Earlier this year, our Foundation Partners marketing team embarked on a three-pronged research project to better understand the online habits of the post-COVID deathcare consumer. After conducting hundreds of online surveys, one-on-one interviews and focus groups, we partnered with CANA in November 2021 to present the results in a webinar entitled, “How Consumer Attitudes Toward Online Deathcare are Changing.” Our presentation team included Sally Camm, whose firm Astound Commerce conducted the research, Luke Frieberg, president of eFuneral, Foundation Partners’ Vice President of Marketing Scott Ankerholz and me.

Our panel of digital marketing experts shared five broad consumer trends impacting deathcare and outlined steps you can take today to stay ahead of the curve. If you missed it, no worries; simply click here to watch the recording and download the slidedeck.

After hundreds of surveys and conversations, five key trends emerged that are impacting the deathcare purchase journey.

1. WELLNESS
Consumers are increasingly focused on wellness, which encompasses not just physical but mental, spiritual and environmental concerns as well. As a result, younger consumers (under 45) want to engage in a different, more positive conversation about death and deathcare. In general, they have a broader definition of death preparedness than previous generations. Instead of who will get what, the conversation is more about how they can have their affairs in order — emotionally, spiritually and relationship-wise — so they can enjoy their lives now and ease the burden on family members.
With this in mind, you may want to expand your preneed marketing efforts to include younger families. Additionally, your services don’t have to stop after memorialization or permanent placement services are done. Today’s families appreciate aftercare services, like grief support, assistance obtaining death certificates and other “concierge” services that help them navigate the myriad of tasks required to close the affairs of a loved one.

2. INDIVIDUALITY
As the focus on religious funeral services wanes in the U.S., families are opting for services that celebrate the life and uniqueness of the individual. Nearly a third of consumers who completed our online surveys reported that religion did not factor meaningfully into how they considered making funeral arrangements. As more funerals become joyous occasions and celebrations of life, we have the opportunity to unleash our creativity to help families say farewell to loved ones in style. This will create new revenue streams as we reimagine funeral services.

3. TRANSPARENCY
During our in-person interviews with both at-need and preneed consumers, 95 percent cited transparency as one of the major reasons for their choice of a deathcare provider. In their 2020 Funeral and Cemetery Consumer Behavior Study, The Foresight Companies found that 75 percent of consumers said they want pricing available online and will not do business with providers who are not transparent. Fifty-two percent said they will ONLY do business with companies that provide online pricing options.

But these consumers are not just looking for price transparency; they also want process transparency. Why? Because process transparency puts them in charge and, during the highly stressful at-need time, it allows them to maintain some semblance of control when their lives have been changed forever. Consumers have become accustomed to tracking their online transactions and their expectations during the deathcare journey are no different. Deathcare providers who can offer up-to-the-minute notifications of things, like when loved ones will be cremated and when those remains will be ready for delivery or pick-up, will have an advantage over their competition.

4. OMNICHANNEL SERVICE
Today’s consumers want an integrated, seamless journey across digital and physical experiences – online, by phone and in person. While recent consumers of deathcare services report that in-person remains their preferred method of arranging, we saw a greater willingness among those who have not yet purchased to turn to online arrangement options.

Luke Frieberg shared a case study in which an eFuneral partner encouraged families to review their options on their website before the arrangement meeting. Some of these families completed their purchases on the website, while others came into the arrangement meeting with more clarity around their decisions. Of those families that completed their purchases online, 93 percent upgraded the casket generating additional revenue. Overall, the cost of arrangements made online were 20 percent higher compared to purely in-person meetings and resulted in additional revenue. The firm also reported that families were more relaxed and that funeral directors had a better experience when meeting in person after providing this online option.
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5. TIME STARVATION
Time, and the lack of it, was a primary concern in our interviews, particularly among the at-need consumer. At a time of high stress, especially during COVID, consumers look for us to remove the friction from the decision-making process and to do it in a timeframe that suits them. One of the key ways consumers save time is by doing online research themselves to narrow the selections before they call. Our online cremation consumer survey also showed that both cremation users, and non-cremation users, value the convenience of online arrangements and the ability to browse options on their own terms. Both consumer groups reported that they were either “somewhat satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their experience.

Courage. Discipline. Integrity. The values and skills that veterans have honed over the years align well with funeral professions. From funeral directors and crematory operators to cemetery managers and maintenance and grounds crew or financial advisors to insurance sales, there are a wide variety of funeral career options available to veterans of all backgrounds and interests.

When asked to name their top business challenges, owners of funeral profession businesses rank finding strong employees at the top of the list. This is an especially urgent need during times of crisis, such as a pandemic, when the ‘service’ part of the funeral profession really shines. Caring, competent, mission-driven employees are needed now more than ever.
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But how to engage, recruit and hire more military veterans to careers in the funeral service profession?

The latest NFDA Member Needs & Satisfaction Study asked funeral professionals what they see as their greatest business challenge over the next 5 years. Nearly 57% of respondents feel their greatest challenge will be availability of qualified personnel. Data shows that workforce concerns have been increasing over the past several years among all segments of deathcare.

In contrast, every year more than 220,000 military service members transition out of service in search of another career. In fact, as of January 2021, the US Veteran unemployment rate was nearly 5%. There are well-trained military veterans looking for meaningful work.

A funeral service career can be closely aligned to the many skills that veterans have gained during their military service. Their commitment to getting the job done, organizational skills, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, and overall strength and rigor are admired by funeral businesses. In addition to applying the valuable skills they learned during their service, an interest in furthering their education and acquiring new talents makes veterans top-notch, coveted workers.

Veterans exhibit the qualities needed to be successful in the funeral profession: A high level of trust and resilience. A desire to serve others. The ability to work well in extreme situations. Mission focus and advanced teamwork skills.
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Journey to Serve is a free marketing resource program that works to attract veterans into careers throughout the funeral service profession. We aim to help you hire for positions in funeral homes, crematories, cemeteries, advance planning, business-to-business sales, suppliers to the profession, and all levels of support roles.

