LAST UPDATED: August 2026

By Natalie Chapman, Content Marketer for Passare

You’ve likely felt the shift: the "tried and true" traditions that sustained funeral homes for decades are losing their spark with today’s families. It’s frustrating when your level of care hasn't changed, but the way families want to receive it has changed.

So how do you come up with new ways to meet the needs of today’s families?

While it looks a little different for each funeral home, there are a few steps you can take to identify your approach, generate with new ideas, and try them out!

• First, identify your mindset for change: do you resist it, or do you rise to the occasion? The more honest you are with yourself, the better.
• Then, come up with a plan and think about how you can apply new and innovative ideas at your funeral home.

Take a look at how one funeral home followed these steps to innovate its business and connect with today’s families:

Putting ideas into action: Getting people to come to a cemetery with no one to bury

Sunset Memorial Park in Albuquerque, NM, wanted to increase brand awareness and draw people to its cemetery. The challenge was how to get people to come to a cemetery with no one to bury. Sunset Memorial Park teamed up with brand agency McKee Wallwork + Co. to find a unique solution. While researching, they discovered that 1 in 5 families had cremains in their homes that they had never scattered or placed anywhere.

Sunset Memorial, with the wrong mindset, could have easily created marketing materials and a campaign around selling more urns. Instead, they created an event called Scatter Day. Sunset Memorial Park opens its cemetery to the public and allows anyone to scatter their family’s ashes there. They now attract over 1,000 people a year.

Because they approached the problem with an innovative mindset, they had a major impact on their community and the families that were given a chance to grieve and give their loved ones a final resting place. As a result, the Sunset Memorial team has received national recognition, and hundreds of funeral homes across the country take part in their own Scatter Day in their communities.

Let’s dive into 7 ways you can improve your funeral home’s ability to adapt to industry changes, anticipate families' needs, and increase brand awareness.

1. Use data to serve families better
2. Think outside the box with community events
3. Position existing services in a different way
4. Offer new services
5. Elevate your social media presence
6. Invest in your future employees
7. Use technology to be more efficient

7 innovative funeral home ideas to try

#1: Use data to serve families better

Families are much different than they were 20 years ago or even 10 years ago. Many family members now live in different states rather than in the same town, and technology has become a main form of communication.

And their preferences for funerals have shifted as well.

So, if you continue to relate to families in the same way you always have, you might overlook a large group of them.

In 2021, Directors Investment Group (our parent company) and McKee Wallwork (a market research firm) joined forces to conduct the largest funeral consumer study in the nation. The study identified 7 unique types of funeral consumers, with each consumer type having their own set of views and preferences toward funerals. Knowing which types you're serving most often can shape everything from your marketing to your arrangement conversations. Read about each type in this article. >>>

Here are a few other ways you can use data to get to know today’s families:

• Send short post-service feedback surveys with a few questions that are emotional and practical to learn what families valued most and where you fell short.
• Track service preferences by demographic (age, geography, religion) so you can spot patterns over time instead of guessing (Passare’s reporting tools are great for tasks like this!).
• Review your call transcripts or arrangement conversation notes for recurring themes. Are families consistently asking about something you don't offer?
• Segment your email outreach by grief stage or service type so families hear from you at the right time with the right message.

The better you understand your families, the easier it becomes to serve them in ways they didn't even know they needed…or maybe in exactly the ways they’re looking for.

#2: Think outside the box with community events

Community events build trust long before a family ever needs your services. You can open your funeral home up to the community by hosting, sponsoring, or participating in different events.

Sunset Memorial got creative with its Scatter Day event and was able to involve an entire community. How can you think outside the box for your next event?

Here are a few examples to get you thinking:

• End-of-life planning workshops give your community practical value and a reason to walk through your doors.
• Holiday remembrance trees or installations create a meaningful annual tradition that families look forward to.
• Host a grief and wellness event that positions your funeral home at the intersection of grief healing and community health.
• Try a "Legacy Day" where families are invited to share stories about their loved ones publicly, turning your space into a place of celebration rather than just loss.

The key is to start thinking of how you can create value and events people want to attend, not ones that feel like a sales pitch. When your funeral home becomes a gathering place, your community starts to see you differently.

