Our first priority in October was finalizing our strategic pillars and setting outcomes and priorities between now and the end of Q1 ‘22. The following strategic pillars are the answer to the question:
“What are the most strategic battlefields we need to win on between now and March 2022?”
VALUE
Have a perfectly defined offering in our messaging, pricing, sales process and website structure for both pre-need and at-need.
Success looks like: complete clarity and decisions made around exactly what we are offering, how we offer it and our unique edge.
Examples of Minimum Viable Tests(MVT) and outcomes we’ve outlined and started working on:
- Decisions on pre-need pricing
- MVT: Offering our own in-house OAP (out of area protection) to increase gross margin
- MVT: At-need packaged pricing
- MVT: Dynamic pricing in multi-step form
- Develop and ship an after-care program
- Consumer facing web app
VIABILITY
Optimize and improve everything on the unit economic front, from acquisition all the way to fulfillment for both pre-need and at-need so we’re a viability machine ready to scale to dozens of more markets.
Success looks like: launching 2-3 additional markets with improved unit economics(AOV, CAC:LTV, Gross Margin, Top-line Revenue, etc.) quarter over quarter.
Examples of Minimum Viable Tests(MVT) and outcomes we’ve outlined and started working on:
- 100 pre-need policies funded a month
- Increase cases per month to market maturity level(40+) in both AZ and UT
- Increase average at-need LTV 30% to $1,200
- MVT: Selling pre-need through educational webinars
- MVT: Selling pre-need through long-form humor video ads
- Using after-care on at-need families to generate pre-need leads
EVANGELISM
Break into the industry telling our unique story to both families, future customers and social workers how and why we’re different.
Success looks like: Increasing referrals QoQ from social workers and evangelists. Devoting a substantial budget to content creation and organic leads generation and finding the right person to lead the marketing charge.
Examples of Minimum Viable Tests(MVT) and outcomes we’ve outlined and started working on:
- MVT: Hospice follow up program
- Hire right person to begin community outreach efforts with social workers
- Achieve 20 hospice referrals a month in all markets
- Defined brand book
- Begin shipping value-add content monthly
BIG FUNERAL
Declare war against Big Funeral in our messaging, marketing tactics and competitive offering.
Success looks like: the industry knows we’re coming for them and can clearly see how we will win by doing what is best for the consumer.
Examples of Minimum Viable Tests(MVT) and outcomes we’ve outlined and started working on:
- MVT: price comparison landing pages for each of our competitors in each market
- Local ranking for “low cost cremation“ in top three on Google in each market
- 100 5-star reviews on credible platforms (TrustPilot, Google Local, Facebook)
- Published manifesto taking on Big Funeral
FUNDRAISING
Tee up a seed round (target: $3mm) with value-add investors once metrics merit 10+ market expansion.
Success looks like: List of 30+ top-tier funds that we’re meeting with and keeping updated on our progress that are aligned with our vision and growth goals. Close a seed round of at least $3mm in early Spring 2022.
Examples of outcomes we’ve outlined and started working on:
- $1.5mm run-rate by end of March 2022
- Launch one new market by years end 2021 and an additional in Q1 2021
- Well defined launch and grow playbook for each new market
- 80% of the above “success looks like:” executed and accomplished
- Nurtured list of interested investors organized and ready to be pitched