Funeral Home Promotions and Aftercare Programs

Honoring Veterans - The Role of Military Grave Markers

2012-01-16T17:18:00.003-05:00

Something that most cemeteries share in common is the endless headstones, grave markers, and mausoleums that seem to march endlessly into the verdant surroundings - making the purpose of grave identification a bit challenging without a map to guide visitors to a loved one's tombstone. One of the staples of a U.S. armed forces grave that helps identify those who served is the military grave marker, a cast bronze or aluminum medallion that often holds an American flag proudly waving over the grave of the previous armed forces member.

For the World Wars of the distant past to the perpetual war on terror still fought today, stock grave markers exist for quick delivery to honor the fallen. Made of cast bronze or aluminum, they are naturally weather resistant for year-round display. Each one holds an American flag by inserting the stick through a collar on the back of the cast medallion. For proper honor, the relevant military grave medallion should be selected to represent the war the deceased served in. Discounts apply to orders of 12, 24, and greater. Often times cemetery managers should keep several of these on hand for larger cemeteries where the need for armed forces grave markers is almost daily. For the fallen firefighter, Maltese cross grave markers are available, while general military grave markers honor those who ranked as such during their service to their country.

Ordering stock military grave markers is easy, as the products are shipped in a timely fashion for immediate use. Custom grave markers may be ordered as well - for additional casting fees to create the mold for the design. Simply fill out a quote request form for any of the grave markers shown as stock designs, and upload your graphic file to your quote request. Casting fees will be quoted per design.

Stock military grave markers available:

Firemen Maltese Cross Grave Markers

General Military Grave Markers

Global War on Terror Grave Markers

Persian Gulf War Grave Markers

World War I Grave Markers

World War II Grave Markers

Korean War Grave Markers

Vietnam War Grave Markers

How to Order Custom Holiday Cards - The Thoughtful Gift

2011-10-29T17:29:00.002-04:00

As a funeral director, you can probably remember each family you helped through funeral arrangements for their loved one who passed away. Each situation was unique, and required you to suggest a solution to make sure the deceased family member's wishes were honored while accommodating the desires of the surviving family members. Each family you served can also remember the decision making process as well, and tries to put closure on the loss of their loved one as the close of the year approaches.

One of the gestures from you as funeral director, grief counselor, hospice caretaker, or any other professional dealing with families in grief is to send a thoughtful sympathy card to each family during the holiday season. A sympathy card states a meaningful expression that can express a memory, a sense of closure, and renewal all at once. This multitude of positive feelings provided by a single card brings relief and gladness to those who have carried the questions of grief and loss for too long.

Seeded Dove Card: See all seeded ornament cards

Choosing a sympathy card that brings these positive feelings to families your funeral home as served is a creative process.

Choose a style that reflects beauty. There are thousands of sympathy cards available with numerous themes, such as nature, floral arrangements, artistic masterpieces, poetry, and music.
Compose a verse to be printed in your custom sympathy cards. This verse can be a poem or a simple expression from you as the funeral director. Each card will be printed with the verse you select. There are also preprinted cards with sympathy verses or inspirational thoughts inside.
Place your order for the sympathy cards. A professional layout of your verse will be provided for your approval before they are printed.

Once your custom printed sympathy cards are shipped to you, send them out in the mail before the holidays arrive, or even give them with a memorial gift honoring their loved one. Either way you present your sympathy cards to the families you served during the year, they are sure to appreciate the thoughtful gesture expressed inside.

Order Custom Printed Sympathy Cards

Tote Bags / Memorial Bags for Funeral Homes

2011-09-19T11:20:00.000-04:00

     Finding an attractive and affordable tote bag for your funeral home to use for all the take-home items after a funeral service is complete should be an easy process. Although there are over 10,000 bag choices available, finding the right material at the right price is easy with FuneralHomePromos.com.

     From cloth tote bags to glossy paper bags with foil imprint, rope handles to paper handles, a variety of quality bags for your funeral home can be selected. Based on how you use the bags, choose an appropriate material to hold the weight of the items placed inside.

