February 2019

Page A20 FEBRUARY 2019 FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS S ec t i on A I have had many, many conversations with the fam- ilies that I serve. One conversation that I find myself most often having is one that speaks to the question: “How do I go on after the loss of my loved one? Noth- ing is ever going to be the same.”This is a good question! Most times the person who is grieving sees the rest of the world “moving on,” when they don’t feel as though they ever will. What I find helpful is offering people “life lines to healing.” Life lines to healing help a per- son to navigate their journey of grief with support and information. They help a grieving person to know that what they are experiencing is part of their “grief jour- ney.” They will help the griever discover how they can go on. Life lines to healing can be a special person who can be supportive, reading information about grief in grief books, of which there are so many now, online grief sup- port sites, or in attending a support group or a commu- nity grief support event. All of these suggestions are not going to take the grief away, but they can provide the quality support that the griever so greatly needs. I will ask you this: Does the aftercare program that you pro- vide for your families offer “Life Lines to Healing?” You can provide a very unique life line to healing by sponsoring an event like what A Butterfly’s Journey has to offer. A Butterfly’s Journey (ABJ), is a not-for profit orga- nization founded by Barbara Hopkinson . Their mission is to help individuals and families struggling with grief, or of additional programming provided by top profession- als and who provide hope, information, understanding and the needed support. The Bereavement Cruise III is set to sail March 3-10, 2019. It will be an outstanding journey! For more information about The Bereavement Cruise, you can visit: www.j3hhh.com. We have had funeral homes sponsor families to participate in this very special cruise event. There are so many more options available. Hopeful- ly the information that I have shared will help you to embark upon looking for alternative ways to provide meaningful support and life lines of healing for griev- ing families. The ones that I have listed is a good start. By Linda Findlay Aftercare 101 Linda Findlay is the founder of Mourning Discoveries, Grief Support Services. She is a 28 year career “Aftercare Coordinator,” a published author, an advocate for bereaved families and the found- er and co-creator of Journeys of Hope Grief Support Outreach Programs, coordinating and hosting seminars and events, includ- ing the first and only Bereavement Cruise that provides extensive programming exclusively for grieving families. Linda has developed comprehensive aftercare programs that are used in over 300 funer- al homes in 25 states. Linda has supported and worked with thou- sands of grieving families across this country. She has visited and provided support for grieving families in their homes and through Funeral Homes, Hospices and faith-based organizations. She has created, facilitated, participated in and coordinated hundreds of workshops, services of remembrances, and support groups. Linda is a lay counselor for a Christian Care Ministry in Greenville SC. Her highest honor is to enter people’s lives and help make a differ- ence. Linda can be reached at 315-725-6132 or you can visit her websites at www.mouringdiscoveries.com and www.j3hhh.com , or email Lf6643@yahoo.com . www.nomispublications.com Funeral Home & Cemetery News Contributors share insights and exchange ideas. B logs other traumatic loss, to find hope and a new normal. ABJ hosts “Faces of Resilience” ( www.facesofresilience.org and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/facesofresilience ) pho- to shoots where participants are photographed expressing a phrase meaningful to them, and later receive their digital photos. It is amazing how people just love their photos and how meaningful and special they are to them. The photos are high quality professionally shot and edited. The photos are given to the family at no charge to them. Barbara is a be- reaved parent of three children who lost her husband and the love of her life suddenly, last fall. She travels the country pro- viding photo shoots through a sponsoring funeral home or organization. This may be a good option to add to a commu- nity outreach event that you already have planned. You can find A Butterfly’s Journey at www.abutterflysjourney.org. Another great community outreach event is to sponsor an evening with Alan Pedersen . Alan Pedersen created the Angels Across America Tour . Alan drives his van across the country presenting and performing at events to spread his message of hope. He visited over 300 cities in 2018. Alan charges no fees to schedule an event and perform. He funds his ministry through donations from the sale of a butterfly decal with a loved one’s name and town printed on the decal. The decals are put on his van and he carries his angels with him on his journey. Alan is the past executive director of The Compassionate Friends , a pre- senter for Umbrella Ministry Conferences , a bereaved father, singer/songwriter, recording artist, producer of educa- tional DVDs, and an inspirational speaker on grief and loss, and he is the honored ambassador of the Bereave- ment Cruise . Alan can be