Cremation Ash Memorial continued..

I started marketing this to funeral homes and the reception was great.  Not one of the 45 funeral homes I talked to had ever seen anything like it. All of them immediately asked for samples (without cremains of course.) and brochures.

A couple of them asked if I could help make something from their cremated pets.  I did a little research and found that I could.  

At this point I now have an assortment of memorials for people including the cross, police, fire, and US military.  I also have a complete line of memorials for pets where I take the cremains and make a memorial in the likeness of their pet.  Then with the help of a photo from the customer, I hand paint the memorial to resemble their pet.

The challenge I now face is a tough one.  While finding distributors like funeral homes, crematoriums, cemetery owners, and pet grieving specialists is somewhat easy although time consuming, and making and shipping samples is expensive.  I've found that their modus operandi is more like a wait and see game. They put my memorial sample and brochure on the wall in their memorial room and wait for customers to ask about it.  While the distributors are a good way to reach one market, the primary market for my memorials is the people who have cremated a loved one or pet and have their cremains sitting on a shelf somewhere.  Believe me when I tell you that the number is huge.    Especially with pet owners.  The challenge is finding those people and as far as I can tell the best way is TV, radio and newspaper, but each of these mediums is expensive if your intention is to reach millions of people. 

I've been somewhat successful getting the word out on things like Facebook, Linkedin, my own web site, email, fax, mailings, and cross-linking URLs, but more needs to be done.

This is a unique and heart-warming way to commemorate a departed loved one. 

It’s kind of strange but in a way, the job layoff, the terrible job market, and my father’s death have all somewhat contributed to me creating a business that not only will help me financially down the road, but will probably help many people deal with the loss of their loved ones, and provide a great way to remember those who contributed to our lives in so many ways.

www.windsong-memorials.com