit on how many people from each family can attend. Or, have a maximum number of people that can register to attend on a first-come, first-served basis. Then, you could also live stream the event for those who can’t attend or aren’t comfortable attending in person, so they can still be a part of the event. If you still want to have something in person but aren’t comfortable with the option above, there are a few other creative options. One idea is to have a drive-through holiday remembrance program, like what many funeral homes are doing for drive-through funeral services. Or, like a drive-in movie theater, you can have a drive-in program where families park and watch the program from a large screen.

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IDEAS FOR A VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Another option is to host a completely virtual holiday remembrance program. By utilizing Facebook Live, families can attend the event in real time or watch it later if they’re busy. By partnering with local churches, speakers, and musicians, you can still have the items on your agenda that you normally do. Your staff and partners can do virtual readings, songs, and even your tree lighting.

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To give families a physical memento, you can send them a personalized card and gift, such as a holiday remembrance ornament. You can even still do this if you decide to host a socially distanced event. If you’ve never hosted a program before, a virtual event may be a good way to ease into the process. Then, down the road, you can see if planning an in-person event would be possible for your funeral home.


A DV I C E F RO M H A A S E - LO C K W O O D F U N E R A L H O M E

To get a perspective from the people who are planning and hosting the event, we spoke with Haase-Lockwood Funeral Home in Wisconsin to see what their holiday remembrance program plans are this year. This way, you can learn from other funeral professionals and maybe spark some ideas for your funeral home’s event! Here’s what they had to say. Funeral Director and Funeral Home Owner Tim Lockwood of Haase-Lockwood Funeral Home said they plan on doing a completely virtual event. To determine the best plan for their funeral home, they held a brainstorming meeting for reviewing all their options. If your funeral home is torn on what to do, this may be a good idea for you to do, as well.

For their virtual event, they plan on filming a short video of their program’s usual activities, including putting the ornaments on the tree, the choir singing Silent Night, and lighting the tree. They’ll also include voiceover of their local minister who normally speaks at the in-person holiday remembrance program. In addition to the virtual event, they’re going to mail their families their loved one’s holiday remembrance ornament as a memorial gift. “We are planning on mailing each family their ornament the first week of December with a letter giving the details of where to find the link to see the remembrance program on our website,” said Lockwood. 

T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

frazerconsultants.com/meaningful

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The New Normal: Funeral Planning During the COVID-19 Pandemic As we learn how to navigate the new normal, these tips can help with planning socially distanced and virtual funerals.

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First off, we want to thank funeral directors for everything you’ve been doing. Many of you are going above and beyond to create meaningful funeral experiences for families. On top of your other tasks, you’re coming up with creative solutions, hosting educational webinars, and finding ways to support your

community. You give us hope, and, together, we’ll get through this. In the meantime, we’re here to support you in any way that we can. To help with funeral planning and supporting grieving families, here are some tips.

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F U N E R A L S A N D S O C I A L D I S TA N C I N G

One way to practice social distancing is to limit the in-person funeral service to immediate family members only. However, the specific number of people allowed at the service may vary depending on your state’s rules. For nonimmediate family members, you can live stream the funeral online so they can still virtually attend. Once the COVID-19 pandemic is under

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control, families can have memorial services for everyone to attend. The fact that those who are grieving can’t have all their family and friends physically present at their loved one’s funeral is heartbreaking. That’s why some funeral homes are getting creative and doing drive-up services so people can still show their support and pay their respects. Also, some funeral homes are taking a similar


approach and creating setups inspired by drive-in theaters. This way, families can park and watch their loved one’s funeral via the live streamed video on a large screen.

the right funeral technology solutions, your funeral home’s website may even have an online planner tool.

