Funeral portal generates new business opportunities
Consumers are increasingly comfortable using the Internet, especially for research purposes, and when it comes to finding out about the funeral service and searching for a funeral director, more and more people are turning to www.nafd.org.uk. Importantly, since visitors can access a database of local firms, the website is generating potential new business opportunities for NAFD members.
Statistics show that visits to the award-winning funeral portal increased from 4,600 per month in April to 5,078 for July (latest available data), with the average number of pages viewed per visit running at 8.5. This represents a visit of around three and a half minutes and proves that visitors and genuinely interested and take a good look at the information provided.
Thanks to search engine optimisation, a significant number of people are channelled to the site by Google, the most popular search engine. Searches employing the key words funeral directors were running at 2,000 in April – an increase of 11.8% against the previous month – and this level of traffic was sustained throughout May and June, rising to 2,560 in July.
"If consumers are actively choosing to find out about funeral directors by conducting a search on the NAFD website, as our data indicates, our members stand a very good chance of winning new business for no financial outlay," says NAFD chief executive officer Alan Slater.
"We’re therefore inviting funeral businesses to take full advantage of this and highlight the fact that they are members of the Association by linking their own company websites to www.nafd.org.uk"
In addition to providing a valuable resource for consumers, the funeral portal is purposely designed as a business tool, giving NAFD members access to a wealth of information on issues such as VAT, health and safety and employment legislation, and helping to simplify everyday business activities such as selling funeral vehicles and recruiting staff.
Selling funeral cars online
Advertising hearses, limousines, estate cars or removal ambulances via the NAFD website ensures they receive maximum exposure to businesses that are planning to update their fleets, while a step-by-step guide to using the service makes the process itself readily accessible.
"This free service has been developed to meet funeral directors’ needs and is proving increasingly popular - between April and the end of July visits to the vehicles for sale section of the website have increased between 7% and 10% month on month and searches for funeral cars using Google are also up," says Mr Slater.
"It is clear that funeral firms are using the NAFD website to research the marketplace and our members are benefiting because their chances of selling their vehicles are significantly improved."
Free recruitment support service
The NAFD website also incorporates a free recruitment service, designed to help members fill job vacancies while also giving anyone working in the profession the chance to identify career development opportunities.
Overall visits to this section of the site increased 122% in July, by comparison with June, and the NAFD has also tracked increases in visitors researching the opportunities available and in specific job searches during that period of 64% and 60% respectively.
"This is a new resource and while it is still early days, the signs are that our online recruitment initiative has really captured the imagination," adds Mr Slater.
“NAFD members can advertise vacancies free of charge and then manage them online – you can even arrange to receive CVs directly into your email inbox – saving both time and money. We’re not advocating that funeral directors abandon traditional trade press and local newspaper advertising, simply that they consider the NAFD online recruitment service as another, cost-effective way of reaching their target audience.”
For further information on membership of the National Association of Funeral Directors contact 0845 230 1343.
