39 minute read
FEATURE ARTICLE
self-care activity per day. Think of it more as a treat to yourself rather than something else on your to-do list. This way, it’s something to look forward to at the start or end of your day. It can be as simple as taking a few minutes to read a book or talk on the phone with a friend. It’s whatever you need that day, whether it’s taking time for yourself or connecting with loved ones.
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10 — BE KIND TO YOURSELF
Lastly, please be kind to yourself. You’re doing the best you can, so speak to yourself as you would to your client families. If you wouldn’t say it to a client, don’t say it to yourself.
Even if things don’t always go your way or you don’t accomplish as much as you think you should have at the end of the day, know that you’re trying and that’s the most important thing. All of us at Frazer are proud of you and thankful for everything that you do.
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
5 Winter Weather Tips for Your Funeral Home
Winter weather can be unpredictable, so it’s important that your funeral home stays prepared.
For those who live in colder climates, we’ve put together a list of helpful tips for your funeral home to keep your staff one step ahead of mother nature. Because neither rain nor snow nor harsh winter storms will keep a funeral director from serving their families, and we’re here to help.
01 — START WITH A PLAN
Winter weather like snow and ice can create unexpected emergencies. Don’t let your staff be caught off guard. While it might seem like common sense, many small businesses don’t have any formal written plan in the event of winter weather emergencies.
A report from Travelers Insurance found that 44% of small businesses lack any documentation of serious weather emergency plans, and that “risk management ranks relatively low among priorities facing small business owners.” A simple inclement weather policy can help establish the necessary protocol for emergency weather situations.
02 — DON’T NEGLECT YOUR FUNERAL HOME
After you have a plan in place, it’s important to make sure your funeral home is winter ready. Winter storms can cause several issues for a funeral home, especially if the facility is a little older or hasn’t received updates in a while.
Potential risks include bursting pipes, power outages, roof leakage, and icy sidewalks. All it takes is a little planning to prevent a potential disaster. Make sure pipes are properly insulated and have your taps dripping in the extreme cold. A backup generator will allow your funeral home to stay powered during heavy snow storms. Repair broken shingles and safely clear your roof of debris to prevent leakage. And keep shovels, salt, and a snow blower handy to avoid any falls on sidewalks.
03 — WINTERIZE YOUR VEHICLES
Winter weather also can create unsafe road conditions at a moment’s notice, and nobody wants to end up stranded in the snow. Make sure your funeral home’s fleet is winter ready to avoid a potentially life-threatening situation.
The National Weather Service estimates that 70% of fatalities related to winter weather also are car-related. Keep extra winter clothes in each vehicle like socks, gloves, coats, and hats. Make sure to also keep jumper cables, highenergy foods like nuts and dried fruit, water, and road flares in your vehicles.
04 — KEEP COMMUNICATION OPEN
Make sure to keep in touch with staff and your client families to alert them of any weather or service updates. Update families through social media posts, directly on your website, or by using an answering service to help forward calls in emergencies.
05 — USE MORE MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
Technology has made it easier than ever to virtually manage a business during weather emergencies. Cloud-based services mean you and your staff can easily access information from anywhere, which can reduce the risk associated with winter driving.
As mobile technology has increased, it’s also become easier to manage your funeral home’s digital presence from the palm of your hand. Using a mobile website manager is another easy way to keep things up and running in the event of winter weather emergencies.
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
Alternative Burial Methods
In recent years, the way we care for our dead has vastly changed with the emergence of various alternative disposition methods.
The NFDA found that more than half of Americans choose to be cremated. They anticipate that by 2035, more than 70% of Americans will choose cremation.
However, cremation isn’t the only disposition method emerging in recent years. Alkaline hydrolysis (also called aquamation or water cremation), green burials, and sea burials are all newer options that families are choosing. Let's go over some of the most prevalent alternative burial methods seen today. That way, you can stay in the loop and know how you can better serve the families in your community.
THE RISE OF CREMATION
Though many people are opting for cremation, they are choosing this option for a variety of reasons. Let’s look at a few of them.
Cost
Since choosing direct cremation doesn’t require embalming or a casket, this is typically a less expensive option for families. That’s why it’s so important for funeral directors to highlight the value of having a viewing before the cremation. It gives families a chance to see their loved one for one last time, which can be a healing and meaningful experience.
