WordPress Plugin
5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use a Funeral Home Industry Website Builder
When creating a website for your business, using a website builder is a tempting option. Easy, affordable, fast – we get the appeal. However, there are many reasons this isn’t a good idea, especially if you work in the funeral home industry. Here are five reasons using a funeral home website builder is the wrong choice for your business.
1. A funeral home industry website builder restricts what you can offer
A website builder generally only gives you the option to include a limited number of pages. This is sometimes even as basic as one single page with a couple of images and your contact details. Funeral home businesses should offer their clients so much more. Not just to differentiate from competitors, but to ensure that they’re helping make such a difficult time a little bit easier. By using a funeral home website plugin like Funeral Tributes Pro to enhance a bespoke website for your business, you’ll be able to enhance your WordPress site with a modern obituary system. This will allow you to display key information more effectively and better showcase your obituaries.
2. Using a builder means you’ll look the same as everyone else
We don’t need to tell you that the funeral industry is one that requires an immensely personal touch. Your clients need to feel like they are being taken care of at every step of the way and that they have chosen a professional who can help make the process as seamless as possible. By creating a website that is unique to your funeral home, you can ensure that all aspects of your business are sending the right message. You’ll have a greater chance at achieving this by developing a website from scratch rather than using a funeral home industry website builder, which will leave you with a generic and impersonal website.
3. You’ll have limited customization options
It’s important for your website to reflect your brand and your company’s unique personality. This is true no matter what industry you’re in. Creating a website with a builder means you’ll be limited by what you can change. For instance, you may not be able to adjust the colors or fonts to suit your branding. If you’re not happy with the structure of a page, chances are, you will not be able to make any significant design or development changes. Building from scratch gives you endless versatility and the opportunity to truly capture the essence of your brand and your services. This cannot be underestimated when it comes to creating a welcoming and functional funeral home website that gives clients the very best impression.
4. Your website will undermine your business
When it comes to using a website builder, it doesn’t matter how expensive the builder, it will always look like a cookie-cutter template. Considering your website is often the first chance your business has to make an impression on a prospective client, you want to ensure it’s as striking as possible. With a sleek and professional website that’s customized to your brand and loaded with features that your clients will appreciate, you’ll give your clients a much better experience while visiting.
5. Your website might not be user or mobile-friendly
Another important consideration when building your website is your user experience. Often website builders are weighed down with unnecessary code which can affect the performance of your site and negatively impact your user-experience. You also want to make sure your website offers a responsive layout that your clients can access on the go from a variety of devices. Often website builders are only built for desktop users, which means anyone viewing your website on a mobile device won’t have a good experience. Considering stats prove that more people are viewing websites on their phones than their desktop computers, this is something you definitely want to get right.
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You’ve worked hard to get your business to where it is. Give your business the bespoke website it – and your clients – deserves.
It doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. By working with WordPress, you can create a beautiful, custom funeral home website. As part of the WordPress development process, you can install the affordable and versatile Funeral Tributes Pro plugin to add obituary functionality to your website.
Find out more about the Funeral Tributes Pro obituary plugin here.
How To Create A Warm And Welcoming Funeral Home Website
Planning a funeral is a difficult time in anyone’s life. Make it easier from the get-go with a warm and welcoming funeral website that shows customers that choosing you means they’ll be in good hands. Your website, after all, is often your “first meeting” with customers and therefore your first chance to make an impression.
So, what elements does a funeral home website need to show customers they’ve found the right place? Here are our top eight tips.
1. An Inviting Design
Inevitably, the first thing people are going to notice about your website is its design. Keep your design beautiful and simple with clear navigation, striking images and fonts that are easy to read. Don’t overwhelm already overwhelmed customers with clunky images, busy graphics or cheesy music. Instead, choose something uncomplicated that reminds them that your process will be the same. Choose a color palette that’s known to be calming or is associated with grief, such as purple, or connected to the celebration of life, such as green.
2. Fuss-Free User Experience
People who are grieving are already going through enough. Make things as easy as possible for them with an intuitive website that offers a seamless way to find everything they need and take the next steps. This means a clear layout with a straightforward menu and key information front and centre.
3. Clear And Conspicuous Information
On that same note, make it easy for your customers to find vital information as quickly as possible. Keep your contact details accessible and straightforward and be sure to welcome customers to get in touch with you. If you include pricing on your website, make that available in just one click. Your location is something else they’ll need to know, so keep this somewhere obvious. You can also include an FAQ section to give customer fast answers to things they might be wondering about.
4. Feature-Rich Obituaries
Obituaries are an essential part of any funeral home website. Adding an interactive element to your website, an obituary section gives your customers something to come back to time and time again. WordPress plugins such as Funeral Tributes Pro are designed to make adding obituaries to your funeral home website possible in a matter of clicks. The Funeral Tributes Pro WordPress plugin includes a range of features that allow you to offer extra value to your customers, such as the ability to view obituaries and leave guestbook messages as well as see funeral details including maps of the location. As an added bonus for you, obituaries will bring in significant traffic to your site and may even lead to referrals.