To practice social distancing, you should do as much of the funeral planning online as possible. These days, technology makes it easy to stay connected, whether it’s through a phone call, email, or even a video chat. With

G R I E F A N D S O C I A L D I S TA N C I N G

Grieving the loss of a loved one is hard enough, but it’s even more difficult while also practicing social distancing. Those who are grieving are already trying to figure out their “new normal,”

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so navigating that during the COVID-19 pandemic can be overwhelming. However, there are still many healthy ways to grieve a loss from afar. Your funeral home can have a page on your website for sharing online grief resources. For example, our For Families blog category has many blog posts about grief that you can link to. You also can include links to articles, videos, podcasts, and helpful organizations, such as TAPS for those who are grieving the loss of a loved one who died while serving or as a result of serving in the military. Just make sure to give credit to the sources. Another great resource for families is to have a blog on your funeral home’s website. Your staff has a lot of knowledge about funerals and grief, so share it with your community! A few topic ideas to get you started are self-care tips while grieving, DIY memorial craft projects, and healthy ways to grieve while social distancing. You also can create other resources to go on your website, such as a downloadable grief guide, an infographic about finding healthy ways to grieve, and other educational tools. Does your funeral home host grief support group meetings? Turn them into virtual meetups instead. Or, even if you don’t currently have grief support groups, hosting virtual meetings is a great way to start and test it out. These can be via phone call, video chat, or even through messaging in a group chat or social media group page. COMMUNITY SUPPORT

By sharing some inspirational online content, families can feel comforted and supported during these difficult times. From social media posts to bring people together from afar to online activities to make people smile, there are many ideas. Just taking a few moments to

write a thoughtful social media post or share inspiring content can make someone’s day. Your funeral home’s social media pages are a great way to keep your community engaged. By sharing posts that encourage conversation, you can help people feel less alone. For example, you can share a cute photo of your therapy dog, something you’re thankful for, or an act of kindness. The internet provides an endless amount of free, fun things to do online while social distancing. Help families keep themselves preoccupied while at home by sharing free online activities on your funeral home’s social media pages, website, and blog. A few ideas are links to virtual roller coaster rides and museum tours, live cams of zoo animals, and at-home work out videos. With schools and non-essential businesses closed, a lot of parents are juggling working from home while taking care of their children. Help make their day-to-day routine a little easier by sharing online resources to keep their kids engaged while at home, such as educational videos and games. HOW FRAZER CAN HELP

Many families already didn’t have the savings for an emergency expense before the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, with many non-essential businesses closing their doors, more families are hurting financially. They might not think having a funeral is a possibility, but by offering alternative payment options, they can give their loved one the funeral they deserve. With Tribute Pay on your Frazer-powered funeral home website, you can offer families multiple online payment options, including credit card, ACH payment, life insurance assignments, crowdfunding, and loans. This

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way, they can choose the option best for them, while having the convenience of paying online while social distancing. Since families are turning to your website now more than ever before, it’s truly the face of your funeral home. In addition to Tribute Pay, your Frazer-powered website has many other tools you can utilize for online funerals. With Tribute Walls, families have an online memorial that lasts forever. Not only can they view their loved one’s obituary and service information, they also can leave condolence messages, donate to crowdfunding campaigns, order funeral flowers and memorial trees, and so much more. For grieving, there’s the grief email subscription 365 Days of Healing. Families can simply sign

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up on your website to receive a daily grief support email. That’s it, no extra work for your staff! Your website also integrates with Tribute Center for creating Tribute Videos and other mementos while avoiding double data entry. 

WA N T T O R E A D M O R E ?

Visit our eLibrary to learn more about social distancing and funeral planning!

frazerconsultants.com/ tmf-resources


RESPONSIVE OBITUARIES

Honor lives on every device. The responsive design of our Tribute Walls allows families to honor their loved ones no matter where they are — with photos, messages, virtual candles, flower orders, crowdfunding donations, and so much more!

S C H E D U L E A F R E E D E M O N S T R AT I O N !

frazerconsultants.com/tmf-website-demo

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Cybersecurity Tips for Your Funeral Home Now that more funeral planning is happening online, cybersecurity is more important than ever. You may think you don’t have anything to hide, but hackers can ruin your files and steal sensitive information. For example, with families entering their personal information on your website, such as credit card numbers for funeral payments, they need a secure connection. Let’s go over some cybersecurity tips for your funeral home to keep your staff’s and client families’ information safe. WEBSITE SECURITY

First off, a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate is a small data file that encrypts the data that’s exchanged between your web server and computer. Basically, encrypting data scrambles it in a way that hackers can’t decipher. Websites with an SSL certificate have HTTPS at the beginning of their URL. While non-secure websites begin with HTTP, so it’s easy for users to tell the difference. Browsers like Google Chrome make it even more obvious if your website isn’t secure by displaying an alert to users. All Frazer-powered funeral home websites have SSL certificates. This way, your staff knows your information is safe, and your client families have peace of mind.