Environmentally Friendly
Many people are making more of an effort to be environmentally friendly — driving electric vehicles, recycling more often, using more sustainable food sources, etc. This trend doesn’t stop at death. A lot of people are choosing to go with cremation because they see traditional burials as wasteful and harmful to the environment. They want to avoid using embalming fluid and casket materials like metal and wood or save cemetery space for more practical uses like farming.
People Are Less Religious
In the past decade, the number of Americans with no religious affiliation has risen. And, as expected, with a shift away from religion comes a shift away from some of the beliefs that might prevent someone from choosing cremation.
According to the webinar titled “How to Talk with Cremation Families” hosted by Barbara Kemmis, executive director of CANA, 91% of people without religious affiliation will choose to be cremated. This means that the growing number of people without religious affiliation will have a real impact on the number of people choosing cremation.
Higher Education and Mobility
Kemmis also mentioned in her webinar that a growing number of people who receive higher education are turning to cremation. She relates this to the fact that many people seek higher education outside of their hometowns, and thus lose their connection to one place.
This loss of relationship with a hometown also is a big factor in why many choose cremation, because they don’t feel the need to return to a certain location to be buried. Cremation allows them to stay with family or be scattered in many different places that have a special meaning to them.
Immigration
Another CANA finding that Kemmis brought up was the fact that, despite popular belief to the contrary, many immigrants choose cremation. This is for several reasons, but she believes it
has a lot to do with the fact that immigrants are open to accepting the culture of their new country, including funeral practices. Kemmis also believes that many immigrants choose cremation so that their remains can be more easily returned to their home country if those are their final wishes.
Convenience
People see cremation as a simpler method of disposition, and it gives them more time to plan the funeral service. Dispersed families or people who plan on moving also benefit from cremation. They can take their loved one’s ashes with them rather than having to make a long journey to visit their gravesite.
Another perk of cremation is the option to scatter the ashes. Families often choose a place that reminds them of their loved one to scatter the ashes. Oftentimes, they will save a portion of the ashes to be used in a memorial item or personalized keepsake.
ALKALINE HYDROLYSIS
Alkaline hydrolysis, also known as aquamation or water cremation, and several other names, is another form of cremation families may choose. Like cremation, it breaks down the body, leaving behind soft bone fragments that can be crushed.
The body is placed in a pressurized stainlesssteel chamber. Water and alkali are added to the chamber and heated to very high temperatures. The mixture, heat, and pressure cause the body to decompose rapidly.
Many families prefer this option because it is a greener alternative to cremation. According to Funeral Consumers Alliance of Minnesota, it leaves 75% less of a carbon footprint than flame cremation. It also uses less energy, preserves more bone fragments, and medical devices don’t need to be removed. Another added benefit is the reduced risk to crematory operators when it comes to cremation for cancer patients who have undergone radiation therapy.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Adapt
Many funeral homes are adapting to these consumer changes by investing in cremation equipment and training instead of using a third party. This saves you time, hassle, and in some cases, money. By working with your staff directly for their cremation needs, families get more face time with you and can talk more about all the options that are available to them. The money they save by avoiding fees with a third party can also be put toward more personal memorial services instead.
Show Them Options
Funeral homes should also provide additional services for cremation families. One thing that many families are unaware of is that they can opt to have a viewing prior to cremation. This is where cremation caskets, rental caskets, and liners can play a big role in helping your families see their loved ones one last time.
Get Creative
To keep up with the rising trend of cremation, funeral homes are coming up with creative ways to cater to families who choose this option — one idea being ash scattering gardens. They provide families with a beautiful place to scatter their loved one’s ashes. Oftentimes funeral homes will partner with a local cemetery or use their extra land to create the garden.
WHAT IS A GREEN BURIAL?
Green burial can mean many things. However, to have a high-level understanding of the concept, the Green Burial Council (GBC) defines green burials as “a way of caring for the dead with minimal environmental impact that
aids in the conservation of natural resources, reduction of carbon emissions, protection of worker health, and the restoration and/or preservation of habitat.”
The GBC laid out the now widely accepted rules for what constitutes a green funeral. They are that a body can’t be preserved by formaldehydebased traditional embalming; traditional man-made vaults cannot be used; caskets or burial containers must be biodegradable; and traditional headstones aren’t permitted.
Since a green burial is an umbrella term, it can consist of many things. For example, cremation has less of an impact on the environment than
embalming, however, alkaline hydrolysis has even less of an impact. Each disposition method has a varying level of “greenness.”
