Hey everyone. Alex McCracken with Funeral Innovations here with another video in our series of traditional versus digital marketing. A lot of funeral homes tell us they don’t want to do anything on Facebook because Facebook is a place where people go to see things like what their neighbors are eating and not to buy. We 100% agree.
But this does not mean you shouldn’t do marketing. Do people drive down the interstate and look at a billboard because they want to buy? Do people open the yellow pages because they’re ready to buy? Do people open their mail because they’re ready to buy something? No. Facebook is no different.
Don’t think about Facebook as a place where people are going to buy. Think about Facebook as a place where people are hanging out; just as they do within your community. When interacting in casual places, people don’t want to be sold to. So think about that with Facebook. Facebook is not a place where people want to be sold to. If you go in there with a hard message/hard sell, like “come in today and pre-plan,” or “use my services immediately,” it’s not gonna go over well. And that’s why you should not use Facebook as a hard sell.
What do people do on Facebook? The same things they do in their daily lives. If you were to walk up to somebody with an interesting fact, are they gonna say “don’t try to sell me!” No, they’re going to be interested in learning more. It’s the same thing with Facebook. People will experience negative emotions and feelings towards companies who go out and hard sell them. So what you want to do is a soft sell. Provide them that interesting fact.
You want your families to know you have information that they want and need to know about. Share information about some of the risks of pre-planning, cremation or veterans’ benefits. Posting this informational content is the kind of soft-selling that can help lead you to that sale.
So when we’re looking at the difference between traditional and digital marketing, think about people out interacting and how they still want that soft sell of information but they don’t want to be sold to. It’s no different from Facebook. Do not sell to people on Facebook; provide them with some interesting and valuable information and you will end up getting that sale. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get more information on the difference between traditional and digital marketing. Have a great day!
