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Hepp’s Internet Marketing Tips for Funeral Service

July 30, 2008 By Robin Heppell 4 Comments

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Filed Under: Ask the Futurist, Funeral Futurist Radio, SEO Tagged With: email marketing, funeral marketing, internet marketing, newsletters

Funeral Blogging 101 Recap

July 30, 2008 By Robin Heppell 1 Comment

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Funeral Blogging 101 Recap seo exposure loyalty Hepp’s Notes for the Funeral Blogging 101 Teleseminar

Here is the replay of the Teleseminar! Please follow along with the notes below.

Click the Play button at the left of the silver bar >

Dowload MP3: Funeral Blogging 101 Teleseminar

Terminology:

List of Blogging Terms at Wikipedia

My list for the Funeral Industry:

Blog: is a website that is easy to update Blogging: is to write an article or column (and then one has the ability to add that content to your website without having to pay your web developer every time you want to do so) Post: is an article or column Podcasting: is your own Radio Show / Station Video Blogging / Vlog: is your own TV Show / Channel

Types of blogging platforms:

Blogger: Brian’s blog platform
Geib’s “Ask the Director” Online Blog Heppell’s Old “From The Hepp” blog
TypePad: BT’s choice
BT’s “Funeral Words” blog
Live Journal WordPress.com – Tim’s choice
Final Embrace
WordPress.org – Rob’s choice
Funeral Futurist Funeral Gurus Preneed Referrals Funeral Manager Secrets Funeral Home Commercials Your Funeral Chapel

Topics (what to write about):

Brian’s suggestions… Tim’s suggestions… My suggestions: Have a plan – pick 4 subject areas / topics: FAQs / Community Events / Staff Profile / Preserving Memories / Funeral Trends We are in a people business, stay away from corporate-speak gobbledygook / write in the first person

Frequency / Consistency:

Brian’s comments… Tim’s comments… I’m a binge blogger for both my main sites – but I also like to use the time delay – as I do with Funeral Gurus

Post Extras – Sprucing up your posts:

Tim, you are the expert at this, where do you get all of your pictures from Brian, how do you beautify your posts? I rely more on audio and video for my posts Research show that website viewers will look at photos first, and particularly people’s faces

Handling Comments:

Brian’s policy about comments… Tim’s policy… I read them and if I feel they will benefit my audience and further the conversation, I approve them. If though they are spammy – meaning that they are trying to high-jack my traffic – or if they are distasteful, I delete them – but I might use their feedback in a future article. Remember it is your website – the local newspaper does not publish all Letter’s to the Editor

Marketing & Exposure:

Brian’s comments… Tim’s comments… Remember – funeral homes are lucky in that you get so much more traffic than other brick and mortar businesses because of online obits – give those visitors something else to read other than why they should pre-arrange – “Start the Conversation” Comment on other blogs with your URL – this is called a track back – that’s how I first found Tim

Return On Effort / Investment:

Brian’s feedback… Tim’s feedback… My thoughts: investing time in your website, is not like “Down the Drain” advertising – you pay for it then it is gone, with your website, if you write a post a week, and since most funeral home websites are 15-20 pages excluding obits, after the first year you would have almost tripled the size of your site – the great thing is those posts / articles will be there next year, and the year after that Also Google loves fresh content – being on Google’s good side is a good investment

Closing:

I would love to hear your feedback, so please leave a comment at the bottom of this page – tell me what you thought of the teleseminar and please share any of your experiences about blogging!

Share Your Comments Please:

If you have any questions please email me at robin@funeralfuturist.com or post them on the Funeral Futurist Forum under Internet Technologies section and under the topic, Funeral Blogging Questions & Comments

Integrate Your Website and Blog with WordPress:

If you want more information about your entire website built on the WordPress platform (such as www.YourFuneralChapel.com) please email me at robin@funeralfuturist.com or call (800) 810-3595 OR (250) 744-3595.

Get Started Today!
I am offering 2 very inexpensive hosting packages to get you started – no more excuses!
$1 – 90 day trial, to get you blogging by next week – after the 90 days, it is only $19 / month – but what you will also get is a 10 week course on funeral blogging – sign up here But, if you are serious, you can pay only $97 for a year’s hosting and including the 10 week course as well – sign up here Note: you will need a domain name for your blog, and if you don’t have one, visit www.FuneralFuturistDomains.com ($9.99 / year)

Advance Blog Promotion Tips:

The first 5 things that I do after launching a (WordPress Blog / Website):
Install Sitemap Generator plugin – and submit it to Google Webmaster Tools Install Google Analytics plugin – to track traffic and trends Install All-In-One-SEO plugin – makes site even more Search Engine Friendly
 Create a Feedburner Feed for RSS – so others can subscribe to your blog:
They can visit your website / blog to read your article They can receive that same message via email They can read your message in their “FeedReader” like “Google Reader“
Claim your blog at Technorati:
My Technorati page: http://technorati.com/people/technorati/FuneralFuturist

For the section on Internet Marketing, go to: Hepp’s Internet Marketing Tips for Funeral Service

Remember, please leave a comment below and let me know how you liked the teleseminar – thanks!