​When recruiting veterans, it is important to acknowledge the unique skills they bring to the workforce. Understanding the best ways to help veterans make the transition to funeral service will help them become valuable members of your team. Funeral professionals can accomplish these goals by leveraging the free, comprehensive Journey to Serve toolkit: a hero video, customizable print and digital ads, social media posts and radio spots and podcast ads, presentations and slide decks, FAQ messaging guidance, a career comparison chart, a customizable chart flyer, blog posts, quizzes and more.
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For veterans, the resources from Journey to Serve demonstrates how skills align, what educational opportunities and resources are available, and the chance to hear from other veterans who have made the transition. As an extra incentive, the Funeral Service Foundation and the ICCFA Educational Foundation will award two $5,000 academic scholarships to military veterans to help offset the costs associated with pursuing a career in funeral service and deathcare. The annual scholarships are equally funded by both organizations. A third scholarship, the Hunter M. Harbeson Memorial Scholarship, will provide $2,500 in academic support to a qualified veteran.

Employers wanting to offer placement through the GI Bill Apprenticeship Program must contact their local state certifying official to start the process, which includes creating a comprehensive training program that will teach the skills necessary for the veteran to become successful in their position. This may include classroom training in addition to hands-on experience. The program can help veterans transition into a civilian job by creating a mentoring environment. As an example, Merendino Cemetery Care utilized the program and found that it changed their organizational culture to a mission-focused approach, which was beneficial to the entire company. Read more about one veteran’s own personal journey to serve below.

​U.S. ARMY SIGNAL CORP AND MERENDINO CEMETERY CARE

One of the hardest days of her life was the day she said goodbye to her one-year-old son at the airport as she was leaving for South Korea for an entire year. After learning how difficult it can be to say goodbye to those you love, she made the tough decision to leave the military and focus on family. Thereafter, she became a 911 operator for 21 years. She also served in the National Guard and Army Reserves while working full-time. She was the first-ever female commander of the Lincolnwood American Legion Post #1226.
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Today, Daisy is the Midwest Branch Manager at Merendino Cemetery Care, where she oversees grounds management for 15 cemeteries. She works out of the Chicago branch, where she manages a team of five. She has a great trusting relationship with her team, which she attributes to skills learned during her time in service. “You have to trust in your leaders. I trust them, and therefore the trust is returned,” Daisy explains.

​Hiring veterans makes good business sense.

They are focused on mission accomplishment, and can continue their Journey to Serve by helping the families in your care.
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Our goal is to make your job of finding qualified personnel easier by offering free resources to help you communicate with veterans and recruit them to your open positions. The Journey to Serve toolkit of customizable marketing materials will help you target the right audience efficiently and effectively.

Veterans Day is our opportunity to thank and show support for those that have served. Journey to Serve is a new program aimed at recruiting military veterans to careers in funeral service. Launched in 2021, the program is a joint initiative of the Funeral Service Foundation (NFDA’s charitable arm) and the ICCFA Educational Foundation. The Funeral Service Association of Canada has also co-sponsored the project.

The largest philanthropic organizations in the funeral profession have come together to help the profession face the challenges of finding and hiring qualified personnel. We hope you will take advantage of the tools provided at www.JourneyToServe.com to find your next great hire.
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Journey to Serve provides free resources to the profession to help recruit veterans into meaningful work in all aspects of funeral service. On October 19, 2021, Journey to Serve was approved by the Department of Defense as a web resource on Military OneSource. This is a giant win for Journey to Serve, and means that the program is now front and center for service members preparing to transition out of their military careers.

If you're reading this, chances are your deathcare firm is already present on at least one social media channel. If I had to guess, I'd say it was Facebook (and I'd put my odds of being correct pretty high). You might also be on one other major site, such as Instagram.

If that's the case, good calls from your marketing teams. Even with some rough patches in 2019 and 2020, Facebook remains the biggest social media platform in America based on number of users. Plus, it's the most popular with middle-age and older adults, who account for most deathcare decision-makers.

Instagram comes in second based on user numbers, and a growing number of adults age 35 and up are joining this channel. That makes it a good choice for cremation providers that can manage two social media pages.
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But what about all the other options? Are you missing out on deathcare social media marketing opportunities because you're ignoring platforms such as Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, Pinterest, or Tumblr. Get some details on these social channels below so you can decide for yourself.

If I asked an average American adult to name three social media channels, they'd probably say "Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter." Twitter comes in third behind the other two when it comes to user numbers, and its user demographics are relatively spread out across age groups from 18 to 64.

The challenge in marketing on Twitter is the fast-paced environment. Short posts of 280 characters or less inundate most people's Twitter feeds, sometimes dozens or even hundreds per minute. That can make it hard for businesses to connect with people on the platform.
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It's not that Twitter is impossible to market on. You just have to be persistent, consistent, and sometimes clever to make it work for your cremation services firm.

More than 200 million people log on and use Snapchat daily, with active users opening the app an average of 30 times a day.

That's a lot of opportunity for engagement and micro-moment marketing (that's when you connect with potential clientele in those stolen moments when they look at their phones).
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The downside of Snapchat for deathcare marketing is that the bulk of the userbase is under the age of 34 . There might be some benefit to growing audiences early, and certainly some younger people do make deathcare decisions. But most deathcare firms aren't going to find their main target audience here.

A relatively new contender, TikTok reports around 100 million users in the United States. Around 62 percent of those users are under the age of 29, which means this social site has the same drawbacks as Snapchat when it comes to demographics.

However, the users on TikTok are highly engaged , spending an average of 40 minutes a day or more on the platform. It's easy to make TikTok videos, which only require a smartphone. And you can use the video you make on TikTok to add video content to other deathcare marketing channels, including Facebook, Instagram, or even your blog.

Pinterest is an image-sharing platform. Users make boards and "pin" images (and related links) to them. The idea is that Pinterest acts as a virtual corkboard, and as you travel around the internet, you can collect things of interest by pinning them to these boards.

Deathcare firms can create their own boards, pinning things of interest for their audience, including blog posts, landing pages for downloads, or images of products.
The bulk of Pinterest users—about 70 percent—are female. While the majority of users are under age 40, the median age of users is 40. That means there's a decent number of middle-age and older users.
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Pinterest is fairly easy to manage, which might make it something deathcare firms can do here and there without a big commitment. You may also be able to get some boost from Pinterest traffic without having a profile and boards for your business. Simply create infographics and other images that would entice people to pin them on their own boards.

