Why Should You Make Your Cemetery Records Available Online?

Cemeteries have a very exciting opportunity to increase revenue by making their records available publicly online. Very simply, people are interested in their family’s history and are searching for online records. Cemeteries, being the owners of that data, gives you a huge opportunity to connect with the public all around the world!

We know these records enable the public to explore their ancestry, but for cemeteries, how do you effectively and appropriately monetise these opportunities to grow your business?

Check out 3 reasons why you should consider making your cemetery records available online:

#1 Genealogy As A Trend

Let’s look at genealogy as a trend, the scale of interest is so significant that genealogy is currently the second most popular hobby in the US, in terms of online category visits. [1]

Think about the exposure your cemetery could potentially receive by making family records available online in this billion dollar industry.

With numerous burial records at your fingertips you automatically have high quality content without any marketing efforts! But the big question is, are you using this content to attract people to your site?

The #1 search method for genealogists is online record research. Are your deceased family records available electronically in your cemetery office or still in paper format? If your deceased cemetery records are only available in big old ledgers, how are people supposed to get access to those?

#2 Digital Expectations 

When was the last time you went searching for information without doing this online? Somewhere around 63.5% of the world's population use the internet today. [2]

Making your records available online and bringing them into the 21st century is nothing short of a necessity to improve customer experience, remain competitive and stay current in this ever changing world.

Having your records online can provide families with the opportunity to leave condolence and sympathy messages they otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.

Think about people who have lost a loved one, friends that couldn’t attend a service or the family members in a different country unable to travel due to restrictions, are their expectations being met or are you missing out on their involvement?

These individuals may want to send a message of condolence online when unable to attend a service, order a floral delivery to a grave or perhaps learn about the life of the deceased to provide closure to the event.

#3 Lead Generation Opportunities

Having your cemetery records available online presents an opportunity to generate leads from site visits.

Perhaps a site visitor is interested in available plots nearby a family member. In this case you could place a ‘Call To Action’ button to request information about available plots nearby their family members plot. If a user clicks this button they could be directed to a contact form where they can request a call back by leaving their name, number and email address.

You could also place call to action buttons alongside your records to download information about memorial leases options or subscribe to your newsletter.

Remember to always aim to capture an email to ensure you can continue offering the buyer something of value now and in the years ahead!

Refs

[1] Genealogy: The Second Most Popular Hobby in the US?

R Dalzell, Ancestry, april 2017

[2] Digital Around the World

Datareportal

If you enjoyed this article, check out our webinar on ‘How Making Your Records Public Can Increase Revenue in Your Cemetery’.