5 Misconceptions Funeral Professional Have About Facebook Marketing

I am privileged to speak at many state, national, and even international funeral conventions each year. This allows me the opportunity to talk with hundreds of funeral professionals and to answer thousands of social media questions. In some cases, funeral professionals try to explain to me why they don’t need to market on Facebook or how they have mastered Facebook marketing because they have a young staff member.

Based on these hundreds or even thousands of conversations, I have compiled a list of the 5 most common misconceptions funeral professionals have about Facebook marketing.

1. We already own the market…

This is one I hear most often from multi-generational firms or funeral homes in smaller communities with little to no competition. It makes sense on paper, right? You’re the oldest funeral home in town, and you already do 80% of the business, so why do you need social media? Chances are the competitor is gonna go out of business, and you’ll get the other 20% of the business over the next few years anyway.

WRONG! You may own 80% of the traditional business, but you’re leaving your firm completely unprotected from online competitors. In some cases, online competitors are out-of-state, direct cremation companies that are reaching your “traditional” consumers through the places you aren’t fully present, like Facebook. They are stealing the attention, and where our attention goes so goes our heart…and our money soon follows.

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If you believe this misconception, please click the button below to schedule a free demo with, Ryan. Schedule a Demo with Ryan

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2. My niece/nephew/spouse/son/daughter/apprentice handles our Facebook…

This is a big one that needs to be addressed. Just because someone in your firm is under the age of 30 doesn’t automatically knight them as a social media/marketing expert. Sure, they spend hours a day on social media apps, but that doesn’t mean they know how to market on those apps. The same is true with embalming; just because they know something about cavity fluid doesn’t mean they are qualified to embalm a body.

I’ve talked to dozens of funeral home owners who are letting the apprentice handle their social media, but they won’t let the apprentice meet with a family because “they don’t have the experience.” Well, guess what? They have absolutely zero experience when it comes to marketing, and they shouldn’t be the ones handling your social media just because they are young and know how to use a smartphone.

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If you believe this misconception, please click the button below to schedule a free demo with, Ryan. Schedule a Demo with Ryan

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3. I can manage our firm’s social media in 10 minutes a day…

One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding Facebook in the funeral profession is this crazy idea that you can schedule your entire year of Facebook content in just 10 minutes, and that it will produce results that are valuable. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN!

It’s as simple as a GENERIC vs. ORGANIC social media content approach. If all you care about is getting content on your page (content for the sake of content) and not about driving any results (measurable leads), then a completely automated approach will be fine – but just know that it WILL NOT provide value to you, nor will it help you drive leads.

Organic content is very real and transparent. It’s content that is crafted specifically for your firm with your funeral home’s social media goals in mind. Organic content can’t be automated and takes far longer than 10 minutes a day to generate, let alone for the whole year.

Organic content is what differentiates your funeral home from everyone else. Organic content builds trust and relationships with your community, and it’s the content that will be the foundation for driving leads. Leads are the best way for you to measure ROI (return on investment). Organic content makes your Facebook page much more than just an automated after-thought by turning it into a lead driving, engagement machine.

Can this really happen? Absolutely! We have clients driving over $15,000 a month in sales from preneed Facebook leads.

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If you believe this misconception, please click the button below to schedule a free demo with, Ryan. Schedule a Demo with Ryan

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4. XYZ Company is giving us free/cheap content that will drive leads…

“Free content…” This is one conversation I have with funeral professionals almost daily. They say, “I’m not worried about our Facebook presence, because our preneed company is giving us free content.” Or I hear, “We are only paying $99/month for grief content from XYZ company.” We’re busting the notion that free and cheap social media content will generate leads and increase your revenue! The funeral profession has been plagued with canned and generic content that does nothing to build relationships or to move the needle to drive more calls. This is so simple. The saying “you get what you pay for” has been around for freaking ever and there is unbelievable truth in it. If you default for “free social media content,” then you 100% deserve the lackluster results that come with it.

Here is a great video we recorded that will help you better understand this misconception while providing the real solution for winning on social media.

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5. Generic content is good enough…

One of the most important aspects of any marketing campaign is your social media presence, but getting an active, engaged audience is far from easy. Too many funeral homes get stuck on brand and sales and forget the most important factor that drives both of these – the relationship you have with your community and client families.

This is where using generic content often falls short. It fails to build a unique relationship between your funeral home and your prospective clients. While generic content may get a couple of likes, it doesn’t do anything to convert a user from “liking” a post to saying, “This is the funeral home I want my family to use.”

Ultimately, generic content doesn’t leverage people to choose your funeral home.

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If you believe this misconception, please click the button below to schedule a free demo with, Ryan. Schedule a Demo with Ryan

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So what does?

Organic content (internal content focused solely on your firm and your people) is what builds relationships.

Organic content increases your transparency and builds trust with your audience. This is the major component of driving pre-need leads. Sales and brand awareness are by-products of the relationship that a customer has with you (your firm). Everything revolves around the relationship you have with your customer, and this has to be nurtured over time. Again, you’re establishing a relationship, and relationships take time and they take effort. You can’t automate the building of a relationship.

People buy from people, not faceless entities, especially in relationship-driven businesses like funeral care. Eighty percent (80%) of funeral home business is relationship-driven. Organic content featuring real people will nurture the relationship you have with consumers and, in turn, your call volume will increase. An effective way to do this is to introduce your staff on social media to your audience. This shows that you’re not going to provide a generic, one-size-fits-all funeral, but that you’re able to personalize the occasion to each individual’s unique needs.

Some companies think that using a stock photo and a generic “meet our staff” quote is enough to achieve this, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Using a real picture of your team has been shown to be much more effective at building relationships and increasing engagement.

That company…the one selling you generic content…needs to be kicked to the curb.

Check out the video below for a side-by-side engagement comparison of the same post, except one is a generic image and the other is organic. This will help you understand why an organic social media presence is the key to winning and driving leads.