Tumblr is a personal blogging site that makes it easy for people to post their own thoughts, writing, and art or share (called reblogging) the posts of others.
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The majority of Tumblr users are under the age of 35. While Tumblr might be a way for cremation providers to reach younger audiences, it's not really known for being a strong marketing channel outside of unique cases.

Ultimately, what works well for your deathcare firm depends on your business needs, brand, and where your target audience is. Most deathcare firms should have a presence on Facebook in 2021, but if you have the marketing resources to add one or two other channels while maintaining quality, you might want to test some of these other options.
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Just don't be afraid to move on if the channel ends up doing nothing for you. Better to invest that time and money into channels that are performing than to stick with something just because you started it.

It’s no secret successful digital marketing takes time and planning. Funeral professionals encounter obstacles ranging from lack of time to budget considerations to limited marketing experience or know-how when planning their digital strategy. Add in the ever-changing digital landscape and it can make for a big mountain to climb. That’s why many funeral homes and cemeteries often look for a marketing professional or agency to do all or some of their marketing.

However, some firms find choosing the right partner a bit daunting and aren’t even sure what questions they should ask when interviewing prospective marketing partners. We crafted this list of questions to help people identify which partner is right for you, your firm, and your goals. Answers to these questions before you hand off your digital marketing to an outside marketing company will help you understand just what you’re getting into.
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If you’re in the process of choosing someone to handle your marketing, or if you are working with someone already, you likely know three things for sure:

This answers the big question: “What am I getting for my money?” You want to know exactly what you’re expected to handle, and what your marketing company is taking off your hands. The more clearly your marketing company can explain what they need from you, what the next steps are, and what you can expect from them, the greater chance they will be the right fit for you.
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For instance, will your marketing company provide you content but you need to post it? Or do you need to provide content and they post it? How often do they post? Once you get a comprehensive list of items included with the service, consider asking the follow-up questions below.

Once you get the terms, make sure you understand what they mean. If you don’t understand the marketing jargon being used, your marketing company should be able to explain it to you in a way you can understand.

What you’re looking for here isn’t an MBA in a 30-minute phone call, but transparency. Is your prospective marketing company willing to spend a little time helping you understand? Do they understand themselves or have someone on staff who does? Can they define terms you don’t know? Give appropriate analogies to help you see what they mean? Talk about the process you will go through with them? Help educate you on how everything works?
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You want to see a willingness from the marketing team to help you understand, especially at the beginning of the relationship while you are building trust with the partner.

When looking at overall business health, it’s important to have short-term and long-term goals for your firm. A short-term goal is something you want to accomplish today, this week, this month, or even this year. Your short-term goals should help you reach your long-term business goals.

Do the short-term objectives and tactics fit with your long-term plans? For instance, does the short-term plan enhance your brand, help you get ahead of the competition, build your reputation (or at least not detract from it), etc.

Be sure that the gains your marketing company says it will provide fit with your business goals. No need to have a preneed strategy if you’re not interested in more preneed growth, for example.

Long-term goals require time, planning, and an effective strategy. Be clear with your marketing company on what your long-term business goals are. Then ask what gains you can expect in the long term that support those goals. As mentioned above, your short-term objectives should help you reach your long-term ones.

If you are unclear about what your business goals are, what marketing goals you should have, and what gains you can expect based on the strategy and tactics used, ask your marketing company to help you. Most marketing companies have plans or offerings that include strategy sessions to help you tease out what you want for your business and know how to create a marketing strategy to help get you there.

You’re looking for transparency from your marketing partner. You should know exactly how posts are performing, how the company is checking, how you can check, and who will be answering your questions about the results. You’ll want to know how that performance directly relates to your business results.

You’re not looking for “perfect” results here; there’s really no one “perfect” result. You do, however, want to see how the efforts are performing and be able to see the results yourself to determine what’s working and what’s not.

Why do you want to know this? Because if you decide to part ways with a marketing company in the future, you need to know what’s yours and what’s theirs. If you own the rights to your email and website domain, then you can make future updates to them on your own or through a future marketing or website provider.

As for content, if it’s a reputable company they should have a solid (and legal) method of obtaining images for your content. No sketchy shortcuts here. And they should be able to tell you what content you get to keep if you end the partnership and which content is theirs.

Like your email domain and website, there are several reasons you want to know what sort of access you have to your content. For starters, if the marketing company is custom-creating your content, can you still use it after your contract expires? Say they create a post to promote your 2021 event and you want to use it again for the 2022 event, are you going to run into trouble reusing the posts they created for you, or is that content all yours? There’s no right or wrong answer, just look for a clear response so you are aware of the process.

Next, when running lead ads, will you have access to the contacts collected, or is there an extra charge for contacts? You might also ask if the marketing company keeps or sells the contacts collected. You want access to those leads and their contact info, so be sure to address that question.

As mentioned above, you need a clear understanding of what your marketing company is taking over and what you still handle. You should also find out how much time they need from you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. We recommend you cover this upfront so there are no surprises.

Every marketing company or partner is going to need some of your time for things like collecting logos, access to websites or Facebook pages, strategy setting, content approval, and more. Just like onboarding an employee, an upfront commitment is required but will pay dividends in the long run.

The key here is to gain an understanding of how much time that will take. Note that more time may be needed at the beginning of the relationship as you and your marketing partner get to know one another. Don’t be afraid to ask if this time requirement will decrease over time or remain consistent.

Onboarding isn’t an overnight process. It requires time and effort from both you and your marketing company. Investing your time and effort with the right company will ultimately result in more preneed contracts, at-need business, and an established online presence.

Onboarding takes time, but your marketing partner should have a process. Be sure to ask how long they estimate it will take. You may be in a time crunch or you may have all the time to launch your online strategy; find a marketing company that can provide what you need in the time you need it.

Once you know your onboarding timeline, ask about their communication process. Find out:

What kind of customer support can you expect? Depending on your preferences, you can choose to work with a marketing company that sends check-ins and reports or with one you interact with daily. Those options and more are out there, just ask so you can choose what works for you.

