NAFD helps members get online
Hot on the heels of its exclusive offer to help supplier members improve their brand awareness, the National Association of Funeral Directors is giving funeral directing members the chance to promote their businesses – and improve the quality of information that is available to bereaved families and fellow funeral professionals – by going online.
As a new benefit of membership the Association will incorporate NAFD member micro sites within the award-winning funeral portal www.nafd.org.uk
“Our aim is to help funeral directing members who do not have a website make the Internet work for them by providing them with a fast, straightforward and cost-effective way of achieving an online presence,” says NAFD chief executive officer Alan Slater.
When visitors search the NAFD website to find funeral directors in their locality and click on the web link shown in an individual company’s results listing, they will be directed to web pages telling them more about the business and the services if offers.
Typically, an NAFD member micro site will comprise an introduction/overview of the business; an ‘About Us’ page, which highlights in more detail the services available, and a ‘Contact Us’ page incorporating directions to the member’s funeral home(s) and a Google map, alongside the standard address, telephone, fax and email data.
By adopting a template design for the three web pages and a limited choice of graphics, the NAFD’s web partner, Astute Media, will ensure the micro sites complement the overall look of the NAFD portal while also meeting the needs of the individual businesses – and keep development costs to a minimum.
The NAFD portal fares particularly well in the search engine listings, with key criteria such as ‘funeral director’,’ funeral advice’ and ‘arranging a funeral’ all featuring among the top ranked, first page results in Google. This, in turn, will give NAFD member micro sites a national presence in the UK search engines, something a small stand alone website could not achieve.
“Our own reviews show the extent to which consumers are using the Internet, and specifically the NAFD website, to research firms in their area and find out more about what funeral directors do,” adds Alan Slater.
“NAFD member micro sites are an inexpensive way of achieving a professional online presence – which will deliver that all-important information to bereaved families – and are ideal for our smaller members, who are keen to use the Internet to develop new business opportunities, but are perhaps not in a position to make the investment required for a bespoke site.”