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 As funeral
directors, we are well aware of the changing trends that
society has presented us. Besides noting the increase in the
cremation rate, which we are very conscious of, the 2001 census by
Statistics Canada revealed that over sixty percent of Canadians have
access to the Internet. In the past, funeral directors haven't
been quick to change and the Internet and electronic communications,
like email, are now commonplace. Although your firm may not have
an online presence (a web site) or use email daily, over half of the
population does. With this information, marketing by email to
some degree should seem to be an obvious part of your marketing plan.
Since email marketing may be foreign to most, the following outline
will identify the key success factors and explain how email marketing
works, what are the benefits for your firm, and recommend the best
practices for achieving a successful and ethical program.
There are two methods that funeral homes can employ an email marketing
program. First, on an individual call basis, email can be used by
the client family to promote your funeral home's web site. This form of
viral marketing (not virus) will be explained later.
Secondly, the more common method in e-business would be the use of
newsletters and other promotional mailings to a large number of
recipients. For funeral homes, this could be in the form of a
monthly or quarterly newsletter or a special announcement for upcoming
events. This report will assume that your funeral home has an
online presence and offers a newsletter that visitors can subscribe
to. There are four sections listed in chronological order
detailing the email marketing process.
Collecting
Email Addresses
Use ethical
address gathering methods
As funeral directors, we are very cautious not to offend anyone in our
daily business operations and traditional marketing. The same
goes for email marketing. Why would you waste time and money
emailing people if they didn't want it? Even though using
stringent permission based data collection will limit the amount of
addresses in your database; the result will be a “purer” collection of
people who want your information. There are different tiers of
gathering techniques, listed from the least ethical to the most.
Harvesting.
This is gathering email addresses without the owner's
permission. It is achieved by “plucking” addresses from web
sites, chat rooms, online directories, and other Internet channels.
The remaining methods relate to the user consciously entering his or
her email address in a subscription tool on a web site.
Opt-out.
After entering one's address, the subscription box is
already “check”. If the visitor doesn't uncheck the box, he or
she will be added to the mailing list. This method may still be
deemed “sneaky.”
Unconfirmed Opt-in. This is like the previous method, but the box
needs to be checked by the viewer. Basically he or she has
consciously asked to subscribe. The problem with this method is
that one could enter someone else's address.
Confirmed Opt-in.
Like the previous method, but in addition an
email is automatically sent to the user stating that he or she
subscribed to your newsletter. This email gives the user an
opportunity to unsubscribe, but if left unanswered he or she will
remain on the list.
Double Opt-in.
This is like the previous method, except that the
receiver must reply to the email or click on a link. At this
point they are added to the list. This is the best practice as
the user has re-confirmed his or her desire and this also prevents
someone falsely entering someone else's address.
Always record the date, time, and IP address for each submission.
This information is just for your protection in the event of complaints
from subscribers. Your hosting company or email campaign manager
can provide this service for you. The result may be a smaller
database, but it is as “pure” as possible. This pureness saves
mailing expense and prevents receivers accusing you of Spam.
Recommendation.
Use the “Double Opt-in” technique, it is the most
ethical and limits the receipt of unwanted emails.
Creating
Effective Newsletters and Mailers
Convey your image and identity
In the recent past funeral homes have found that client families have
not been as loyal. Owners and managers are looking for new ways
to build new relationships and increase customer loyalty. Any
online marketing should receive the same care and thought as any other
funeral home marketing. Your newsletter should resemble your
web site by using the same logos and colour schemes so that visitors
can
instantly identify the mailer.
Include Valuable
Content
With the objective of building relationships and increasing loyalty,
provide useful and desired content along with your message. A
funeral home newsletter could include sections on grief and
bereavement, upcoming funeral home community events, staff profiles,
and of course, preneed.
Be Aware of
Technical Issues
Unlike print media, what-you-see is not always what-you-get over the
Internet. You need to cater to three main viewing preferences:
HTML (nice looking with colour and graphics), AOL (for subscribers to
America Online only), and plain text (for users with older systems or
slower internet access). Although making three versions is a
little more work, you do not want to alienate anyone. Have them
choose the format that the user desires at the time of
subscribing. Don't forget to always include an unsubscribe option
in your mailer. To maintain customer loyalty and your reputation,
always make it easy for the receiver to unsubscribe. Also, as
stated earlier, you want to maintain a pure database.
Recommendation.
Use your corporate image and brand, include
useful information, and format your document into HTML, AOL, and plain
text. Plus, always include a method to unsubscribe.
Using
Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is defined as having someone else re-distribute your
message. The most basic example is the use of an email signature,
for example, “Get your Private, Free Email from MSN Hotmail at
http://www.hotmail.com.” You can use the same method promoting your
funeral home by adding a signature to all of your out going
email. “Visit our web site at www.yourfuneralhome.com.”
Viral marketing can also be applied to your email newsletter
campaign. You will notice many online articles state, “Click here
to email this article to a friend.” This puts your message in
front of people who may never have seen it.
Recommendation.
Include a “Send Article to Friend” feature.
Then include the re-senders name in the format of the forwarded
article, “This article was sent to you by Robin Heppell.”
As stated earlier, one form of viral marketing can be implemented for
each family you serve. During the arrangement interview, ask for
the email addresses from all family members with Internet access.
Advise them that you will send them an email with all of the
information pertaining to the deceased's services. Ask them to
forward the message to all appropriate people in their email address
book. There are three main benefits:
- You provide the family with a
well worded message that they can send (as they have a lot of other
things on their minds and may not be able to pen the right words).
- Emailing family and friends is a quick
and efficient way to “spread the word about the death and funeral.”
- This unique viral marketing method will
drive many visitors to your web site and maybe while at the web site
they
may order flowers or a gift basket for the family.
This marketing technique can help in building relationships,
strengthening loyalty, and increasing sales.
Recommendation. Script a well worded announcement stating funeral
information and links to the obituary on your web site, then send the
email to the client family for them to pass on to others.
Analyzing
Statistics
Sir Francis Bacon stated, “Knowledge is Power.” Many forms of
marketing are very hard to track. Even traditional direct mail,
which is a lot more expensive in both printing and distribution, can
only be tracked by the amount of replies that are received. With
an email marketing campaign, you can analyze:
- Number of messages sent (delivery rate)
- Number that were opened (open rate)
- Number that went to your site (click
through rate)
- Number that were forwarded (pass along
rate)
- Number of purchases (purchase rate)
- Number of unsubscribers (unsubscribe
rate)
- Number that bounced invalid address
(bounce back rate)
You can “know” everything about the campaign. By using this data,
current return on investment can be measured and future campaigns can
be fine tuned to be even more efficient.
Recommendation.
Learn how to analyze all email tracking
statistics to enable you easily calculate ROI plus many other
analysis. You will wish you had this information for all of your
other marketing programs. Remember, knowledge is power.
This dialogue and the included recommendations are only guidelines to
help funeral directors better understand how email marketing works and
to prescribe an ethical manner to do so. In these changing and
competitive times, funeral directors should consider new approaches to
reach the community, build relationships, and strengthen loyalty.
An ethical email marketing campaign can help to achieve that.
Note: Superseding
these recommendations are any laws in your jurisdiction pertaining to
the use of email marketing & solicitation.
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Email
Marketing for Funeral Homes