Want more ideas? Check out this community events guide from NFDA. >>>

#3: Position existing services in a different way

We’re not suggesting you change everything or make your whole staff try something new. Start small. Ask your most change-conscious funeral director to incorporate new ideas and methods to see which resonate best with your families. Here are a few suggestions:

• Bring up one unique idea that you’ve never done before in your next arrangement conference, such as ways to personalize services or a creative memorial offering for a cremation.
• Try a new script when talking with families about cremation. For example, when a family requests cremation, respond with “What kind of cremation would you like?” rather than just checking a box. Making a small change like this can give your team the chance to talk about the value of having a service, even if the family plans to cremate.
• Offer a new way to connect with families online by using technology like Passare’s Planning Center or Arrangement Guide.

If you have a family's permission, you can also show them examples of past services you've done with real photos and setups. That way, families can see what they like or don't like.

#4: Offer new services

Some of the most meaningful services aren't traditional at all. And sometimes, families don’t always know what to ask for. That’s where you get to put on your creative hat.

Here are a couple of different ideas to get you brainstorming:

• Offer professional funeral photography or videography. Funerals are one of the few times an entire extended family gathers, and capturing that moment can mean more than families expect.
• Tribute video production with editing support turns a standard slideshow into something families keep forever.
• Create online memorial pages with interactive features.
• Place QR codes at services that link to digital tributes families can revisit and share.
• Explore eco-friendly burial options.
• Provide the option of a celebrant-led service.

If these types of services seem outside your usual offerings, that’s okay. That means they’re at least worth exploring! Providing new and different services can demonstrate your commitment to going above and beyond for families.

#5: Elevate your social media presence

Most funeral homes have a social media page. But what about social media presence?

When you have a strong social media presence, your pages can actually help you promote your funeral home’s brand and build connections with families, staff members, and others online.

But building an online presence doesn't mean you have to become a full-time social media influencer. Here are a couple of post ideas to get you started:

• Staff spotlights and behind-the-scenes content (a day-in-the-life of a funeral director) humanize your brand.
• Family testimonials, with permission, can build trust faster than any ad.
• Educational posts that bust common myths or answer FAQs position your team as the go-to experts.
• Tribute-style posts celebrating lives you've served create emotional connection.
• Short video features can tell stories really well. If you're looking for inspiration, Funeral Directors Life has a great article on 3 video ideas to try in your funeral home to help you get started.

You don't need to go viral. You just need to build a voice that makes families think of you first when it matters most.

And if you feel stressed by trying to do all of this on your own, don’t worry! You can work with a social media management service to get the content you want, reach more families with your posts, and grow your following.

#6: Invest in your future employees

The key to finding high-quality staff for your funeral home is to connect early and create a workplace where people thrive.

Check out these tips on how you can find and keep great hires:

Get in front of students early:

• High school career day presentations and funeral home tours introduce young people to the profession when they're still exploring options.
• Shadowing programs give students a real look at the work and often spark the kind of passion that leads to a career.

Build education partnerships:

• Develop relationships with mortuary schools through guest lectures or sponsored student projects.
• Create internship and apprenticeship programs. The funeral homes that invest in students early tend to get first pick when those students graduate.

Implement ways to keep people once they’re hired:

• Flexible scheduling
• Mental health support
• A technology-forward workplace
• Clear career progression paths

Well-equipped, driven employees will continue serving families with everything they've got. Investing in your team is investing in the families you serve.

#7: Use technology to be more efficient

When it comes to connecting with families, many of the ideas above are effective. But sometimes, starting from the bottom can be the most beneficial. Think about your back-end processes for a moment.

Are they inefficient? If so, they could be stealing from the time you could be spending with families.

With the right funeral home software, you can reduce time spent on tasks such as data entry, paperwork, or case organization, allowing you to spend more time with families.

Better yet, add technology to your processes that lets you connect with families online when needed.

Here are a few tools worth exploring:

• Case management software
• Digital signatures and contracts
• Automated documentation and forms
• Online planning platforms
• Mobile case management
• AI-assisted obituary writing

And that's just scratching the surface. With Passare’s case management system, you can get access to tools that help you improve efficiency at every stage of a case. Learn more here.