One of the biggest challenges in marketing, in any field, is informing and advising a client on a product you know your client needs, but, for one reason or another, they’re reluctant to purchase. In the case of preneed insurance, many customers are even reluctant to discuss it. Still, for funeral homes preneed insurance can be a vital part of your business, increasing not just your client base, but also the revenue you need to maintain or grow. And for your clients, it can help ensure their life is memorialized and celebrated the way they envision.
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Preneed insurance offers clients the ability to pay, in advance, for the funeral services they want including cremation or burial. The costs are predetermined and then, when the need arises, the insurance pays the funds directly to the funeral home handling the funeral.
With the average cost of a funeral ranging from $7,000-8,000, preneed insurance guarantees the funds for a funeral aren’t tied up in a legal morass.
Anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one, whether anticipated or unexpected, knows that the days following their passing can be a whirlwind. Managing the practicalities, from notifying family and friends to writing an obituary and handling legal matters, there is a lot to be done.
Therefore, anything that can be done during that period to alleviate the stress and burden on a family is welcome. This is the primary reason preneed insurance is so important not just for clients but also for their families. In essence, preneed insurance can be considered a final act of love and caretaking for your client’s family.
Additionally, many families don’t discuss final wishes. Preneed insurance can help an individual ensure they get the funeral or service they desire, including choosing burial or cremation. However, the choices preneed provides for also include:
Not only does preneed insurance ensure individuals get the funeral services they want but, in many cases, it can encourage and facilitate difficult family conversations. Further, if an individual is in assisted living or a nursing home, preneed insurance reduces assets and may make an individual eligible for additional medicaid assistance.
Still, with the importance of preneed insurance and the benefits, it doesn’t make it any easier to advise clients on its purchase.
Given that preneed insurance helps individuals design and create their own funeral, honoring their life the way they want, it should be easy to market, right? Except, as we all know, despite the inevitability of our passing and the understanding that we will all need the services of a funeral home and funeral director, marketing and advising on preneed products, in particular, is a challenge.
While most insurance sales are a challenge as they force consumers to confront potentially negative realities, preneed insurance is a definite challenge on this front. Considering one’s own death forces a person to consider:
All of those concerns and feelings can make for an incredibly reluctant client. However, additional challenges include:
Marketing costs- Experts estimate that somewhere between 3-6% of your revenue should be allocated towards marketing. Of that 3-6%, just a fraction will focus on preneed insurance. As a result, marketing dollars are scant.
Consumer knowledge/education- First, many people aren’t aware that they can prefund their funeral or end of life services. Because it’s not a topic we discuss and because many people don’t consider what they want in a funeral or memorial, discussing preparations and prefunding can be difficult.
Additionally, the vehicle for preplanning and pre funding a funeral, preneed insurance, isn’t common knowledge for many consumers either. Because many consumers don’t know what preneed insurance is, why they might need it, or how they can benefit, it makes marketing difficult.
Connecting the right way with the right customers- There’s plenty of advice out there from large companies regarding who your potential clients are, but in smaller markets, community demographics can vary widely. That means finding your customers in your area may not be as easy as in larger markets.
Finding the right language, the right method or medium, and the right forums can be difficult, especially when pairing these concerns with a potentially diverse client base or pool
Choosing the right channel or medium- Understanding reach and frequency when it comes to your marketing mediums and channels is vital. However, understanding regional demographics may be even more important, especially if you’re working in multiple communities. In fact, that might mean needing to vary channels for different communities.
Traditionally, funeral homes have relied on direct mail as a strategy has been a fairly reliable method of providing leads. Still, other opportunities abound and can help differentiate you from other funeral homes.
In fact, increasingly, seniors and those who may be in the market for preneed insurance are spending time online and on social media. While demographic statistics and market research are important and valuable, this advice is significantly less valuable to funeral homes in rural areas where internet services are limited or where internet usage has not been widely adopted by seniors within the community.
In short, knowing which channel or medium is right for your community and your clients is vital and may run contrary to the advice offered in marketing circles.
Given the value of preneed funeral insurance for both you and your clients, strategies to advise on how to choose a policy are invaluable. Thankfully, most preneed strategies also help develop and improve your other services so working to develop your preneed program is truly a win-win proposition all around.
While preneed insurance is often targeted solely at seniors, it’s really a whole family product. Seniors will want their final wishes to be honored and most families will want to see that through. However, for adult children or grandchildren, the cost of the funeral, and what those wishes may be may be a significant concern. Thankfully, preneed insurance can help alleviate both worries.
From senior centers and libraries to 55+ communities and more, being present and presenting to the community are a great way to increase community knowledge and familiarity with you personally. Not only does community work and presentations help educate potential clients, but it can also help you define how your funeral home is different from others, or even just plant a seed for individuals to reach out at a later date.
Less formal settings, such as volunteer work and community service, can even open the door for others to ask questions and learn in a setting that can seem a bit less intense. Getting out there in the community in formal and informal settings can be a fruitful strategy.
Networking isn’t just for traditional businesses or job seekers. This means connecting not just through the business community and organizations, but also networking through existing clients. Asking for referrals can be difficult but they’re also one of the most valuable networking opportunities out there. Referrals provide potential clients with information and recommendations from a trusted source who can tout the quality of your services as well as providing information about how helpful preneed insurance was for their family.
In essence, referrals and networking can help lay the groundwork for your advice prior to your even meeting with a potential client.
Much like grieving doesn’t end right after a funeral, neither does your service. Investing in an aftercare program helps solidify relationships through your support. Aftercare programs can include a variety of methods to check in with clients and should include texting (if appropriate and welcome), direct mail, phone calls, home visits, and even grief groups.
Additionally, robust aftercare programs help you identify and resolve concerns from clients that will not only help you better serve that client, but they also help you prepare for the next, ensuring that your services continue to grow and support your clients. This valuable service can also help your clients build trust and then, in turn, share your services with friends.
Understanding the families in your community, who they are and what they need and want, should be a key component, if not the foundation, of your marketing efforts, not just for preneed insurance but for all your services. This helps inform the strategies you use (because you’ll know which channels your target audience is using) as well as your messaging.
Once you understand who these individuals are, you can then start creating a multi-channel marketing strategy that reaches out to your audience where they are. These strategies might include traditional marketing strategies like direct mail, but may also include social media, local television, podcasts, local news segments, and more.
You know the value of preneed insurance and how it can provide for an entire family when they most need support. Any services that can help alleviate the stress and worry for a family when their focus is typically on caring for one another are invaluable and that’s precisely where you come in. Demonstrating that need and your ability to help meet it, for both the client looking for the funeral or cremation they want and the family who wants to honor those wishes.
While you’re providing much needed support to families, who is supporting you? You also need an insurance provider who is there when you need them, and that’s ELCO. From unparalleled customer service to a keen understanding of the funeral industry, our team has the expertise and experience to support you as well. Through our Preneed Partner Programs, we demonstrate our commitment to helping you not just succeed but grow.
If you’re ready to talk about how ELCO can help you provide preneed insurance policies to your clients and see how we commit to helping you with your marketing efforts as well, get in touch with our team today!