Many of the top funeral marketers use storytelling to sell preneed.

It doesn’t matter if you’re marketing with direct mail, reaching out digitally or enhancing your website. You need to reach the right people with the right story.

Regardless of the marketing channel, to successfully market any kind of product, it’s important to create a story that connects with customer and prospects.

That’s because consumers are exposed to nearly 10,000 advertisements every single day, but most people notice fewer than 100 of them. You need to stand out.

Stand out with Storytelling

Storytelling is an excellent tool for humanizing your funeral home or cemetery. It’s how you build closer relationships with new and returning customers.

When consumers hear a compelling story and feel that your brand aligns with their core values, they tell their friends. A word of mouth referral is priceless.

And, don’t forget the pictures. Often, a picture is worth 1,000 words.

Preneed Storytelling Conveys Emotions

There are lots of examples of how the Death Care industry can use storytelling to sell preneed. I can think of lots of great examples that show emotional responses to painful solutions.

Here are some concrete examples you can use:

• Telling a story where a family’s life was impacted by a loved ones’ death.
• Sharing how someone used their final expense policyto pay for funeral arrangements.
• The visuals of a loving daughter who was able to rest easier because her parents had the foresight to handle their arrangements.
• Showing a family and friends at graveside, reminiscing.
• Sharing testimonials from a grateful family.

When people can see themselves reflected in your stories, they will be more apt to do business with you. This kind of emotional engagement with consumers will lead to an increase in your business. And, this is excellent content for your SEO.

Scrollytelling

In 2023, the buzzword for storytelling is scrollytelling. This means telling your story in a digital format as the user scrolls to read your story.

Scrollytelling is defined as visual storytelling for the web. Basically, new content and visuals appear or change through transitions as users scroll down or up the web page.

Instead of presenting information on a single page, scrollytelling breaks the content into smaller sections or “chunks” that are revealed as the user scrolls down the page. Each section typically contains text, images, videos, or interactive elements that contribute to the overall narrative. This way, the scrolling action triggers animations, transitions, or other effects that enhance the storytelling experience.

This allows you to guide your audience’s attention and control the pacing of the narrative. This creates a more dynamic and engaging storytelling experience.

In the Death Care market, where stories can be emotional, this offers consumers a visual journey that they can relate to.

Dale “Data Dale” Filhaber is President of Dataman Group Direct, a boutique direct marketing company in Boca Raton, FL. She is the author of several books on Lead Generation, publishes articles in many industry publications and lectures at many educational events. She is a well-known direct marketing commentator with a weekly blog called “Ask Data Dale”.