I’ve recently been holding community education seminars. I feel like this is something I should be doing, but I keep seeing the same people showing up over and over again for free ice cream or pizza. What I’m not seeing is any reach into my greater community. Do you have any advice to get more people through the door and actually make these work? – More Lunching Than Learning
Dear More Lunching Than Learning: I’m sorry to hear that. It takes a lot of time and money to put on an event, and you never get a chance to see the benefits if you keep reaching the same people. If it helps, this is a common problem not just within the profession but outside it as well. The U.S. market size for events in 2022 was over $339 billion, with no-shows and disengaged attendees leading to millions lost in potential revenue. There are even a few creative names for the people you describe who frequent events for the sole purpose of indulging in the culinary offerings: plate lickers, event groupies, mealies—the list goes on.
The short answer here is yes, I’ve seen events that work. Last year, Precoa hosted more than 2,200 events for our funeral home partners with an average appointment hold rate of 50%. A great event has the power to unlock so many benefits for your funeral home, and it’s one of the best ways to give new families an experience that really shows off your brand. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event itself, but the real magic behind successful events is as much about getting the right people through the door as it is throwing a fun, meaningful event.
Targeting is the real game-changer for getting the right people to your events and, ultimately, prearranging more families. The way we run our community events is through a cross-functional team made up of people from across our company, and I asked our Marketing Strategist Shirell Hennessey to share a little more about what it takes to maximize the number of interested event attendees:
“When I’m laying out an event strategy, the first thing I ask myself is how to reach our target market. In other words, how can I super-serve the people with the highest propensity to preplan? For example, reaching someone too young or whose income bracket is too high could make the marketing less cost-effective. We have to consider a range of factors like age, interests and hobbies, income, and even data points that might not seem all that obvious like whether or not someone owns a home.
Obviously, this changes from market to market and funeral home to funeral home, so it’s up to you to find the right combination for your market. However, we know from experience that if the targeting isn’t right, nothing else will be right either. Targeting informs everything else down the line, from your advertising creative to which event spaces you choose to how many attendees you can expect.
Think of your target customer. What do they like to do? Where do they like to eat? The goal should be to generate interest and excitement and delight them. We’ve actually found that when you get too fancy with an event, people won’t show up. On the other hand, we’ve held casual events that have gotten national news coverage and others where over 100 attendees were lined up out the door.
It should be said that these two examples are outliers that might be out of reach for a lot of funeral homes. What is within reach? Establishing a repeatable process for getting people through the door and getting a consistently high percentage of them to preplan with your funeral home. That process starts with knowing your customers through targeting.
When you know your customers, it allows you to communicate with the people interested in preplanning and eliminate the people who are not, i.e., the plate lickers. It also gives your advertising a direction and a focus that is informed by data. When you know what people like, your messages will resonate.
You also find out which advertising mediums work best. Where do your target customers spend their time? Where are they most likely to see your messages? You can choose your advertising mediums accordingly, whether that’s direct mail, television, social media, internet search, or a combination of platforms. You might even consider strategically placing event ads in your funeral home that include QR codes so interested families can easily RSVP.
Once you start targeting, the next question that usually arises is this: How do I know when I have the right target? The first way to find out is to look at how many people are attending your event. The next is to look at what percentage of these people are preplanning. Every campaign should be tested to make sure it’s performing as expected, and it’s crucial to analyze your data in relation to pipeline metrics.
There is so much more I could discuss about what makes a successful event, but it goes without saying that you can’t take shortcuts with targeting. It is an essential first step. If you take the time to get it right, you’ll go from placing ads at random and hoping people walk through the door to reaching people who are interested in more than just a free meal and are ready to start their journey to preplanning with your funeral home.”
Hopefully, this helps you on your path to more successful events. They are a lot of work, and many funeral homes find it easier to outsource that work to a trusted partner. What you’ll find as your events improve is that they’re one of the best ways to engage new families, build trust, and establish your funeral home as a thought leader throughout your community.
But as Shirell mentioned, the journey doesn’t end when people walk through the door. Just like any preneed lead, some people require more nurturing than others. In one of my earlier columns, I addressed what happens when Advance Funeral Planners work the low-hanging fruit while other leads fall through the cracks. You can avoid this pitfall by being proactive, and in my next installment, I’ll address the question of what steps you can take to optimize your events further and prearrange more families.
Have a preneed question? Please reach out to me at preneedprotips@precoa.com and I’d be happy to answer.
Tyler Anderson is senior vice president of business development at Precoa, a preneed company that helps hundreds of funeral homes prearrange more families and grow their markets. Born and raised in the funeral profession, Tyler appreciated the importance of ceremony, ritual, and gathering from an early age. He is passionate about sharing a new vision for preneed that helps more families across the country experience a meaningful funeral service.
Shirell Hennessy is a Marketing Strategist at Precoa. Throughout her career in marketing, Shirell has created and led targeted campaigns through traditional and digital initiatives. Her passion for connection has enabled Precoa to expand our Community Education Programs® to help funeral homes prearrange more families and expand their markets.