     For example, a cremation urn should be placed in a reinforced cremation urn bag that has a sturdy drawstring and double-stitched bottom panel to hold the urn level. Small and light take-home items, such as memorial ornaments, sympathy cards, and document folders, can fit in a 16" x 12" glossy paper tote bag easily and still have room for a few more items. Secondly, if the tote bags are imprinted with a comforting message of hope besides your funeral home's logo, they are more likely to be used again by the recipient. Even if they are kept in a closet with all the items still inside, each time the recipient retrieves an item from the bag to remember the details of their loved one's funeral service, your funeral home's name will be seen again along with the thoughtful message you may have had imprinted on the bags with your logo.

    How do you begin selecting a bag? Start by looking at your funeral home's logo colors. Then select which color in the logo you would like to use for the tote bag. While some tote bags come only in a few colors, many other paper tote bags, fabric tote bags, zippered document bags, and even cremation urn bags come in a variety of colors. Once you've selected a bag color to coordinate with your funeral home's logo, then choose the imprint color to nicely contrast with the material color. If you're unsure which color material or imprint to use, ask the professionals at Keystone Specialties for assistance. Send your logo via the Request Quote button along with your contact information, and we will gladly suggest which color theme would look best for the tote bag you've selected.

     See examples of cloth tote bags, paper tote bags, zippered vinyl document bags, and cremation urn bags created for funeral homes here:

Find a Promotional Bag for your Funeral Home

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Planning a Year-End Memorial Service - The How-to Guide for Funeral Directors

2011-07-19T09:47:00.000-04:00

     A life is a legacy... So is your year-end holiday memorial service! Learn how to make your funeral home's year-end memorial service a memorable event that honors the lives that have passed during the year, and reinforces the relationship your funeral home has with your community.

Find a Venue for your Funeral Home's Year-End Memorial Service

      Choose a place most people would be comfortable visiting for a year-end service to remember and honor their loved ones who have passed during the year. If your funeral home has space to host such an event, that is fine, but also consider an auditorium in the community, a church, or even a park if you're located in a warm enough climate

Choose a Speaker to Present a Message of Remembrance

Find a speaker who represents all faiths of your clientele - the families your funeral home serves. A positive message is most important for the families to hear from the speaker, as the holidays are quite an emotional time when someone you love has recently passed. If your funeral home represents a specific faith, it is probably most important that the speaker shares that faith to relate best to the audience. For most funeral homes that represent all faiths, a non-denominational message of remembrance is probably most appropriate to avoid alienating audience members of various religious or non-religious backgrounds.

Select Music to be Played Before or During the Service

Choose a blend of soothing, positive music to put guests at ease before the service begins. You may also elect to have music performed live by select vocalists and/or musicians during the service. Music heals the heart and soothes the mind, so this is probably one of the most important elements of a remembrance service. Choose carefully.

Send Invitations to Families

Your invitation list should include all families your funeral home has served during the year, but it can also be a universal service of remembrance for the community at large. Inviting many people to participate in the honors of loved ones who have passed will generate much good will, and establish new relationships between your funeral service and members of the community who may be considering pre-planning needs. Invitations should be posted in churches and community centers, as well as on your funeral home's website and social media venues. Personal invitations should be sent by mail to each family you have served during the year several weeks in advance. A follow-up phone call or mailed invitation would be wise to remind families of the remembrance service and request their attendance if no response is received from the initial mailed invitation.

Design and Print Programs for the Service of Remembrance

Programs help put remembrance service guests at ease, because they list the order of activities in advance. A simple bi-fold or tri-fold format should allow enough space to feature an attractive cover image, such as a beautiful garden, or a piece of art that looks peaceful. A verse that can help comfort the audience can be featured below the cover art, and the order of events can be listed on another panel of the program. If music is part of the program, list the title of each song to help audience members appreciate the beauty of the music.

Presenting Memorial Gifts to Families in Attendance

There are a variety of memorial gifts that can be personalized in honor of loved ones who have passed, and given to their surviving family members at the memorial service. Engraved memorial ornaments are very effective gifts, as are memorial plaques, photo boxes, and other personalized items. The gifts can be presented by reading the names of the deceased one at a time, and having the attending family approach the podium to receive the gift in honor of their loved one. If memorial ornaments are being given during the service, a Christmas tree near the podium can be decorated with the personalized memorial ornaments for each family to retrieve to help honor their loved one.

Hosting a Reception After the Service

Reinforce your funeral home's relationship with each family in attendance by offering a light reception of food and beverages. Everyone should be able to relax, mingle, and enjoy foods provided by your funeral home. One of the most effective ways to allow people to mingle while enjoying the food and beverages is to arrange the reception around a central table that can be approached from all sides. This keeps traffic flow around the table, where most people will congregate while making conversation with new friends and other family members in attendance. This is a great time to have recorded music playing softly in the background also.