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EMAIL SAFETY TIPS

Keep an eye out for phishing. This is when hackers target you by email, phone call, or text message pretending to be from a legitimate institution. For example, if the offer seems too good to be true, then it’s probably phishing. And if there is a sense urgency with wanting you to act right away, it might be phishing. A few other common signs of phishing emails are multiple misspellings in the email content and hyperlinks and strange email addresses. C R E AT E S T R O N G PA S S W O R D S

You may be wondering, what makes a password a strong one? First off, it shouldn’t be easily guessed. To avoid this, don’t use common phrases, like significant dates and names. Instead, use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols. The longer your password, the better. To further protect your accounts, only share passwords when necessary, and don’t use the same password for multiple accounts.


K E E P YO U R W I F I S E C U R E

You also should create a secure password for your funeral home’s WiFi. Make sure your WiFi network uses the WPA security standard rather than an outdated WEP one. Changing the SSID (your network name) also makes it harder for hackers to break into your network since that

makes it harder for them to determine the make and model of your router. It’s also a good idea to make a separate guest network that has a password for your families and guests.  T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

frazerconsultants.com/meaningful

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Our Website Builder Tool Creates More Customization We want our clients’ funeral home websites to showcase who they are, so we’re excited that our website builder tool allows for more website customization. With our drag-and-drop website builder, our designers can make your website as unique to your firm as possible. So, what does that exactly mean? Instead of choosing a template, a designer can take individual elements that you like, such as a header or menu style, and drop them into a unique website just for your funeral home. Ultimately, it gives you more control over the look and feel of your website and lets you showcase what makes you who you are. They also come with these innovative features. RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Frazer-powered websites are responsive, which means they respond to the device type someone is viewing it on, whether it’s a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. If a

website isn’t responsive, users need to pinch and drag the screen to navigate it, which can cause them to become frustrated and leave your website. However, they’ll never have this problem with a Frazer-powered website, since it responds to fit all screen sizes. WEBSITE SECURITY

Frazer-powered websites also come with a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate to protect your families’ sensitive information. Whether families enter their credit card information or fill out a preplanning form, they can rest assured that their personal information is safe. Hackers are constantly coming up with new ways to steal information, so an SSL certificate is a must-have feature for your website.

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S E A R C H E N G I N E O P T I M I Z AT I O N ( S E O ) B E S T PRACTICES

When you choose a Frazer-powered website, your website is designed with SEO in mind. By having a responsive design, this improves your SEO. An SSL certificate also helps your website rank higher on search engine results pages. This way, families are more likely to find your funeral home online. We also offer SEO services to further boost your online presence. No matter which package you choose, our specialists implement the best practices to help your website be found by more families.

O T H E R I N N O VAT I V E F E AT U R E S

We know that one of the biggest problems funeral directors face is getting paid. So, all Frazer-powered websites come with the Tribute Pay payment platform, which includes credit card processing, life insurance assignments, crowdfunding, financing, and eChecks as funeral payment options. They also come with features that work for you, instead of requiring a lot of extra work. With 365 Days of Healing, families can sign up to receive daily grief support emails during the first year of their loved one’s passing. To sign up, they just need to enter their email on your funeral home’s website. To save you time, our websites integrate with the top funeral home management software. This way, you can eliminate tedious tasks like double data entry, since the information you enter carries over to the other software you use. This decreases the chance of errors, saves you time, and helps your funeral home run more smoothly.  T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

frazerconsultants.com/meaningful

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WEBSITE BUILDER

Customize your website more than ever before! It’s our commitment to build you a unique website that showcases everything your funeral home has to offer. So, we’re excited to announce that more website customization options are available than ever before with our new website builder. With these options, our designers can make your website even more unique to your funeral home’s brand.

