Weigel on marketing
Joe Weigel
Guest Columnist
I get plenty of commentary and critiques on my opinions in Funeral Director Daily. Most of them are justified and most of them are constructive in their suggestions. Funeral Director Daily recently did an article on marketing and social media — you can find that article here.
Shortly after publishing that article I received an e-mail from industry veteran and marketing expert, Joe Weigel, who happens to be a faithful reader of Funeral Director Daily. What Joe had to say, in my opinion, picked up where I left the conversation off, so I asked Joe if I could print his note. . . here it is:
As you might expect, I found today’s article of particular interest . . . and as a marketer, I wanted to reaffirm several of your points and offer a few additional insights:
We certainly do live in a marketing world much different than just a few years ago. As I pointed out to Tom Parmalee in the March 29th issue of Funeral Service Insider, we must be media agnostic – that is use whatever media best delivers our message to our target audience.
Just to be clear, traditional media still should play a role in funeral home marketing. Not everyone uses Facebook and not everyone who uses Facebook follows funeral homes. Local newspapers, as well as TV & cable networks, should be considered as part of the marketing plan.
As you stated, getting results with Social Media takes a commitment. This may be why many funeral homes engage outside marketing assistance with Social Media. Also, funeral homes should start with just 2 – 3 platforms. I recommend Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. That should serve most funeral homes. But if they want to use others – they need to master these three first.
Different social media works for different marketing campaigns. If you are trying to build your pre-need business, Facebook is a great option. If it’s an at-need business you are seeking, Google ads are a great option.
Videos are becoming more important in marketing and homes should set up a YouTube page. By the way, did you know that the second most used search engine is YouTube?
Tom, at this point, I think I have bent your ear long enough. . . .
You can learn more about Joe Weigel and his company here.
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Love these insights. I think hearing this from industry insiders will help sell the funeral homes on the validity of marketing on social media. It’s not as scary as it seems and it’s so inexpensive to market on these platforms. Branching out to share beautiful remembrance ideas with the public and other topics of interest to do with celebrating lives would be a good way to share content that would be of interest.
Maybe once FB, Twitter, and YouTube are mastered, Instagram could be added as it’s where most of the GenX, Millenials, and Gen Z’s are. It also connects to Facebook easily which is where the boomers are most active.
I read these posts daily as a newbie and thank you for all the valuable content.