TYPES OF GREEN BURIALS
All Natural
Typically, a green burial is thought to be a natural burial. In other words, the body is not embalmed and is returned to nature. Some people simply want to be wrapped in a biodegradable shroud and buried in the ground. Others look for caskets made of untreated, ethically grown wood. Instead of a traditional gravestone, people will choose a natural marker like a stone or a native plant. It’s important to explore the many options your funeral home can offer to families.
Mushroom Suit
Thanks to some researchers at MIT, a natural burial can now give back to the earth. The body is placed inside a cotton suit lined on the inside with thousands of mushroom spores. As the body starts to break down, the spores are activated and will continue to grow and assist with decomposition. Mushrooms were chosen specifically because they can quickly break down organic matter, and they also can help clean up the environment by removing toxins from the soil.
Trees
Like the mushroom suit, the concept of using the body to grow a tree is designed around giving back to the earth. One example is the Capsula Mundi burial pod. The idea, according to their website, is that “bodies will be laid down in a fetal position in larger pods. The pod will then be buried as a seed in the earth. A tree, chosen in life by the deceased, will be planted on top of it and serve as a memorial for the departed and as a legacy for posterity and the future of our planet.” Their idea is that cemeteries will be replaced with memorial — or sacred — forests.
Human Composting
Washington is the first state to legalize this form of disposition. Human composting is a process of composting that “gently converts human remains into soil.” It’s a greener burial alternative since it’s less carbon-intensive and allows the bodies of the deceased to nourish the soil. In fact, according to Recompose, the carbon savings for human composting is more than a metric ton per person.
Promession and Ecolation
Promession and ecolation are two similar ecofriendly alternatives to both cremation and burial. They both involve a similar process of freeze drying a body in a container of liquid nitrogen. The container gently vibrates, causing the brittle remains to disintegrate.
In promession, the remains are separated from any metals, then placed into a biodegradable casket. The casket is buried with nutrient-rich soil, which causes the remains and casket to completely degrade within six months to a year.
With ecolation, the body is frozen. And then a drying technique and pressure are both applied. Afterward, all that remains are ashes very similar to cremated ashes. Those ashes are then given back to the family, where the family can scatter or memorialize the ashes as they would with cremated remains.
Both processes have zero emissions and use very little energy at all, making them both great eco-friendly alternatives we may see being used in the future.
WANT TO READ MORE?
Download the rest of our free eBook to learn more about alternative burial methods!
frazerconsultants.com/tmfalternative-burials
9 Unique Ways to Memorialize a Loved One
By finding ways to honor a loved one, family and friends can have a piece of them to hold onto forever.
That’s why we’ve brainstormed nine unique ways to memorialize a loved one. Whether it’s a DIY project or a customizable memento, they can have a keepsake to cherish. Your funeral home can use this article as a guide to provide your families with meaningful memorialization keepsake ideas.
01 — BIRD FEEDER
Spending time in nature has a positive effect on emotional health. A DIY bird feeder memorial lets families remember the deceased in the peacefulness of nature. Whether it’s a simple recycled bottle bird feeder, a long-lasting wooden bird feeder, or a creative teacup bird feeder, there are many different bird feeders that can be personalized with a short memorial message.
02 — BOOKMARK
Books contain stories that leave a lasting impact on the reader, as a loved one’s life story also deserves to be remembered. A personalized memorial bookmark keeps memories of the deceased only a page turn away.
03 — CROCHETED BLANKET
There’s nothing like wrapping up in a cozy blanket at the end of the day. A DIY crocheted blanket memento preserves memories of a loved one while providing warmth and comfort. It can be personalized with the deceased’s favorite colors and either stitching their name or sewing on appliqué letters.
04 — JEWELRY
Mourning jewelry is worn as a reminder of loved ones who are no longer with us. Whether it’s a necklace, bracelet, ring, or locket, jewelry can be personalized to honor a loved one by engraving their name or putting their photo in a locket. Cremation jewelry can even be made with a small amount of a loved one’s ashes.
05 — MEMORIAL BENCH
A memorial bench is something family and friends can make a tradition of visiting together. It’s a place for them to sit and think about the deceased. If families are up for a craft project, they can make a memorial bench, or they can dedicate a bench to the deceased. Check with your local park to find out the requirements for dedicating a bench.
06 — MEMORY JOURNAL
Another way to preserve memories of a loved one is by writing them down in a memory journal. Families also can write down current adventures and life events, so it’s like the deceased is there experiencing it alongside them.