S C H E D U L E A F R E E D E M O N S T R AT I O N !

frazerconsultants.com/tmf-website-demo `

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I N F O @ F R A Z E R C O N S U LTA N T S . C O M

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Getting to Know Frazer Consultants Meet two members of our Frazer family — Jenny and Alex — and learn about their roles at Frazer and what they like to do in their free time.

NAME

Jenny YEARS

Four ROLE

Content Specialist

our email newsletter The Weekly Wake that’s filled with free resources, advice, and tips for funeral directors. If there is a topic that you’d like to see a blog post, newsletter, or another resource focus on, please don’t hesitate to email your ideas to us at marketing@frazerconsultants.com. HOW I SPEND MY FREE TIME:

W H AT I D O AT F R A Z E R :

With almost four years of writing and learning about the funeral profession, I’m proud to create content that makes a positive difference in funeral directors’ lives and their client families’ funeral experiences. Seeing how our resources help funeral directors succeed in creating meaningful funeral experiences is very rewarding. I’m thankful to get to work with some of the most hardworking and caring people that I know. Funeral directors truly do wear many hats, and I’m happy to help make their lives easier with our products, services, and collection of resources. When you come across our Frazer Consultants website, blog, and free resources, I most likely had a hand in creating them, including this magazine! I also write weekly blog posts, eBooks on a variety of topics, media kits with social media posts and a press release for help marketing your Frazer products, user guides about how to use your Frazer products, and much more. Additionally, every week, I create

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When I’m not writing, you can find me spending time with my family, planning a vacation to the next state I want to visit, or having a game night with my friends. A few of my other hobbies are making craft projects, reading mystery novels, and watching comedy movies. I also like to spend time outside whenever I can! Whether it’s walking around my neighborhood, biking on a new trail, or playing with my family’s puppy Rosie. To clear my head and spark creativity, taking a long walk outside in the fresh air is the perfect solution. As I’ve been practicing social distancing, a few hobbies that I got more into are yoga and baking. With yoga, I love that there are poses for everyone, no matter your skill level and flexibility. I also like that there are poses for more intense workouts or more relaxing experiences. For baking, a few baked goods I’ve made recently are chocolate chip banana bread and zucchini bread. This fall, I want to try making pumpkin bread!


NAME

Alex MONTHS

Six ROLE

Marketing Specialist

actually involves knowing a little bit about coding HTML, which has been really fun to learn more about. Even though I am a beginner, it has been so fun to experiment with code and watch it come to life on an email. I love that email marketing is such a direct way to reach and communicate with clients and that there are always new trends and designs to experiment with to engage your audience.

W H AT I D O AT F R A Z E R :

HOW I SPEND MY FREE TIME:

My name is Alex Garcia, and I am a part of the Frazer Consultants marketing team as a Marketing Specialist. For my role, I focus on all things email marketing. I started this position just as the country went into quarantine for COVID-19 and have been completely remote. Although I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my team yet, I have felt supported and included from day one.

I am originally from Sacramento, California, and I moved to Madison in March, so I have been exploring my new town the best I can during these times. I have enjoyed spending a lot of time on friends’ boats and going on walks, runs, and bike rides around the lake loop trail. The mild summer weather and green landscape has been a welcome change from the dry California heat I am used to.

Starting a new job in the time that we are in and learning how to work remotely for the first time in my career could’ve been a difficult challenge, but my team at Frazer made it a completely positive experience for me. I love how much creative freedom I have to design emails and make this role my own. As far as how the creative process works in my mind, I like to start with understanding the end goal for an email campaign and working backwards from there to create emails that will help to reach that goal.

During quarantine, my girlfriend and I got an adorable goldendoodle puppy, therefore, most of my time outside of work is filled with giving her attention. When I am not chasing around my dog, I enjoy spending time outdoors. I love to camp, be out in nature, and eat every meal I can outside on a patio or my own balcony.

Something I didn’t know a lot about before starting this role was that creating emails

When there isn’t a global pandemic happening, I love to travel as well. I have been to 10 countries and am hoping to add to that list once it is safe to do so! Until that can happen, I have picked up a new hobby and started guitar lessons. While I am no Taylor Swift, I am having a lot of fun with this new hobby. 

With almost four years of writing and learning about the funeral profession, I’m proud to create content that makes a positive difference in funeral directors’ lives and their client families’ funeral experiences.