Selecting an agency that has in-house experts across their service offerings is a good idea for a few reasons. You have someone in-house to collaborate with and you can maintain a consistent relationship with less of the “relearning” that happens than with one-off workers.

Some marketing companies use freelancers and that’s ok! As long as there is an in-house expert to help you when you need something immediately addressed.

More than 90 percent of online experiences for consumers start with a search engine. Whether these consumers tap on their phone to query Siri or type a key phrase into Google's browser bar, the result is the same for your deathcare firm.

If you're not drawing a clear line between search engine results pages and your own website or offers, you're missing out on revenue opportunities.

This is one reason content is king—and has been for years. But it's no longer enough for content to don a crown and hold court over your marketing strategy.

The king has lots of competition for search engine optimization, and if neighboring kingdoms (aka your competitors, if you're still humoring this extended metaphor) are generating better quality content, your SEO performance could suffer.

And by "suffer," I mean your pages won't show up at the top of the search results—or potentially at all. Which means you have less of a chance of connecting with people who might be interested in cremation and related services now or in the future.
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What's a king to do about this conundrum? Luckily, Google itself publishes a battle plan that helps you create high-quality content that's more likely to perform in Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs. It's called the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines.

Google publishes these guidelines for its human search quality evaluators. Actual humans (yes, that's rare these days) review pages to determine whether they meet the needs of a potential search in a high-quality manner. The higher a page is rated by evaluators, the higher it might potentially rank in search results.
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Evaluator scores aren't the only thing used to rank a page—Google algorithms are complex, after all. But the evaluator guidelines do provide important clues into exactly what Google considers important when it comes to content

The guidelines comprise roughly 170 pages of small text, which is obviously a lot of information to get through. But you don't have to read everything in the evaluator guidelines to understand how to create great cremation services content. Consider this quick formula for high-quality content from Google:

PAGES MUST HAVE A PURPOSE

High-quality content serves the purpose of the page. If your page doesn't have a purpose (which might be to inform, entertain, or assist readers), the content can't be high quality.

Or as Google puts it, pages "created with no attempt to help users, or pages that potentially spread hate, cause harm, or misinform or deceive users, should receive the lowest [quality] rating."

REMEMBER THE E-A-T ACRONYM

​When pages do have a positive purpose, Google rates the quality of their content according to "E-A-T." The acronym stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Per Google, E-A-T content…

Google likes the word satisfy. It appears in the evaluator guidelines more than 130 times in various forms. A high-quality page satisfies the needs of the searcher and the promise you made in meta descriptions and headings.

If you promise a complete guide to preplanning, your content should certainly be more than 500 words and cover all the questions someone has about that topic.

If your link is a buy link for an urn, the page should include everything a person needs to make a final purchasing decision. The shopping cart process and customer service options should also satisfactorily meet the needs of your cremation clientele.

Ultimately, Google's SERPs have one job, and that's to match searchers with pages that best meet their needs. By creating high-quality content that follows the above formula, you increase the chances that Google thinks your page is a good bet for the relevant keyword searches.

In turn, that increases your chances at winning the click, driving more traffic, making more sales, and proactively competing with the other kingdoms in your niche.

Consumers have driven the popularity of cremation and funeral directors, cemeterians and crematory operators are doing their best to keep up with demand. In May 2019, Homesteaders Life Company and CANA set out to explore a consumers’ experience with cremation from women who personally made the arrangements for a loved one. Our goal was to explore beyond multiple choice responses to get to the question “Why?”. When we dig down to uncover motivations for their decisions, we can attempt to understand their experience from beginning to end. Put simply, we sought to better discover the cremation experience.

We listened to the perspectives of several groups over the course of three months. All participants were Baby Boomer-aged women living in Phoenix, Arizona or Nashville, Tennessee who were arranging a cremation for the first or second time. As the women described their cremation experiences, they realized that they often had very different experiences and learned from each other. They expressed a desire for more information or education about cremation, since this was often a new tradition in their families. There were many insights gleaned during the focus groups, but we are highlighting just a few in this post that stand out.

The focus group participants raised several questions, many of them related to handling of “ashes.” Participants suspected some rules existed, but weren’t sure what the rules were or where to find them. In general, the women tended to do what they wanted, but they carefully watched over their shoulder just in case it was improper – or even illegal. That is definitely not the best cremation experience.

Often, these women learned from friends or their own experiences rather than having a go-to resource. Google was mentioned more than once as a starting place to research information on cremation options. Many women noted that they were pretty familiar with “traditional funerals” but that they weren’t as knowledgeable about what cremation entailed. It’s a newer tradition, and they felt that not as much information is available to help them understand the process.

Where did these families get ideas for the service? The internet. Where did they find a cremation provider? Mr. Google. They didn’t have to wait to sit down with a funeral director to get a price list of goods and services. They researched online and put together a preliminary budget well before meeting at the funeral home.

If they didn’t like the urns or jewelry on display in the arrangement room, they turned to – you guessed it – the internet: Amazon, Etsy, Walmart, and other retailers they know and trust that feature product reviews and recommendations on these keepsakes they probably haven’t bought before. Not one woman described returning to the funeral home to purchase cremation jewelry or an urn after the service. This was qualitative research, and not quantitative, so it is possible that many families do return to the funeral home for merchandise, but this research did not suggest that is common.

So what’s a local cremation provider to do? You may want to consider additional ways to reach out to consumers and help them understand all of the options available for service and memorialization. Be the expert in cremation. Become the trusted information source in your community. Don’t be afraid to talk about cremation and the options it provides. Consumers will choose cremation whether you talk about it or not. It’s better to be the expert than leave the consumer to figure it out without you.

Funeral professionals speak a different language than cremation consumers. Over the years, funeral professionals and society decided that euphemisms were gentler and kinder.

But sometimes euphemisms are confusing and the situation demands specific language to describe a process or professional practice. Death care, much like other professions, has developed its own jargon to describe its work, particularly with cremation to establish its differences to burial and related practices and products. However that jargon may be confusing rather than increasing understanding when talking with consumers.

How can we connect with consumers if we are speaking different languages? The table below highlights some of the language disconnects uncovered during the research.