…Hepp

Filed Under: Build Loyalty, Gain Greater Exposure, SEO Tagged With: email marketing, final embrace, funeral blogs, geib funeral, internet marketing

Blogger Hepp in American Funeral Director

July 17, 2008 By Robin Heppell Leave a Comment

Blogger Hepp in American Funeral Director published articles media room exposure The July 2008 issue of American Funeral Director, Thomas Parmalee wrote a great article about Blogging and the Funeral Industry: “Is it time to Get a Blog? Weighing the Positives and Negatives”

The article featured follow Funeral Industry Bloggers, Brian Hanner of Geib Funeral Home in Ohio, BT Hathaway of Hathaway Funeral Homes in Massachusetts, and Tim Totten of Final Embrace in Florida.

Tom does a great job of pulling the insights from all of us as well as providing a balanced view of the topic of blogging.  He starts the article with…

They are everywhere, and sometimes, it seems they are taking over the world.  They can rocket you to fame because of a mere hundred words.  And they seem to be making inroads at virtually every business, big and small.

Tom interviewed me a few months back and captured some great thoughts – he can make my thoughts sound better than when I think them!

“We are in the people business, and a blog should be able to connect with the consumer almost more than any type of marketing because it is very personal.”

Tim Totten of Final Embrace (who supplies Cot Covers for removal stretchers), stated:

“[Blogging] does give you a way to connect much more closely to at least a few people in your community. If only five people in your community read it, they will become ambassadors for you and generate business.”

Brian Hanner of Geib Funeral Home says:

“I think of this like many of our other PR activities – you can’t expect it to pay dividends in the short term.”

BT Hathaway, the grandfather of funeral blogs (3 years since the launch of his Funeral Words blog), comments:

“It’s part if developing relationships with folks out there, and part of it is a challenge of keeping my ideas fresh.  To write something on a regular basis, you have to be pushing yourself to read, notice things and to ask yourself difficult questions. So from that standpoint, it’s a good self-examination exercise to make sure I’m thinking ahead regarding my business needs.”

All of the bloggers have agreed to join me in hosting a Funeral Blogging 101 teleseminar on July 30th in the afternoon.  To register and start your path of building a better and deeper relationship with your community, visit: www.FuneralBlogging101.com. If you can’t make the teleseminar, still register to get access to the replay and ask any questions about blogging, social media, website development, or internet marketing and promotion. 

Filed Under: Gain Greater Exposure, Media Room, Published Articles

Funeral Marketing with YouTube

July 2, 2008 By Robin Heppell Leave a Comment

Funeral Marketing with YouTube uncategorized exposure competition strategy check it out What is better than being “number one” in Google?  By being number one through ten of course.  To accomplish this Google domination you have to look beyond your website and harass the power of other websites – like the number one content site, YouTube.  Of all websites, YouTube ranks fourth, but only behind the three main search engines: Google, Yahoo, and MSN’s Live Search. No matter how great your website is it is a speck of dust compared to YouTube and the other online video sharing websites like Google Video, Revver, and AOL Video.

If you would like to see real life examples for the funeral industry, you have to check out the case study that I conducted where McCall Bros. Funeral Home now occupies seven out of ten results for ‘Funeral planning in Victoria BC’ – including spots one through four.  The study shows how the videos impacted the search results in Google, Yahoo, and Live Search, within one day and also over a six week period.  To see all of the results along with my commentary, visit:

http://www.funeralfuturist.com/case-study-online-video-for-funeral-cemetery-promotion/

So if you are still with me here, you may be wondering what video content you would use on YouTube.  I always look for the easiest solution first, so I would suggest using those TV commercials that you had to pay thousands of dollars for and upload them to YouTube.  If you do not have a commercial ready to go, you could use the same software that you use to create your DVD memorial videos and create a three minute infomercial demonstrating how you are different than your competition.

Funeral Marketing with YouTube uncategorized exposure competition strategy check it out Also you might be thinking that it sounds like a lot of work to upload these videos to all of these different video sharing site.  I use a tool called Traffic Geyser that allows you to upload one video to over 30 different sites.  It saves me a ton of time, and they have a lot of tips and training as well.  The guys at Traffic Geyser have also made this guide available for you to download free! Click this link or click on the image to download.

Before you fire that video up on YouTube be sure to read my article titled, “Upload your Funeral Home’s Welcome Message on YouTube.” This will explain how to title your video properly and what to include in the description and your tags to make sure that your video ranks well in Google.  You can read the article hear at:

http://fromthehep.com/2007/08/upload-your-funeral-homes-welcome.html

Please let me know of your successes after you upload your first video.  Also, if you have any other questions or suggestions, please let me know.

Filed Under: Check it Out!, Competition & Strategy, Gain Greater Exposure, Uncategorized Tagged With: funeral google rankings, funeral marketing, funeral video, funeral youtube
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