The largest generation in America’s history is approaching the end of life differently than those that came before, opting for cremation at ever-increasing rates. They’re turning away from traditional burial both because it’s evermore expensive and because it's harmful to the environment.

Enter Better Place Forests, a Series C startup, offering a sustainable alternative to cemeteries. Customers purchase a living tree in a private forest, where their ashes can be returned to nature when they die. The purchase of that tree not only provides a beautiful place for family and friends to remember those they’ve lost, it also protects and conserves forestland for future generations.

Why choose Better Place Forests?

Better Place Forests had positioned itself as the “innovative, new, more affordable” alternative to traditional end-of-life options, but research showed that in the end-of-life space, their offering was neither the newest nor most radically innovative (think: mushroom burial suits!). Nor was it the cheapest. Memorial trees start at $5K and can cost upwards of $100K for the most desirable trees in the most desirable locations. When compared with traditional cemetery burial, a memorial tree might be more affordable in some cases, but the price point still caused sticker shock for potential customers, most of whom were actually considering the lowest cost alternative: scattering ashes in the wind or keeping them in an urn on the mantle.

The question our team had to answer: If the alternative is basically free, why would someone choose a memorial tree in a Better Place Forest?

A surprisingly traditional alternative

Qualitative and quantitative research revealed that customers who ultimately chose Better Place Forests did so for some surprisingly traditional reasons. They wanted a place and a plan — a protected, permanent place where people could visit and remember them and a plan that wouldn’t leave loved ones with the emotional and practical burden of handling their cremains.

They were attracted to Better Place Forests more specifically because it also offered a meaningful opportunity to do good for the environment and reconnect with nature at the end of life. In short, customers chose Better Place Forests not because it was innovative and affordable but because it was meaningful and natural.

Recasting death as a natural part of life

Testing in every growth and marketing channel proved what we heard in our conversations with customers — people were willing to start the conversation about their end-of-life plans because they loved the idea of doing good for nature while also doing good for their loved ones.

Instead of starting the conversation with death, we started with life — the ever-evolving cycle of life in nature and in the lives of our customers. We stopped leading with end-of-life value propositions — “give the gift of a plan” — and started leading with conservation — “protect a forest with a living memorial.” We also ceased the heavy use of cutesy digital illustrations meant to represent natural elements and introduced more sophisticated imagery of real flora and fauna as well as immersive video experiences and content-rich maps, guides, and signage for in-forest visits. Giving potential customers this more authentic experience of the forest delivered an almost immediate 70% lift in conversion.

We also learned that the sensitive nature of this purchase and the $5-$100K price point meant leads needed an extensive nurture period. They required sufficient time to understand the product and experience we offered and to build trust in us as a company. With these needs in mind, we refreshed the integrated campaigns that were sent to new leads, removing immediate drive-to-purchase messages and discount offers. We were more judicious when we offered promotions, sharing them only when a discount was merited. And we customized our storytelling to reflect our deeper understanding of our customer, primarily women over 65 who were leading the end-of-life decision process in their families.

We gently recast death as a natural part of life, developing rich stories around our forests and customers, ones that brought to life the true meaning and benefit of purchasing a memorial tree. 

Fresh creative that connects with customers

We fed our learnings into fresh creative in multiple marketing channels and diversified our channel mix to support the long nurture period. The results were clear — the updated brand connected powerfully with customers.

The company's first-ever linear TV campaign achieved a 50% increase in branded search in our target markets. Across platforms, the new approach delivered a 34% increase in click rate and reduced opt-outs by 11%. And though the nurture period was longer, it ultimately proved to be 86% more effective at driving to conversion, resulting in 2x yearly customer growth and 2.6x total revenue growth, while setting records for highest-ever average order value (AOV).