07 — NAME A STAR AFTER THE DECEASED
At night when family and friends are missing their deceased loved one, they can look up at the sky and know they’re watching over them. Naming a star after the deceased is a way to honor their memory and allows their family and friends to view the star as a reminder of them.
08 — ORNAMENT
Not having the deceased around for the holidays is tough on their family, but they can honor their memory with a personalized ornament. They can hang the keepsake on their tree or on an ornament stand to display year-round.
09 — SCRAPBOOK
Scrapbooks are a creative way to preserve life’s special moments. To capture a deceased loved one’s life adventures, each family member can be responsible for one page in the book, or they can work on all the pages together. Once it’s complete, it’s something they can pass down from generation to generation to keep their loved one’s memory alive.
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
Create one-of-akind mementos with a one-of-a-kind tool.
With Tribute Center, you can easily personalize memorial folders, prayer cards, thank-you cards, bookmarks, candles, and so much more with our collection of more than 500 different themes. Gone are the days of preprinted stationery!
DOWNLOAD TRIBUTE CENTER FOR FREE! frazerconsultants.com/tmf-tribute-center
Different Types of Funeral Payment Options Explained
There are several funeral payment options that you can offer to your families that will make things easier for everyone.
For your client families, offering multiple funeral payment options may be the difference between settling on arrangements and creating the funeral that their loved one deserves. With options like financing and life insurance assignments, families don’t have to worry about paying the costs all at once if they can’t afford it. Instead, they can focus on grieving their loss and creating a funeral personalized to their loved one.
Having multiple payment options doesn’t just benefit your families; it benefits your firm too — perhaps in several ways that you haven’t thought of. If you have local competitors, it can be a way to differentiate your firm from your competition. More families may come your way if you offer multiple payment options. Not only does this make things easier for families, but it also shows them that you care about more than just your bottom line.
Families don’t just need multiple payment options; they need online options. Per Podium’s The State of Local Business Report, even postpandemic, 8 out of 10 consumers want their local businesses to continue to offer online services like contactless payments.
As for what funeral payment options your funeral home can offer, there are several great options out there to appeal to families of all financial backgrounds. Let’s look.
CREDIT CARD PROCESSING
One contactless payment option that your funeral home can offer is credit card processing. With this option, families can pay funeral expenses online with a credit card. An easy way to do this is to have a payment platform directly on your funeral home’s website that accepts all major credit cards.
Just make sure that you provide your families with a secure connection for entering their credit card information. Having a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for your website scrambles up families’ sensitive information so hackers can’t steal it.
ELECTRONIC CHECKS
Another payment option that families may prefer is an electronic check. Oftentimes, they can make the payment online directly on your website like they would for a credit card payment. For families who prefer to pay by check, it’s more convenient than physically writing and mailing or delivering a paper check. An electronic check simply replaces the paper check and moves the funds electronically between two bank accounts.
It's also less time consuming. Your families don’t need to drive to your funeral home to meet with their funeral director and give them the check. You also don’t have to wait for it to arrive in the mail or worry about it getting lost. With an electronic check, it’s delivered almost instantly with just the click of a mouse or tap of a finger. The processing fees for electronic checks are typically less than other online payment methods, so your firm saves money when families choose this option.
FUNERAL CROWDFUNDING
Your funeral home doesn’t have to just stop at credit card processing and electronic checks. Another option that allows families to reach out to their community for support is funeral crowdfunding. With this payment option, you can help families raise funds for the funeral expenses, medical bills, memorial fund, children’s college funds, and other necessary living expenses. It’s an easy way for family, friends, and even kind strangers to show their support and express their condolences.
Instead of using a third-party service, the best solution is to offer crowdfunding directly on your funeral home’s website. This way, your funeral home is in control of the funds raised.
It also keeps traffic on your funeral home’s website, which means more potential client families for your firm.
FUNERAL FINANCING
For families who can’t afford to pay the expenses all at once, they may benefit from financing. With 63% of Americans not having enough money in their savings to cover an unexpected expense of just $500 (Forbes), this may be more families than you think.
With a funeral loan, they can pay back the expenses over time instead of all at once if they can’t afford it or want to keep their emergency savings. Families get peace of mind that their loved one’s funeral is taken care of and that they can take their time with the payment. While your funeral home gets peace of mind that you’re still paid right away, and families pay back their lender over time.
LIFE INSURANCE ASSIGNMENTS AS FUNERAL PAYMENT
For families who don’t want to take on a loan or be at risk of not raising enough crowdfunding funds, life insurance assignments may be right for them. If their loved one has a life insurance policy, they may be able to submit a claim as funeral payment. With this option, they can pay the expenses right away and not have to worry about paying anything back later.
