EPISODE 13

General Price Lists - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Most General Prices Lists are confusing, poorly designed, and do very little to show the value you provide to families. The FTC mandates that you have it and give it out, but there is a missed opportunity by thinking about it only as a compliance tool and not as a marketing opportunity.

On this episode, we discuss ways to elevate your GPL that are low cost but have a big impact.

1. How to make it less confusing
2. Why you should hire a designer to create it
3. How creating a companion video to explain it builds trust

Show Notes & Resources

• Note that his episode uses several visual examples, so listeners will get even more value from it by checking out the video version on YouTube or on elevatingfuneralservice.com/ (1:46)
• The hosts note that they are not lawyers and that nothing on this episode should be interpreted as legal advice — understand the regulations in your state for GPLs (3:06)
• Welton compares most GPLs he sees online to overly complicated wine lists in fancy restaurants: "I can never understand them" (3:45)
• Ellery defines the central theme of this episode: If you're required to present your GPL on your site, "why not make it the best presentation possible?" (4:51)
• Stop thinking of the GPL as a compliance requirement; start thinking of it as a marketing tool that benefits from thoughtful design (6:58)
• Example 1: An otherwise gorgeous website that undermines its great design with an outdated, complicated, photocopied GPL (8:23)
• Example 2: This GPL still could be better, but it has employed some layout principles and clearer typography to better communicate pricing information, along with images paired to offerings (12:20)
• Ellery takes a break from the examples to provide a "pro tip" about clearly naming the file name for a downloadable GPL (18:05)
• Example 3: This beautiful GPL looks like a website of its own, with attractive imagery, a table of contents, well-chosen fonts, and a clear, meticulously organized display of all its offerings (19:11)
• The hosts provide suggestions on how to easily transform your online GPL into a marketing tool: It's "low cost, high impact" (24:20)
• If the FTC doesn't require specific wording for a certain offering, always think about it from the lens of a consumer: Are you writing it in a way that a common consumer can understand it? (28:07)
• One of the very best things you can do is to pay a professional designer: It actually doesn't cost that much and will be exponentially better than DIY design or using an amateur (29:03)
• Make your GPL an intrinsic part of your website instead of a downloadable PDF—this especially benefits people trying to view it on mobile devices such as smartphones (31:02)
• Consider creating a simple video to clearly communicate your offerings and pricing (32:25)
• Use video or text to explain how to understand a GPL; also employ empathy language about how GPLs can be confusing and show that you're helping consumers understand what they're seeing