Diletta+Scapinello

diletta's page

media type="custom" key="12739108"


 * Prezi link**: []

** Global **** Entrepreneurship graded project **

**__ New Business Idea: MyHouseKeeper.it __**

For this project I thought of developing the following business idea:

** MyHouseKeeper.it ** is a website offering an online service which helps people for all maintenance issues in their houses in exchange for an annual fee (around 150 €). A technician skilled in home maintenance, is assigned to each customer, for example customers can address questions about any topic relating to the maintenance of the house to their personal technician.

The service includes:


 * An email counseling service for any maintenance issue; this service is really problem solving oriented and time saving, because customers can get the solution to their problem directly from the technician instead of looking for the answer on Internet.
 * An emergency call-center, available 24 hour per day.
 * An annual inspection of the house by your personal technician, in order to find out possible future problems before they occur.
 * Finally, through this online service, members are able to get specialized technicians (plumbers, painters ect.) which guarantee the resolution of faults or breakdowns with a lower market price. Customers can count on a reliable and trusted network of technicians. Moreover, there is also an after sales assistance service in case of complaints.

My target audience could be business people or university students because both these categories have little time for issues concerning house maintenance.

It is my intention to launch this online service in Italy, where nothing similar exists, but I will refer to an English version of the website.

**__ Competitor analysis __**

I found only one website with a similar service, [|www.uwhuismeester.info]. It is a Dutch website, so it is not a direct competitor. We can analyze its SEO strategy in order to make it better.

** Competitor metatagging **

According to the metatags analyzer tool on [|www.scrubtheweb.com], [|www.uwhuismester.info] website metatagging is quite poor. In fact, its score is only 50/100. In details, we can say that:

Uw Huismeester : the title tag is made up of only 14 characters.

 : the description tag only refers to the fact that you can have a house maintenance contract for 15€ per month.

The main weakness in its metatagging strategy is the total lack of keywords. This is a significant mistake because we know that keywords are used to suggest to search engines the most important terms through which the websites can be found.

** Alexa’s analysis **

The Alexa Internet Inc. is a U.S. subsidiary of Amazon.com that deals with statistics on Internet traffic. Alexa created a special rank whose value is calculated using complex algorithms based on the number of visitors. It is therefore a good indicator on the assessment of the popularity of a particular page / site.

According to Alexa’s rank, our competitor stands only at 3,496,538 in the total ranking. We can underline that the Dutch website is not certified by Alexa, it means that has not been installed an Alexa code snippet on site that allows Alexa to directly measure the website’s traffic.

According to Alexa’s information, the top queries driving traffic to www.uwhuismeester.info from search engines are :


 * Huismeester 52%
 * Stand by service 37%
 * Central heating sysyem/annual maintenance contract 10%

We can see that this website is not so easy to find and that it works mostly on company name. In fact, using ‘Google.nl’ as a search engine and posting “huismeester” to search, you will see that it ranked on the eighth position. If you try with “stand by service”, you will see nothing related to our competitor’s website at least in the first four pages. No significant result will be obtained even posting “house maintenance”, which should be a keyword. It probably happens because no keywords are included in the metatags.

** Backlinks **

According to Alexa, the number of links to uwhuismeester.info are only 14. This information is not really relevant considering that links that were not seen by users in the Alexa traffic panel are not counted.

On the other hand, also using the tool from [|www.linkdiagnosis.com], the final result is only 38 links to the considered website.

We can’t find [|www.uwhuismeester.info] neither in DMOZ nor Wikipedia.

In conclusion, it can be said that our competitor SEO strategy is not very effective because the website is really difficult to find unless you already know it.

**__ SEO Strategy for MyHousekeeper.it __**

** Metatags and text relevance **

Firstly, we should find the right keywords tag in order to catch the largest amount of people who could be interested in our business. Usually, on Internet we can find two kinds of websites related with house maintenance topics: blogs or websites which give people suggestions or websites which sell technical assistance, sending technicians directly in people’s houses.

Assuming that this is a new kind of service that join and develop both these aspects, but that people may not know, we should choose keywords which could attract people looking for suggestions and people looking for a plumber, rather than an electrician.

