How Do You Implement a PBM Strategy?

There’s a new sheriff in town (go ahead, say it to yourself in your best old-time western voice) when it comes to marketing. You have probably started hearing the term Pillar-Based Marketing (PBM) making its way through the grapevine in the form of podcasts, books, social media and more. But what is PBM really, and more importantly, how do you develop a PBM strategy? Let’s get started!

What is a PBM Strategy?

A Pillar-Based Marketing strategy is a new methodology and approach to marketing. Instead of account-based marketing which looks to market and convert a set list of prospects, PBM looks to drive growth across organic and paid traffic by leveraging the power of SEO and human psychology. By looking at what consumers are searching for on Google and breaking it down into clusters and networks, you can begin to understand exactly what your target audience is asking and wants to know. This allows you to align your marketing with your audience’s thinking.

Pillar-Based Marketing begins with the idea of a pillar topic. The pillar topic is the main idea of what your brand wants to become an expert on. For example, if you provide COVID-19 tests, your pillar topic might be “COVID-19 Testing.” It’s a broad subject, and one that has lots of people asking questions related to it like “What are the different COVID-19 test types?” and “Where can I get tested?”

We will break down pillar topics and strategy a little later, but before we do, it’s important to understand what sets PBM apart.

How is Pillar Based Marketing Different?

One of the best ways to understand the difference between PBM and any other kind of marketing is to look at the “true north” or end objective of each. In ABM for example, the true north is securing the business of those companies on your short list of leads. In Pillar-Based Marketing, true north is page one of search engines.

In ABM you would say “Ok here is person X, I want to market to them specifically.” With PBM you are saying “my target audience are these kinds of people, I want to understand how they all think and become an authority on my subject so I can answer their questions.” The way you do that is with a pillar-based approach.

How Do I Make a PBM Plan? What are Some PBM Tactics?

To make a PBM plan, you need to take a few things into consideration. First of all you need to really understand what you want to become an expert on. You also want to make sure whatever that topic is, it has the potential to drive hungry and qualified traffic. After that, the process will look something like this.

1. Selecting a Pillar topic- Like we mentioned earlier, this is what you will be focusing on the entire time in PBM. All of your content will relate back to this topic. It should be broad enough to drive heavy traffic.
2. Breaking Down a Pillar Content Strategy- The heart of PBM comes down to three forms of content: pillar pages, sub-pillars, and supporting blogs. The pillar page is your main topic and should be around 3,000 words establishing a breadth of knowledge on the subject. Your sub-pillars are the most important and popular questions your audience is asking underneath the umbrella of your pillar topic. These pieces should be around 1,500 - 2,000 words. Supporting blogs look to answer the niche and nuanced questions underneath pillars and sub-pillars to round out your content as a comprehensive guide on your pillar topic. Of course, every piece of content should include keywords and phrases and provide relevant insight and information to the topic.
3. Creating Effective Landing pages and CTAs- Aside from educating your audience, the goal of your content is to inspire action from your readers. Clicking onto a PBM landing page, for example a contact us or subscribe now page on your website, can help turn traffic into outcomes. Speaking of outcomes, now is as good a time as ever to mention effective PBM strategies lead to:
   1. Lower cost-per-click paid searches
   2. Higher domain authority making it easier to rank higher on search engines with new content
   3. Increased qualified leads
   4. Lower cost per lead
   5. And a more tangible ROI for things like content marketing and SEO which have been notoriously difficult to quantify in the past
4. Publish and Link Your Content- After you’ve written your content, you will want to publish it in batches. You will also want to make sure you link all of your blogs and sub-pillars back to your pillar. That way, on the backend, Google reads all of your content as related and able to answer many of your audience's questions with genuine content.
5. Update Your Content- PBM is not a set-it-and-forget-it approach. For content to remain relevant, true, and high-ranking, it is important to go in and update it every once in a while. This can include updating the actual information, or just introducing some more current keywords.

How Do I Start PBM Marketing?

Feeling like you want to start PBM, but also feeling like it sounds a little overwhelming? We can help. At DemandJump, we are the industry leader and more than just a Pillar-Based Marketing platform. We help you with every single step of the PBM process, from deciding on topics, writing content, conducting keyword research, and more.

Truthfully, the reason you found this blog is because we use the same tactics and strategies that we discuss in our blog, at DemandJump University and on our website. If you’re ready to land on page one, contact us today.