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Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Websites? Take this quiz to see how much you know about websites and the importance of your funeral home having one. 0 1 — W H AT I S T H E W E B S I T E D E S I G N T H AT R E S P O N D S T O T H E D E V I C E T Y P E T H AT THE USER IS VIEWING IT FROM?

0 5 — C H E C K A L L T H AT A P P LY: W H I C H O F T H E F O L LO W I N G A R E W E B S I T E D E S I G N M I S TA K E S T O AV O I D ?

Responsive design

Unexpected locations for content

Adaptive design

Too much information on one webpage

Mobile design

Too little information on one webpage Not having a responsive design

0 2 — T R U E O R FA L S E : Y O U R F U N E R A L H O M E D O E S N ’ T N E E D A W E B S I T E I F YO U D O N ’ T H AV E C O M P E T I T O R S .

True

0 6 — T R U E O R FA L S E : W H E N I T C O M E S T O Y O U R W E B S I T E ’ S C O N T E N T, I T S H O U L D B E A S LO N G A S P O S S I B L E .

False

True False

0 3 — W H AT P E R C E N T O F W E B S I T E T R A F F I C CAME FROM MOBILE PHONES IN 2019?

27%

0 7 — W H E R E D O E S M O S T O F YO U R F U N E R A L HOME’S WEBSITE TRAFFIC COME FROM?

42%

Obituaries

53%

Grief resources

71%

Service options Contact information

0 4 — T R U E O R FA L S E : A R E S P O N S I V E W E B S I T E D E S I G N H E L P S YO U R F U N E R A L H O M E ’ S S E A R C H E N G I N E O P T I M I Z AT I O N .

True False

Answers on the next page.

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Answers 01 — RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Your website should have a responsive design, so it responds to the user’s device type, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or computer. 0 2 — FA L S E

A website can provide your funeral home with lead generation opportunities, grief resources, online payment tools, flower orders, and so much more. 03 — 53%

Per BroadbandSearch, about 53% of website traffic came from mobile phones in 2019. 04 — TRUE

Search engines like Google favor responsive website designs. 0 5 — A- D

All four answers are website design mistakes to avoid. 0 6 — FA L S E

Your content should be concise, yet informative. 07 — OBITUARIES

For this reason, it’s important to have easyto-locate obituaries with a responsive design. However, all the answers are still important things to include on your website.  TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WEBSITE DESIGN, V I S I T:

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WEBSITES

Leave your old website in the last decade. It’s time for an upgrade. Make 2020 the year your funeral home gets a modern website that’s unique to your firm. Frazer-powered websites give you and your families the features you need, like our revenue-generating Tribute Store and all-inclusive payment platform Tribute Pay.

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Is Your Funeral Home's Website in the Right Decade? If your funeral home’s website is in the right decade, it should include these four features. If not, it may be time for an upgrade. U S E R - F R I E N D LY D E S I G N

These three features contribute to a user-friendly website experience: responsive design, interactive obituaries, and customization options. Your website is the first impression families have of your funeral home, so if it’s non-responsive, they’ll go elsewhere. A responsive design does exactly what it sounds like; it responds to all device types, whether it’s a desktop or mobile device. A responsive design also boosts your search engine optimization (SEO). Interactive obituaries provide loved ones with a place for healing and support. Ultimately, they serve as online memorials that last forever. Family and friends can share messages, watch videos, donate to crowdfunding campaigns, order flowers and memorial trees, and so much more. Your website should reflect your funeral home’s brand and what makes you unique. For example, you can showcase who you are with a history section and staff bios. With our website builder tool, our websites are more customizable than ever. Our team will help make sure your website’s design reflects your funeral home through the imagery, color scheme, logo, and other design elements.

