Business and Blogging

Business Blog Challange Number Five: An Independent Embalmer and a Funeral Home

by Laura Spencer on February 9th, 2008

(www.businessandblogging.) This is another response to the blog challenge from our readers. A few weeks ago, Liz and I challenged Business and Blogging readers to think of a business that couldn’t benefit from blogging.

To date, we’ve blogged about four of the challenges:

• An Illegal Business

• A Quarry

• A Gas Station

• An Independent Human Resources Professional

Today’s post actually combines two challenges. We were challenged to show how a blog could help the following businesses:

• Funeral Home by Phil Gerbyshak of Slacker Manager
• Independent Embalmer by Scott Allen of Linked Intelligence

I combined these two challenges, because I felt that the two businesses were related. I’m going to look at each industry and discuss how I feel that blog could help.

First of all, I have to say that these were good business choices to try and stump Business and Blogging with. If there is an industry that defies traditional marketing, then it’s the industry that surrounds death and dying.

It’s not as though one of these businesses could post a special on their blogs: bury one, get one burial free and have people rush in their door to take advantage of the offer.

Rather, this is the type of business that one turns to when one needs it, regardless of advertisements.

Does that mean that these businesses can’t benefit at all from blogging?

Not at all. Actually, I think that these businesses can benefit (and are benefiting) from blogging. In my town, there are not one, but two funeral homes. To become the funeral home of choice for the bereaved, a funeral home needs to do something to make their business stand out.

Let me explain. Like any business, a funeral home and an independent embalmer will need to establish a purpose for the blogging. They need to look at the questions:

1. What exactly do I expect to get from a blog?
2. Who is my audience for my business blog?

When I examined the questions from the perspective of these businesses here are the benefits that I came up with:

• A funeral home or embalmer blog can help establish their expertise. A blog geared to the needs of the bereaved could provide that edge. I can picture how entries on such topics as:
  • How to find grief counselling
  • How to break the news of the death of a loved one to children
  • How to select appropriate flowers or music

• In the case of independent embalmer, who would most likely be an independent contractor, a blog can be a tool where he or she can demonstrate their knowledge of their profession. Their audience would not be the bereaved, but the funeral home directors who might hire them.

• A funeral home blog could provide a means of communication for distant family members. I actually found a few blogs that are already using a blog to post obituaries. A funeral home blog could also post the time and date of upcoming funerals. An interesting blog that someone designed to show funeral homes how to use a blog for their business is Your Funeral Chapel.

• A funeral home blog could provide general posts about estate planning geared to needs of those who are about to retire. Pre-need funeral plans are a part of estate planning for many and many people start to examine this option seriously when they retire.

• A funeral home blog could be away to provide obscure facts about the funeral industry. For example, when my father died last year the funeral home handed me a brochure that explained that, in my state, I was not obligated to use the services of a funeral home. In other words, I could bury my loved one in my back yard if I wanted to (and if city laws allowed it). I went traditional and used a cemetery, but it was an unusual fact that some people would be interested in.

So, there are ways that a funeral home or an independent embalmer could use a blog to further their business interests.
In case you are interested, here are some blogs related to the funeral home industry or embalming industry:

• ICCFA Blog - A news and discussion forum of the International Cremation and Funeral Association
• Final Embrace - Funeral Industry News, Marketing Tips & Management Advice
• Your Funeral Chapel - Set up to educate funeral home directors on how to use a blog.

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POSTED IN: Blogging, Business Blog Challenge