5. A Meaningful About Us Page
An About page gives you the opportunity to add a personal and human touch to your website. Ensure that customers get a good sense of who you are and know that you are approachable and worth reaching out to by crafting a good description of your company. You could also use this page to add photos and descriptions of your team members, making it even more personal.
6. A Look Inside
Show customers what they can expect with clear images of your premises. If you can offer a virtual tour or 360-degree photos, this is even better.
7. Useful Content
Including a blog on your website offers your customers something extra and is a sure-fire way to make them see that you are not just a warm and giving funeral home, but a company that knows what they’re doing. Share your knowledge and expertise with articles offering advice on things like dealing with loss, how to plan a funeral and choosing the right life insurance policy.
8. Reassurance
Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, reassurance that you have your customers best interests at heart is vital. Use your headers, banners or slider images as well as your website content to let your customers know they’ll be in the very best hands. Be sure to convey yourself as sincerely as possible.
For more information on Funeral Tributes Pro and adding value to your funeral home website, click here.
10 Things to Look for When Choosing a WordPress Obituary Plugin
When a loved one sadly passes there’s no easy way to say goodbye. As a funeral home, however, you can at least offer your clients a way to make and immortalize their tributes with an online obituary. An obituary memorializes and celebrates the life of a loved one and now, thanks to the staying power of the internet, your website can offer families a place to view and share their loved one’s obituaries for years to come.
If you run a WordPress website, an obituary plugin will make it simple for you to manage and store obituaries through your site. When you’re deciding on an obituary plugin, make sure you get it right the first time by choosing a plugin that has all the right features. The best obituary plugin will have taken everything into account to bring you an effective and powerful plugin at an affordable price. Such a plugin will enable you to give visitors a flawless user experience and a straightforward way to view service details and leave messages in the guestbook.
So, what should you be looking for? These five things are essential:
1. A Seamless User Interface
Don’t waste time on a confusing user interface that’s weighed down with unnecessary features or convoluted designs. Choose a plugin that’s straightforward and easy to use, even for someone with no website developing experience.
2. Simple Installation and Setup Procedures
A plugin should be easy to install from the WordPress Dashboard – rather than requiring complex manual installation via an FTP. Many plugins also come with a compatibility checker to assess the download files. Run this checker first to ensure a smooth installation.
3. Well-organized Service Details
You want your obituary plugin to give you the ability to include all the information guests are going to want and need. For instance, your obituary plugin should offer fields for clear information on the service, visitation and cemetery details, including dates and directions.
4. Straightforward Dashboard Management
The best obituary plugins allow you to add and edit your obituaries straight from your WordPress dashboard. Some will even amplify the standard WordPress dashboard interface with a premium user experience that allows data to be entered quickly.
5. Responsive Design
Keep in mind that not everyone will be viewing your site on a desktop. In fact, more people are viewing websites on mobile devices than ever. Therefore, it’s important to choose an obituary plugin that looks and functions flawlessly on all devices, including mobile phones, tablets, notebooks and desktop computers.
And, to enhance your website even further, we recommend choosing an obituary plugin with these five features:
1. Social Share Functionality
Some obituary plugins allow your visitors to share an obituary with friends and family directly from the plugin to any social media platform or even email. This is a handy feature that offers your visitors that extra touch.
2. A Built-in Search Function
Make it even easier for visitors to find who they’re looking for with a search bar that allows them to search by a first or last name. This means visitors can find and view the profiles of their lost loved ones even years later.
3. Location Display with Google Maps
Let guests know exactly where to find your funeral home as well as viewing and cemetery locations. Adding a Google map will make it even easier and many plugins will make this possible in just a few clicks. Just note that you’ll need a Google map API key to activate your map.
4. Guest Book Management
Sometimes people leave inappropriate or abusive comments, even on obituary guest books. Making sure you have the ability to delete comments or approve them before they go live will mean you can manage what gets said and avoid anything unfortunate.
5. Printable Service Details
Another way you can make things easier for your clients is by giving them the ability to print service details straight from the online obituary. Choose a plugin that offers this feature and your clients will be able to print the details and service notes for handy reference or as a cherished keepsake.
Ultimately, an obituary plugin needs to consider both your needs on the backend and the needs of your users on the frontend. The ideal WordPress obituary plugin will be easy for you to install and manage, while also offering a seamless user experience with all the right features for your guests. And, better yet, it will deliver all this at an affordable price and with optimal flexibility in subscription packages.
For a plugin that checks all these boxes and more, check out Funeral Tributes ProSM. Sign up today and add an invaluable touch to your funeral home website.