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R E V E N U E - G E N E R AT I N G F E AT U R E S

A website that’s in the right decade should provide you with an extra revenue source. With a Frazer-powered website, the revenuegenerating features require little work from your staff. For example, since you’re hosting Tribute Store on your website, you get a commission from the flower sales. This way, you also keep your website traffic instead of sending them elsewhere for flower orders. With Tribute Pay, your funeral home gets paid faster and easier than ever. No more waiting around for the funeral payment! The funds are deposited directly into your account. With this payment platform, there are multiple options, including credit card, eCheck, crowdfunding, loans, and life insurance assignments. You also remain in control. For instance, unlike third-party crowdfunding sites, your funeral home is in control of the funds raised from the crowdfunding campaign. Your funeral home can use this extra revenue to tackle other projects! For example, a few ideas are to update your lobby, hire new employees, expand your service offerings, or plan a webinar. WEBSITE SECURITY

A website that’s secure should protect your client families’ sensitive information. By having a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate, your data, like credit card numbers and login credentials, is safe. That’s why all Frazerpowered websites have SSL certificates. Website security measures like having an SSL certificate give families much needed peace of

mind during a stressful time. When entering their personal information, such as for the funeral payment, website security is one less thing to worry about. Website security also boosts your SEO. Having a secure website can help you rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs). If you have a higher SERP ranking, families are more likely to find you, and you also may rank higher than your competitors. If your website isn’t secure, browsers like Google Chrome make it obvious by alerting users with a warning message. T I M E - S AV I N G F E AT U R E S

Your website should work for you, not create extra work. This way, it’s like an additional employee for your funeral home! For example, your website can help you find potential client families with built-in forms. Another lead generation idea is to create free downloadable guides for families. In turn for this information, you get their contact information for additional marketing efforts. A modern website also saves you time by eliminating tedious tasks. By integrating with the top funeral home software and answering service companies, your website can help you be more efficient than ever. For example, if you use SRS funeral management software, we collaborated with them to create a website solution that integrates with their existing software. This way, it creates an all-in-one solution with a seamless flow of data and no double data entry required!  T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

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TRIBUTE INSURANCE ASSIGNMENTS

When I switched to Tribute Insurance Assignments, I was reluctant. Not because I did not trust your people, I just had a company in place that did their job well. I had no reason to change. After taking consideration the fact that this is a Frazer company, I decided to give it a try. I now save money on the assignments... as well as time.

This was one of the best business decisions I have made. THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO.

S H AW N B AT E S F U N E R A L D I R E C TO R A N D O W N E R O F LO C U S T G ROV E F U N E R A L H O M E

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T R I B U T E PAY

Get paid up front! Tribute Pay puts your funeral home in control of your accounts receivable. Offer credit card payments, financing, crowdfunding, life insurance assignments, and electronic checks all in one place, and get paid up front no matter what option families choose.

S C H E D U L E A F R E E D E M O N S T R AT I O N !

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The Top Three Funeral Technology Solutions Your Funeral Home Needs If your funeral home is considering updating your funeral technology solutions, it should be these three solutions!

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Having an effective funeral home website is the starting point for offering additional revenuegenerating services, like flower ordering and funeral payment options. Let’s go over these three funeral technology solutions and how they can benefit your funeral home and the families you serve. 0 1 — A F U N E R A L H O M E W E B S I T E T H AT ’ S I N THE RIGHT DECADE

Did you know that it takes just 50 milliseconds to form an opinion about a website? It takes longer to blink, smile, or snap your fingers. So to make sure your website has a lasting impression, it should have these four things. The first thing is a user-friendly design that responds to all device types. Additionally, it should provide a safe and secure connection with a secure sockets layer (SSL) certificate. For funeral planning and contacting your funeral home, it also should have easy-to-use forms. Lastly, your website should have time-saving tools, so it’s like an additional employee! For example, if your funeral home uses SRS funeral home management software, we partnered with them to build an all-in-one website solution that integrates with their software solutions. This way, your funeral home can save time by eliminating double data entry. 0 2 — F U N E R A L F L O W E R O R D E R I N G D I R E C T LY O N YO U R W E B S I T E F O R E X T R A R E V E N U E

Like we mentioned earlier, funeral flower ordering can provide you with an extra revenue

