As we look back on the last twelve months, we are proud of the growth of Love Lives On.
Our audience reach is currently 11.2 million on our website – LoveLivesOn.com – and 50.4 million on Pinterest per year.
Love Lives On has grown to become one of the most highly-used platforms in the end-of-life space, thanks to women.
Connecting with women remains a core goal for Love Lives On because it’s the women in the family who are typically responsible for end-of-life care and funeral planning, roles that cross cultural boundaries and that go back thousands of years.
We continue to significantly increase the size of our audience by expanding our library of educational material on a wide range of end-of-life issues, from hospice care to funeral planning and grief.
Love Lives On is at the forefront of the trend towards celebration of life ceremonies, a trend that is being driven by women who want a funeral service that is as meaningful and personalized as other life-event ceremonies, like weddings and baby showers.
We recently launched our exclusive “A Fitting Farewell” series. It offers our community members unique ideas on how to customize a ceremony with the guidance of their funeral director so that it reflects the individual history and passions of the person being remembered.
The positive feedback that we have received from our community members for “A Fitting Farewell” has been overwhelming, and we are thrilled that people find our content both useful and inspiring.
We are also proud that our business partners, which includes leading funeral homes, continue to grow their client list and revenue by getting valuable leads month after month from Love Lives On.
Given the growing consumer backlash against digital ads, including Google Ads and Facebook Ads, and the skyrocketing usage of ad-blocking software, Love Lives On is well-positioned to help funeral homes and other service providers ensure that their call volume does not decline as a result of these key consumer trends.
The future for Love Live On is bright. We are committed to developing further resources to help funeral homes effectively market their products and services in an environment of changing consumer behaviour, including the pre-need market.
We will continue to shine a spotlight on businesses that provide outstanding products and services via our widely-read educational material, innovative social media campaigns, and our prestigious Exceptional Service Awards.
Finally, we are developing a program whereby 7% of our profits will be used to protect vulnerable dolphin populations and ocean habitats for future generations to enjoy.
Donations will be made on behalf of businesses that are featured in our Business Directory – businesses that serve the Love Lives On community – as our way of thanking them for their care and commitment to helping grieving families.
We are inspired to develop this program by our business partners, particularly funeral homes, who do so much good for their community above and beyond providing exceptional client service.
Together, we will ensure that future generations inherit a world with healthy oceans, which is, perhaps one of the greatest legacies that we could give.
Table of Contents
Empowering Connections & Preserving Legacy
Love Lives On is the largest community of people who have lost a loved one, or who are facing an imminent loss.
In addition to empowering human connections, Love Lives On is a complete resource centre. We magnetize people to our website by offering the most comprehensive end-of-life library to be found online today, with practical information that is accessible 24/7.
Love Lives On also connects people with the best professionals in their local area who are ready to provide one-on-one support, including funeral homes, celebrants, monument makers and grief therapists.
We are known for excellence. We provide well-researched information to families in need. We promote only the very best businesses to our loyal audience – joining the Love Lives On Business Directory is by invitation only.
We also fund the prestigious Love Lives On Exceptional Client Service Awards because we believe that it’s important to recognize the hard work and dedication of outstanding professionals, people who care for families during their darkest hours.
We also help people to continue to keep their loved ones alive in their hearts forever. We offer unique ideas for celebrating their continuing connection with their loved one, especially on special dates and anniversaries. After all, Love Lives On.
Believing in the Healing Power of Funerals & the Leadership of Women
Love Lives On was founded upon three core beliefs:
- Having a funeral service is vital for human dignity and the grieving process
- Funeral directors provide indispensable knowledge, guidance and support, and should be part of the funeral planning process
- Women within the family are often the end-of-life carers and the funeral planning leaders
Let us explore each of these three core beliefs in order to better understand why Love Lives On is a vital platform for families in need and caring professionals alike.
The Importance of Funeral Services
We believe in the healing power of community, both in-person and online, and in the healing power of funeral ceremonies.
The importance of having a proper funeral service cannot be understated. Not only it is important for human dignity – to acknowledge the life and legacy of the person who passed – it is vital for the grieving process.
The need to grieve our dead together while performing special ceremonial rites is a uniquely human need, one that spans across centuries and cultures.
The Importance of Funeral Directors
At Love Lives On, we believe that being a funeral director is a higher calling.
The men and women who have committed their lives to this noble profession not only care for the bodies of our deceased loved ones, they care for us at a time when we’re heartbroken and lost.
Given the amount of coordination it takes in order to ensure that a funeral service runs smoothly, we believe that this role is best left to the professionals.