What does your funeral service do for a year-end remembrance service? Celebrating the lives of those we love who have passed on reinforces our positive memories of the deceased, and helps us put closure on the lives they led. It also helps us reflect on our purpose while we are living. For you as a funeral director, it helps your funeral home keep in touch with the community, expands your referral business, and establishes your company as a premier funeral service provider.

To learn more about promoting your funeral service, or providing memorial gifts, visit these links:

Promotional Products for Funeral Homes

Aftercare Programs and Memorial Gifts

Funeral Home Sympathy Cards

Flag Cases for Veterans' Memorials

Memorial Service Invitations

Memorial Plaques

Calendars to Advertise Your Funeral Service

2011-05-24T09:28:00.001-04:00

     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

2011-05-02T22:22:00.001-04:00

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!

Being the Funeral Home of Choice

2011-04-28T18:01:00.000-04:00

     There are a lot of choices we make every day in life based on intuition, more commonly known as our "gut-feeling". People choose a funeral home for pre-planning needs based on impressions they have of your funeral service, whether they are valid or not. Because of this, every promotional product and contact point from your funeral company should encourage people to contact you for their pre-planning needs, or at least in the case of a loved one's passing. The way your company's logo makes them feel, the attractiveness of your website, the experience their friends or family members had working with your directors in the past - its all about making people feel good about your company before they attempt to contact you for a funeral arrangement.

     Getting referrals for pre-planning options, a great way to secure growth for your funeral home's future, is best accomplished through providing the best possible service to those families you are already working with. The best service requires more than performing the basic funeral rituals, such as the service planning appointments with families to all the legal documentation required after the graveside closing. The best level of service also calls for expressing sympathy to the family with a card, a memorial gift, or even an aftercare visit.

     Some funeral homes, often with the greatest reputations in the industry, provide year-end memorial services where families can share a sense of closure to their loss of loved ones during the year. It is these memorial services where funeral directors can show a level of hospitality and empathy that may be missed by the family during the original funeral service thanks to rushed schedules and wild emotions of family members they are consulting with. A year-end memorial service where all families can get together allows everyone to celebrate the memories of those who passed during the year.

     As part of these year-end celebrations, personalized memorial gifts can be given to each family in honor of their loved one's legacy. These memorial items should be something that holds up to many years of use, and cannot easily break. From personalized memorial ornaments to military veterans' flag cases, the value of a one-of-a-kind memorial gift spreads not only good-will, but sows the seeds of future business for the funeral home.

Explore a Personalized Aftercare Program

Why Aftercare is Important

2010-12-20T19:26:00.001-05:00

     When you've done all you're expected to do as a funeral director, the unexpected gestures of goodwill and concern are what the families you serve will remember the most. In growing your business long-term, relationship management through aftercare is key to your growth in a competitive funeral industry.
    Those strong relationships can easily be forged with families by turning around the negative experiences and emotions they may be expressing with you into positive reflections of the loved one's legacy. For those directors who simply look at their business in a functional perspective, they may miss the value of this emotional connection with the families, and fail to gain as many referrals or pre-planned clients as a result of this omission.
     The effort you exert to maintain a positive relationship with families you've served (without becoming bothersome) is essential to gain a flawless reputation in the industry that builds future referrals. One method of helping bridge this gap successfully and gaining the highest reputation is sending a thoughtful letter along with a personalized memorial gift. Sending the memorial gift does not encroach on the family's time, but expresses your sympathy and encouragement effectively.

New Engaving Center

2010-04-23T12:04:00.003-04:00

As promised, here is a new preview of what the new engraving center area will look like. This change over will take place in September. New features to include:

the ability to order additional ornaments online
and pay by Check OR Credit Card
if you refer a new Funeral Home to us and they
join the program, we will pay you $50 referral fee.
a News section that will keep you up to
date on specials we are running on promotional
products to enhance your image even more!

So click on the screen shot below to take a look. Once the browser opens it in a new window, click on the image again to see it close-up. We would really like to hear your feedback so please leave a comment below the picture.

What do you want?

2009-11-19T18:25:00.001-05:00

If you haven't explored the online store @ FuneralHomePromos.com yet, stop reading this blog & get there now!