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stream. Now, those projects you had to put on hold can become reality! By offering this feature directly on your funeral home’s website, you also can get more website traffic. Instead of sending families elsewhere for funeral flowers, you’re keeping that website traffic. Not to mention that this also is more convenient for families, since they can view their loved one’s obituary and order funeral flowers all in one place. We don’t expect your funeral home’s employees to manage a program like this. That’s why Frazer-powered websites come with Tribute Store for funeral flower ordering! Your funeral home earns commission from the flowers sales, and we take care of customer service. Plus, we have a 24/7 hotline for answering questions. 03 — LIFE INSURANCE ASSIGNMENTS AS AN A LT E R N AT E F U N E R A L PAY M E N T O P T I O N

The numbers don’t lie. According to a Bankrate survey, four in 10 Americans would need to borrow money for an emergency expense of $1,000. If your funeral home doesn’t offer funeral payment options, families may not be able to afford the funeral they want. Instead, they may choose less expensive options just because of the cost. Or, they may even take their business elsewhere. To avoid losing business, the third funeral technology solution your firm should invest in is life insurance assignments as funeral payment. This way, you can help families plan the funeral their loved one deserves.


To make things faster and easier for everyone, Frazer Consultants partners with Tribute Insurance Assignments (TIA). With TIA, you can

forms and affidavits on the family’s behalf. Even better, instead of waiting weeks or months, your funeral home gets paid in as little as 24 hours. 

submit a life insurance assignment application online in minutes. Simply fill out a few forms,

T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

and the TIA team does the rest of the claim

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Ways to Increase Your Funeral Home's Revenue Is your funeral home looking to expand your service offerings? Or maybe you’d like to tackle a project that’s been put on the back burner for a while. Let us help! When you join the Frazer website platform, you also gain access to revenue-generating features. With this extra source of revenue, your funeral home can invest those funds back into your business. Then, you can turn your goals and ideas for your funeral home into a reality! Let’s go over how these features can give your funeral home some extra income to innovate your business. T R I B U T E PAY PAY M E N T P L AT F O R M

With Tribute Pay, our all-in-one payment platform, your funeral home can offer your client families multiple ways to pay for funeral

expenses, including credit card processing, eCheck, crowdfunding, loans, and life insurance assignments. By offering these options through Tribute Pay, your funeral home gets paid faster and easier than ever before. Offering more payment options also equals more client families for your funeral home. For many families, alternative payment options aren’t just a want; they’re a need. Let’s say a family is deciding between your funeral home and a competitor down the road. If you offer multiple payment options and your competitor doesn’t, that could be the deciding factor that leads them to choose your funeral home.

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T R I B U T E S TO R E F O R F U N E R A L F LO W E R S

With a Frazer-powered funeral home website, families can conveniently order flowers and other memorial gifts directly on your website. Since you’re hosting the Tribute Store on your funeral home’s website, you get a commission from the flower orders. This way, you can use the extra revenue for other projects. By activating the Tribute Store, you’re also keeping traffic on your website instead of sending them elsewhere for flower sales. Then, you can find ways to continue to engage them on your website, such as with your other memorial product offerings. T R I B U T E C E N T E R F O R F U N E R A L S TAT I O N E R Y PRODUCTS

With Tribute Center, you can easily create your own customized memorial products for your client families. There are more than 500 different themes to choose from, and you can personalize them to make them truly unique to the life they’re honoring. It’s the perfect way to expand your memorial product offerings without wasting money on stock stationery that just collects dust on your shelves. For example, you can create funeral stationery products such as memorial and program folders, memorial products such as Life Journey Tribute Candles and bookmarks, and Tribute Videos. With Tribute Videos, you can easily add these to a loved one’s Tribute Wall and burn them to DVDs as memorial gifts.  T O R E A D M O R E , V I S I T:

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TRIBUTE STORE

Earn extra revenue for your firm! With Tribute Store, not only can your families conveniently purchase flowers directly from a loved one’s obituary on their Tribute Wall, your funeral home also can earn some extra revenue. When your funeral home hosts Tribute Store on your Frazer-powered website, you receive a commission on all qualifying flower orders.

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TRIBUTE CROWDFUNDING

Crowdfunding campaigns without the risk! With Frazer-powered websites, your families can host crowdfunding campaigns for memorial funds, medical expenses, charity donations, funeral expenses, and more. The best part? Your funeral home is in charge, traffic stays on your website, and you get paid up front.

S C H E D U L E A F R E E D E M O N S T R AT I O N !

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