Last Updated on September 17, 2026
Most marketing advice fails funeral directors because it was written for trades that persuade. This trade does not persuade. A family arrives having already suffered the event that brings them, and everything the firm publishes either steadies them or adds to the noise. So the principles here are different, and worth stating before any tactics.
Clarity is the whole strategy
The CMA investigated this market and found families paying at least £400 more than they needed to, not because firms were hiding prices maliciously in most cases, but because nobody compared and nothing was clear. The remedy it chose was clarity by law: the Standardised Price List, on the website, one click from home. Treat that not as a compliance chore but as the strategy itself. The firm whose prices, ownership, people and choices are plainly stated has done all the persuading this trade permits.
The tone test
One test covers every piece of content: could it be read aloud in the arranging room without embarrassment? Countdown offers could not. “Book now” buttons could not. A plain page explaining what a direct cremation includes, at an average published cost of £1,628 by SunLife’s 2026 report, could. So could a photograph of the actual premises and the sentence “we are family owned, and one of us answers the phone at any hour”. Write everything to that test and the brand takes care of itself.
Serve the checker as well as the chooser
SunLife’s research found 63% of families do not compare prices, and the CMA found most follow a recommendation or return to the firm their family used before. It is tempting to conclude the website barely matters. The opposite is true: the recommendation now gets verified online before the call, often by a different family member than the one who remembers you. The site’s job is confirmation, reassuring the person checking that the trusted name is what they were told, with today’s prices and today’s people.
Where growth comes from
Deaths in England and Wales ran to about 571,000 in 2025 by ONS figures, spread across roughly 7,000 branches by the CMA’s count. Nobody creates demand here, and nobody should want to. Share moves slowly, on reputation, visibility at the moment of need, and pre-need arrangements made calmly years earlier. All three reward the same behaviour: publish clearly, answer kindly, and be checkable. That is the entire playbook, and it is enough.
Common questions
How should a funeral director market their business?
Through clarity rather than persuasion: a standardised price list one click from the homepage, plainly stated ownership and people, honest explanations of every choice including direct cremation, and gently invited reviews. Urgency tactics have no place in this trade.
Do families compare funeral directors?
Mostly not: SunLife found 63% did not compare prices, and the CMA found most follow recommendations or previous family use. But the third who compare do it online, and recommendations are now verified online before the phone call.
What marketing should funeral directors avoid?
Scarcity and urgency tactics, superlatives about caring, and hiding lower-cost options such as direct cremation. Each fails both the family and, in the CMA’s view of the market, the rules and spirit of the 2021 Order.
Before you spend any of this, check what the machines can read
The free Whito Visibility Check shows what engines can read on your site, including whether your price list is findable. Seventeen checks, no email needed.
