Provide Cremation Services - Who Visits Your Website And What Do They Want?

Why are people coming to your funeral home website? Your web designer will say, to get information, of course'. Let's dig a little deeper and define this information' that cremation site visitors are seeking. It might provide insight on how to better position your business to meet the needs of potential customers. Conversion of those satisfied visitors into customers may occur in one visit, although the rate of this happening is very low. The more likely path is conversion after multiple visits, which occur for different reasons.

For purposes of discussion, we will identify various groupings as visitor segments. What if the question why are you here today?' was posed to visitors and the universe of answers was large enough to get valid results from those who responded? Web analytics are also important in determining visitor's success in their search for information on your website. Imagine being able to accommodate increasing numbers of potential customers with a growing certainty of what they are doing on your funeral home website. At cremation, we watched the emergence of visitor segments as the website became more than a digitized brochure. Some areas that can be addressed are described in the following paragraphs and they are very much in a state of emergence.

Obit/Condolence Segment
Relatives and friends of decedents come to your site to read obits and to enter condolences. The two main referral sources are the tag line for condolences on printed obits and information distributed by the family. Some firms are providing cards for the family to pass on to anyone wanting to visit the website.

Forms Segment
Accessing needed forms on your website saves families and the funeral home time and travel. When funeral directors offer families of the deceased the option of printing and faxing completed paperwork, a high percentage selects the internet option. Phone discussions work well in conjunction with websites which give more detail and help in the heavy lifting of documentation and forms completion. It is especially useful with remotely located or out-of-state relatives who must sign documents. However, Funeral homes need to monitor web designers carefully to keep internet forms as a supplement to and not a replacement for the face-to-face arrangement conference.

Urns and Other Merchandise Selections Segment
Many families like to jointly make their choices. The website display of merchandise extends offerings far beyond what is actually stocked at the funeral home. It puts that display in every living room of your customer's family, even when they are in different communities or states. Most importantly, it is increasing both amount and margin of sales in firms which are using the website display. A note of caution is appropriate here. Web designers like to suggest a purchase option including a shopping cart on your website. That function cuts into the funeral director's face-to-face or phone arrangement conference role in merchandise selection.

Preneed Research Segment
Ask each preneed purchaser, Did you look at our website?' What did you think of it?' Increasingly, the public is researching their purchases thoroughly on the web before calling for an initial appointment. This segment tends to have made multiple visits to the website. They may even start out as an obit reader or simply be getting map directions for your funeral home. Sometimes, those visits span months or years before the potential customer calls for an appointment. Website marketing to preneed customers is a huge growth area for funeral homes. The cost of a qualified lead is a small fraction of any other marketing approach. To be effective though, you have to build traffic to your website.

Funeral Goer Segment
People who go to funerals want to know service times, places and driving directions. They may also look at the obit to brush up on relatives' names. Most funeral home staff members are familiar with this segment. There are many off-line opportunities to send people in this segment to your website for the information they are seeking.

Other segments
There are many smaller segments. An out-of-town responsible person may be looking for a funeral home to handle a relative's pending death. Competitors will visit. You will also get sales people and even acquisition firms looking at your website. Job seekers and ancestry researchers will start on the website. In a population of segments like this, a long tail of smaller and smaller segments will exist. It doesn't pay to completely ignore these very small segments. I remember two emails from past experiences: The first was sent at 3:00 am. It read as follows: I work night shift at IBM and just got home. My father is dying and I would like the traditional funeral followed by cremation portrayed on your website. I will be awake after 9:00 am. Please call __.' The other email: my name is __. I am the Director at XYZ Retirement Center. Your website is very informative. Would you be willing to bring about 35 preplanning packets and hold a workshop for our residents? Please call me at __.' Obviously, the website touched these two people and sparked the type of emails managers love to receive, but receive all too infrequently! Nevertheless, the design and content of your website should make provision for those infrequent, but very profitable occurrences.

Cremation's research is aimed at ferreting out these segments and finding what works for each one. Up to this time website design has been based on guru ideas about what works. We believe gurus, including our own gurus, are right in only about half their ideas. The trick is to quickly test and discard nonworking ideas, unnecessary bells and whistles, and worn out approaches. Our internet traffic provides the ability to test alternative features and reach suitable confidence levels on what works. Consumers and customer firms benefit from that research. We constantly strive to find what works for cremation customers. When satisfied customers represent one side of a golden coin, the other side tends to be a successful business.



For more information on cremation services visit www.cremation.com