Your employees shouldn’t have to spend hours of your day filling out the paperwork. That time is meant to be spent with families. Instead of working with a provider that requires a lot of paperwork, time, and money on your end, it’s best to use a digital solution that saves you time and money — and gets everyone paid faster.
GIVE YOUR FAMILIES OPTIONS WITH TRIBUTE PAY
Instead of using third-party services that are more expensive and timeconsuming, use a tool that’s built directly into your website: Tribute Pay. It comes free with your Frazerpowered website, and with it, you can offer your families all the payment options in this article.
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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.
Getting to Know Frazer Consultants
Meet two members of our Frazer family — Shannon and Ryan — and learn about their roles at Frazer and what they like to do in their free time.
NAME Shannon
YEARS Two
ROLE Production Coordinator
WHAT I DO AT FRAZER:
My name is Shannon, and I have been working as a Production Coordinator with Frazer Consultants for a bit more than two years. My job is to work with our website design team and our individual clients to create a website that will be helpful for their business for years to come. From picking out the perfect color to answering any post-launch questions, I am responsible for shepherding our clients through the life of the production process. Building a website can sometimes be stressful with all the minute decisions to be made, but I work hard to make the whole process as pain free as possible.
I always enjoy talking to my clients on a weekly basis. I like figuring out just what services and small changes can be made to their potential new website that will help the funeral directors and the families they assist make it through a trying time with just a bit more ease. Frazer websites have so many great tools to offer, and our designers do an amazing job of making everything look beautiful and eye-catching while being super user friendly. I am thankful to work with such an amazingly skilled team, and I can’t wait to help you build your new Frazer website in the future.
HOW I SPEND MY FREE TIME:
Free time has been surprisingly sparse for me since quarantine began, with virtual learning happening in my home. I do try to get outside as much as possible, which in the summer meant going for bike rides, camping, and laying out in the hammock in the backyard. Now that winter has settled in, I still try to get outside as much as possible by taking my two dogs out for long walks on the bike path or to the dog park. And there is a great sledding hill in the park behind my house that has become a favorite destination for myself and the kids, with all the snow on the ground.
But on those few quiet evenings and weekends, I love to curl up with a glass of wine and escape into a good book or TV series. I am always on the hunt for recommendations of options to satisfy my historical curiosity and my love of a happy ending.
Once quarantine is over, I am greatly looking forward to getting to travel again to see friends and family and keep working through my life goal of visiting all 50 states. So far, I have made it to more than half of them.
NAME Ryan
YEARS Four
ROLE Account Executive
WHAT I DO AT FRAZER:
While I’ve been a part of the Frazer Consultants team for four years now, I’ve been consulting with clients in the deathcare industry about web services for more than a decade. In that time, we’ve all seen a lot change.
It used to be enough to simply have a website that offered online obituaries to serve your families — families who were loyal because they’d called on you before, or their folks before them had. It’s not so straightforward anymore. People no longer turn to the Yellow Pages to look up your phone number, in its place they now turn to Google. They do research, they click on your competitors’ websites, they look through everyone’s content, they read reviews, they price shop online — and they’re doing it all from their phones.
With cremation rates higher than they’ve ever been, and throw in COVID-19 and the service restrictions it’s brought with it, your web strategy nowadays has to be on its A game. Your website, itself, must differentiate you from your competition. It must engage families with content that is helpful and informative. It also needs to include an effective preplanning funnel, payment options that don’t put you at risk, be easily translated into multiple languages if you serve a multi-lingual market, and has to be optimized for a secure, mobile experience.
Like the days of the phone book and its halfpage ads, your business now needs to stand out on Google in the same way. It should be near the top, on the map, and you might need to be leveraging Google Ads in a crowded market to ensure you’re being found by families. And then there’s Facebook...
If you feel your website isn’t keeping up with the times, or your competition, give me a call and let’s review your situation. You can reach me directly at 971-404-0527, or email me at ryan@frazerconsultants.com.
HOW I SPEND MY FREE TIME:
Last spring, my family and I made the big decision to go on a little adventure. We said goodbye to our beloved minivan and sold our home in Bend, Oregon, trading it all to explore America in a diesel pickup truck with a 40-foot fifth wheel in tow. Not knowing how we’d all take to the small space, or to a lifestyle that was completely foreign to us, we didn’t set any expectations as to how long we’d be out on the road. And we’ve been happily chasing sunshine ever since.
