Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alexey Koyfman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Alexey, thanks for joining us today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

We would like to focus on Carnes Brothers Funeral Home located in Galveston, Texas, as the customer success story. Carnes Brothers Funeral Home is run by two brothers Rusty and Mike. You can find out more about Carnes Brothers Funeral Home on their website – carnesbrothers.com

Carnes Brothers approached Koyfman Photo and Video Production to create digital marketing for their business. Carnes Brothers have a beautiful facility in Galveston. The funeral home is very spacious, has tall ceilings, and has the largest seating capacity in Galveston County. To capture the beauty of the funeral home and show it to others, we decided that videos will be the best way to capture the essence of the funeral home and promote the business. Our first video was the tour of the funeral home presented by the funeral director Rusty Carnes.

The video tour was a huge success! The video was 18 minutes long and the analytics showed that 25% of the viewers were watching the video until the end! YouTube algorithms also picked up the video and promoted it. People from all over the world were watching the video and commenting. “This is the Beverly Hills of Funeral Homes!”, “The spaciousness is a very good idea.”, “5 star funeral parlor!”

While this video was getting a lot of views all over the world, the customers of Carnes Brothers Funeral Home were located in Galveston County. Therefore, we created two more information packed videos that were one minute long

and three minutes long:

We started running the videos as YouTube commercials in Galveston County. Carnes Brothers immediately saw return on the YouTube ads investment as increased number of calls and customer visits. Potential customers mentioned that they learned about the business from a video they saw on YouTube. We also experimented with the demographic information and refined it to target the right customers.

When COVID-19 reached United States, we created a video: A Message from a Funeral Director clarifying COVID-19 Funeral Procedures.

Carnes Brothers YouTube Channel had to get a COVID-19 certification from YouTube to run ads that were talking about the pandemic.

Rusty Carnes gave an eight minute presentation about the updated COVID-19 funeral procedures from the Texas Funeral Service Commission. In the video, Rusty Carnes explained how the capacity of the funeral home determines if the State of Texas allows the facility to conduct funeral services. A Message from a Funeral Director was a huge success! Twenty three percent of the people who started watching this YouTube ad finished the whole eight minute video. People were thanking Carnes Brothers for the information in the video. The business also increased 20%. Families were choosing Carnes Brother’s facility over competitors.

Since Carnes Brothers Funeral Home serves a large Hispanic population in Galveston County, we decided to translate this message to Spanish. We hired a local influencer who is fluent in Spanish to tell this message. The video was filmed at a park and you can see the final result here:

Spanish speakers of Galveston county were grateful for the information in the video and personally thanked Rusty for translating the message.

During pandemic we also started streaming funerals using Zoom and YouTube. It was a challenge to stream outside in a cemetery on windy days using 4G network but we made it work. Here is an example of Carnes Brothers Live:

Our latest video was a client testimonial. A former client, who is a well known local celebrity, was filmed at a popular location in downtown Galveston. We wanted to make sure that locals recognized that location in the video. Here is the link to the video:

Here are some of the lessons we learned after six videos.
Funeral director Rusty Carnes is a local celebrity and is the best promoter for his business. He is the face and therefore the best representation for his business. When potential clients get to know you from the comfort of their home, they feel like they know you when they interact with you. Therefore, online videos help customers build trust with the business. YouTube is a great familiarization tool because people are able to get familiar with you and your business without you or them having to leave home. There is less need to be involved with community organizations and clubs so people get to know you personally. Therefore, it saves you and your customers time on getting to know each other.

It is important to create videos with a lot of useful information for your clients. It is a good idea to give a tour of the facility and educate your customers about various options and services available. Therefore, customers will be familiar with all the options and services offered before they show up in person. If there are changes happening in your industry, it is a good idea to educate your customers about them. The customers will be thankful for the information you provide. YouTube is a great medium to reach customers nowadays because the days of television are over. If you are interested to create your own YouTube channel to reach out to potential customers feel free to call us at (832) 743-5487.

Alexey, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Koyfman Photo and Video Production was founded in 2010. At first, we were mainly focused on photography. Lately, we have been busy creating video content. We have photographed and filmed weddings, quinceañeras, funerals, and corporate events. We provide clients with DVDs, prints and digital files. We also create and maintain YouTube channels for businesses and individuals. You can find our portfolio on our website: koyfmanphoto.com If you are interested in our digital services, please reach out to us at (832) 743-5487. We serve Galveston County and Houston.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being a creative provides you with a lot of freedom and flexibility. If I am not working on a project for a client, I can work on the creative projects I choose. It can be either a photoshoot, a video, or an animation. These projects usually take some time and effort because I want to make sure that the result comes out perfect. I often work with other creatives on these projects and we have a great time collaborating. Sometimes, I use these projects for marketing the services I offer. These collaborations result in other projects for paying clients. It is a win-win situation for everyone!

Contact Info:

• Website: koyfmanphoto.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/koyfmanphotography
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/koyfmanphoto
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjcK0naMrnFOEe8iZLi_x6Q
• Other: https://linktr.ee/koyfman
  https://g.page/koyfman-photo

Image Credits
Images belong to Koyfman Photo and Video Production.