MemoryShare: Not Just Another Funeral Streaming Service
When the pandemic hit, many deathcare professionals scrambled to install a livestreaming solution. These days, though, a funeral streaming service doesn’t have to be a knee-jerk, any-service-will-do decision. It’s an essential investment in your organization’s future. Your families expect and deserve great video, and you deserve a mutually beneficial partnership with your streaming service provider.
That’s what you get with MemoryShare. MemoryShare offers unprecedented experience, straightforward setup, exceptional quality, and a benefit most funeral homes have never imagined or received from a streaming service — more website traffic, higher SEO rankings, and more calls per year.
Videographer + Software Developer = A Match Made in Streaming Heaven
When families need funeral services, they seek out a director. Likewise, when you need a livestreaming solution, logic dictates that you find a company with expertise and experience producing video and developing streaming software.
MemoryShare co-founders Kyle Fogarty, a videographer, and Shane White, a software developer, share decades of specialized education and professional experience in their respective fields. They came together to create a video platform specifically for the deathcare profession in 2012.
“In those days, no one in our customer base was livestreaming,” Fogarty recalls. “People would just record services with a camcorder and upload them to us, and we’d help put them on their obituary pages.”
Tested and Enhanced By Deathcare Professionals
To test and refine their product, Fogarty and White partnered with Jay Dietz, Vice President of Operations of the Vertin Company, one of the largest privately held, family-owned funeral home companies in the Midwest. Dietz let the team set up MemoryShare (then known as Midwest Streams) in several of Vertin’s funeral homes.
“Jay Dietz is the reason MemoryShare is what it is today,” Fogary says. “Vertin’s directors gave us so much advice and told us what they wanted to see. Shane and I would go back and write lines of code to execute the features they needed.”
And therein lies one of the many advantages of partnering with MemoryShare — they have the talent and agility to develop and deploy new features without having to bring in a third party. Fogarty credits directors’ suggestions for many of the service’s recent feature updates, like an automated intro video and branding options.
Not Tech Savvy? No Problem
Although Fogarty and White are gifted with superior technology skills, they understand that most people who use their services are not. So they’ve made MemoryShare as simple as possible to operate using a device you’re already familiar with — without sacrificing an iota of quality.
“The big thing for us was recognizing that most people have a phone in their pocket or a tablet,” Fogarty says. “That’s why we made a mobile version of MemoryShare first; it was the lowest barrier to entry. If you’ve ever recorded a video on your phone, you can stream with the MemoryShare app.”
You only need one mobile device to produce amazing videos with MemoryShare, but if you have already invested in in-house camera systems, Fogarty’s team can work with those, too.
“We’re the only product that lets you record with your in-house camera system, then pick up the app and head out to the cemetery to resume the stream,” he says.
MemoryShare records services even as you’re livestreaming, so when you’re done you can upload the recording to your website. You’ll have access to those videos as long as you’re a MemoryShare subscriber.
But Wait … There’s So Much More!
Over the last few years, most deathcare professionals have learned the importance of search engine optimization, or SEO. Like it or not, more and more families find their preneed or at-need funeral home by searching the internet — and when they search, you need to be the one that consistently shows up at the top of their results.
MemoryShare can help you achieve that ever-important goal. Unlike other streaming services that redirect viewers from your site to theirs (often so they can sell your visitors other products), MemoryShare videos are embedded into your website. That means your website, not the streaming provider’s, benefits from the traffic … and it’s the kind of traffic you really want to see return — over and over — to your site.
“If I’m a funeral home, I want to become a household name in my market,” Fogarty says. “We see people coming back to watch videos year after year. They know they can come back over and over to your site to watch their family’s service. Over time we start to see increases in preneed leads and increases in sympathy product transactions. When we embed the video on an obituary page, those obituaries have higher sympathy transactions as well.”
“Every time you click ‘Record,’ it’s good for your business,’” he continues. “This traffic coming to your site will ultimately become one of the most powerful, valuable tools for your funeral home. It’s one of the best ways to capture and retain more families.”
Think about it: One preneed contract or at-need service booked from traffic you’ve gained from your embedded video could pay for years of MemoryShare subscription services! If you’re ready to replace or start using a streaming service, reach out to MemoryShare first to learn more about their options and benefits.