This language disconnect was painfully obvious from the first minutes of the first focus group. The most common example is one of the most common terms in cremation: “ashes.” Today, mortuary science and funeral service students are taught the terms “cremated remains” and “cremains”, which are also widely used by funeral professionals. And yet not one single focus group participant used any term other than “ashes.”

In the arrangement room, funeral professionals rarely correct a consumer they are serving, but rather translate “ashes” to “cremated remains” in their head, or simply mirror the language used by grieving family members to provide comfort and promote understanding. But what about a website or other marketing materials? Should written consumer-facing language use common terms like “pick up the body” instead of “first call” to build common ground and understanding? More and more death care providers are doing so for reasons ranging from SEO to increasing sales.

The focus group participants quite unexpectedly raised a particular topic on their own: preplanning. Preplanning, advance planning, prearranging – whatever you like to call it – was never part of the research’s list of topics to explore. Nevertheless, it was something the women brought up during the “Queen for a Day” exercise that occurred near the end of each focus group.

The participants were crowned “Queen for a Day” and asked to issue a decree. They could make any change they wanted and the whole world would have to follow their order. This was intended to encourage them to describe their ideal cremation experience. Not surprisingly, the most common decree was to bring back their loved one. The second most common request, however, was a complete surprise: they decreed that everyone preplan, prepay and discuss their wishes with their family member in advance.

Why was preplanning so important to these women? Like many family members, they wished they would have known more of the details their loved one wanted for their celebration of life. While they may have known their loved one wanted to be cremated, they may not have known much more than that. What about a venue? What about musical selections or special readings? What about thoughts on what to do with the “ashes” after the ceremony?

Perhaps if the women had known more about the “new” tradition of cremation they would have tried to ask their loved one more questions. Better yet if their loved one had preplanned, those questions would have naturally been raised and answered. What a relief the focus group participants would have felt knowing that they were fulfilling all of their loved one’s final wishes, not just the desire to be cremated.

Prior consumer research tells us that some people feel it’s not necessary to preplan when a cremation is involved. Actually, the opposite may be true. If cremation is a new tradition within a family, how will the survivors know what to do? Imagine this scenario: a husband wants to be cremated but he and his spouse never get around to talking about it. Then the husband dies and the spouse simply turns to what is most familiar and selects a casketed burial instead of cremation. Preplanning isn’t tied to the type of service, disposition and permanent placement chosen. The whole point of planning ahead is to formally document the deceased’s wishes, that way the family can truly honor them and is spared the pain of merely guessing what those wishes were.

The existing language disconnects discussed earlier are also a good example of why preplanning is beneficial. Any clarifications of what different terms mean can be addressed in advance. The result is a much more satisfying experience for both the funeral professional and family at the time of need instead of trying to find common language during a time of extreme stress.

Aside from wanting their loved one back, these women expressed a desire for people to talk about their final wishes in advance to make the at-need arrangement process easier. Please encourage all families, regardless of what type of celebration of life they want, to preplan (and prefund if possible) before it’s too late.

Is this research still relevant during a pandemic? It stands to reason that the insights gleaned are still helpful. During this pandemic, millions of families have experienced the death of a loved one. In 2019, the US experienced 2.8 million deaths, but preliminary counts indicate the national number exceeded 3.1 million in 2020. Conventional wisdom states that most families experience a death every 7-10 years, so many adults may only plan three or four funerals in their lifetime. But during the pandemic, nearly everyone in this country knows someone who has died – whether friend, family member or celebrity.

Preliminary numbers indicate that cremation rates in the US jumped nearly 3% in 2020. The focus group participants may offer insight as to why. The women described cremation as simpler, as you make the choice to cremate in the moment and that is all that is required – no casket, clothes, or cemetery needed right away. Cremation is legally considered to be final disposition, so they can take the cremated remains home with them and make other decisions at their pace. This possession is also appealing, particularly for a spouse or child who can keep their loved one close. The decision for permanent placement in a cemetery or scattering can come later, even generations later, which may be particularly helpful under pandemic restrictions.

CANA and Homesteaders Life Company set out to understand WHY women are choosing cremation and to better understand what cremation is or is not in the consumers’ mind. What we heard is that their loved one requested cremation and they had to figure out and plan what that experience was for their family and friends. Despite a desire for more education and confusion about language, these women had no regrets. In fact, they were highly satisfied and wouldn’t change a thing about their experience.

Explaining that what separates good content from great content is a willingness to make a statement by using humor and pushing the envelope, Lindsey started with a look at some creative, out-of-the-box ads from fellow funeral professionals. In this commercial from French Funerals, a woman in mourning black contemplates choosing the right coffee can for her mother’s ashes. It’s hard, you see, because her mother preferred tea. Such a difficult decision could have been avoided, the commercial warns, with a little advance planning.

In a similar vein, a French Canadian cemetery ad depicts an urn reposing on the shelf in the garage, in a closet, and in a tool shed, asking if this was truly anyone’s final wish. It touches two ideas, 1) that many people have occupied urns sitting at home, and 2) they likely feel guilty about it or want a suggestion of what to do with them. So this ad suggests a solution that puts concerns to rest.

Lindsey’s own company recently hired a professional to create a commercial that incorporates the funeral home therapy dog, Fletcher. Not only do people love Fletcher when they visit the funeral home, but having animals involved always attracts notice. So much so that CANA Member Heffner Cares reached out to their local therapy alligator, Allie, for a visit and a video. These videos show the funeral home, the staff, and something that makes their business unique – with a bit of humor.

These work best, Lindsey says, because we’re selling experiences, not products. And not just the chance to cuddle with a dog (or an alligator!), but to create a memorial that makes a memory for a family. We have to remember that in our campaigns.
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The Portuguese funeral home Funalcoitão shows how they work to do “more than burials. We pay tribute.” Their commercial features personal touches with the narrator describing how the smiling deceased had wanted to be commemorated in just that way – pulled by a donkey, showered in confetti, surrounded by loved ones.

Gracie Griffin of Bellefontaine Cemetery talked about the cemetery’s Facebook campaigns developed in partnership with a marketing firm who specializes in social media campaigns. Together, they set three goals and designed three campaigns to achieve them. The first was to grow their Facebook followers, and, from that campaign, they discovered that, of the options, mausoleum photos were the most successful – go figure.