According to this argument and after checking for trends in Google Adwords and Google Trends, the following words have been identified. For people looking for suggestion:


 * ** Keyword ** || ** Competition ** || ** Global monthly searches ** ||
 * Home maintenance || Medium || 90,500 ||
 * House blog || Low || 301,000 ||
 * Housekeeping || Medium || 1,000,000 ||
 * Housekeeper || Low || 4,500 ||

For people who need the intervention of a technician:


 * ** Keyword ** || ** Competition ** || ** Global monthly searches ** ||
 * Home repairs || Medium || 90,500 ||
 * Handyman || Medium || 823,000 ||
 * Handyman services || Medium || 74,000 ||

It is also important, defining an effective Meta title and Meta description tag because they help to understand the theme of the web page. Moreover, having keywords into the Meta title and description tag could improve the ability to rank for your targeted words. We should not write more than 65 characters for the title and 150-155 for the description because Google pays attention only to this portion.

Your housekeeper, the first home maintenance on-line service and even beyond



** Linking strategy **

A linking strategy is a methodology that builds appropriate inbound links to a website and helps to achieve overall business objectives.Having many incoming links to your site can bring two advantages:


 * an increase of visits, with a consequent increase of the potential customer base;
 * better positioning in search engine optimization (SEO).

** Blogs **

A significant contribution comes from blogs, in fact more and more people seem to trust suggestions of perfect strangers. For this reason, it is useful try to get positive reviews from bloggers that deal with related topics. For example an interesting blog that can be linked is:

** suggerimentiperlacasa.blogspot.com **


 * it gives tips and practical advice that help people to solve questions and problems related to housing and furnishings;
 * its position in Alexa traffic rank in Italy is 50,777;
 * I chose this blog because people who are looking for advice in this website could be more easily interested in the service proposed by MyHouseKeeper.it

** Relevant sites and portals **

Moreover, it is important that also others websites which deal with similar issues speak about us. An example could be:

** Lavorincasa.it, ** which in Italy is quite popular in fact we find it 663 in the Alexa traffic rank.

In order to obtain links from blogs and websites:


 * we can try to write directly to bloggers to make us known;
 * we can propose a link exchange with interested sites, so we talk about them if they talk about us;
 * anyway, the best thing to do to get noticed and make others speak about us is to offer a good service!

**__ PPC solution: Google Adwords __**

The more effective solution for a PPC advert for this kind of service in Italy, is Google Adwords because Google is the search engine which Italian people use for almost all their researches (last data show a preference of 94%).

** Target audience ** : through the Google Adwords campaign we want to reach business people or generally speaking, people who have little time to worry about house maintenance issues.

An example of ad for Google Adwords is the following:

**__ Online Home Maintenance __**

Get easily advice & repair information.

Get trusted technician to your doorstep!

www.MyHousekeeper.it

As **keywords** we can use the same we chose for the metatags. In fact we follow the same argument and try to catch the attention of both, people who need fast and effective suggestions and people who need specialized technicians. For the same reason, in the **description lines** we present both aspects of the service.

As for the **destination URL**, it should be linked to an appropriate landing page. Often the website home page offers too general information which will not be relevant enough for someone who clicks on the ad. For this reason, it is important that in the landing page potential customers can find:


 * the main features of the service ( email counseling service, 24 available call-center, repair-service of trusted technicians at lower prices);
 * the cost of the service;
 * all contacts to request additional information;
 * the form to register on-line

**__ PPC Solution: Facebook Advert __**

** Target: ** in order to catch the attention of university students, it is worthwhile developing also a PPC ad on Facebook because it is a matter of fact that 96% of all university students are on Facebook.

An example of an effective Facebook ad could be:

** Title (max 25 characters): ** Cheap Home Maintenance

** Body (max 135 characters): ** Tired of loosing time for House maintenance issues? For less than 13 € per month we offer immediate suggestions and lower market prices for every technical interventions!

To locate the target to target the advertising, on Facebook we find several demographic and psychographic filters. It is useful for our goals to define:

** Location ** : Italy

** Age ** : 18-25

** Education ** : College

The landing page must be customized to boost the interest of student people. For example should be highlight, as it has been done in the ad body:


 * the low price of the annual fee
 * the saving of time.

Finally, in order to keep people attention on the landing page and try to create an emotional reaction, it may be a good idea showing them the benefits of the service through testimonials or personal customers stories.

**__ Suggestion for Social Media Marketing __**

In my opinion the kind of online service we want to launch is suitable to a Social media presence. Social Media can be used as a Marketing tool, in order to make know this new business idea and in order to build a relationship with customers. Since the service we offered is basically a mailing counseling service, it is really important get positive feedbacks from our members. Obviously the Social Media Strategy is only a mean, if the service is bad even the best Social Media Strategy will be useless.

Social Media presence of our competitor ([|www.uwhuismeester.info] ) has been briefly analyzed.

