Women Shoppers and the Secret to Web Site Success

It is no secret that death-care is a male dominated industry. That 65-75 percent of people doing the shopping around for death-care service providers are women is no secret either.

There is a secret that eludes most death-care providers.  That secret has everything to with how a few businesses win a higher percentage of the service calls from the female shoppers that use the internet to find and evaluate death-care providers.

When a female At-need or Pre-need shopper comes to your Web site, do you actually know what she is looking for? If you are a man, stop and think back to your marketing classes about female consumer behavior.

Remember the part about how women are more ‘relationship driven’ than men? Remember the part about how a woman’s feelings toward what she is experiencing very much influences how she evaluates something? She uses how she feels as part of her criteria in determining whether to continue considering an option or not.

This has everything to do with your Web site and your likelihood of receiving greater or fewer phone calls from female death-care shoppers – which, again, is around 65-75 percent of shoppers. More so than men, female shoppers feel positive, apathetic or negative about what they find on your Web site. So, the obvious question is, “how does a death-care Web site generate such a powerfully positive experience that those female shoppers decide they are absolutely interested in calling and talking with you further – so interested that they will call you before anyone else?”

The answer to that question does require some science, which is the reason it is a secret to so many.

Consider that nearly all the Web sites in the death care industry have been purchased by men. Unless advised otherwise, those who purchase custom design Web sites usually either steered the Web site’s look and feel towards what satisfied their masculine aesthetic taste, or accepted whatever their typically male Web-site developer came up with.

An even larger percentage of funeral home owners use template Web sites. These template Web site designs have usually been developed according to male tastes, without consideration of what design elements more strongly connect with female shoppers.

In some cases, Web sites have been designed for the primary purpose of showing off merchandise, rather than for generating enough shopper-interest to ensure the best chances of winning her phone call. But, casket and urn selections are not bringing in most phone calls from online shoppers.

Then there are those Web sites built “so people can find us and get our phone number and some information.” The purpose that drove that Web site’s design was not flowing in the direction of making outstanding first impressions.

If you are trying to increase your business, then the above mentioned Web site design scenarios are not in your best interest. This fact is more striking when we recognize that as more families turn to the internet to determine who to consider for death-care assistance, firms failing to impress online are decreasing their potential call volume. As Alan Creedy says, “the majority of families in America today receive their first impression of a funeral home from its Web site.”

So what is the secret? With two-thirds or more of death-care shoppers being women, what components must your Web site possess to win their strong interest, trust and phone call?

Yes, look and feel are important. But, it’s not just about a clean, informative, easy-to-navigate Web site. Does your Web site project your firm’s personality and character? A female shopper wanting a family-owned funeral home values the qualities that make a family owned funeral home special. Project that. Your identity, and the shopper’s ability to connect with it, is intrinsic to fulfilling this desire.

Breaking that down even further, what does your landing page look like? Though perhaps hard to believe, usability research shows that Web site first impressions happen in less than a second. It has everything to do with colors, layout and the visual “feel” of the site, not the text on the page. Research also shows that often the feeling generated within the viewer during that first second will color the lens through which they view the site for the remainder of their stay there.

Is your shopper’s first emotional impression one that suggests peace, capacity, professionalism and comforting human warmth? Or, are they turned off by a dull or absent online personality due to an out-of-date look and layout they consider unprofessional for a business of such importance as death care?

Do the colors, pictures and text instantly communicate to shoppers that they have come to a business filled with sincere, caring professionals who understand their situation and know how to help? Or, are shoppers surprised by overly flashy graphics that jar the senses and feel inappropriate to minds laden with the heavy burden that surrounds death-care preparation?

The above questions may be a bit challenging. But, the truth is unless nobody in town offers a quality Web site, un-influenced shoppers won’t typically call the firm with a disappointing Web site first. Does this mean that the most effective Web site in a market will win all of the families that pre-shop using the Web? No. However, it’s obvious that the advantage goes to the death-care provider who gets the first phone call from an already positively-impressed shopper.

While not the most scientific test, ask almost any woman you know if she will pay a few dollars more for something that feels more safe and reassuring if she has the money, particularly for something as difficult as laying a loved one to rest or preparing to. You already know the answer.

Yes, along with a Web site that reads informatively, your female shoppers are looking for a death-care provider that feels right. How well you package and project your personality, character and services have everything to do with how strong an affinity online shoppers feel towards your brand of death-care.

Project an image that is detailed, which feels peaceful, capable, professional and comfortingly warm, and you are already in the running to win more business. All you have to do now is capitalize on the phone calls.  FBA 

Brian Young is the Marketing Director at FuneralNet, the largest provider of custom death-care Web sites in America.  He can be contacted 800-721-8166 x536, or by email at brian@funeralnet.com, or visit www.funeralnet.com.