Speaker: Jeff O’Neill, Director of Marketing & Sales
Hi, my name is Jeff O’Neill. I’m with Ocean County Memorial Park in Toms River, New Jersey. I’ve been Director of Marketing and Sales for 11 years, been with the company for 22 years. The entire 22 years we’ve been associated with Valpak. The success rate that we’ve had with Valpak has been substantial, so we have continued. When I took it over 11 years ago, I maintained it, and actually increased the amount of time we spend advertising in Valpak.
We feel in our business, the return-postage card works well for us, because our business being in the death industry, it’s very easy to procrastinate, which is understandable. We want to take that pressure off of the family that’s thinking about prearranging. It’s an easy way and a soft way for them to get information without going any further. Because Valpak allows us to put that card in their envelope, it’s a win-win situation.
Our demographics are usually seniors, obviously. What we do with Valpak is by the zones. We can get into zones where we know there’s a high area of adult communities, and senior living areas, which help us get a better return on our return-postage cards. My rep, Jen, is professional. She worries about me and my company first. She’s knowledgeable, she’s organized, she’s consistent in what she does and the comfort zone with Valpak and the people that have run Valpak in our area, it’s been great. They just give you a very comfortable atmosphere to do business with.
As far as recommending Valpak to other businesses, I have already. Funeral directors, they laughed at me in the beginning when I said Valpak works for me because they’re thinking it’s there for restaurants and pizzerias, and things like that. I said, “But there’s a lot more to your success rate than just restaurants and things like that.” I would recommend highly to anybody.