While it maybe tempting to “do it yourself,” outsourcing this organizational role to a funeral director allows people to solely focus on saying goodbye to their loved one and on connecting with family and friends who have attended the service.
By being fully engaged in all of the special moments that a funeral service provides, instead of being distracted by organizational tasks, people are afforded an important opportunity to reflect on what their loved one truly meant to them.
The vital work of funeral directors creates a valuable space for people to begin their healing journey.
When families ignore this sage advice, there is often a lingering feeling of regret, a feeling of there being “unfinished business”. Sadly, in our experience, these feelings tend not to dissipate with the passing years.
Love Lives On stands as a trusted source of advice for millions of people. We urge them to invest in working with a funeral home to create a “saying goodbye” ceremony.
It’s an investment that’s worthwhile for the dignity of their loved one, but also for themselves.
The Importance of Women’s Roles Within the Family
We believe that women typically provide end-of-life care, as well as lead the decision-making process when it comes to funeral planning.
Our belief that women are usually responsible for providing end-of-life care is supported by a large body of academic research.
“End-of-life care is a form of unpaid care work that is primarily the responsibility of women,” states researchers Karen O’Brien, NaYeon Yang and Greta Jankauskaite.
“The literature identifies significant sex/gender disparities for care giving and receiving and in multiple domains of end of life care. The push for more end of life care in the community may unfairly burden women who shoulder most caring duties but receive less care support,” says researchers Annette Wong and Susan Phillips.
After loved ones pass away, women’s responsibility continues.
In an in-depth piece for The Culture Crush, Daisy Bourdeau – a funeral director in Texas – speaks to the enduring role of women when it comes to funeral planning.
Bourdeau states: “Every now and then, you’ll get the families where the men come in and the women don’t say a word, but a lot of times, it’s the women.
“Even if it’s a married couple and it’s the husband’s mother or father that has passed, his wife will come in to take care of things. I think it’s just kind of put off on the woman of the family. …
“All the little details that go into a funeral … women mostly are the ones in the family that tend to all that. …
“The personal touch becomes and remains a largely female responsibility. From the right poem to the color of the casket, women must navigate these details and questions, often while in the middle of their own grieving process.
“Women are the heads of dealing with death. Not only do they have to do everything, but they have to be the strong one in the family. …
“I don’t think women are appreciated enough for that. …
“More often than not, it is hardly considered a role at all. And yet, who sends flowers to the funeral home when a loved one has passed?
“Who calls relatives and repeats the mantra a dozen, a hundred times in the days after a death? Who spreads the news, protects their mother or husband or child from invasive well-wishers?
“At nearly every stage of the process, women serve as organizer, protector and manager,” concludes Bourdeau, a sentiment that we at Love Lives On know to be true.
Creating a Special Space for Women
Given the pivotal role that women hold as “the heads of dealing with death,” we believe that any brand devoted to end-of-life issues should be designed to meet the needs, wants and tastes of women.
Love Lives On is the only brand in the online end-of-life space that reflects this ethos, which is why we’ve been blessed with unparalleled success.
We tackle the issues that women are interested in talking about – issues like: how best to care for a dying loved one while maintaining your own sanity; how to manage challenging family dynamics when planning a funeral; how to collaborate effectively with your funeral director so that the funeral service is special and meaningful in every way; how to support children who are grieving.
We also give women a space that they find visually appealing and peaceful, a respite in a chaotic world with a never-ending to-do list. Our design aesthetic is feminine in tone, using soft colours and nature-inspired themes.
Our favourite theme is the waterlily, which has become synonymous with Love Lives On.
For centuries, the waterlily has been a metaphor that shows us that it is possible to return to a state of calm amidst chaos, death and loss. This flower grows in the mud, but is not of it. Out of the mud emerges a unique and beautiful flower, just like every woman that we serve.
Connecting With Amazing Women Via Our Website & Pinterest
We are humbled that women find Love Lives On to be a supportive community and useful resource centre.
Our website has 11.2 million users, 80% of whom are women.
They are drawn to our website because of the large library of information that is available 24/7. In fact, we have the largest library of in-depth articles on end-of-life issues that you’ll find online today.
They also come to Love Lives On for our Business Directory, which is essentially a carefully curated list of trustworthy funeral homes, monument makers, grief counsellors, etc, in their local area.
We are experts in knowing what people are actively searching for online and in creating content that meets those needs. We are also experts in search engine optimization, meaning that Google loves our content too and ranks it well in the search results that it gives consumers.
In addition to having a large audience on our website, we also have a large audience on Pinterest.
Pinterest is an important social media network for our brand because we share the same audience.
Pinterest also has a predominately female audience (76%), and is popular in the USA, Canada, Australia and the UK, with 25% to 30% of the total population of these countries using the platform.