Everybody still with me? ...It was like Black Friday, and everyone left to scrounge free I-Pods at a 6 AM big box store opening. If you're still reading, then here's what I'm suggesting:

If you're a funeral director, or a manager, look through the selection on FuneralHomePromos.com's online store. Then tell me what's missing by posting it on this blog, or filling out this contact form. Here's what's going on: Funeral Home Promos is becoming the 1-stop shop for products you need as a funeral director (minus the caskets & embalming fluid). We're focusing on after-care gifts, cards, and promotional items that would be given to the families you deal with every day.

Suggestions? (Please look at the merchandise first before making a suggestion on our contact form).

Creating a Lasting Memorial for the Families You Serve

2009-11-11T10:19:00.003-05:00

After the funeral, memorial service, or life celebration, many families wish to have something permanent as a reminder of the person that they loved through life and recently lost. It may help you as a director to think about what was important to the person through the loved ones' eyes. What did they value? What made them smile? Perhaps by beginning there, the appropriate memorial gift will present itself. Consider these memorial gifts to help families you serve remember their loved ones:

- Give a personalized memorial ornament to the families. The holidays can be the hardest times to get through without a loved one, but a personalized memorial ornament will gladly be displayed in your clients' homes as a reminder of the loved one they miss during those special times.

- Give a tree in their memory. Tree seedlings can be labeled with your funeral home's name, message, or logo directly on the packaging at funeralhomepromos.com/funeral-home-supply.html. Simply type "trees" or "plants" as your search category in the category field, and you'll find over 100 options including potted plants, seedlings, and potted herb gardens or flowers. Each can be customized with your message of comfort, and the low prices allow these to be purchased for every family you've directed a service with for their loved one.

- Have your love one's photo placed on a custom-designed cremation urn. Cremation urns can be personalized through a photo imprint process called sublimation, where a full color photograph is permanently printed into the urn. Product options can be discussed with Keystone Specialties' representatives by calling 800-240-8639 Monday thru Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM Eastern Standard Time. See colorful cultured marble cremation urns to start your selection.

- Donate a memorial bench to a park. if they loved surfing, for example, a bench made in the shape of a wakeboard could be placed at a public beach with the loved one's story on a plaque mounted to the front. You may also consider purchasing a plaque or a brick in their name to help fund a community project. Discuss these options with Keystone Specialties' representatives by phone (800-240-8639 Monday thru Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM Eastern Standard Time) or email through our website.

- Give a stepping stone or rock with their name on it for displaying in a special section of their garden. Suggest that each year your clients share flowers from that section of the garden with their family and friends of the parted loved one. Contact Keystone Specialties for advice on affordable options. (800-240-8639 Monday thru Friday from 8 AM to 5 PM Eastern Standard Time) or email through our website.

Growing Your Business

2009-11-03T11:59:00.001-05:00

As with any business, there is an old adage "If your business isn't growing, it's dying!" Business growth does take effort, planning and ACTION. We are here to help with planning and implementation, but you must supply the effort and action. Check out our growing list of products that will help your business be remembered.

As you look through our Online Store, you will see products that are available for imprinting with your business name and message. Advertising! It works and we are also going to show you how it can pay for itself. Read our testimonials page to see how other funeral directors have used these products successfully.

Building Client Loyalty

2009-10-22T14:06:00.001-04:00

We understand how daunting your schedule can be as a funeral director: Families to meet with, materials to buy, graveside services, embalming, comforting those who have lost their loved ones, and the list could go on and on. Right?

When do you have time to work on building your business and image in your market?

If your answer is like that of most directors we talk to, this important piece of your business gets put off or delayed. You know you need to do something personal to stand out against the others in your industry ... there just doesn't seem to be enough time to get it done. Keystone Specialties, Inc. has created a way that can help you make a lasting impression for those you serve, while still keeping your already busy schedule on track.

We offer a memorial ornament program that is being used in aftercare programs across the country. These ornaments are given as a memorial gift to a family member of the deceased in honor of their loved one. Since 2002, these memorial ornaments have proven to be popular, as many recipients request additional pieces for other family members & friends. The good will established by funeral directors who give this beautiful gift has brought a renewed sense of loyalty to their client relationships. There's nothing as valuable as client trust in the funeral industry, and this is a program that anchors trust with a simple gift of thoughtfulness.