February Newsletter

My Collaborative Network Partners and I hope you find enjoyment in reading these informative articles and they help you in your career and business.

The articles will contain education that focuses on what funeral, cremation, and cemetery professionals need most. We will not spend time on “industry” updates as that is currently being well done.  Of most importance is education in areas of growing a business and how to develop new skills as leaders. Topics will include using best management practices along with ways to care for you and your fellow team members. The newsletter will also contain new insights into differentiating yourself in your respective market communities and profession. For the busy professionals that love to cook but have no time, there will be a new recipe for you to try that is easy and fast to prepare. Additionally, coming in the future will be other articles focused on your personal wellness and work, life, balance.  

If you are not a reader but more of a listener or enjoy podcasts, join us for our upcoming 2022 Your Funeral Coach Talks, and listen in on the new episodes. There will be great learning with guests on varying topics, from leadership to grief support program best practices, to business management and ownership transitions, along with the wellness for both you and your fellow team members. We will also be sharing marketing, community relationship building, and information on innovative training programs.   

This year, we will debut a new series in our podcasts titled Elevating Women in Funeral Service where we will spend time with women leaders in our field, learning the keys to their success.

You can find Your Funeral Coach Talks on our website or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

My hope for your New Year in 2022, is for you to spend more time on your own personal wellness while accomplishing goals that help you grow and achieve a better work, life, balance. 

Please reach out to me if I may support or help you in any way, at lisa@yourfuneralcoach.com

My Best Always,

Lisa

HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR STAFF'S OVERALL WELLNESS

The past few years have taken a toll on most industries. As a mental health professional, I have seen people leaving education, healthcare, and other taxing industries in droves. How do you plan to retain your best employees? How do you help them feel valued and keep them from the fiery furnace of burnout? Employee retention is not just about competitive salaries and more vacation. Many times, we spend more time at our workplace than our home, so I have comprised a few things that help employees feel heard and understood.

Managers need to be emotionally attentive. Strength and power are no longer congruent with stoicism. Being vulnerable and authentic is valued in a leadership role.  Understand how to be emotionally attuned to your staff. Seek to understand them and know why they are in funeral service.  Everyone has a story.  Encourage personal and professional development but with rest and relaxation as a top priority. Goals should be made with intention and an emphasis on overall health.

Model healthy behaviors as a leader. If you act stressed, they pick up on that energy.  If you talk about maladaptive ways of coping, they will follow suit. Take care of yourself and create a work environment that promotes self-care as a priority. Create opportunities for employees to practice mindfulness. Mindfulness calms the amygdala, which is where fear and anxiety are stored in the brain. Implement quiet areas, places to take a walk or get fresh air, and give people tangible skills on how to regulate their mood. If you don’t know how to do these things, bring in guest speakers from your community on how to implement such goals.

Create opportunities for employees to find meaning in their work. Have times of reflection in meetings.  Give people a chance to share their successes and their disappointments. Encourage team-building skills. The pandemic showed us how interdependent we are on each other. No one can do this alone in a healthy way. We all need support and meaning can be made when people feel supported at work by their team.

These strategies will create a culture of appreciation and meaning that retains employees and help avoid burnout. These values implemented in everyday work life will be beneficial to you, your company, your employees, and the community that you serve.

Written by Kristen Ernst, MA, LPC

KristenErnst@CHHCounseling.com

www.HopeandHealingCounseling.com

HOW TO CREATE A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING PLAN FOR 2022

As 2021 has ended, we have been finalizing plans for individual firms next year. It's never too late to structure a marketing plan, but its always best to do so in advance of any initiatives. Most firms ask for help after years of a "shoot from the hip" approach to marketing.

Going into 2022 without a plan, is a plan to fail. Here are four quick ways to confirm you do or do not have a good plan.

1. You Have to Have a Budget – Understanding budgeting is key.  Most firms don’t have a budget. Instead, they look at expenses they called “marketing” during a prior year and try to stay close to that number. Proper budgeting is strategically calculated to be roughly 2-5% of gross revenue. Once you have a budget number, it needs to be allocated to effective strategies. When your budget is strategically planned, you know what your expenses will be before you ever spend anything.

2.  Have a Strategy – We encounter many firms using multiple marketing vendors that may not be working together toward a common goal, or even worse, may not know there are multiple marketing initiatives. This does not mean you need to have a single company do everything. It does mean you need a plan so that your marketing tactics complement each other. Understand how Facebook ads should complement direct mail, TV, and outdoor initiatives. Separate vendors could be communicating different messages, which will only confuse customers rather than leading them to your objectives.

3.  Make it Measurable – Most marketing is highly measurable. Prioritize direct response and measurable initiatives first. Also, be sure you understand what is being measured. There is a tremendous difference between activity and results. We have seen many vendor reports that simply measure activity. An example would be a Google ads report showing impressions, clicks, costs, bounce rates, and click-through rates. That is all activity. It does not help you understand how your campaigns are delivering results. Good reporting will come with outcomes of paid search visits.  These include time-stamped phone calls originating from the ads, form completions from visits originating from ads, and leads.

4.   Accountability – Have a tracking system, a call log, or a CRM to track and manage the results of the opportunities your marketing strategy creates. Your resources are wasted if you cannot look at your sales and attribute them to specific investments you made with your marketing dollars. How often does your phone ring?  What happens with those opportunities? How many appointments were set? What were the outcomes?

There is no better time than now to start a measurable, outcome-focused plan. Start with calculating your budget, plan a measurable strategy, and use tools to track your opportunities.

Written by Sean Fagan of Leap Tie, Inc.

sean@leaptie.com

www.LeapTie.com