It always confuses me when I tell people that I’m in the death care profession and they respond: “What a great industry! You will always have customers” … because it doesn’t feel like that. We have to work just as hard to find customers as any other industry because of that pesky thing called competition.

One of the hottest audience-building trends right now is podcasts, but they aren’t just for themed-national listeners, they work brilliantly for building a local audience.  You want the community you serve to automatically think of you when they need services and one of the best ways to do this is through a local podcast.

Why Start a Podcast?

There are several reasons why a podcast is a great way to reach your community. Here are some of the benefits:

• Podcasting will put a voice to your funeral home. While many people in the area may know your funeral home by name, putting a real human voice to your business provides a personal touch. This helps to develop a relationship with your listeners which can make going into a funeral home a little less intimidating.
• Once you are up and running, a podcast is free advertising. Your podcast will be far more effective than newspaper ads so you can put your print ad-budget elsewhere… maybe towards advertising your podcast.
• With podcasts, you can reach a large local audience. Your avid listeners will talk with others in the community which will organically grow your audience via word-of-mouth marketing. It takes very little of your time to do a podcast, and it doesn’t have to be hours long. It can be a simple 30-minute broadcast that is incredibly effective.

What Do I Talk About on a Podcast?

They key to podcasting is to remember that you are providing useful or entertaining content that is interesting to your listeners. Your show is not a thirty-minute advertisement for your funeral home. You are simply putting yourself in the public eye as a funeral director or local business owner and providing content that your community will enjoy listening to. Then, when funeral services are needed, families will call the only funeral director they know… you.

To help you get started, here are a few examples of useful content that you could create:

• Local news topics that everyone is buzzing about (be careful not to get TO political).
• Interviews with local people who are of interest like the mayor, community members, maybe even a club at the local school who are involved in an interesting project. If you uplift your community, your community will uplift you.
• You can even talk about informational (not advertising) topics that relate to the funeral industry. Interview a grief psychologist about how to cope with the loss of a loved one or pet – grief is a shared human experience

You can learn how to start a podcast for under $100 here.

Do you have experience podcasting? Let us know in the comments!