Funeral Home Marketing Trends for 2022, Part 2: The Role of AI

Last week, we talked about the rise in digital and hybrid events and how that impacts funeral home marketing. Today, we’re looking at the continued growth of AI in marketing.

Skills shortages and problems hiring qualified staff in 2020 and 2021 left many funeral homes with a hard lesson learned: Being able to do more (or at least the same) with less is critical to success in today’s competitive market.

That’s not going to change in 2022 and beyond. One way to get more with less is to rely on AI for certain marketing tasks. If you’re not using technology tools to connect with and support potential clientele, plan to invest in some of these strategies in 2022.

Chat Bots

Chat bots can be used on your website or in conjunction with various social media and messaging tools. They’re a great tool for small funeral homes that can’t provide 24/7 coverage of phone and chat lines. Chat bots can be programmed to:

• Answer basic questions about location, hours, and services
• Provide links to more information pertinent to questions
• Set people up with downloads of forms or other information
• Collect information and let potential clientele know someone will call them during business hours
• Notify a funeral director that someone has an immediate need

Automated Ad Bidding

Automated ad bidding doesn’t even feel like AI anymore because it’s common. If you’re not using this tool to maximize efficiency for online ad processes, you may be wasting a lot of time. Consider making the move to automation before 2022.

As we move into the near future, look for automations and machine learning to offer even more efficiency in ad processes.

AI-Based Ad Content

For example, numerous providers are developing automated content generation. While a machine isn’t adept enough to create expert-level, high-quality long-form content, with the right inputs, these programs are able to generate search engine ad copy that performs.

When you want dozens of versions of the same short line or two for an ad, automating the process might save you time and money.