Marketing a funeral home has several inherent challenges. How do you sell something people resist thinking about? Plus, there’s a real fear of offending potential customers by reminding them of grief and mortality. This concern is well-founded as we live in a society that believes profiting off others’ misfortune is immoral, making marketing funeral services feel, at best, delicate.

Yet if you’re looking to grow faster than 4% CAGR, marketing is essential. But how can you promote your services while respecting these sensitivities?

1. Transactional Marketing: The Direct Pitch

Many funeral homes stick to what’s known as “transactional marketing”, which is designed to prompt an immediate sale. This type of marketing highlights the service and price and often includes a disclaimer apologizing if the timing is not ideal. This approach minimizes the risk of offending potential customers as it’s devoid of emotion.

Examples of Transactional Marketing

  • “Cremation Starting at $799” on Billboards
  • GoogleAds targeting keywords like, “Cremation near me”
  • Mailers encouraging retirees to sign up for Pre-need

While these tactics are unlikely to offend, transactional marketing presents a few unique challenges in the funeral industry:

  • Low Differentiation: If your potential customers see you as “just another funeral service company”, you’re left sacrificing your profit margin to win clients. This game is a race to the bottom that the conglomerates will always win since they have deeper pockets AND greater efficiency.
  • Grudge Purchase:  Since no one wants to think about funeral services and people don’t see you as any different from other funeral homes, they’re unlikely to sign up for “pre-need” with you.

Additionally, relying heavily on digital marketing like Google Ads is a losing game, especially for independent funeral homes. These types of marketing are priced like an auction, the more people are willing to spend to be promoted, the more search engines charge. Deep-pocketed conglomerates have a strong advantage here.

Transactional marketing reduces your services to a commodity – the lowest price wins.

2. The Relational Marketing Alternative: Building Trust and Familiarity

Leaning more heavily on Relational Marketing offers a more sustainable and profitable path to growth for funeral service businesses. Instead of focusing on the 5% of people who are actively in the market, relational marketing seeks to build connections with the masses, fostering familiarity and trust over time.

Strengths of Relational Marketing:

  • Word of Mouth: Since people talk, if you connect with people on an emotional level, they will refer their friends and family to you as they enter the market.
  • Emotional Connection: When people know, like and trust you before they need what you offer, Pre-Need becomes the natural next step.
  • Bypass Google: You’ll know your relational marketing is working as you see your direct organic traffic increase. This means your potential customers have a bias toward working with you and your competition isn’t even considered.

Another benefit, there are inexpensive ways to reach broad audiences at a much lower cost than digital.

Examples of Relational Marketing Approaches:

Relational marketing allows you to share stories and values that reflect the heart of your funeral home. Below are a few examples of message strategies that can build trust while being conscientious of the topic:

  • Reflective Storytelling: Like the ad below, sharing stories and values your funeral home were founded upon and how you’re living them out can be incredibly powerful with building trust and respect in the community.
  • Authenticity and Vulnerability: Being “real” helps people relate to you AND dispels the belief that you’re trying to capitalize on heartache.
  • Happy Stories: Sharing stories of your team going above and beyond to provide comfort and guidance to grieving families can put future customers’ minds at ease when they enter the market.

Hutton Light Bulb Ad Example

Tact and empathy are required when employing these approaches but with the right execution, they can help you create meaningful connections and loyalty, leading to Pre-need sales and increased calls.

Why Relational Marketing Pays Off

In marketing, it’s often said that “in the absence of an emotional connection, people will always choose the cheapest option.” Funeral services are no different. By leaning into relational marketing, you can connect with customers more genuinely while seeing exponential growth in your Pre-need and profitability.

Relational marketing gives people strong emotional reasons to choose you, lessening the impact of price on the purchase decision

Putting It All Together

For funeral homes, the path to predictable, sustainable growth lies in a comprehensive marketing strategy with a focus on relationship building at scale. While transactional and digital marketing have their place in most marketing strategies, they should ideally be limited to less than 40% of your marketing budget. Mastering this combination of relational and transactional marketing will lead to the maximum calls with the highest profitability for your funeral home.

If you’re hoping to eventually sell your funeral home, investing in relational marketing is even more important. A steady track record of growth from a community who knows, likes and trusts you will drastically increase your valuation.

In short, creating a marketing strategy based on relational marketing isn’t just about avoiding offense. It’s about being seen as the vital and caring presence in the community that you are. It’s about fostering trust and inspiring confidence in the community that when they need what you offer, you’ll be there to support and serve them.

Matt and his team of 80 partners specialize in growing “unsexy” local businesses—the kinds people need but don’t want to think about. If you have questions, you can reach Matt’s team at MattWillis@WizardofAds.com

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