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5 Reasons Why Funeral Home Social Media Matters

April 28, 2016 by Homesteaders Life Company
Funeral Home Social Media

Since its founding in 2004, Facebook has grown to 2+ billion users. Twitter now boasts over 200 million users. And many other social networks claim large, loyal followings. But even people who use social media regularly for personal networking purposes can become overwhelmed when faced with the prospect of using it for their businesses. It can seem big, complicated and time-consuming. Adding to the confusion is the fact that most people think social media is one thing, when in fact the word “media” is plural.

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How to Help Families Who Are Grieving on Mother’s Day

April 21, 2016 by Danielle Burmeister
Aftercare

Mother’s Day can be hard for anyone who has lost a mother or mother figure in their life, especially if this year is the first Mother’s Day without her. It’s important to remember that grief is different for everyone, so what works for one family may not be beneficial for another. 

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8 Reasons to Redesign Your Funeral Home's Website

April 12, 2016 by Alyssa McNab
Funeral Home Marketing

A member of your community has a friend who recently prearranged with your funeral home. She had such a positive experience with your firm that she shared how glad she was that she put her plans in place and encouraged her friend to do the same. Curious, this newly referred potential client pulled up your firm’s website on her smartphone. Does the experience your website provides match the exceptional service her friend described? If she conducts additional research on your website later, will she find enough information to encourage her to set up an appointment?

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Why Funeral Homes Need to Offer Pet Loss Grief Support

April 7, 2016 by Danielle Burmeister
Aftercare

According to sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst, the vast majority of adult relationships are temporary. In fact, 70% of friendships do not last longer than seven years. Consider that many household pets – dogs and cats, specifically – often live a dozen or more years. Wouldn’t it make sense that those relationships, some of the longest many adults have outside their immediate families, are significant enough to merit a considerable amount of grief and necessitate a corresponding amount of funeral home support?

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Funeral Industry Statistics That Will Influence Your Marketing Efforts

April 5, 2016 by Danielle Burmeister
Funeral Home Marketing

In today’s competitive marketplace, funeral home marketing is an essential component of a successful long-term business strategy. Many of our funeral home customers have limited resources to devote to marketing. In fact, 44% of respondents to Kates-Boylston’s latest marketing survey spend less than $15,000 on their annual marketing efforts. The same survey found that only 29% of funeral home owners write an annual marketing plan for their business, meaning that nearly three fourths of respondents don’t have a strategy in place to allocate those limited marketing dollars.

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How to Differentiate Your Funeral Home Business

March 29, 2016 by Danielle Burmeister
Funeral Home Business

First impressions are everything. And most times, you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression. A client’s first experience with your firm—and every experience after that—has a tremendous impact on their overall impression of doing business with you. In the latest “State of the Connected Consumer” report published by Salesforce, 88% of consumers agreed that “the experience a company provides is as important as its product or services.”

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10 Grief Support Books for Your Funeral Home Library

March 24, 2016 by Alyssa McNab
Aftercare

Because every person grieves differently, it’s important for funeral professionals to offer a variety of grief support resources to help individuals through the most difficult times in their lives. In addition to aftercare activities such as hosting grief support groups, sponsoring holiday memorial services and helping families recognize milestones after a loved one’s death, providing a library of grief support books can be valuable to your client families and others in your community.

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Establish Your Funeral Home Business as an Expert Community Resource

March 22, 2016 by Alyssa McNab
Funeral Home Marketing, Funeral Home Business

Consumers’ perceptions of a business are often influenced by messages they encounter before they experience the organization’s products or services. In an effort to ensure they’re making the best possible choice, they turn to many different resources to learn more about what the company offers – and to gather opinions from others.

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Integrating Fitness-Related Grief Support into Funeral Home Aftercare

March 17, 2016 by Danielle Burmeister
Funeral Home Marketing, Aftercare

Grief is a long, hard and complicated process. It can take decades for someone to overcome the pain of a sudden, traumatic loss. That’s why, as a funeral professional, it is so important that your funeral home marketing efforts include aftercare. Finding creative ways — like fitness events — to reach your client families after their loss can be instrumental in helping them process their grief.

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How to Write an Obituary That Is Creative and Memorable

March 15, 2016 by Danielle Burmeister
Funeral Planning

The frenzy of an at-need funeral often requires an efficient approach to writing obituaries. As funeral professionals, your focus is on those personal interactions that demand your immediate attention. You generously and tirelessly bring your energy and empathy to arrangement conferences, first viewings, visitations, memorials and graveside services. It seems unreasonable to expect you and your staff to use some of those limited resources to pen a more meaningful obituary. But, if you should need to, here are a few tips to help you craft a creative and memorable obituary for your client families.

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