Paul Ippolito – Dancy Memorial is in Distress: Why Rebuilding a Business with a Good Reputation is Easier Than Starting Fresh

When a business struggles, it’s like a patient in the emergency room—you first need to assess the situation and diagnose the problem.

Julia R. Prout and Robert Prout, owners of Prout Funeral Home, were negotiating to acquire another funeral home Paul Ippolito – Dancy Memorial. The funeral home, once handling 145 calls per year, now averages just 95. Sold 10-11 years ago, it has experienced some operational challenges, negatively affecting its reputation and visibility, and is now poised for a fresh start under new management.

The funeral industry, like sectors such as plumbing and pest control, thrives on trust and local relationships. People want to work with someone they know—not a faceless corporation. Rebuilding this funeral home will require more than just operational changes—it will take restoring the community’s trust and re-establishing strong local ties.

Business Current Situation and Challenges

Paul Ippolito – Dancy Memorial Funeral Home presents a unique challenge: understanding how much of the decline can be solved with better marketing and how much stems from deeper issues, such as the previous owner’s lack of community involvement.

The funeral home’s pre-need market share should ideally be around $1 million, but it currently sits at only $600,000. While some of the decline is due to external factors—like a former employee starting a competing business—a lot of the downturn is the result of poor management decisions. Julia and Robert aim to turn things around.

Their goal is to increase call volume from 95 to at least 120-125 calls annually, matching the business’s performance from a few years ago. They also plan to grow the pre-need contracts by enhancing outreach and local marketing efforts.

Marketing Weakness: A clear issue here is poor marketing. The funeral home’s website is outdated, its Facebook page promotes other locations instead of the Verona/Caldwell area, and it only has seven Google reviews, limiting its digital footprint. Addressing the marketing weakness could be the most straightforward way to start turning the business around. However, deeper issues, like damaged personal relationships or a lack of community trust, would require a more nuanced approach that goes beyond digital marketing.

Local Reputation and Community Engagement: With a small service area of only 55,000 people—Verona spans just 1.5 square miles—local reputation is everything. An estimated 50-75% of their business comes from Verona, meaning re-establishing trust within this community is paramount. Strengthening personal connections, being more active in local events, and making the funeral home more visible will be key to growth.

Operational Improvements: Beyond marketing, there are operational opportunities to explore. New Jersey’s recent legalization of food service in funeral homes could provide a valuable revenue boost. Renovating one of the viewing rooms into a dining area could generate extra income while enhancing the funeral home’s community image.

Website and Infrastructure Revamp: The funeral home’s online infrastructure is in dire need of an overhaul. The current website is hosted on an outdated ASP.NET platform with clunky URL parameters, making it look unprofessional and difficult to navigate. The obituary pages aren’t optimized for search, which is a missed opportunity for better visibility. To fix this, we’ll need to assess whether the website can be salvaged or if a complete rebuild is necessary.

Branding and Transition: Maintaining Trust While Evolving

As part of the acquisition, Julia is considering incorporating a branding strategy inspired by their existing lotus flower logo. This will be used for Dancy Funeral Home to maintain brand consistency and ease the transition. While they’re still deciding whether to operate under one website or mirror sites for Dancy and Prout, the focus will be on creating a seamless experience for their clients.

This transition needs to be gradual to retain the brand recognition that the local community associates with the Prout family. The key is to integrate the Dancy funeral home under the Prout umbrella without disrupting the trust and familiarity established over the years.

Digital Marketing Strategy

The funeral home business has a significant opportunity to modernize and grow by improving its online presence. Here’s how:

1. Website and SEO Overhaul: The current website’s lack of engagement and clunky technical issues are preventing the business from ranking well in search engines. To address this:

• Switch to a modern platform like Gather, which offers improved speed, functionality, and design.
• Optimize obituary pages for search, as these pages are often heavily searched but remain underutilized.
• Enhance local SEO by increasing Google reviews and optimizing Google My Business. Positive reviews not only improve search rankings but also build trust with local families.
• Keyword Strategy: Julia should focus on optimizing for high-intent local keywords such as “funeral homes near Verona NJ” or “funeral services in Caldwell NJ.” These location-based keywords will help the funeral home attract relevant traffic from individuals actively searching for services in their area.
• Backlink Building: Building quality backlinks from local businesses, community websites, and trusted local directories will enhance the website’s domain authority and improve search engine rankings. Collaborating with local organizations for sponsorships or partnerships can create natural backlink opportunities.

