“The Other Side of the Mountain”

March 19, 2025/Business/

Joe Weigel
Guest Columnist

Yesterday Funeral Director Daily published an article on “Getting heard in the Information Age“. That article dealt with the idea that in a new world of Death Care consumers taking different actions on marketing might be a wise thing to think about. Today, I’m skiing down the “other side of the mountain” and featuring an article written by a veteran funeral home marketer that reminds you not to forget about older “tried and true” marketing efforts as well.

I’m posting a recent article by Joe Weigel of Weigel Strategic Marketing, with his permission, that reminds us that “trusted ways of reaching the consumer can still work” also.

From my point of view it is good advice. I’ve always been one to do things in moderation — and how you market your Death Care business might be one area where you don’t want to go “full speed ahead” in one direction or one advertising medium. Weigel makes a good point about the fact that “Trusted Tools” may continue to work for you.

Don’t Toss Your Trusted Tools

By Joe Weigel, Weigel Strategic Marketing

It’s that time of year when I find myself drawn to the big box home improvement stores to wander down the lawn and garden section looking for the latest gadget. You see, I am what’s termed a “gentleman gardener” and I love to putter around the yard doing whatever to “improve” the landscaping.

Of course, when I bring that shiny new toy — er, tool — home, I don’t toss all my older tools in the trash. While that new dual-powered blower vacuum may be great for cleaning flower beds, there are many times when the trusty leaf rake I‘ve had for years is the perfect choice for the job.

That’s why I’m puzzled when I see how some funeral companies and funeral homes react to new marketing opportunities and channels. Presented with a shiny new toy — er, tool — they’re quick to devote most of their resources to it and to discard the time-honored tactics they’ve been using.

Even in these days of YouTube and Facebook, what many funeral home owners and managers see as old-fashioned strategies and tactics still work quite well. As your competitors make those moves to abandon or dramatically reduce their presence in those other channels, sticking with “traditional” tactics may be even more powerful.

The key is to look at each new tool as an enhancement to your toolbox, not as a replacement for something you’ve already been using. That Facebook fan page may be a great way to connect with families on an informal basis, but you may still need a presence in the local newspaper that reaches the community at large. A posting may create a buzz that drives people to your website in a single week, but the majority of your calls still happen because of traditional media like newspaper and radio as well as word of mouth.

By adding those new tools, you broaden your reach and may connect with the same audiences in more ways. That’s a lesson that bankers have learned. Way back when ATMs first emerged on the scene, many bankers saw them as a way to reduce the number of tellers. However, they discovered that customers who used ATMs still liked to come to teller windows at times. The same is true for online banking and the ability to check transactions with smartphones. The smart bankers in the crowd recognize that customers appreciate those multiple avenues of contact, and that very few customers limit themselves to just one.

“All-or-nothing” approaches rarely work well in marketing. Instead, the most successful marketers employ multiple channels to present their messages, tailoring their messages and tactics to the nature of each channel, and connecting them effectively. By weaving those channels together, they allow each contact to lead to others, and ensure that every touch point supports the message and overall objectives.

Don’t make the mistake of discarding strategies that performed five, ten, or twenty years ago as obsolete or useless. Instead, consider them as familiar tools that have a place in your marketing efforts. After all, there’s a big difference between making a one-time splash and delivering successful long-term performance.

Tom Anderson
Funeral Director Daily

Funeral Director Daily take: Good advice from a veteran Death Care marketer!!!

An interesting personal observation about the banks and ATM’s Weigel mentions hit home with me. One thing I learned during my days on a Norwest/Wells Fargo Regional Board was that the “lowest cost” business practice sometimes had big disadvantages.

I served on this board in the 1990’s and banks were just starting to learn and use internet banking. From my recollection, at Wells Fargo we had an internal itemized cost of a customer seeing a teller of about $1 per transaction, that was lowered to about 15 cents when a customer went to an ATM, and to less than pennies when they did an internet transaction.

So, you would think that we would want all customers to do internet transactions and lower our cost of doing business. That sounded great until we realized that we were missing out on Certificate of Deposits, mortgages, investment accounts, and the like that our tellers had the opportunity to inform customers about when they went to the (higher cost transaction) teller line. In Weigel’s vernacular, the teller line was a “familiar tool that worked”.

Just a reminder that “One size generally does not fit all”.

More news from the world of Death Care: