Calendars to Advertise Your Funeral Service

     Most calendar options are simple: spiral bound versus stapled, themed photography features or custom photo calendars, wall calendars versus desk pad calendars.  As a marketing tool for a funeral home, calendars provide custom imprint area on the bottom tab below the month date blocks that can be seen year round.  How can these be effective advertising tools?  By partnering with local churches, community organizations, or other types of organizations, your funeral home can sponsor free calendars for any of the above groups to give to members or the entire community.

    How does this help grow your funeral service's business?  Thousands of people then have your funeral home's name in front of them year-round, establishing your company as the preferred funeral provider in the community.  Even more effective for business growth, the calendars can have an invitation printed next to your logo and contact information for a special discount on pre-planned services.

     The marketing message could say something like "Plan ahead - Save over 20%".  This would help those who are not quite thinking about their own funeral service or that of loved one to take advantage of making arrangements before the need arises, simply for the savings.  Another marketing message to enhance your pre-planning sales could be related to saving the struggles of one's funeral being planned by family members during their immediate loss of their loved one.  Either message would be effective for a calendar sponsored by your funeral service, and will lead to long-term sales growth thanks to your company's reputation being on display year-round for thousands of people in your community. 

     Choosing a calendar style for your funeral service allows your company to express a peaceful message, a religious message, something related to the beauty of nature, or a variety of other themes.  From Jewish holiday calendars, Catholic calendars, to American calendars or nature-themed calendars, the possibilities to provide an attractive advertising calendar for your funeral home are endless.

Choosing a Personalized Memorial Gift to Give as a Funeral Director

     Memorial gifts come in all shapes and sizes, some personalized, and some not so personal.  As a funeral director, aftercare director, or a grief counselor, the choice of a funeral gift for each family you serve should be carefully thought out.  Consider the following questions when selecting a memorial gift for each family to receive after the funeral service is over:

• Does the memorial gift appear truly personal?
• Does it look like a memorial gift, or an everyday item?
• Is the cost of the gift affordable for every family I serve to receive one?  (Don't discriminate which families will receive a gift and which ones will not.  Word will get around!)
• How can I present the memorial gift so it means more to the recipient?

     When planning ways to present these personalized memorial gifts to each family, you may elect to do so in an aftercare visit to their home, a follow up sympathy card with the gift safely packaged, a year-end memorial service or holiday memorial service, or even hosting a monthly memorial service if you perform enough funeral services are all ways to reinforce the relationship your funeral home has with the families you serve and within the immediate community.  When it comes to the choice funeral home in a tight market or a small town, the one with the best service wins the available business. 

     There are a variety of quality memorial gifts to choose from that allow personalization.  Online systems allow names to be entered for gifts to be personalized and shipped as needed anytime of day or night.  Shipping can be selected to go to any number of funeral home locations for a personal delivery of the gift, or for a year-end holiday memorial service where the gifts can be presented in person to each family.  For the families living far away, it's easy to mail the gift directly to them as a thoughtful courtesy.  

     To plan a year-end memorial service, consider the number of families that will be invited to come.  This can easily be calculated by the number of funeral services performed during the year so far, and estimating that at least half the families invited will show.  Obviously scheduling conflicts or distance will prevent some families from attending a memorial service, so this is a safe way to estimate attendance.

     Once the number of families is estimated to attend, think of the size of your funeral facility.  Can it host that number of visitors at once for the service?  If not, consider holding the year-end memorial service at a church, auditorium, civic center, or even a park if weather permits.  This should alleviate any overcrowding if your funeral home doesn't allow as many visitors to fit comfortably at one time.

    After deciding where the service will be held, consider the format for the memorial service.  How can it be made more personal where each family gets to contribute a memory of their loved one?  What kind of music will be played?  It shouldn't be a morbid music selection, as the main idea is to provide a sense of closure to each family attending.  Choose peaceful, but not depressing music.

    Choose a speaker to address the families in attendance.  What faiths does your funeral home clientele represent?  Try to match a speaker that can best represent the whole, not a selection of the audience.  Non-denominational speakers can simply talk about the sense of loss, healing, and closure with peace for everyone in attendance.  Whether the speaker represents a specific faith should not be a factor in their presentation, unless your funeral home specifically serves one faith.

    Following the memorial service, consider hosting a reception with light refreshments and time to mingle.  Families from the same communities will be attending, as they live locally, so this gives people a positive finish to what should be a beautiful evening event.  Your refreshments can be catered as a buffet style, or homemade snacks and beverages.  Either choice will be well appreciated by everyone attending.

    When you're looking for other promotional ideas for your funeral home, always visit our website, or return to this blog for more tips.  Business growth for the funeral industry is about thinking outside the box.  Feel free to share ideas in the comments for other funeral directors!