June 9, 2014 – Back in 2009, Seattle entrepreneurs Matt Pressnall and Minda Brusse saw an opportunity for funeral homes that lacked online marketing expertise and time for social media. “The individual company websites we saw were terrible, and not much has changed,” says Matt Pressnall, a software developer and online marketing veteran. “Negligible website budgets and lack of adoption with online advertising made it difficult to succeed in offering “mom & pop” funeral homes typical website and online advertising solutions. We needed to figure out a way to give it away and still make money.”
To avoid intrusive advertising confronting consumers seeking funeral and burial planning help, the team developed consumer offers related to funerals and planning. The results have fueled iMortuary’s growth, and now the company has hit a new milestone. “According to independent tracking, our website is the #1 most visited funeral home directory website. At first, it was kind of a surprise,” recalls Minda Brusse, iMortuary.com’s COO. “Other well-funded funeral home resource websites and directories did not keep pace with search engine optimization, but we did. It takes a lot of research and high quality content to stay on top.”
Through the “Forever Free” promise of the Claim Your Listing campaign, businesses have rapidly claimed, updated, added and customized their listings. Funeral homes and cemeteries benefit from the thousands of clicks and calls from the directory portion of iMortuary’s website. Additional iMortuary funeral planning resources, blog posts and social media content keep consumers engaged and informed. All of this activity generates interest in the offers that iMortuary seamlessly embeds into functions of the website.
“Now, we’re expanding to offer performance-based and free marketing options for funeral homes and cemeteries,” says Brusse. “We will offer social media content designed for sharing, blogging, and lead generation programs in a way that funeral homes never have to commit to a big online advertising purchase. It’s either free, or it pays for itself. ”
Like many small Seattle enterprises and start-ups, iMortuary.com utilizes home offices, co-working spaces and a bevy of professional contractors who work independently. This flexibility gives the co-owners time to attend kid’s school functions and enjoy the sun in Seattle when it shines.
In addition to building a business, Pressnall and Brusse are also share family. Matt is married to Minda’s sister, Carlin Pressnall. “Small businesses like ours require us to have very different skill sets but still be able to make key decisions together. It’s not an easy combination to find. Family binds us together and it’s always more important,” says Brusse. As a web and graphic designer, Carlin often gets brought in on key design projects. “When they created the ‘Forever Free Basic Listing’ program, the three of us developed the concepts and design together,” Carlin notes.