For the second goal, to grow their email list, Gracie wrote an ebook on green burials. Designed as an inbound marketing campaign, people needed to enter their contact information to get their free download. And lastly, to encourage tourism and engage their community, they quiz people on the celebrities buried in their cemetery based on a few facts and a silhouette. Correct answers in the comments don’t deter others from answering – everyone wants to be seen as smart in their groups!

No matter how you approach your marketing, it’s always important to try something new.

At CANA, we love group brainstorming discussions to answer strategic questions about the next summit we want to reach. Lindsey and Welton left a few questions to fuel your next brainstorming staff meeting and help you refine your market strategy:

Lately, we’ve all had to reassess the way we do things. Talking to people in your community is different now that most of it isn’t done face-to-face. Fortunately, you can still make meaningful connections, just a in a new way. We must now lean more heavily than ever on technology to connect with our communities.

During social distancing, the ways you used to engage and connect with your families don’t always work, but you know grieving families need your support now more than ever. Grief just can’t wait, and families need you as a guide. As a funeral director, you’re already a problem solver, so think about lending support to those grieving in a way you never have before. Think differently, and think digitally.

Here are five strategies to engage your community virtually during social distancing so you can continue to serve your families in an effective and valuable way.

If events were part of your marketing outreach before the pandemic, make them part of your efforts now, too. Just make them digital. When you plan digital events, thinking outside the box goes a long way. We’ve seen a number of firms use digital events to engage with their community and keep their outreach going. For instance, you can use inexpensive apps to engage your community online. You can learn more about how Guam Windward Memorial did just that in this interview using digital scavenger hunts coupled with community bingo sessions.

These fun-focused events engage your community and highlight your brand rather than directly marketing preneed or at-need services. When creating virtual events focused on engagement, spend a little time brainstorming things your community likes to do and how you can create a digital space to come together around those things. It could be a sport, a community landmark, or a recurring community event like a parade.

If you are ready to dive back into preneed events, hosting digital ones provides an opportunity to personalize your education more than you did in the past. When you host an in-person preneed event, most firms need to reach a broad audience for better attendance since in-person events take more resources (cost, set up, time, etc.) than digital ones. However, when hosting a virtual preneed event using a video conference call, like Zoom, less prep is required so you can hyper-focus your event. Consider promoting events specifically catering to the needs of a target audience: veterans, religious groups, recent widows or widowers, or any other specific group in your community.
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Personalization like this has been proven more effective because people feel you are speaking directly to them and meeting their specific need. Thus, hosting smaller, highly targeted video events increases your chance of winning these individuals over.

People need each other when they are grieving. Social distancing doesn’t have to stop the connection your community members make with each other after a loved one passes. Think about creating new opportunities for grieving families to receive support using virtual options. For instance, if you’re seeing fewer flower sales since the pandemic, consider adding other donation options. Several companies offer a donation tool that allows people to donate toward gifts or services (we are one of them) and community members love being able to contribute in a new way.

Donations can be made to help the family defray funeral costs, for a meal at home from a favorite local restaurant, for groceries, toward an at-home cleaning service, or for keepsakes or memorials. Having multiple options allows your community to choose what resonates with them, and you are the perfect facilitator to connect a grieving family with this act of kindness from the community.
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Many funeral homes offer grief support as part of their aftercare program. Some offer grief support groups. If you’re used to facilitating in-person grief support, take these groups online during times of social distancing. Experiencing a loss during a time when families already feel isolated can make the pain feel worse. Talking about their grief with others will give people the chance to connect around shared experiences. Video services like Zoom or UberConference can be used for these virtual meetings.

Your voice on social media is powerful and important. Your families need your reassurance and guiding words to remind them that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, and that you’ll be there every step of the way with them. Your typical educational content-based strategy still works, but think about adjusting the perspective in a few ways.

You want to remain thoughtful, positive, and informative with the content you share online. Make sure you are up-to-date on facts you post and always double-check your sources.

Beyond being educational, you can use your social media to inspire and spread hope. A few topics we’ve seen perform well with people during a crisis are inspirational or religious quotes, stress relief tips, coping mechanisms, and helpful resources around mental health and grieving. You can, and should, post details about your pandemic safety practices, changes to your services, hours, etc. on social media, too. However, that should not be the only thing you post.

Although social media is a great place to initiate conversation with your families and stay in touch with them, not every message fits the same media channel. As you make connections through social media and other marketing campaigns and build up your contacts, you need to know when to move that conversation to a more private channel.

Your community is happy to see your inspirational posts on Facebook, and these posts are an important part of a solid top-of-mind strategy or conversation starter. Next, you want to deepen the conversation and build a stronger relationship. To do that, you need to move things to a private channel. Enter: a stronger email marketing plan.

Email marketing can help bridge the gap between connections on social media and an in-person or phone meeting. Using email to draw people in with a more meaningful message allows you to create a more personal conversation. Plus, people feel more comfortable sharing details about themselves or asking questions via email than on a Facebook post.

Ideally, you’re already sending a newsletter to your email list. In addition, segment your audience into different categories so you can send additional emails targeted at their specific interests. Some categories might be: Christians, recently widowed, veterans, losing a parent, losing a loved one to addiction or overdose, etc. Creating segmented email campaigns build connections, because the message resonates with their specific experience.

Pro tip: Include links on other topics in each email and see what people click on. This will give you even more information on what people in your community want to learn about.

In navigating this strange new world together, we all have to adapt. Putting on a digital funeral service may be new for you; it’s probably new to your community, too. They need guidance on how to participate in digital services. Just as in-person funeral services help your families realize the finality of their loved one and really begin the grieving process, it’s important to share that digital services offer similar value.

Teach your community the importance of digital services. Also offer them tips on how to attend and participate, such as:

More than 200 years ago, Benjamin Franklin said, "It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it."

A version of that is still true in today's digital marketing world. It can take many online mentions and a buildup of goodwill to develop a strong reputation. And while a single slip — or even a single negative review — won't bring the metaphorical walls of your deathcare firm down around you, online reputations can be fragile things.

One way cremation providers and other deathcare businesses can safeguard their online reputations is via proactive review management. That means actively encouraging clientele to leave reviews online while also interacting with those reviews in positive ways.