** Youtube ** : on the website we find a link to some videos which present the service offered in English and Dutch. In my opinion the tags are too general (maintenance, electrician, plumber ) and in fact it has only 3000 views for the Dutch version and around 150 for the English one.

** Twitter: ** the website has an account on Twitter, but you cannot reach it directly from the website.

** Facebook: ** there is also a Facebook page, but it is not advertised on the main website, you can find it only posting “uw huismeester” on Google. The content of the page is quite poor, in it you can find only posts from the site administrator.

** Social Media Marketing for MyHouseKeeper.it **

Firstly, we should use Social Media in order to introduce this service to our target audience because this it is something new and many people may not know it.

** Youtube **

Recent researches show that the vast majority of the companies love Youtube as a Marketing tool. In fact it is an effective tool to promote and explain the main features of the service, but we must pay attention in tagging the promotional videos in the correct way. If we want to be found from people who are looking for practical information about house maintenance issues on Internet, it may be interesting creating short funny videos which are supposed to explain how to do simple house repairs but indeed they hide a promotional message of the service offered by MyHouseKeeper.it. For instance we tag on Youtube a video with this words “How to fix my locks” and we will catch the attention of people who maybe are annoyed to spend their time looking for this kind of information and would find interesting the maintenance service proposed. Then of course, we can tag promotional videos in a more traditional way using the words chosen for the keywords.

** Del.icio.us **

In my opinion, another Social Media could be useful in order to gain visibility: del.icio.us. It is a handy way for people to store, search and share their favorite Web bookmarks online, instead of on the PC. Whenever you find an interesting site, by clicking on the bookmark, you can bookmark the page and report it to friends. Equally friends can report sites that you consider interesting. Instead of finding only the most universally popular sites Google shows you, on del.icio.us you find the favorite resources of many people.

Once someone mentions you on del.icio.us, by bookmarking your website, it is much easier for people to find you, and you will get new people coming to your website who are already interested in the covered issues. It would be convenient to configure the website to automatically insert a small add to del.icio.us button in the website, in order to make it easy for people vote for you.

** Facebook **

Facebook can be used both as a Marketing tool and to monitor clients satisfaction and feedbacks. It is my belief that it is important to create a Facebook page with a richer content in comparison with the website. It is not useful if it is just a repetition of what is showed on the web. Moreover, the main goal is to include the client as much as possible and gain his confidence because the suggestions we give through email and the annual inspection include the maintenance but also the safety in their own home. For example it could be appealing to upload photos of the technicians who answer to clients questions with a short video in which they present themselves, so that customer knows who actually is answered to his questions, and we can build a trusted relationship. Furthermore, on Facebook page, we may include the pictures sent by customers in which the damages or the faults are portrayed and then show how this service helped in solving their problem. Then of course, events and additional information about issues surrounding house maintenance can be posted.

** Twitter **

Finally, I believe that Twitter is a suitable tool to apply to this kind of maintenance service. It is the best way to get customers feedbacks, suggestions and complaints. Through their tweets, the company can truly understand and react to changes in clients needs. According to the features of MyHouseKeeper.it service, Twitter is useful firstly for the customer care, than for communications, and for discussing specific issues. For example the company could write about breaking business news, post links to sites or articles followers might be interested in and start a discussion. Another idea to boost the Twitter account might be give customers real benefits, by posting exclusive coupons and information about special events.

**__ Mobile presence and apps __**

Nowadays having a mobile presence is fundamental in order to boost the business visibility and performance. In particular for this kind of maintenance service, improving mobile website could be a good idea because customers may need a personal suggestion everywhere, not just when they are at home.

For this reason, we warmly suggest to develop a mobile optimized website version.

Moreover, I suggest some interesting ideas to develop useful mobile apps which can be offered for free to all the customers:


 * Developing a personal agenda where members can note down their own checklists for all the maintenance issues and which remind them all the deadlines for the most important checks; for instance when to check the heating installation rather than the electric or plumbing system.


 * Developing an integrated system that allows customers to take pictures of any faults through their mobile, and send them directly to the technical staff. In this way they can have an immediate and effective feedback of their problems.


 * Creating a database where customers can find the instructions books for the most common household appliances, classified by brand and model, so they can find the information they need easily and without any loss of time. This application can be very useful because often it happens that when you look for an instruction book you never find it.


 * Launching a mobile apps that helps customers find the closer technician who belongs to MyHausKeeper.it network. It may be useful for people in emergency situation, even when they are away from home. It would be interesting to develop it using augmented reality because at least it would catch customers attention.