How to tactfully offer memorial photographs to families at your funeral home
How to offer families a memorial photograph service
Did you know that, apart from the register office, the funeral director is the main point of contact a bereaved family has with a service business – the place where all the arrangements for the funeral are made? That makes it ideally placed to offer the family, as part of a complete funeral service, a memorial photograph as well: the portrait on which mourners’ attention will rest throughout the ceremony.
A memorial photograph can be a valuable addition to a funeral director’s services, boost the profitability of the services you provide and, at the same time, become a lasting and meaningful keepsake for the family. This kind of keepsake of someone who has died often remains in the family home for many years, helping relatives remember their loved one on birthdays, anniversaries and family occasions. As a result, in many cases it also encourages the family to recommend your funeral home to relatives, neighbours and friends.
Speaking with the family of the person who has died is in itself one of the most sensitive moments in a funeral director’s work. That is why the way you present additional services, such as a memorial photograph, should be thoughtful, calm and completely free of sales pressure.
Presenting a memorial photograph well – on an easel beside a display coffin or urn, complemented by floral arrangements – helps the family picture how everything will look at the church or crematorium service, and makes them genuinely more willing to choose the service.
Why does the way a memorial photograph is presented matter so much?
A memorial photograph is not an ordinary product. It is a significant part of the farewell, present throughout the service in a church, chapel or funeral home. It is often carried in the funeral procession, is sometimes left on the grave among the flowers, and frequently goes home with the family as a lasting keepsake of someone they loved.
A well-presented memorial photograph at a church or crematorium service helps family, friends and neighbours focus their attention, encouraging quiet reflection and memories of the person who has died rather than thoughts of the practical details of the ceremony. At the same time – alongside the overall presentation of the funeral, the quality of the hearse and the professionalism of your staff – the memorial photograph becomes a showcase for your funeral business, on display throughout the ceremony and catching the eye of everyone present.
Need a similar photograph as a keepsake of someone who has died, a photograph on porcelain, or a toughened glass plaque for a traditional headstone, a cremation memorial or a columbarium?
Email us to place an order or to discuss trade partnerships for funeral directors and monumental masons. biuro@deseomemorials.com
Showing memorial photographs in a PDF catalogue
One of the simplest options, requiring no investment at all, is to show sample memorial photographs in a PDF catalogue. A PDF catalogue like this can be displayed on a tablet or computer during the arrangement meeting at the funeral home, and sent to the family by email afterwards.
This means the family:
- sees finished examples of memorial photographs,
- can compare the available designs at their own pace,
- finds it easier to picture how it will look at the funeral,
- has the option to choose the photograph size and the number of copies,
- makes a decision without feeling pressured or rushed,
- can gather several additional photographs to work from, rather than being limited to a passport photo or a photo taken from another document.
A free PDF catalogue like this is ideal for funeral directors who want a simple way to show families the full range of memorial photographs available, without having to invest in a physical display set. It also allows you to add the new service straight away, with no upfront outlay on additional equipment.
A physical display of a memorial photograph on easels
The free PDF catalogue can be complemented by a display set in which a memorial photograph is presented beside an urn or coffin at your funeral home. The portrait can stand on an easel next to an urn placed on a wooden pedestal, with a second easel or stand to the right holding a sample wreath of artificial flowers. An arrangement like this lets families see how everything will look in church or at the crematorium during the funeral service, and also makes choosing the right wreath easier.
Do we recommend putting together a display set? Yes, without hesitation. Just as with urns and coffins, families can see the physical product – the print quality of the photograph, the frame and the overall look. This genuinely gets families involved, encouraging them to look through the catalogue, choose a photograph to work from, and decide on the right size and number of copies. Importantly, the conversation with the family moves naturally from whether the price is acceptable to a considered choice of the size and number of photographs within a budget they are comfortable with.