It's no longer an option for any business to ignore the presence of online reviews. Local service providers in any industry are especially beholden to reviews. That's because almost all people (97 percent) read reviews as part of their research when choosing a local company.
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Here are some other stats that drive home the message that reviews are must-haves for successful online marketing:

Simply getting seen online isn't always enough. Plenty of celebrities have had their careers derailed by scandals that pushed them into the limelight more than any of their positive achievements did.

You obviously don't want to be the deathcare firm that goes viral because your online reviews are terrible to the point of hilarity. But you also don't want to get fewer calls because a few online reviews make you appear less caring than your competitors.
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The first scenario is unlikely; the second is very likely if you're not proactively managing online reviews. Here's why:

The takeaway here is that the overall quality of your reviews matters. And because it's unethical (and also banned by Google) to put measures in place to stop people from leaving negative reviews, cremation service providers and other deathcare firms must take additional actions to protect their online reputations.

The first step is to provide stellar service to all families. I'm sure you're already doing that, so I'll cover the other two steps for proactively managing your online reputation via reviews:

1. TRY TO GET MORE REVIEWS.
It's a numbers game based on the law of averages. If you need a 3.3-star rating or higher to help ensure people feel comfortable contacting your crematory, a handful of reviews can be dangerous. But if you have a large number of 3-star to 5-star reviews, you can weather several 1-star reviews without your average rating suffering.

A regular stream of reviews also demonstrates that your firm is active and serving plenty of clientele. Around 40 percent of consumers only pay attention to reviews from the last few weeks for exactly this reason.

Other reasons to chase more reviews include:

2. INTERACT WITH YOUR REVIEWS
Leaving the review machine to its own devices isn't an option even after you've achieved a significant number of reviews. People expect to see businesses responding to reviews. Engaging with negative reviews in an effort to correct an issue actually helps increase your brand reputation in many eyes.

Plus, not all reviews are fair or true, and you can take action to report fake reviews or address untrue statements so other consumers are aware of your side of the story.
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The conclusion is this: Crematories and other deathcare firms can't be passive about online reviews. They've become a critical part of online reputation, and how consumers view you through the lens of their internet search often determines whether or not they reach out to you for preplanning or at times of need.

The pace of change driven by consumers is the greatest challenge facing funeral service. No option has fallen off the menu, and yet more options pop up each year. How is it possible to create or reposition a business to fulfill these diverse requests? The 70 practitioners, suppliers and explorers who convened in Albuquerque in October 2019 for the First Ever Green Funeral Conference were up for the challenge. Their interactive and engaging experience is challenging to reproduce in a blog post, but there is too much great content not to share.
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Passages International was the obvious sponsor for this Conference. However, some potential speakers and participants and social media commenters—and even members of the media—weren’t so sure why CANA was hosting. Cremation is widely considered to be more environmentally friendly than traditional burial, but where does it fit on the continuum of green funeral practices? That is the kind of conversation I like to start. CANA doesn't shy away from hard questions, or from asking those questions of itself. We're proud to provide the space to have these frank discussions and attract the right voices to contribute.

​Since this was the first conference of its kind created for funeral directors and cemeterians, it was important to establish context and the intention to be inclusive in our definition of green practices. I will attempt to follow the flow of the conference in this post. Glenda Stansbury served as our emcee and she set the stage from the beginning, establishing that this conference was an exploration of green practices along a continuum. In that spirit, I invite you, dear reader, to identify where you are on that continuum. Are you a light spring green with plenty of traditional burial and cremation offerings? Or maybe you offer eco-friendly products, but want to promote more family participation and natural burial? Are you a deep forest green and all in? This post is an opportunity to learn more about the Conference content and how it may apply to your business and community.

Ed Bixby, owner of Steelmantown Green Burial Preserve and President of the Green Burial Council, kicked off the Conference with a presentation describing the wide range of green burial practices he employs in his cemeteries and has seen around the world. He challenged the audience to recognize that the spectrum includes traditional burial as well as established businesses seeking greener practices—including cremation. Yes, the attraction of green burial is related to environmental concerns, but it also appeals because it is simpler, involves less fanfare, and facilitates enhanced participation from mourners. Ed said, “Participation changes everything. You have the right to care for the dead the way you feel they should be cared for.” He challenged us—and I extend the challenge to you—to shift the mindset. You can work within regulations and laws, but you can reconceive the services you offer to families. In CANA language, "find a way to get to yes for your families."

During Ed's presentation, the topic of embalming came up. Why are embalmed bodies excluded from green cemeteries? Is this based on science or policy? Embalmers in the room shared why embalming remains an important tool for some families, but others expressed the belief that preserved bodies had no place in a green cemetery. While no consensus was reached, it was refreshing to hear so many opinions and suggestions respectfully discussed. However, many questions remained unresolved:

Next, Darren Crouch and Kilian Rempen of Passages International joined the conversation by discussing green products and marketing tactics to help businesses remain relevant and profitable. In the 20 years since Darren founded Passages International, he has learned many lessons. His customers are serving families that value green, but also unique and beautiful options. Darren asserted that the challenge of incorporating green options into businesses should feel familiar. It is similar to the challenge of embracing cremation 30 years ago. It was once controversial to add cremation to the sign in front of your funeral home and commonplace for funeral directors to send the rare cremation customer down the street to the cremation society. Ignoring cremation didn’t turn out well for funeral service, so Darren challenges funeral practitioners to not repeat past mistakes.
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Darren offered practical advice, such as offering scatter-friendly urns for the 50% of your cremation customers who intend to scatter. He argues that scattering does not equal low-end, but rather that an urn that contains cremated remains for a time can be used as art or to hold keepsakes after scattering. Darren echoed Ed’s message of changing your mindset to envision new offerings.

​Once attendees considered the various aspects of green funeral practices and started to plot their positions along the continuum, they heard from cemeterians and a funeral director who have added them to their operations.

Jody Herrington described her success in converting funeral home selection rooms to include green merchandise. She acknowledged how overwhelming it seems to offer yet more options in an already crowded space. Jody shared that her success was directly linked to the communities she has served and their green values. Incorporating local artists along with eco-friendly products and more familiar caskets can be appealing, but every community is unique. You know the communities you serve and should reflect that knowledge.

