In This Inaugural Issue
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Create easy e-forms with FormSpring
Need an online form for your funeral services web site? Don't know how to program or code? No problem.
Does your funeral or cemetery web site need an online form to collect any kind of information but you are (a) short on time, (b) short on budget, (c) short on resources and (d) unable to program or code yourself? Thank goodness, then, for FormSpring. This is a super easy, very price-point friendly, web-based online form builder service anyone can use to create e-forms fast! Even better: all the data collected from the online form can be administered behind the scenes!
Death Care Publicist .02 cents: I've worked with this web tool before and can tell you it's one of the most robust, budget-cool and easier web applications I've come across if you need to use it to create a simple online form or even to set up your pre-need inquiry forms for your web site. It has more advanced features but for the novice user, the basic features are just super.
LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW FORMSPRING WORKS
HERE
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Email marketing to reach $2B by 2014
Are you sending your families an email newsletter or an email communication regularly? Email marketing is measurable, cost-effective and easy to implement.
Well, this new finding from Forrester Research speaks volumes as to why your funeral home, cemetery or crematory *should* be using e-mails to engage, inform and communicate with your families! But first . . . let's get to the important Forrester statistic: Within five years, consumers will opt-in to receive over 9,000 email marketing messages annually!
Why is this? The study cites various reasons for the expected email growth (death care operators, pay attention!):
- (a) very cost effective to send out emails; the falling CPMs (cost per thousands) for e-mail makes sending an email message very budget friendly;
- (b) higher ROI (return on investment); email communications and related promotions have been tied to increases in sales, traffic to web sites or blogs as well as increases in inbound phone calls and consumer response.
If your funeral home, cemetery or crematory is not taking full advantage of email marketing capabilities (or even actively collecting family email accounts), you are not making an effort to maximize the true potential of your contact list.
Death Care Publicist .02 cents: If you'd like to start or improve upon e-mail marketing campaigns for your funeral services establishment, read my ICCFA Magazine-published article, "Email Targeting and Segmentation for Death Care Service Providers" to provide you with solid ideas and best-practice approaches.
VIEW THE ARTICLE HERE
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3 Tips for Cemetery Owners Seeking to Expand Their Web Site Functionality
Interview with Nick Timpe of WebCemeteries.com
So many folks in the funeral service arena general don't understand how the Internet can enhance their web site's presence beyond providing the standard, expected stuff such as obituaries or "about us" information. Web 2.0 mindsets say that static "flat" sites — like those often launched by death care service providers and suppliers — are extremely dated and have lost meaningful value. Consumers and families want to do more than simply read what you think they want to read about you. They want to interact more with your cemetery or funeral home online so giving them the tools, options and features to engage and do more than read on your death care site is an essential aspect of bringing this industry sites forward into the 21st century. Nick Timpe of webCemeteries.com — a web-based cemetery program providing four internet solutions for the cemetery industry — is someone who knows about infusing feature-rich capabilities online for cemeteries who want to tap into the Internet's potential for extended outreach.
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT WEBCEMETERIES.COM AND NICK TIMPE'S 3 TIPS FOR CEMETERY OWNERS SEEKING TO EXPAND THEIR WEB SITE FUNCTIONALITY, CLICK HERE
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This e-newsletter is design, developed, produced and delivered by Mayra Ruiz-McPherson,
the Death Care Publicist.
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WEB 2.0 DIGITAL MARKETING TOOL FEATURE:
Web advertisement banners for your own site, or for your ad promotion purposes on other web sites, can cost a pretty penny when the ad incorporates animation. The skill set required for animated web banners is highly technical when building out the animation frame by frame. In fact, the skill set for high-end animation, in general, can easily cost upwards of $75 per hour! I once had worked with a design agency that billed well over $1,000 *per* each web banner they created. I believe their hourly rate for animated banners was at $95 per hour. Sometimes, the bill was $1,400 for one small or medium sized banner ad!
While that is a lot to bill per hour, the online animator professional has very technical work to perform in order to create fluid moving parts.And don't forget that an web banner also has to look good, right? The web is a highly visual medium so folks online expect advertisements to incorporate good use of visuals and aesthetics. Surely you may have seen some of the latest banner ads on the main pages of news sites like msnbc.com or Yahoo! where the ad is not only animated but it's also interactive; meaning that the user can do more than just click on the ad—they can enter information or even search for items.
Funeral homes, cemeteries and crematories may not have the high-end animation needs like other industries such as auto or retail. Still, there are many times where death care service providers may want or need to do something nicer than a static, flat banner ad.
Enter BannerSnack. This is a banner creator service online that allows you to create banners easily, in less time and for little or no money. The free version, in my opinion, is not really worth it—unless you don't mind having the BannerSnack logo watermarked in the ad??? Right. I would presume most people would not want another company's brand in the way of their ad message. Therefore, I would recommend the premium version which starts as low as $9 per month.
The BannerSnack web site comes with examples, tutorials and even a forum for those who want to connect with other BannerShack users, which is great for troubleshooting and furthering one's knowledge about not just the tool but online advertising trends as well.
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