Free Funeral Home Marketing Technology: Pros and Cons

If there’s no such thing as a free lunch, who’s paying for the wide range of free marketing and business technology available? Often, it’s the users—they’re just not paying in actual money.

Learn more about the advantages and disadvantages of relying on free or freemium solutions for your funeral home below.

How Do “Free” Solutions Make Money?

Before you download a free content scheduling app or SEO tool, ask yourself how the company behind the solution is making money. Here are a few of the most common methods:

• The solution is freemium. This means you get access to a lite version for free and more robust versions are offered for purchase or subscription. For example, Trello, a Ring Ring Marketing favorite, has freemium options along with three levels of paid subscriptions.
• Ads cover the cost. Advertisers pay to appear on the app or within the solution.
• You’re the product. In some way, the app or software is making money off of you—often by gathering and selling data.
• Truly free options. Some developers put their code out into open source communities—literally giving it away. These products usually require more work than paid options and aren’t supported by any business.

Should Your Funeral Home Use Free Marketing and Business Tools?

It depends. The benefits of free options are the lack of cost and the fact that you can easily try out different tools without committing to subscriptions or expense.

However, you do need to know what you’re giving up for those benefits. If it’s your business data and security, that’s an obvious reason to pay for tools instead. In some cases, the free software isn’t supported and you’re on your own with troubleshooting or integrations. Paying for a supported solution might save you time and money in the long run.

Ultimately, you’ll probably have a mix of answers. Some free apps work well for many small businesses—such as social media content schedulers like Later or Hootsuite. Others won’t work well, so always ask yourself if you’re paying for free or low-cost solutions in other ways.