Tim Szczesny
Owner & Funeral Director
DeMunn Funeral Home and Cremation Service
Binghamton, NY
Average call volume: 150 calls/year
Your time is best spent serving families, not updating your funeral home’s website or figuring out what to post on social media. However, while you may struggle to find extra time to work on your funeral home’s marketing, it’s still an important part of your business that helps you connect with families.
Tim Szczesny experienced this challenge firsthand.
When he took over his parents’ business, DeMunn Funeral Home and Cremation Service, he quickly realized that outdated systems and inconsistent marketing were holding them back. Tim knew he needed a solution that would bring consistency and modern marketing strategies, freeing him to focus on serving families while ensuring his funeral home could reach more people in their community.
That’s when Tim partnered with Funeral Directors Life (FDL). Now, Tim and his team have the consistency, brand recognition, and professional image they need to reach new families while maintaining their great reputation.
“FDL brings us new, creative marketing ideas I would have never considered, and those ideas perform well,” Tim said. “The funeral profession changes so much, and our marketing has to keep up. FDL helps us do that.”
Keep reading to learn how FDL helped DeMunn Funeral Home connect with more families in its community.
My parents believed we could handle everything in-house. They worked incredibly hard, but sometimes, harder than they needed to. We had no social media presence, and our website was outdated. We were posting on social media, but we weren’t consistent and didn’t have a strategy.
Since taking over as owner, my approach has been to stay in my lane. I need to be out in the community serving families, while FDL handles the back-end marketing work.
The biggest improvement has been consistency. People often ask how I stay so consistent on social media, but the truth is, I’m not. It’s FDL keeping us consistent. They bring us new, creative marketing ideas I would have never considered, and they perform well. The funeral profession changes so much, and our marketing has to keep up. FDL helps us do that.
Our website is now one of our strongest assets. Before, I didn’t know what I was doing. I can embalm a body and make funeral arrangements, but I can’t build a website. FDL took our website and elevated it with content families are looking for. Now, families are more familiar with our funeral home and staff, which gives them peace of mind.
Families want to know who we are and where their loved one is going. Having professional photos and videos makes our funeral home look like the right choice for families and gives them more confidence in our funeral home. Plus, the AV team was professional, easy to talk to, and captured incredible content.
At first, I thought aftercare was gimmicky. But now, I see it as one of the most important things we do. Aftercare helps us continue serving families beyond the funeral, and that makes a huge difference. Even a simple text message or email shows families they’re not just a number in a file cabinet, which is a huge benefit. It sets us apart.
Absolutely. Marketing is all about consistency, and the quarterly reports give us that. It gives me a lot of trust in FDL, because I get to see exactly what I’m paying for. I can see what’s working, what’s not, and understand why.
FDL has helped us become more consistent and up-to-date. These days, consumers Google everything. So, how does someone new to the area know which funeral home to use? They Google it. That’s why marketing strategies are so important. Partnering with FDL has given us consistency, brand awareness, and modernization. It’s been a great tool and a great partnership.