Funeral Home Resource

Listen to Your Salesperson

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:21:13 GMT

Your salesperson will focus on the strengths of their product, identify what they are. This is true for any product, not just websites. Ask them to compare to their competitors, often you will learn more from the salesperson about the products than you ever could from reading all the literature. Pay special attention to claims being made. A saleperson that stretches the truth in one area is likely to do it in all areas. No product is perfect, ask your salesperson about the product weaknesses. This is a good meter to judge your salesperson by. If they are honest in divulging some of the potential flaws in their product, they are most likely being honest with everything. Trust is of tremendous importance if you're going to be trusting the success of your company, in part, to an organization.

I've seen very few Funeral Home websites or Online Marketing programs that are being run efficiently. I do know that the larger organizations are taking steps to correct this, although they are oftentimes slow to act. The internet is not like an advertisement in a local paper or Yellow Pages. You don't get great placement by paying for it. You need to work with an organization that knows how to optimize your efforts. How can you tell if the company you are speaking with can do this? Listen to the salesperson.

Any salesperson will speak to the strengths of their product with detail and accuracy. If your salesperson is going into detail about design or functionality vs. performance and metrics, you should reconsider.

It does not matter how beautiful or feature-rich your website is if it does not generate new business. Ask specific questions of your salesperson. Ask for references. Call the references.

If you look at the internet growth trends you will soon realize how crucial it is to have an effective website and online marketing plan.

At Funeral Home Resource we want our clients to come to their own decisions. No pressure, no gimmicks, no commitments. You pay monthly for our products and there is never a term commitment. If our products don't perform, you just stop. 98.1% of our clients are still with us - What does that say about how we perform?

I can't afford to see a Movie (Optimizing your Time)

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 17:37:23 GMT

I will never forget the time when a very successful friend of mine told me he could not afford to see a movie. At the time, he was making more than $.5M a year so I questioned him about this. He explained to a very young Ron Browning that it was not the cost of the movie, but the cost of him not spending the same amount of time working on his business. Since he was earning an average of $200/hr it would cost him $400 to see the movie. While I admit this is a bit extreme it gave me a better perspective on the way I spent my time. At the time I was still in Graduate School and had started my own financial services business. I realized that delivering documents to clients was costing me a lot more than just the savings of the courier. It was costing me the focus on my core business and driving revenue. Once I started paying a courier, I realized that I had a LOT more time and began to notice the difference almost immediately in my revenue. How does this apply to Funeral Homes? Well, I know many of you that work on your own websites, do your own print ads, and manage a lot of other similar tasks to "save money". You and I both know the end product is inferior to a professional product but the savings that you've estimated are totally inaccurate. Imagine if you would have paid a professional to do your print ad. It might have cost you $250. What you don't realize is the impact that a professional representation means to your audience. Also, a professional ad (or website) will have higher conversion rates because people are more likely to transact with what appears to be an established organization. How many hours have you spent doing print ads, website changes, or similar tasks in which you are not the most qualified to be doing them? Wonder why you don't get business from your ads or website? But you're saving money? Imagine if you'd hired a professional and used the time and energy you have to go out into the community and promote your Funeral Home. The same time management can be applied to embalming and other items. Sure, you might save the fee for someone else to do it but the true cost is not having the most valuable member of the team doing what they do best, being the face of the organization in the community. Next time you're doing a task that you are not trained to do or have other resources that can do it for a fee (design, web development, etc.) ask yourself if you would have been able to generate as much or more money if you let a professional do the work. You'll have better results, a more professional image, and have put your time to significantly better use. Can you afford to go to a movie?

Conversion Matters Most

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 19:27:08 GMT

If you weren't able to attend my workshop at the NFDA in October I will share with you the one point that I said was the absolute most important:

Conversion

I provided an example that shows how a conversion-focused website can easily quadruple results with the exact same amount of impressions. That's right, even if your search rankings don't increase, you can quadruple your business by focusing on the conversion funnel of your website. By making certain that you have a compelling title and description you will find that you can increase the number of visitors to your site. Readily available contact information and a clear, concise message will help to turn visitors into clients. Of course, search engine optimization will allow more people online to find you but getting found is only one part of the equation. Making sure that you optimize your conversion rates every step of the way will insure that your website provides a substantial return on investment.