Yesterday I talked about the four kinds of customers who are shopping for a funeral home to serve their family.

Today, we’ll talk about how to decide which customers you’ll try to win and how to get them to choose you.

First , you’ve got to figure out which type(s) of customers you REALLY want to attract.  Are you expecting to compete on price, the experience you offer, your reputation or the convenience you offer?

“But I already reach out to customers in all those areas!”  you say. 

You might, but you can’t market your funeral home to everyone.  You’ve got to choose.  Here’s an example of directed marketing:

“They all drive the same.  Give me the cheapest thing you got!” - Price Shopper

“Mary has one and she likes it.  I was going to get the Honda, but the Toyota has a good review in Consumer Reports and it does everything I need a car to do.” - Experiental Shopper

“They have a reputation for refinement and great handling.  They’re beautiful and all my friends at the club have one.” - Reputational Shopper

There isn’t a picture here for the “weary shopper” because there’s no telling who they’ll finally decide on.

The point is this:  one car company couldn’t possible make all these models.  No one would believe the marketing.  Even General Motors, the world’s largest car manufacturer, splits their luxury divisions (Cadillac and Buick) from the others. 

Your own marketing might be hurting right now because you’re trying to be all things to all people.  STOP IT!  RIGHT NOW!

If you want to compete on price and attract price shoppers, stop wasting your money sponsoring big community events.  You don’t need to pay for the church’s calendars this year or attend a bunch of fraternal organization meetings to gain reputation.  You need to focus your advertising on price.  Don’t brag that your funeral home staff has over 150 years of collective experience.  The price shopper doesn’t care.  Stop telling your community that you create meaningful and unique funeral tributes.  The price shopper believes that most funeral homes offer similar services and vary only by price.  Yellow page advertising will be helpful here as most price shoppers will search for a funeral home, even if your ads claim you’re the least expensive.

If you’ve got a very small advertising budget, your best bet is the “experiential shopper.”  Start by reviewing the type of experience you currently offer.  Are you making each funeral meaningful?  Are you listening to your client family’s needs and exceeding their expectations?  Do you follow up with the family to make sure your name stays in their mind, ready for their personal referral?  You’ve got to convert current clients into evangelists for your funeral home.  You’ll also want to keep your employees happy, so they’ll turn into ambassadors for your business.

A reputational funeral home takes more time and money to build.  But a funeral home with a strong reputation can charge the area’s highest prices and survive the times when a family is displeased with your services.  To build a strong reputation, you’ve got to sponsor big community events, spend money on GOOD marketing, like television commercials and billboard advertising, and keep your name in the spotlight with press releases.  You’ll want to give away lots of freebies to the community.  And you’ll need to wine and dine local ministers and community leaders.

Weary families will settle for the funeral home that treats them well and is convenient.  To run a funeral home for the weary you must first locate your business close to the community.  Easy parking and a highly visible building (and signage) will help.  Your employees must be alert and ready when the phone rings or the door opens.  You’ll need to cater to the families that call for your assistance and make it hard for them to make the decision to walk out the door and search for another funeral home.  This doesn’t mean you force them to stay.  Rather, you need to make the experience so pleasant and easy to deal with that they’d rather give up and choose you than keep looking at other funeral homes. 

Weary families will more often relent and choose you if you are able to capture their attention for ten minutes or more.  If you can get them to start thinking about the solutions you can provide, they’ll often decide to stay with your funeral home because they “don’t want to go anywhere else.  This place is close.  They can do the service Saturday, like we want.”

So stop trying to be all things to all people.  What attracts the reputational shopper will turn off the price shopper.  An experiential shopper cares more about having a good experience than getting a great deal.

Plan carefully and you’ll get the most out of your marketing time and dollar.