found on Facebook, look up Alan Pedersen, Angels Across America Tour. Yes, there is a bereavement cruise. For complete disclo- sure, I am the founder and co-creator of The Bereavement Cruise. The Bereavement Cruise is a powerful transforma- tional journey at sea, honoring and celebrating the lives of lost loved ones. The Bereavement Cruise includes every fea- ture of a 5-star rated cruise experience with the added value As a death care provider, you obviously know that time- ly service is a necessity. Families in need can’t wait for call- backs that take days, and they appreciate prompt, com- passionate service at every step of their journey with you. But did you know that this same attention to detail is important in your digital marketing efforts? The speed of than three seconds to load. In the death care industry, this need for speed is com- pounded by situational pressures. Families in an at-need sit- uation are facing a time crunch and stress in dealing with the situation. They need fast, professional answers so they can move on in the process. Pages that don’t load correctly on mobile or take too long to load on any device don’t give the impression that you’re the provider to meet those needs. So what should companies in the death care industry do to demonstrate that they are the provider to meet those needs? First, Google recommends that you check the performance of your site via its Page Speed Insights tool. Simply search Google for “PageSpeed Insights” to quickly access the free tool, then enter your home page URL and click “Analyze.” The tool lets you see speed performance on both mobile and desktop, and it even makes some recommendations on how you can improve page load times. Next, take action on this information. Unfortunate- ly, many death care websites remain behind the times in 2019, which means you might need to overhaul site ar- chitecture and content and take advantage of technical upgrades that have arisen since your site was designed. You definitely need to incorporate responsive design (a design that works equally well on all screens and devices) if you haven’t already. If you contract with a website design firm, you might need to push your webmaster to enhance speed on your site (or shop for another firm if your current provider doesn’t seem likely to help). Design firms that take a one-and-done approach to site creation—in other words, they charge you to build a site and move on after the job is done—aren’t under any obliga- tion to come back and reconfigure the site later. I recommend bringing the Page Speed Insights data to the person or firm in charge of your website and discussing a proactive approach to increasing performance. If current providers won’t (or can’t) help boost the speed of your death care website, it’s probably time to shop for a new online marketing firm. Look for a provider who is knowledgeable about current best practices and has a great reputation for helping compa- nies in your industry succeed with digital marketing. Welton Hong is the founder of Ring Ring Marketing® and a leading expert in creating case generation from online to the phone line. He is the author of Making Your Phone Ring with Internet Marketing for Funeral Homes. For more information, visit www.FuneralHomeProfits.com. Why Is Page Speed So Important? By Welton Hong Welton Hong your website has a lot to do with whether families or individuals decide to part- ner with you. One reason page speed is critical is that Google uses it as a key factor in page rank. Slower sites might not ap- pear as high in the search re- sult, which means families searching online for a funer- al provider might not come across your business at all. This has been true for some time, but July 2018 updates from Google made it even more important to ensure your page loads quickly. As part of its mobile-first in- dex, Google looks at how your site works for users on smart- phones and tablets—including how fast load times are. The search engine actually prioritizes sites that perform better on mobile over those that perform well only on desk- top, which makes sense. After all, Google wants to serve sites that best fit user needs, and since 2016, more people have browsed the internet on mobile devices such as smartphones or tablets than on desktop or laptop computers. But a speedy site (on mobile or desktop) isn’t just a box to check off to impress Google. Even if your slower site ranks well on search engines be- cause of other factors, it might not convert a lot of traffic. In fact, it could be doing the exact opposite by sending potential clientele to your competitors. Page load time—how quickly pages render on your site—plays a huge role in user experience. Did you know that about 50 percent of site visitors expect pages to load in two seconds or less? This is true no matter what device they’re using, but it’s es- pecially important to searchers on mobile devices. Those us- ers are more likely to be on the go or distracted by others, so they’re not going to stick around for an archaic site to load. In fact, more than 40 percent of users will simply swipe, click or browse elsewhere on the internet if a site takes more Funeral Directors Research,Inc. AMRA INSTRUMENT, LLC 623 N. Tower (P.O. Box 359) Centralia, WA 98531 “the shorter the supply line the better off you are” WEB DIRECT GIFT & PRICING TM ® www.amrainstruments.com www.preproomdirect.com