In the months since we began our travels, we’ve spent our weekends showing our girls some of the beauty of this country that we’d never seen before. We’ve hiked through Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, stared in awe across the expanse of the Grand Canyon, and gone up the High Roller ferris wheel at sunset while our daughters “ooh’d” and “ahh’d” at the lights of the Las Vegas Strip.
Before, I’d spend my free time working on projects around the house or binging episodes of this or that on Netflix. While I still have projects, now we’re spending more of our time outside hiking, riding our bikes, and swimming — even in January!
So, if you call me to chat about our services, ask me where I am — maybe I’ll be close enough to stop by!
Quiz: Test Your Knowledge About Funeral Home Marketing
Take this quiz to see how much you know about funeral home marketing, from print methods to digital platforms.
01 — DIRECT MAIL MARKETING DOESN’T WORK ANYMORE. True False
02 — YOUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER IS ABOUT SELLING. True False
03 — HAVING A BLOG ON YOUR FUNERAL HOME’S WEBSITE CAN HELP YOU FIND NEW CLIENT FAMILIES. True False
04 — CHECK ALL THAT APPLY:
Which of the following would be good ideas to try for promoting your funeral home’s upcoming event?
Postcard Email Digital ads Word of mouth
05 — CHECK ALL THAT APPLY:
Which of the following are good examples of downloadable content for your client families.
Preplanning checklist Grief guide Funeral personalization infographic Burial vs. cremation chart
06 — WHAT IS A CALL-TO-ACTION? An action that you want users to complete after engaging with your content Calling a family to get them to complete an action The conclusion paragraph of a piece of content Your business phone number
07 — WHAT IS A LEAD? Someone who wants to collaborate with your business Someone who showed interest in your products or services A customer you are currently working with Someone who gave you negative feedback
Answers on the next page.
Answers
01 — FALSE
Direct mail marketing is still effective and sometimes even more effective than online marketing strategies. Your funeral home should test out both digital and print strategies to see what works best for your business.
02 — FALSE
Your newsletter should focus on educating your families about funeral planning and grief, not selling your products and services.
03 — TRUE
Having a blog helps educate families while increasing your website traffic and generating more leads for your funeral home.
04 — A-D
All the answers are worth trying to see if they’re effective in promoting your upcoming event. Although, you shouldn’t rely on just one of these ideas alone. Use a combination of these ideas to get more coverage.
05 — A-D
All the answers would make great downloadable content for educating your families. In return, you get their contact information for additional marketing efforts.
06 — A
An action that you want users to complete after engaging with your content
A call-to-action is a statement that encourages users to learn more without being too pushy, such as “call our funeral home for more information.”
07 — B
Someone who showed interest in your products or services
A lead is someone who expresses interest in your business, such as through downloading a free resource, which makes them a potential client.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT FUNERAL HOME MARKETING, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
Your funeral home isn’t just a physical place.
Your online presence — from your website to your social media pages — is a big chunk of who you are, so make sure it accurately portrays your funeral home. Our social media and search engine optimization services can help.
LEARN MORE!
frazerconsultants.com/tmf-marketing-packages
How to Talk to Baby Boomers About Funeral Planning
Since Baby Boomers are your current target audience, let’s talk more about how to approach the conversation with them.
As you know, getting people to preplan their funeral isn’t easy for several reasons. Many people simply don’t understand all that goes into funeral planning and the benefits of doing it in advance. But, by understanding how to approach the funeral preplanning conversation, your funeral home’s staff can better educate them about it.
HOW TO BRING UP FUNERAL PREPLANNING
One convenient time to bring up funeral preplanning is after a Boomer has arranged someone else’s funeral, such as for their spouse or a parent. However, you need to be careful with this approach, so you don’t come off as insensitive to their grief. To avoid this, it may be best to follow up with them a little bit after their loved one’s funeral. This way, they’ve had some time to cope with their loss and the funeral is still fresh in their mind. Then, if their loved one’s arrangements are something they’re interested in, it makes planning their own funeral easier. Plus, they’re already in the mindset of funeral planning and have been educated about your funeral home’s services and offerings.
TAKE AN EVENT PLANNING APPROACH
You also can take more of an event planning approach to funeral planning. Boomers want personalized funeral experiences, so what better way to do this than planning all the details like you would for any event? Find creative ways to personalize their funeral
experience and show off their personality and interests. Whether it’s through the memorial displays or the funeral reception food, the opportunities are endless. To find out how they want to be remembered, ask them specific questions for creating a personalized service and getting to know their life story.
