PIMS (Propane Insider Marketing Service) is a founder-led managed marketing department for multi-office propane delivery operators. It replaces the marketing-hire-versus-generic-agency decision with a propane-specialized service led personally by Bill Stomp. Five pillars run on a monthly cadence: Google Business Profile optimization, citation/listings sync, review velocity, vendor blog, and a monthly customer report. Pricing scales per office, is refundable in the first 30 days, and is price-locked for 24 months at the founding-cohort rate.
The five pillars of PIMS
Each pillar is a recurring monthly motion, not a one-time project. PIMS is what runs in the background between the demo and the customer's next deal.
1. Google Business Profile optimization
GBP is the single highest-leverage local-SEO surface for a propane operator. Most operators have a half-populated profile with inconsistent NAP (name / address / phone), zero services listed, no recent posts, and no Q&A. PIMS audits each location's GBP, fills the gaps, posts weekly in the operator's voice, answers seeded questions, and monitors the profile for unauthorized edits.
2. Citations and listings sync
Every location's NAP needs to be consistent across the major directories — Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing, Yellow Pages, the propane-industry directories. Inconsistencies tank local-pack rankings. PIMS uses an automated sync layer plus manual review on the directories that matter for propane buyers and the insurance-pricing engines.
3. Review velocity
Reviews are the second-highest local-SEO signal after GBP completeness. PIMS handles request automation (text + email to recent customers), response templates for both positive and negative reviews, and review-gating compliant with Google's terms of service. The target is one new five-star review every two weeks per location, sustained.
4. Vendor blog
Two blog posts per month per location, published to the operator's site in the operator's voice. PIMS handles topic selection (propane price action, safety reminders, seasonal prep, local community angles), drafting, editing, and publishing. Posts are written for propane buyers, not for ranking — but they rank because they're propane-specific and locally anchored.
5. Monthly customer report
The end-of-month deliverable. A real PDF that shows GBP impression deltas, ranking movement for the operator's target keyword set, citation health, review-volume change, blog post performance, and a plain-English "what we did and what's next" section. Bill personally reviews every report before send.
Pricing — founding partner cohort
PIMS pricing scales per office and is locked at three tiers. The founding-partner cohort (C1, first 15 customers) carries a 24-month price lock:
| Tier | Offices | Founding-cohort price (C1) | Price-lock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | 1 office | $400 / month | 24 months |
| Multi | 2–5 offices | $400 base + $200 / office — $600 / $800 / $1,000 / $1,200 / month (2 / 3 / 4 / 5 offices) | 24 months |
| Enterprise | 6+ offices | $2,498 / month flat | 24 months |
A 3-office operator pays $400 base + 2 × $200 = $800 / month. Setup fees ($500 / $1,500 / $5,000 respectively) are waived through the first two cohorts. The 30-day refund is no-questions — first month is treated as a trial period in accounting.
How PIMS compares to the two alternatives operators usually consider
Most operators evaluating PIMS are choosing between three options: hire an in-house marketing person, hire a generic local-SEO agency, or sign up for PIMS. Here is what each costs and what each delivers for a propane operator specifically.
| What you compare | In-house marketing hire | Generic local-SEO agency | PIMS |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost (3-office operator) | $75K+ salary + benefits + tools (~$8K–$10K / month fully loaded) | $2,500-$5,000 / month | $800 / month (C1 Multi, 3 offices) |
| Time to first deliverable | 60-90 days (hiring + onboarding) | 30-60 days | 2 weeks (Day 1 kickoff, Day 7 preview, Day 30 first report) |
| Propane-industry knowledge | None on Day 1 | None on Day 1 | Built on 25 years of propane operations |
| GBP / listings / reviews / blog | Bottlenecked by one person | Generic playbook | Propane-specialized, integrated |
| Accountability | Manager owns it (you) | Account manager you'll meet quarterly | Bill personally reviews each monthly report |
| Industry credibility transfer | None | None | Endorsements from Aegis, Emaxx, Nationwide cascade to your audience |
What Southwest Propane is doing differently
Southwest Propane is the first PIMS founding partner. The case study shows the starting line — what their Google Business Profile, citation health, review velocity, and blog cadence looked like before PIMS started. Real lift numbers will land on the case study in subsequent monthly reports; the page deliberately starts in placeholder mode rather than fabricate them up front.
How to start
Book a 30-minute conversation directly with Bill at propane-insider.vercel.app/pims. The demo walks through the PIMS landing page (five pillars + pricing), the Southwest case study, and a real audit of your own current GBP and ranking state before the call ends. If it fits, you take a founding-partner slot in the current cohort. If not, no follow-up sandwich.
PIMS is one of Propane Insider's product lines — the marketing-services arm. The operator-side software portfolio includes TankSpotter (Field Worker OS), FuelSite.pro (modern websites), Custom Fuel App (white-label customer ordering), and BlinkFuel (counter-seasonal mobile fueling). Operators who run TankSpotter and PIMS together get the strongest credibility cascade — the Aegis / Emaxx / Nationwide endorsements of TankSpotter compound trust in the PIMS-managed listings and reviews.