Connecting with Pinners (i.e. Pinterest users) is an important goal for Love Lives On because 85% of Pinners use Pinterest to plan new projects or an event. This includes funeral planning, both pre-need and at-need.
Furthermore, approximately a third of Pinners want high-end funeral services with ceremony customization and personalization, as does the Love Lives On audience.
One in three Pinners have an annual income of $100,000 or more. They are also 27% more likely to buy premium products and services and will, in fact, spend an astounding 87% more than consumers on other social media platforms.
Love Lives On has 36,000 devoted followers who pin our content and visit our website.
We also get 4.2 million views per month – 50.4 million views per year – making Love Lives On a highly-influential brand in the end-of-life space.
During the year ahead, we will continue to grow our audience via our website and via Pinterest.
We are developing further content that emotionally-resonates with users and is aesthetically-pleasing – content that is highly-sought by women with spending power and who seek exceptional service.
Connecting Our Loyal Audience with Valuable Information & Local Services
Love Lives On performs three key tasks, which are our foundational pillars:
- We research, write and publish effective educational resources
- We create and popularize unique funeral service ideas
- We provide our business partners with valuable leads every month to help them grow their client list and revenue
Publishing Effective Educational Resources
Since women are predominately the caregivers within their families, we provide them with the in-depth information that they are looking for online – information on how to best support a loved one who is dying, how to ensure their loved one’s life and legacy is properly celebrated, and how to help those who are struggling with grief.
For example, we publish a comprehensive hospice guide that focuses on how to care for the physical and emotional needs of a loved one at the end-stages of life, while at the same time caring for your own physical and mental well-being.
We have literally received thousands of messages thanking us for this important guide. It has also been widely-used by care-giver support groups around the world.
As another example, our practical guide on how to choose the right funeral home and plan a service in collaboration with a funeral director has been described by our readers as “invaluable”, “highly-useful” and “illuminating”.
Another highly-read article on our site is how to help children cope with their grief. This article was written in partnership with Andrea Warnick, a highly-respected expert on the subject matter.
A message from a reader that touched us deeply was from Katie M. She wrote: “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for showing me the steps that I need to take to help my son deal with the death of his dad. In his grief, my son has stopped speaking, and I miss the sound of his voice.”
As one final example, we are privileged to have interviewed Benjamin Allen, an expert on the subject of “anticipatory grief”, which is the grieving that happens when a loved one goes through a long period of illness with no hope of recovery.
He also appeared on Oprah to talk about his experience with anticipatory grief. His story is a powerful one, and we are humbled that he accepted Love Lives On’s invitation to speak with our community members about his experience and to share his wisdom.
These are just a few examples of the effective educational resources provided by Love Lives On, but are indicative of our deep commitment to providing people with valuable information.
Creating & Popularizing Unique Funeral Service Ideas
Love Lives On is at the forefront of the trend towards celebration of life ceremonies.
Our female audience appreciates our library of content devoted to planning a unique and personalized funeral service for their loved one that covers all the little details that women consider.
Whether they are looking for funeral flowers with special meaning, the perfect wording for a funeral reception invitation, or a poignant epitaph for their loved one’s headstone, Love Lives On has the topic covered. No subject is too big or too small for our team of award-winning writers to research and write about.
We recently launched our exclusive “A Fitting Farewell” series which offers our community members inspiring ideas on how to create a funeral ceremony around a central theme, an approach that is often used in wedding planning.
We’re doing for the funeral industry what wedding magazines have done for the wedding industry – we’re helping people imagine how beautiful and personalized a funeral service can be.
Love Lives On is instrumental in spreading the word that families today don’t have to have the same type of funeral service that their grandmother had. It doesn’t need to be a somber, dull or frightening affair.
Instead, a funeral ceremony today can be customize so that it reflects the unique history and passions of the person being remembered. It can, in fact, be a meaningful and touching gathering, filled with moments of joy and gratitude for having known the person.
We’ve been told by many funeral directors that they refer their clients to our content. We show people what’s possible. We fire their imaginations. We help them appreciate the emotional value of having a ceremony when it’s customized. And we encourage them to work with a reputable funeral director who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the planning process.
Providing Valuable Leads for Our Business Partners
Love Lives On in an information hub, but we are not substitutes for locally-based professionals that have the capacity to provide one-on-one support to families in need.
Therefore, all of the content on our website leads users to the Love Lives On Business Directory.
People actively search the Love Lives On Business Directory for local businesses that provide the type of products and services they are looking for, including funeral homes, celebrants, monument makers and grief therapists.
People trust our recommendations because joining the Love Lives On Business Directory is by invitation only. We only promote businesses with excellent reputations.
