David Holm
Regional Vice President, Business Development
Precoa
Why Proactive Preneed Is the Growth Strategy You Can’t Afford to Ignore
It’s widely said that preneed can secure your future, but what kind of future are you actually building? In this session, learn why a high-performing preneed program can be the secondary growth engine your funeral home has been missing. You’ll learn how to reach more new families in your market, measure the quality and consistency of your follow-ups, and deliver repeatably amazing preneed experiences. You’ll leave with a clearer picture of what a scalable, adaptive program actually looks like, one that is more responsive to consumer change and results in higher preneed volume and higher average funeral values.
Sarah Bibber
Human Resources & Billing Manager
AB Universal Messaging
The Compassionate Hand-off: Maintaining Empathy & Presence in 24/7 Funeral Care
Feeling the crushing weight of running a 24/7 funeral business? It’s time to hit reset. This presentation tackles the deathcare industry’s staffing crisis by confronting unmanaged hypervigilance causing 61% of professionals to burn out. Discover how to deploy a strategic "human firewall" using professional answering services. These specialized teams already masterfully manage highly emotional medical and crisis accounts, meaning your families receive flawless, compassionate care. Walk away with an actionable blueprint to filter late-night administrative noise, protect your team’s sleep, and skyrocket employee retention without losing your personal touch.
Matthe Van Drimmelen
President
Full-Circle Aftercare
Getting ROI Out of Aftercare at Your Funeral Home: Turning Compassion into Long-Term Value
Aftercare has often been viewed as a soft service—something offered out of kindness, but not necessarily tied to business outcomes. However, when done strategically, Aftercare can deliver measurable return on investment (ROI) for funeral homes while strengthening your brand, building community trust, and creating ongoing engagement with the families you serve.
Kyle Fogarty
Founder
MemoryShare
Beyond the Broadcast: How Funeral Homes Are Turning Livestreams Into a Powerful Business Tool
Most funeral homes added livestreaming to serve families in 2020. What many are now discovering is that video can also be a powerful business tool. In this session, MemoryShare co-founder Kyle Fogarty breaks down how many funeral directors are turning remote viewers into preneed leads, increasing revenue per case, and pulling ahead of competitors by simply pressing "go live." If you're streaming but not growing from it, or considering offering streaming, this session will change how you think about livestreaming your services.
Erik Delacruz
Marketing Manager
Carriage Services
Modern Marketing Strategies for Funeral Homes
1. Using Placer.ai to Understand Your Market
How to use foot traffic data, trade area mapping, and competitor visit patterns to make smarter marketing decisions, with a real example of how we have applied this at Carriage Services.
2. Psychographic Targeting with Experian Mosaic Data
Moving beyond basic demographics and into lifestyle and behavioral data to identify the ideal preneed customer and build more targeted campaigns.
3. Direct Mail in the Digital Age
How to use tools like Postalytics and Data Axle to build targeted mailing lists, design campaigns, and integrate mail with digital touchpoints for better overall performance.
4. Google Ads for Funeral Homes
What works, what wastes money, and how to hold your vendor accountable, covering at-need search campaigns, local service ads, call tracking, and how to read performance data.
5. OTT and Streaming Advertising
What OTT actually is, how we use it at Carriage Services, what results look like, and how funeral homes can evaluate whether it makes sense for their market and budget.
6. Social Media Strategy Across Multiple Platforms
Content strategy by platform, what performs for funeral homes, how to build a content calendar, and how to manage social across multiple locations & platforms without losing consistency.
7. AI Tools in Funeral Home Marketing
How we are using AI to speed up content creation, ad copy, and campaign planning in ways that are practical and immediately applicable for any size operation.
8. Seminar & Event Marketing
How to fill preneed seminars using digital ads, email, and direct mail working together, including targeting, creative, timing, and how each channel supports the others to drive registrations.