Jody posed a challenging question for me to hear – Is cremation a fall back? At this point some of you are probably nodding your heads in recognition, but I didn’t get it at first. Jody asserted that when faced with traditional burial caskets and merchandise, some consumers know they don’t want that so they fall back to cremation. Her experience showed that offering more eco-friendly merchandise and caskets resulted in more personalization and more sales to a satisfied customer. This leads me to wonder if green burial will slow the cremation rate increases we have seen. Only time will tell.

Our practitioner panel featured Donal Key and Linda Canyon of La Puerta Natural Burial Ground, Gracie Griffin of Bellefontaine Cemetery, Salvador Perches of Grupo Perches and Recinto de la Oracion, Ed Bixby, and Jody Herrington—continuing the conversation around green burial practices and tips for creating and offering green options in existing cemeteries. It is impossible to summarize the rich content generated by the discussion between panelists as well as with participants. Each panelist shared specific examples of practices they employ to promote participation and innovate new traditions. The questions from participants did touch on business models, pricing, training and incenting employees to dig graves and assist families to dress their loved ones. The key takeaway is that you can get to yes with families. It may take more time and creativity, but you can and should do it.

Next up was Tanya Marsh, a professor at Wake Forest University School of Law, who examined the legal trends surrounding green burials and green cemeteries. Tanya presented a framework for understanding green funeral trends. She started by sharing the macro trend of consumers looking for more control and input while also seeking authenticity and a meaningful experience. This is a trend influencing all aspects of our lives. And it poses a challenge for funeral directors and cemeterians who are typically risk-adverse.

Tanya outlined considerations to take into account when considering something new – i.e., natural burial or a new disposition.

The example she gave was natural organic reduction, commonly referred to as human composting. Washington state law explicitly stated that burial, cremation and removal from the state were the legal forms of disposition. This meant they needed to change the law in order to pave the way for a new form of disposition. In states that don’t affirmatively identify the forms of disposition, a court order or opinion from the board or attorney general may pave the way.
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Tanya led a free-wheeling Q&A session that touched on grave reusage, family participation, disinterments, indigent cremations, and what happens when cemeteries are abandoned.

The last sessions focused on consumers’ experiences and insights. Gail Rubin shared her perspective on consumer views of death and mourning and emphasized the ongoing theme of promoting participation and education.

I moderated two manufacturer panels—Luis Llorens of US Cremation Equipment and Paul Seyler of Matthews Environmental discussed the environmental impact of cremation and made presentations on the macro and micro impacts of cremation on the environment. This warrants its own blog post and one is in the works for publication in 2020. Stay tuned!

A second panel, with Sam Sieber of Bio-Response Solutions and Nicki Mikolai of Resomation America, discussed the science and practical application of alkaline hydrolysis. There was significant interest in alkaline hydrolysis among the participants, with some current and future practitioners represented. The questions from participants ranged from inquiries about the fundamental science, presence of radiation and mercury, to viewings and zoning challenges.

Legally, alkaline hydrolysis is considered to be cremation, but the process that occurs in the machine is completely different than flame-based cremation. Does that make it greener? That depends on the formula that is used. Is there a lower carbon footprint? Yes—or probably. Fewer fossil fuels are used to heat the water or dry the remains, but water and chemicals are used—so how does one account for that in the green calculation?

While more questions were raised than answered on the overall environmental impact of all dispositions, Sam did point participants to an important a recent study conducted in the Netherlands by Elisabeth Keijzer, who attempted to calculate the true costs of different types of disposition. Sam presents a useful framework for understanding the various environmental impacts and “shadow costs” discussed in the study.

Consumers are significantly ahead of funeral directors and cemeterians in seeking, performing and creating greener end-of-life options, so this conference represented an opportunity to engage in facilitated conversation, query panel presenters, and learn from leading experts. All walked away with practical ideas to implement now, and probably some ideas they considered but discarded for their own businesses. Here are three of my takeaways.

TAKEAWAY #1: DEFINITIONS MATTER
Language matters and it was important from the beginning to tackle some tough topics in order to facilitate open conversation and advance our collective understanding. We named this meeting the Green Funeral Conference to encompass a variety of green practices, and people came with many different ideas and opinions on what “green” truly means. However, everyone left seeing the full continuum of green funeral practices.

So, what shade of green are you or do you aspire to be? Have this conversation with your staff and seek to understand what your community wants or will respond positively to. And then have this conversation with your vendors to educate yourself on more eco-friendly options. Figure out your carbon footprint and how you can offset or reduce it.
Are your own policies and procedures standing in the way?

TAKEAWAY #2: EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN
For cremation, it took a few evangelists (and 100 years) to make cremation a tradition. Green funerals are completely different. For some, the practice is cultural tradition and anything else is desecration. For others, it's an attempt to mitigate their carbon footprint on the world by removing external interference (letting nature take its course). So, whether it's to save money, to save the planet, or to honor tradition, it means every option, every time. And providing that is hard work.

You know your communities and have served them for the length of your career or possibly generations of your family. Incorporating green funeral practices does not mean starting over from scratch, but it does mean shifting mindsets. You may consider following the path you took to embrace cremation.

TAKEAWAY #3: START NOW!
It took nearly 150 years, but cremation in the West evolved from a European fad to the dominant form of disposition in the US with the help from multiple types of leaders. First came the evangelists—those spreading the good news of the hygienic and aesthetic virtues of cremation. Then came the practitioners who formed CANA as a forum to share best practices and promote the practice of cremation. Those practitioners innovated products, technology and services to support cremation practice. Many of these practitioners ultimately formed companies that supplied practitioners nationwide. As those companies matured and merged and competitors formed, cremation products and services further developed to support the industry.

Will green funeral practices follow a similar pattern? Probably. Likely following a significantly shorter timeline, but it certainly will happen, thanks to a similar mix of contributors. Yet again, consumers are leading the way by demanding greener funeral practices. The participants and speakers in the Green Funeral Conference represented a mix of champions of funeral practices along the continuum, both current and future practitioners.
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This conference was a true meeting of minds and collaboration in exploring green funeral practices. I'm proud of the conversations that happened at this meeting and have attempted to capture some of the content and the spirit of the event.