Furthermore, unlike other advertising channels, we work with a limited number of businesses.
We are staunch in our belief that having an overstuffed directory is not good for families in need, as offering too many choices may be overwhelming for people who are grieving.
Overstuffed directories are also not good for businesses because they don’t give subscribers a competitive advantage.
Therefore, we work with an exclusive number of clients who have been hand-picked by us after a vetting process. We consider a business’s level of expertise, consumer satisfaction, and any contribution to community endeavours.
For every client that we take on, we turn down four requests to join our Business Directory.
After receiving an invitation from us to join the Love Lives On Business Directory, our clients receive a Premium Listing that is featured at the top of search results.
A Premium Listing is a full-page profile that includes a well-written description of why readers should work with this business, along with photos, reviews and Google Maps with directions to the business location. It also provides website and social media links, along with the business and email addresses and phone numbers.
In other words, a Premium Listing with Love Lives On gives people all of the information that they need in order to make a decision to contact that business without delay.
Many business – particularly funeral homes – have historically relied on Facebook Ads and Google Ads to reach the online audience. Unfortunately for these businesses, there is widespread consumer backlash against Facebook and Google Ads.
The result is rising digital marketing costs and, or, declining call volumes.
Love Lives On is helping its business clients mitigate the loss of affordable leads from Facebook and Google Ads.
Our business clients also appreciate that our audience are looking for high-end products and services. This makes leads from Love Lives On particularly valuable.
We have a proven track-record of providing blue-chip leads month-after-month. In fact, our client retention rate stands at 94%.
Here are just a few of the lovely comments that we’ve received from clients (published with their express permission):
Bringing Grieving People & Caring Professionals Together
In an ever-increasing artificial-intelligence world, Love Lives On is about building more human connection, not less.
We have an active community of over 11 million people, which continues to grow.
Our community shares a common vision, which is to care for our loved ones in life and in death. After all, “love lives on”, even after a loved one is no longer with us.
What we do at Love Lives On matters.
We are passionate about helping people through their darkest hours and with helping them find moments of joy among the tears.
What we do is hard work.
It’s hard work to create the best content that you’ll find online today. It’s hard work to vet the hundreds of businesses that apply to be part of our Business Directory, to ensure that they will provide exceptional service to the families that we send to their doorstep.
We do the hard work because people who use Love Lives On trust our recommendations. We don’t take that trust lightly.
The hard work is made worthwhile by the thousands of messages of thanks that have been sent to us.
Here are just a few of the lovely messages that we have received from our kind and thoughtful community members in the last year:
We are also proud that leading funeral homes and other professional services choose to be part of the Love Lives On community. They play an integral role.
While Love Lives On is an important connection hub that brings grieving people and caring professionals together, it’s the funeral and grief professionals who provide indispensable in-person support for families in need.
Developing Further Valuable Resources & Our Charitable Giving Program
We are dedicated to expanding our resources to assist funeral homes in effectively marketing their products and services, particularly in response to evolving consumer behaviours, including the pre-need market.
We will continue to highlight businesses that deliver exceptional products and services through our widely circulated educational materials, innovative social media campaigns, and our highly-esteemed Exceptional Service Awards.
Moreover, we are in the process of developing a program in which 7% of our profits will be allocated to protect vulnerable dolphin populations and ocean habitats. When a business joins the Love Lives On Business Directory, we will thank them for being a valuable part of our community by making a charitable donation on their behalf.
Furthermore, as part of this initiative, we are also developing a social media campaign to give tribute to the wonderful businesses that we work with, and to highlight the positive impact they have, not just locally, but across oceans.
The dolphin is found in almost all seas and oceans of the world, and even some rivers. Their incredible intelligence, creativity, playfulness and complex family relationships captures the hearts and minds of people everywhere.
Sadly, these beautiful creatures are continuously under threat from human activities, including water pollution, habitat degradation, hunting, low frequency sonar, and cruel fishing practices.
Scientists estimate that each year more than 650,000 whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals are caught and killed in fishing gear. Commercial nets and lines today are made from tough material and are virtually impossible to escape from. These animals are unintentional “bycatch” of commercial fisheries and either drown or are tossed overboard to die from their injuries.
Today, many dolphin species are critically or seriously endangered and face an uncertain future. For example, the world’s smallest porpoise – the vaquita – is being driven to the edge of extinction, with only 50 animals remaining.
Love Lives On is a community of passionate people – families and businesses – who care about preserving the legacies of our loved ones.
What better way to honour our loved ones than to ensure that future generations get to enjoy pristine marine environments and the thrill of seeing healthy dolphin populations in the wild.