What is more, a display set built around one, two or three easels is an inexpensive investment, usually requiring only a modest one-off outlay. A well-prepared memorial photograph display catches families’ attention from the moment they walk into the showroom and as they look at coffins and urns. In practice, this means that while arranging the funeral, families start asking about a memorial photograph of their own accord, without you having to actively sell the service.
Displaying a memorial photograph on a shelf at your funeral home
As with displaying sample memorial photographs on easels, a memorial photograph on show lets you demonstrate the real quality of the finished work. Placing the portrait on one of the shelves in your showroom – instead of on an easel – allows you to limit your costs to the prints and their frames.
This approach is particularly recommended for funeral directors who want to show families the physical product but do not have enough space to set up and show a full display set.
Memorial photographs on your funeral home’s website
It is worth remembering that, in a competitive funeral services market, a funeral director’s website is one of the first places where many families come across the firms in their area and the range of services they offer. Families look at the location, contact details, photographs on the website and reviews left by other clients.
That is why it makes sense to ensure that the services listed on your funeral home’s website include a section about memorial photographs. To do this, you can add a few photographs and one or two paragraphs of text that encourage families to take up the service and choose a photograph of the person who has died.
Some parts of a family’s decision-making process are beyond your control, such as choosing a firm on a friend’s recommendation. However, when a family starts comparing several funeral directors themselves – looking at Google reviews, the range of services, and photographs of flowers, urns, coffins, the showroom or hearses – additional photographs of your work can be one more reason to choose your funeral home and prompt them to call you rather than someone else to find out more.
A photo gallery on your website also has a positive effect on SEO and on your visibility in image search results. When someone searches online for local funeral directors using a phrase such as ‘funeral directors Manchester’, they often look not only at the main search results but also at Google Images, to see photographs of the services on offer and of the funeral homes themselves.
In such cases, an extensive photo gallery improves your click-through rate from image results and drives traffic from image search to your website.
Wondering where to get photographs for a gallery? As with the PDF catalogue, we offer a free set of sample photographs. It is an excellent starting point, and after your first year of working with us you will also have a substantial collection of your own original photographs of work completed for the families you serve.
Get in touch and we will send you a link to the materials along with the PDF catalogue.
Presenting memorial photographs well is about support and advice, not selling
Presenting memorial photographs in the right way genuinely supports the family’s decision-making process and increases interest in this additional service. Start by making use of free ways to present the available designs, such as a PDF catalogue shown on a tablet or a computer screen in your arrangement room, as well as a photo gallery on your funeral home’s website.
The ideal complement to digital materials, however, is a physical, tangible presentation of the product – a professional display set with a portrait on an easel, placed beside an urn and a floral wreath, or a more affordable alternative in the form of one, two or three photographs set out on a shelf in your showroom.
Combining approaches – for example, a digital catalogue shown to the family and sent to them by email, together with a physical display of the product – builds trust in the service and gives families a genuine reason to choose it, without any sales pressure.
How to introduce memorial photographs at your funeral home: sample materials
Wondering where to start and how to introduce memorial photographs at your funeral home?
Contact us by phone or by email, or simply use the booking calendar below to arrange a short consultation over the phone or by video call – at a time that suits you.
During a 15–20-minute conversation we will answer all your questions, explain how to place orders and how to agree the details with the family, send you our free PDF catalogue and a link to the free photo gallery, and advise you on how to set up your own display set on your premises.
Email: biuro@deseomemorials.com
Telephone: +48 789 024 384
Read our other articles: https://deseomemorials.com/en/category/funeral-photographs/
We look forward to hearing from you.
Original on the left, restored file on the right
Photo restoration
for headstones and funeral ceremonies
The service is for funeral homes, stonemasons and private individuals who need a photograph improved quickly — in time to have it printed by a local photographer for the ceremony, or prepared for use on a headstone.
We also restore photographs in very poor condition — we remove paper texture, grain and yellowing, bring back sharpness in the face and hair, and crop the frame to the format you choose. We hand over the print-ready file as a link you download to your computer.