MAKE FUNERAL PREPLANNING EASY
Make funeral preplanning less stressful for them with easy-to-use preplanning tools and resources. A convenient way to go about it is to have a preplanning form directly on your funeral home’s website. Along with an online planner, you can include a checklist of things to do when funeral planning. You also can create other helpful downloadable content about preplanning, such as an infographic about funeral gift ideas for more visual learners.
SHARE THE BENEFITS
Explaining the benefits are what will be the deciding factors in someone’s decision to preplan. Ultimately, it relieves their loved ones of the burden and stress while grieving. It also gives the person preplanning some comfort in knowing that it’s taken care of and how they want it. They also can prepay to relieve their family of the financial burden, which is a great opportunity for you to explain all your funeral home’s payment options.
MAKE FUNERAL PLANNING EASY WITH OUR ONLINE PLANNER
Let families begin the funeral planning process from the comfort of their couch with an online preplanning form. Our online planner and quote builder is built directly into your Frazer website to make things easier for everyone.
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
Showcase your products and services!
Did you know Frazer websites come with an online planner and quote builder? With this tool, families can conveniently begin the funeral planning process online. You can even build out package examples to make your families’ decision-making process easier.
We understand that the ins and outs of how funeral technology works can be a little confusing at first.
That’s why we want to take some time to answer frequently asked questions we hear about funeral technology solutions.
WHAT DOES A RESPONSIVE WEBSITE MEAN?
When a website has a responsive design, it responds to whatever screen it’s being viewed on. Whether it’s the smallest smartphone or the largest computer monitor or anything in between, your website adjusts to all devices.
WHY IS BEING RESPONSIVE IMPORTANT?
With many people using mobile devices for online searches, being responsive is important. It helps your client families have a better user experience when viewing your website. Search engines like Google also rank websites with a responsive design higher in their search engine results pages than websites that don’t have a responsive design.
WHAT IS SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION (SEO)? SEO is a set of systems and practices that help improve where your website shows up on search engine results pages. Basically, it’s the steps you take to make sure your website gets found when people search for keywords that are relevant to you. It can be a little complicated, but by working with an SEO expert, they can make sure your funeral home’s website follows SEO best practices.
HOW CAN I CUSTOMIZE MY WEBSITE?
There are many ways to customize your funeral home’s website, from simple changes to more complex changes. For simple changes, you can update your logo, images, and website content to reflect your funeral home’s brand. If you want to make larger design changes like changing the layout or adding funeral planning tools, it’s best to work with a professional funeral home website designer who specializes in this.
WHY AREN’T MY WEBSITE CHANGES SHOWING UP?
If you made changes to your website, your browser might still show a previous version. This is because your browser’s cache still has old data saved to make your website load faster. Your cache needs to be cleared to reflect the changes. To clear your cache, many browsers have quick keyboard shortcuts by holding down the control, shift, and delete keys at the same time. If that doesn’t work, there are other ways to clear your cache depending on your browser and device.
IS MY FUNERAL TECHNOLOGY SECURE?
An easy way to know if your website is secure is if it begins with HTTP or HTTPS. If it begins with HTTPS, your website is secure. If not, your sensitive information might be vulnerable to cyber attacks. But don’t worry, by adding a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate to your website, you can make sure your information is secure. If you work with a professional funeral home website provider, having an SSL certificate is typically best practice.
HOW CAN MY FUNERAL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS HELP SAVE ME TIME?
Depending on your website provider, your website may be equipped with time-saving tools. Some examples of time-saving features are lead generation forms for collecting families’ information on your behalf and integrations with the top funeral management software and answering service companies to eliminate double data entry. With the right funeral technology, your website can feel like an additional employee for your funeral home.
CAN MY FUNERAL TECHNOLOGY HELP IMPROVE MY CASHFLOW?
Depending on your website provider, your website may be set up with revenue-generating features. Some examples can include offering alternative funeral payment methods, such as crowdfunding and life insurance assignments, and offering flower ordering directly on your website where you can earn a commission from the sales. With this additional revenue, you can tackle other projects.
DON’T BE LIMITED BY YOUR FUNERAL TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS
With a Frazer-powered website, you can have a website that’s unique to your funeral home. It’s also equipped with many time-saving and revenuegenerating features, so you can reach your full potential!
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
Meet your new employee — your website!
