Best Practice for existing business adding services

[jonthefellow]

Hello all, happy holidays!

As we approach the new year, I've been thinking about business development, and where to concentrate my energies. My business has always been marketed as a residential remodeling business, but I've been a licensed electrician for a number of years. Looking back at my numbers for 2023, I realize that the electrical work ends up bringing in more money for less time than any other type of project. Especially as people transition to electric cars and green energy, needing chargers, service upgrades, solar installs etc seems like a good thing to market. I haven't really marketed any of these services online as of yet, mostly just getting this sort of work via word of mouth from existing customers, local realtors etc.

So my main question is: what's the best way to approach this? I have reasonably well-developed content on my website; not 'professionally' written necessarily, but articles that I think are genuinely helpful rather than the myriad of article-mill-grade websites I compete with in my area. ALL of that content revolves around specific aspects of residential bath and kitchen remodeling. I'm generally terrible at staying current on social/Google business, but I'm trying to be better this year.

So, when looking at adding electrical to the portfolio, is one of these a clearly better approach?

1. Start a new DBA, new web presence, new Google Business etc.
2. Add to current web site, perhaps "electrical division" of the company, something like that, then develop existing local channels to include electrical work


thanks for your help.
jon

 

[GoLocal]

I'm not as expert at SEO as most of the people here but I am a branding and marketing expert and I would definitely not combine them. Electrical can be scaled differently, marketed differently, and frankly probably has more potential than the other side. I would never dilute or tether the progress of one unique business to another unless there's a clear synergy like IKEA restaurants. Godspeed.

 

[scs101]

Hello all, happy holidays!

As we approach the new year, I've been thinking about business development, and where to concentrate my energies. My business has always been marketed as a residential remodeling business, but I've been a licensed electrician for a number of years. Looking back at my numbers for 2023, I realize that the electrical work ends up bringing in more money for less time than any other type of project. Especially as people transition to electric cars and green energy, needing chargers, service upgrades, solar installs etc seems like a good thing to market. I haven't really marketed any of these services online as of yet, mostly just getting this sort of work via word of mouth from existing customers, local realtors etc.

So my main question is: what's the best way to approach this? I have reasonably well-developed content on my website; not 'professionally' written necessarily, but articles that I think are genuinely helpful rather than the myriad of article-mill-grade websites I compete with in my area. ALL of that content revolves around specific aspects of residential bath and kitchen remodeling. I'm generally terrible at staying current on social/Google business, but I'm trying to be better this year.

So, when looking at adding electrical to the portfolio, is one of these a clearly better approach?

1. Start a new DBA, new web presence, new Google Business etc.
2. Add to current web site, perhaps "electrical division" of the company, something like that, then develop existing local channels to include electrical work


thanks for your help.
jon

Hi Jon,

Good question. So in my opinion, I would actually do a combination of #1 and #2.

I'd create a new DBA, new domain solely focused on your electrician services since there is a lot of potential and search volume (I wouldn't split the focus between the home remodeling services and electricial services), and I would also create a new GBP profile since you will get the most bang for your buck with a GBP that utilizes electrical in the business name and has the whole profile and GBP categories geared toward the electrical services. And then you could use the website link from the GBP to point to your new domain.

I'd also though add to the current web site highlighting the "electrical division" of the company in strategic places such as the footer and remodeling pages that mention electrical services, then link out to the new domain and specific services mentioned. Creating local channels to include electrical work would be a great idea as social media can help bring in referral traffic to your new domain.

 

[JoyHawkins]

I think it all depends on how much qualified traffic you are currently getting to your site. If you get a new domain, you can get the benefit of having a keyword rich one and you can redirect any pages that had links to them on the old site and a lot of the authority should pass over. This only isn't a good idea if your old site ranks really well and gets a lot of good/qualified traffic. I'm going to assume that's not true.

Your domain and DBA would definitely want the word "electrician" in it. That's what I call the money keyword in that industry. It has the most search volume and qualified lead potential.

 

[jonthefellow]

Thanks for the replies all! Sounds like a "new" business is the way forward.

 

[GoLocal]

Thanks for the replies all! Sounds like a "new" business is the way forward.

I just finished doing a bunch of work for a gigantic electrical company. One thing I would suggest is immediately create basic personnas for your target audience to keep your scope ultra-tight. Try to hit 80% of the pack 80% of the time to start rather than trying to tick all boxes.

"Boots and shoes" was the system I designed for EECOL but yours might look something more like "House or Office", meaning that all your customers can be split into two types of people — those contacting you from a house and those contacting you from an office. Then you can create sticky content for each "residential and commercial" rather than one-size-fits-all-but-hooks-none.

This might not apply in detail but you get my point, cast a wide net directly on target then fine tune as you go. Electrical is a great industry poised for tremendous growth, you're going to do great if you stick to solid fundamentals.