2. Local Service Ads (LSAs): There is little competition digitally in the Verona/Caldwell area, meaning the opportunity to stand out is significant. LSAs are a great way to build visibility. By utilizing LSAs, Julia can attract both local and regional clients, especially those searching for “funeral home near me.” Even calls that don’t immediately convert into business can lead to future word-of-mouth referrals, further expanding her reach.

3. Community Engagement: Building a reputation offline is just as important as building one online. This can be achieved by:

• Connecting with local nursing homes, healthcare facilities, and community groups.
• Posting engaging content on social media that highlights their community involvement, such as photos from local charity events, behind-the-scenes videos, and updates on their services.
• Day in the Life videos and simple content updates will help build trust and reinforce Julia’s commitment to the local community.

4. AI-Powered Content Creation: AI tools like Descript and CapCut can help Julia create and edit video content more efficiently. For example, AI can easily add captions in Spanish, making it more accessible to a wider audience. Incorporating these tools into marketing efforts will not only save time but also keep the funeral home relevant in a digital-first world.

Julia is considering the financials of acquiring the funeral home, which is currently valued at around $800,000. While the current performance is weak, the value lies in its potential, especially with a robust digital marketing strategy in place. The financial consultant, Melissa Drake Mesina, recommended not exceeding this amount based on the current state of the business.

The strategy moving forward will focus on increasing visibility through digital marketing while enhancing offline community engagement. This dual approach will create a sustainable growth model that strengthens the business in both the short and long term.

Upon reviewing the digital marketing efforts of various local funeral homes, it’s clear that most have very basic, boilerplate websites with little engagement. For example, Valente Funeral Home in Caldwell uses their Facebook page mainly for generic holiday messages like “Happy New Year” or “Merry Christmas,” but the page doesn’t serve as an active tool for community engagement. Many of these funeral homes, including McDougall, have weak digital presences.

This lack of online presence is a significant gap in the market, especially considering they are located just 2.2 miles away from these businesses. In fact, a recent appraisal of the surrounding area—including Caldwell, West Caldwell, North Caldwell, Essex Fells, and Fairfield—revealed a local population of approximately 55,000 people within a very small geographic area. Verona, where they are located, is only 1.5 square miles in size, and around 50-75% of their business comes from this area.

The competition in this small area is relatively weak, especially regarding digital presence. Most funeral homes around here have outdated websites and very little online engagement with the local community. This is a major opportunity for Julia R. Prout and Robert Prout to stand out.

Recommendations for Julia’s Business

To successfully grow Julia’s funeral home business, particularly in an industry that’s often slow to modernize, I recommend focusing on these key strategies:

1. Leverage LSAs and Track Leads: Implement Google’s Local Service Ads to capture at-need and pre-need calls. Proper lead tracking will ensure every opportunity is maximized. Once the new location is acquired, aggressively scale this strategy to build visibility and capture more local leads.

2. Combine Online and Offline Engagement: Integrate digital marketing with in-person community-building efforts. Creating content about local events, charity drives, and community involvement will not only increase visibility but reinforce trust with local families.

3. Basic Digital Marketing Tactics: Focus on simple but effective digital marketing strategies such as creating engaging one-minute videos and maintaining an active social media presence. These actions can increase visibility quickly and generate trust within the local community.

4. Capitalize on the Digital Gap: The funeral home industry is behind in digital marketing, giving Julia an edge over competitors. By focusing on educational content and engaging with local families through social media, Julia can build a strong online presence.

5. Use AI Tools for Content Creation: Incorporate AI tools like Descript and CapCut to automate video editing and expand reach through translated content (e.g., Spanish subtitles). This will ensure that Julia’s content is engaging, accessible, and inclusive of the local, multicultural demographic.

6. Build Authority with Community Content: Collaborate with local businesses, healthcare providers, and community groups to create guest blog posts, video content, and educational resources. This will establish Julia as a trusted authority in the funeral industry and boost SEO.

7. Reputation Management: Encourage reviews from satisfied clients, especially on Google My Business, to build trust and improve local rankings. Responding to reviews and showcasing positive client experiences will reinforce Julia’s strong reputation.

8. Outsource Routine Tasks: As the business grows, hiring a virtual assistant (VA) can scale manage routine tasks such as tracking campaigns, handling social media posts, and coordinating client outreach, freeing Julia to focus on strategic growth.

9. Reinforce the Human Connection: Emphasize that digital marketing is an extension of the care and relationships already fostered by Julia. Digital tools should amplify the authentic, personal connections already established offline.

By implementing these strategies—focusing on both community engagement and digital marketing—Julia can rebuild her funeral home business, increase visibility, and grow her reputation in a competitive market. With a balanced approach to modernizing her marketing efforts while maintaining strong local relationships, Julia is well-positioned to succeed in the evolving funeral services industry.

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