A Frazer website is like an additional employee for your funeral home! Directly on your website, families can begin the funeral planning process, make the funeral payment, and so much more.
Not only do funeral flowers help personalize a funeral service, but they also bring a deeper meaning into remembering a loved one.
Flowers can represent love, sadness, strength, and many other powerful emotions. Ultimately, families want the flowers they choose to reflect their loved one and honor their memory. Let’s go over how to help families choose the perfect funeral flowers to pay tribute to their loved one.
MEANING BEHIND FUNERAL FLOWERS
Flower colors and types of flowers have different meanings that play a factor in choosing funeral flowers. When just talking about flower color, these are what the colors represent:
RED: Strength, respect, devotion, and love BLUE: Sadness, sympathy, and peace
ORANGE: Enthusiasm, joy, and warmth
YELLOW: Friendship, warmth, and hope
GREEN: Nature, wellness, and renewal PURPLE: Respect, sorrow, sympathy, and admiration
PINK: Grace, compassion, and innocence
WHITE: Elegance, reverence, purity, and eternal love
When it comes to flower types, these are what some of the most common funeral flowers represent:
For carnations and roses, the meaning depends on the specific flower color:
DAISES: Peace and hope
LAVENDER: Grace, purity, and devotion
ORCHIDS: Hope, peace, courage, and love
SNAPDRAGONS: Graciousness and strength
TULIPS: Love, peace, and hope
RED CARNATIONS: Admiration and love
PINK CARNATIONS: Remembrance
WHITE CARNATIONS: Innocence and love
ALL CARNATIONS: Sympathy and grief RED ROSES: Love, respect, and courage
PINK ROSES: Grace, love, and appreciation
WHITE ROSES: Reverence, innocence, peace, and hope
DARK CRIMSON ROSES: Grief and sorrow
FLOWERS AND FUNERAL THEMES
The flowers can help convey an overall funeral theme. A few funeral theme ideas are a loved one’s profession, hobby, favorite color, or favorite season.
You also can incorporate small mementos into the floral arrangements to make them even more personal. For example, if someone was an avid golfer, you can add golf balls or tees into the arrangement. You can even place flowers in their old golf bag. If you have a standing floral spray, you can lean their golf clubs by it. When it comes to personalization, the opportunities are endless! Don’t be afraid to get creative with it.
FLOWER PRESERVATION TIPS AND MEMENTOS
Flower types have different lifespans after being cut. For the flowers previously mentioned, these are their lifespans after being cut:
TULIPS: Three to seven days DAISIES: Four to seven days SNAPDRAGONS: Five to eight days ROSES: Four to 12 days LAVENDER: Up to 10 days ORCHIDS: One to two weeks
CARNATIONS: Up to two weeks
There are several mementos that families can make by drying their flowers. A few ways to dry flowers are by leaving them in a vase, hanging them upside down, pressing them in a book, microwaving them, or placing them in a container of silica gel. Depending on the flower type and desired memento, some methods may work better than others.
For mementos, a few ideas are a dried flower shadowbox, framed-pressed flowers, and dried flower coasters. Families also may want to donate flowers after the funeral to a flower donation program, like Random Acts of Flowers. Or your funeral home’s staff can deliver them to local nursing homes and hospitals.
QUESTIONS TO ASK FAMILIES When helping families choose the perfect funeral flowers, these are some questions you can ask them:
Did your loved one have any preplanned wishes for their funeral flowers?
Do you have a funeral theme or color scheme in mind?
What was your loved one’s favorite color?
What was your loved one’s favorite flower? Do you have any flower types in mind? Would the meaning behind certain flower types and colors impact your decision?
Do you want to keep the flowers after the funeral service?
If you’re keeping them, do you want to turn them into a memento?
Do you want to donate the flowers after the funeral service?
HELP FAMILIES CHOOSE THE PERFECT FLOWERS WITH TRIBUTE STORE
With the Tribute Store, families can conveniently order flowers directly from their loved one’s obituary. We’re constantly adding new arrangements to Tribute Store, so no matter what style your families are going for, there is something for everyone.
TO READ MORE, VISIT: frazerconsultants.com/meaningful
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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WWW.FRAZERCONSULTANTS.COM | 866-372-9372 | INFO@FRAZERCONSULTANTS.COM
Let us handle the insurance paperwork!
Combined, the Tribute Insurance Assignments team has more than 65 years of experience. They know the requirements of more than 300 insurance companies, so they can process claims efficiently and accurately and fund your funeral home in as little as 24 hours.
