We help funeral homes increase call volume, protect market share, and remove the marketing burden from owners and directors.
Your team is being pitched new platforms, technology, and marketing tactics from every direction. The noise is distracting you from addressing the core problems at hand. The funeral business model has changed. As a result, revenue and profit are shrinking rapidly.
Website redesigns, paid ads, video tools, AI, and digital marketing are tactics. Each vendor is focused on their specific offering, and each one costs you money. But who’s connecting the dots between your business challenges and which marketing investments will actually solve them?
You don’t need more promises. You need strategic marketing leaders who already understand your business challenges, know the marketing landscape, and aren’t profiting off of the recommendations.
That’s exactly what our fractional CMO² services provide. We are subject matter experts dedicated to helping you and your independent funeral home succeed today and build sustainable brand value for tomorrow.
We’re not new to the scene. We’ve been advising death care providers for more than 12 years and welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
The right starting point is understanding which business challenge you’re trying to solve, then investing in a marketing strategy that actually address it.
Cremation's Impact on Revenue
Direct cremation now accounts for 63.4% of U.S. dispositions (NFDA, 2025), creating significant revenue pressure as merchandise-driven traditional funerals decline. The families you serve haven't change, but how they want to be served has.
Corporate Consolidation Pressure
SCI, Park Lawn, and regional roll-ups are acquiring competitors in your market, bringing enterprise operational systems and multi-location economies of scale. They're not better at serving families, but they're more visible when families are searching. With our CMO services, you get access to enterprise-level expertise and resources.
Pre-Need Pipeline Uncertainty
Your future market share depends on relationships beyond the clergy, including hospice, senior living, estate planners, and care managers, which require systematic cultivation rather than reactive outreach. Most funeral homes we meet have strong community connections but no formal strategy to convert them into pre-need business. Imagine what you could do with a dedicated marketing strategist on your team.
Staffing and Succession Concerns
Whether you're planning to pass the business to the next generation, sell to a key employee, or eventually exit to a larger operator, your enterprise value depends on having transferable marketing systems, not just your personal reputation. Dina Wasmer, founder and CMO, serves on the Board of Directors of the Exit Planning Exchange and can help you navigate such questions and opportunities.
Competing Messages Without Clear Differentiation
When every funeral home website says they're "compassionate," or "family-owned," pre-need and at-need prospects can't tell you apart. Your differentiation is unclear, and your marketing efforts are getting lost in the noise. The right strategy and the right strategic partner can set you up for success.
How is Incite Creative’s Fractional CMO² Different from Marketing Agencies and Advertising Vendors?
We’re Incite Creative, a fractional Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) that provides the expertise of two full-time CMOs for a fraction of the investment of one.
For nearly 30 years we have helped businesses solve complex challenges at the intersection of marketing, sales, operations, finance, and human resources. For over 12 years, we’ve specialized in death care, working with funeral homes and crematories across the Mid-Atlantic.
Most funeral marketing vendors focus on siloed execution. For example:
The PPC agency buys your Google Ads or uses AI to make recommended purchases and adds 20% to manage the ads.
They optimize within their channel but don't ask whether paid search is your highest-priority investment right now, or whether your website can actually convert the traffic they're sending.
The social media company uses the same tactics for your funeral home as they do for all their other clients.
They buy ads to boost vanity metrics (likes, follows, impressions) that may never truly drive call volume. They may post content on your behalf, but does it accurately reflect your brand, your culture, and your care model, or does it sound like every other funeral home's social media?
The web designer builds you a new site, usually leveraging whatever case management platform you're using.
With so much consolidation in the death care space—for example, Tribute Technology now combines several legacy companies (Frazer Consultants, SRS Computing, FrontRunner) into one ecosystem—the funeral management software itself is often solid. But what we've found is that the marketing foundation, SEO architecture, and content strategy built into these platforms frequently aren't. You get a functional website that looks modern but doesn't differentiate you, doesn't rank well for Google or LLMs (AI Search), and doesn't give families a reason to choose you over your competitors. Is someone promising you increased website traffic? It could be fake or overseas, neither of which are positively impacting your reputation or bottom line.
Vendors usually operate in a single lane with their own motivations.
Few rarely ask: “Is this the right investment for your business right now? Does this solve the actual problem you’re facing?”
And none are operating as an engaged, vested member of your C-suite. Incite Creative’s CMO² does.
We are not owned by, partnered with, or financially tied to any death care technology platform or product, nor do we take commissions.
We make recommendations based on what you need, not something we sell.
Unlike agencies that operate in a marketing silo, we collaborate with your entire leadership team. We’re not protecting our lane, we’re solving your business problems using marketing as one of several levers.
With Ownership & Operations
With Finance
With HR/Recruitment
With Business Development/Pre-Need Sales
If you are:
We understand your industry’s language, pressures, and values.
*As an added unique bonus to our Latino-serving funeral home clients, Maria Suzette Fuster, CMO, is bilingual, with Spanish as her first language.
We welcome the opportunity to help your funeral home build upon its legacy and continue to deliver its ministry of care.
A fractional CMO provides executive-level marketing leadership without the cost of a full-time chief marketing officer. We integrate with your leadership team (typically 20-40 hours/month), develop strategic marketing plans, oversee execution, manage vendors, and ensure your marketing drives business outcomes, not just activity.
Key difference from agencies: We lead strategy and hold vendors accountable. Agencies execute what you tell them. We advise you on what to do, why it matters to your P&L, and ensure it gets done.
An agency executes. We lead. The agency builds a website; we decide whether it’s even the right next investment. In practice, most clients keep their existing agency or freelance bench, and we sit above it, ensuring the work is the right work and tied to revenue. We’ve fired agencies on behalf of clients. We’ve also doubled retainers because the agency was the right partner and just needed direction.
You will benefit from two senior-level CMOs. Dina Wasmer brings strategic vision, messaging, positioning, brand strategy, and creative direction. Maria Suzetté Fuster provides digital marketing expertise, analytics, performance measurement, and Spanish-bilingual fluency to clients serving diverse markets. Complementary skill sets. One shared commitment to your success.
For specialized work—paid media buys, advanced SEO, video production, technology implementation—we use vetted resources (non-commission-based) or coordinate with your existing vendors. You’ll always know who’s doing what, who’s accountable, and how it connects to your business goals.
Often, yes, and they’re usually relieved when we arrive.
Your marketing coordinator was hired to execute. They weren’t hired to argue with you about cremation pricing strategy or to coach a funeral director through a community partnership conversation. We give them an executive partner so they can do their best work instead of being pulled in ten directions.
Yes, and it’s some of the most rewarding work we do. Our team includes a native Spanish speaker, and we have direct experience with culturally specific funeral services across the Mid-Atlantic.
Most clients see ROI within 6 months through a combination of revenue growth, cost reduction, and increased business value.