McMunn’s of Ballybunion is a ten bedroom guesthouse and gastro pub located in Ballybunion, County Kerry. The digital marketing strategy aims to improve McMunn's online presence and increase bookings from their website over a three month period from January to March 2015. It will analyze McMunn's current digital footprint, identify target audiences such as Irish families, English retirees, and American golfers. The strategy will set business objectives, digital goals, marketing channels and metrics to measure success through Google Analytics. It will also propose a budget and implementation approach.

1. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 1
Project Title: Digital Marketing Strategy for McMunn’s of Ballybunion
Presented by: Shane Hickey
Course: Certificate in Digital Marketing
Module: End of Year Project
Lecturer: Eva Perez
Date: 05/01/2015

2. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 2
Table of Contents
1.0) Executive Summary
2.0) Business Overview
2.1) Ballybunion and its Amenities
3.0) Situational Analysis
4.0) Buyer Persona’s
5.0) Business Objectives, Digital Goals and KPI’s
6.0) Digital Channels
6.10) Owned Media
6.11) Website, SEO & Blog
6.12) Email Marketing
6.13) Twitter
6.20) Paid Media
6.21) Google AdWords
6.22) Display
6.22) Facebook Retargeting
7.0) Measurement
7.1) Google Analytics
8.0) Implementation
8.1) Budget
Bibliography
Appendices

3. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 3
1.0) Executive Summary
The purpose of this paper is to develop a three month digital marketing strategy for
McMunn’s of Ballybunion which is a ten bedroom guesthouse and gastro pub located in
Ballybunion in County Kerry. The digital marketing strategy will run from the start of
January to the end of March 2015.
The business objective of the strategy is to improve the online presence of McMunn’s and
lead to increased numbers of bookings from their website. Given that the business is
seasonal it will also allow them to improve the operations side of the business as they will
know in advance the occupancy of the guesthouse and how to more efficiently allocate
resources such as staff.
A review will be undertaken of McMunn’s current digital footprint. A target audience will be
identified with three separate buyer personas. The strategy will have business objectives,
digital goals, channels and KPI’s and through the use of Google Analytics the success of each
tactic can be measured. A budget will also be produced and an indication of how the
strategy will be implemented.

4. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 4
2.0) Business Overview
There are two elements to the McMunn’s business and in some ways they can be treated as
separate entities. The first of these is the Gastro pub which according to their own website
serves the finest food, wines and whiskeys and all are offered in an Irish pub setting with
open fire and traditional music (McMunns, 2014). The second is the ten en suite rooms
which are located above the pub.
2.1) Ballybunion and its Amenities
Ballybunion is a coastal town and seaside resort located in Kerry on the West Coast of
Ireland. The Ballybunion Golf Club was founded in 1893 and is home to two golf courses the
Old course and the Cashen course both of which are links courses, given that they are
located beside the sea (Ballybunion Golf Club, 2014). The Old course is arguably one of the
most famous links courses in the World and has hosted the Irish Open. Bill Clinton also
played here on one of his visits to Ireland and a statue of the former President has been
erected in the town to mark that occasion (Wikipedia, 2014). Ballybunion is located beside
the Atlantic Ocean and has a blue flag beach.

5. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 5
3.0) Situational Analysis
A situation analysis will be undertaken using a SWOT analysis.
Strengths:
 Reasonable presence on Social Media
with 1,247 Facebook likes and 118
Followers on Twitter. Posts and tweets
are frequent.
 Functional website with good quality
resolution images.
 Ranks well organically on Google with
variations of Ballybunion search queries.
 114 restaurant reviews on Trip advisor, 70
of these are Excellent (Tripadvisor, 2014).
 Mobile site available although it is an
exact replica of the desktop version.
 Website is available in Chinese.
 Very good page speed and across desktop
and mobile scoring 80/100 and 79/100
respectively. (Google Page Speed Insights,
2014)
 Kerry was the fourth highest visited
county in 2013 with 877,000 tourists
(Failte Ireland, 2013).
 In 2014 Ireland saw record breaking levels
of US tourists and a return to increased
visitors from Britain (Independent, 2014).
Weaknesses:
 Poor Social Media engagement levels.
 No email sign up facility on the website.
 No blog.
 Form to book a room is a standard HTML
form with no indication of availability or
room rate.
 No profile on Executive Chef Greg Ryan.
 Restaurant menu only available in
Microsoft Word.
 Social media icons need to be listed such
as Google+ and Twitter and Facebook icon
is out of date.
 Location map is only available as a PDF
download and not Google Maps.
 Improvement needed in the optimisation
of the website as McMunn’s in the
headings, Meta tags and alt images.
 No LinkedIn profile.
 No Google AdWords or Display spend.
 Only 61 backlinks to the site
(Backlinkswatch, 2014).

6. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 6
Opportunities:
 Capitalise on the rising tide in overseas
visitor numbers to Ireland in particular
from the US and the UK.
 To target Irish tourists given the
popularity of Kerry as a tourist destination
for ‘staycations’ (Infographic Journal,
2014).
 Embed Google Analytics on the website to
track visitor numbers and conversions.
 Back links could be created from Golf
websites such as ballybuniongolfclub.ie
and irishopengolf.com.
 Optimise the website with good title and
heading tags and keyword descriptions to
rank better in Search.
 Improve the layout and structure of the
site in particular the bookings section
creating a calendar and booking facility.
 Use email marketing to promote, in
particular, the rooms they have, as rooms
provide a much higher margin than food
and beverage.
 Add rich content on local amenities and
attractions and a regularly updated blog
with targeted keyword strategy.
Threats:
 First impressions last and the McMunn’s
Hotel website needs to improve. The
inability to look at room rates and the fact
you have to download menus and maps
offer a very frustrating user experience.
Bounce rate statistics could be quite high
as an example.
 PPC campaigns for the Hotel and Travel
industry can be very expensive as you are
competing with the likes of Bookings.com
and Expedia (AdventurePPC, 2014).
 Kerry is the traditional mecca for tourism
in Ireland and as such is an extremely
competitive marketplace in terms of
accommodation. There are 454 places to
stay including hotels, B&B’s and
guesthouses (Bookings.com, 2014).
 McMunn’s have no real digital marketing
strategy and are therefore exposed to
losing business to competitors who have a
stronger online presence.
 The lack of seasonal opening times of
McMunn’s on the site means they could
be taking bookings they have to turn
down and lead to customer
dissatisfaction.

7. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 7
4.0) Buyer Persona’s
Three buyer personas have been identified for McMunn’s. The reasons for these three
buyers are backed by tourism trends, the product offering of McMunn’s and what
Ballybunion is offering as a tourist destination, all highlighted in previous sections.
Dublin Family
Michael and Joan are from Dublin and are married with two children aged 10 and 8 and live
in a semi-detached house in Clontarf which they bought in 2006. When Michael was
growing up, his family brought him on summer holidays to Kerry every year and this
something he has tried to do as a parent with his own kids. Over the last few years the
family have taken trips to Dingle and Glenbeigh and like to go a new place every year.
Michael is a Sales Director in Vodafone in Dublin and Joan is a primary teacher. They favour
staying in guesthouses near the sea and taking part in family activities. They are very much
the typical “Staycation” Irish family as they bought their family home in the property boom
and have limited disposable income for overseas family holidays. They are both tech savvy
and can be found online in places like Tripadvisor and Discover Ireland. In terms of Social
Media Facebook they are avid Facebook fans, posting all their family photos there.

8. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 8
Retired English Couple
Alan and Laura are a retired couple living in Bath in Somerset in the UK. Alan had his own
furniture business which he sold 2011 for £2 million. They are both in their fifties and love to
spend most of their time travelling. They are both ‘silver surfers’ given that they are very
internet savvy and research all of their trips online. Ireland is one of their favourite spots
particularly the West Coast. They are both Foodies and gastronomy is very much the key
focus of their holidays sampling the best local produce in the areas they visit. They are very
much fans of independently owned boutique style accommodation as oppose to large hotel
chains. They can be found online on sites like the Guardian and the Goodfoodguide.co.uk. In
terms of Social Media they have embraced Twitter and tweet about new restaurants and
menus that they find and love.

9. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 9
American Golfer
Brad is a technology start up founder from Boston in the United States. He is a keen golfer
and does much of his business networking with venture capitalists on the golf course. He is a
member of the famous Brookline Golf and Country Club in Massachusetts which hosted the
1999 Ryder Cup. He has visited Ireland a couple of times courtesy of invitations from the IDA
and is looking to establish a European hub for his business in Dublin. On a recent trip he
read about the Failte Ireland initiative ‘Wild Atlantic Way’ aiming to be the world’s longest
coastal drive. This has captured Brad’s imagination and he is now planning a golf road trip
with his friends where he plans to play the Old Course in Ballybunion and Doonbeg, which
has recently been purchased by his one his business idols Donald Trump. He can be found
online in places such as Forbes.com and the Boston Globe.

10. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 10
5.0) Business Objectives, Digital Goals and KPI’s
The business objectives, digital goals and KPI’s for this three month digital marketing plan
will be outlined using the RACE format listed on the following page.
In order for us to measure the effectiveness of the campaign Google Analytics will be used
to measure the success of each tactic against the relevant KPI.
The overall business objective is to increase conversions. Therefore as the digital marketing
strategy will run for a three month period the business objective will be to increase
conversions by 25% from the period January 1 to March 31 2015 which a greater focus on
room bookings for the summer season of 2015.
There are five main business sub objectives and they can be listed as follows:
 Increase awareness of the McMunn’s brand in Ireland, the UK and the USA.
 Increase McMunn’s Social Media presence.
 Improve content engagement levels.
 Increase conversions on the website.
 Improve customer retention.

11. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 11
BUSINESSS
OBJECTIVES
DIGITAL GOALS CHANNELS KEY PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS (KPI’S)
REACH Increase Brand
Awareness in Ireland,
UK and USA
Increase Social
Media Presence
Increase Visitor
Numbers
Increase
Followers
Website
Facebook
Twitter
Email
PPC
Increase user sessions by 50%
500 New Facebook followers
100 New Twitter Followers
200 Email signups
5000 Page Impressions
ACT Higher Engagement
Levels
Lower the bounce
rate on Home
page
Increased
Engagement
levels with the
Website
Increased
engagement
levels on Social
Media
Website
PPC
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Reduce Bounce rate by 20%
Increase Page Views per visit by 10%
Increase time spent on site by 25%
15% Engagement per Social Media
Post
Email Engagement 5%
CONVERT Increase Conversions
on Website
Convert new
network of
contacts from
Facebook, Twitter
and Email.
Website
PPC
Facebook
Twitter
Email
50 Direct Conversions
100 Conversion from PPC
50 Conversions from Facebook and
Twitter
50 Conversions from Email

12. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 12
ENGAGE Improve Customer
Retention
Increase repeat
visitor numbers to
the site
Increase numbers
of new visits to
website and
Social Media
Website
LinkedIn
Facebook
Twitter
Email
Increase Email Engagement
Increase Social Media Engagement
Increase repeat visitor numbers to
the website

13. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 13
6.0) Digital Channels
A mix of both owned and paid media will be used with the ambition of generating some
earned media for McMunn’s efforts. The use of free resources that are available to
McMunn’s will be maximised to limit the digital marketing spend while achieving results.
6.10) Owned Media
6.11) Website, SEO & Blog
In terms of the website McMunn’s need to do three key things with the site:
1) Add a reservation page through bookassist which takes a percentage on bookings.
2) Install a free Mailchimp plugin to allow users of the site to subscribe to mail shots.
3) Install a free WordPress blog on the site.
McMunn’s does rank well organically on specific search queries relating to Ballybunion but
does not rank well on more general search queries relating to Kerry which overseas visitors
may look for. In the short term PPC campaigns can be used for keywords that McMunn’s
don’t rank well on. In the longer term a blog on those same keywords will improve SEO.
“Golf in Ballybunion” (Listed on Page One) “Hotels in Kerry” (Not on Page One)
“Gastro pub in Kerry” (Listed on Page One) “Holidays in Kerry” (Not on Page One)
“Restaurants in Ballybunion” (Listed on
Page One)
“Golf in Kerry” (Not on Page One)
“Guesthouses in Ballybunion” (Not on Page
One)
“Accommodation in Kerry” (Not on Page
One)

14. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 14
McMunn’s can improve optimisation in the following area’s to have an improved ranking:
 Improve keywords in the title tag, heading tags and Meta tags.
 Include keywords in URL’s which at the moment are non-existent with a breadcrumb
structure.
 Include an XML Site Map.
 The site has lots of images but is low on content and is not regularly updated. A blog
is a free and easy way to use keyword targeting to improve on SEO. Sample blog
posts can include “Golfing in Kerry” and “Food Tourism in Ireland”.
 Improved Google+ presence to improve SEO and feature on local listings. For
example they do not list locally on guesthouses in Ballybunion.
6.12) Email Marketing
At the moment McMunns do not have an email sign up on their website. This function
needs to be created at the website and can also be collected from guests when they check
in to the Hotel. CTR on email marketing in the hotel industry is around 9% (Aro, 2014).
The importance of email marketing in the Hotel industry cannot be underestimated and is
an effective way of targeting customers who have expressed genuine interest in your
product and have explicitly stated they want to be contacted by you.
The list needs to be grown organically as oppose to purchasing an email database.
Mailchimp can also be used to promote interaction with the Blog posts on the site.

15. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 15
Mailchimp will then be used to email these clients using the A/B Split Campaign method
which will allow to test effectiveness of campaign running concurrently:
Subject Line Group A: 5 must do things in Kerry
Subject Line Group B: 5 must see places in Kerry.
6.13) Twitter
According to IPSOS MRBI 29% of Irish people have a Twitter account with 38% of those using
it daily so it is a very important medium, second only behind Facebook (IPSOS MRBI, 2014).
In the case of McMunns, Twitter will be used for three purposes:
 To act as a listening post so see what customers are tweeting in relation to
McMunn’s so they can respond to both positive and negative tweets.
 To promote the blog postings on the website generating pillars of conversation and
linking to tourism organisations that McMunn’s follow.
 To continue to tweet about events and offers from McMunns with improved
engagement levels.
Twitter can also generate earned media when users share and retweet content that has
been posted.
For examples of tweets see Appendix A.

16. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 16
6.20) Paid Media
6.21) Google AdWords
Google AdWords will be used as a two week Pay per Click campaign in January targeted at
attracting customers looking for information on holidays and golfing in Kerry. Google
Analytics will allow accurate measurement of the Click through Rate (CTR) from this
campaign.
Research was carried put using the Google Keyword Planner to get information on the
keywords and suggested keywords that could be used in the campaign. A mix of exact,
broad and phrase match within each ad group will be used. Negative keywords will also be
used to ensure the campaign is highly targeted and effective.
There will be a strong focus on getting a Quality Score of 10 with each advert to reduce the
CPC. Please see Appendix B and C for Keywords and Sample Ad’s for each Ad Group.
Campaign: Campaign Level
Negative Keywords
AD Group Keywords
Dublin Family Cork
Five Star
Celebrity
Michelin Star
Dublin
Kerry Holidays ‘Holidays in Kerry’
[Holidays in Kerry]
+Holidays +Kerry
‘Wild Atlantic Way’
+Wild Atlantic Way
American Golfer Northern Ireland
Rory McLlroy
Graham McDowell
Old Head Kinsale
Portmarnock
Royal County Down
Golf in Ireland [Golf in Ireland]
‘Golf in Ireland’
+Golf +Ireland
[Golf in Ballybunion]
‘Golf in Ballybunion’
+Golf +Ballybunion

17. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 17
6.22) Display
We will use Display through the Google Display Network targeting pages where the Buyers
Personas are spending time online. We will also use the suggested sites from within the
Display Network and an example of this can be seen in Appendix D.
Campaign: Ad Group Ad’s
Retired English Couple Placements:
www.the goodfoodguide.co.uk
www.theguardian.com
Other suggested sites from
within AdWords
2 x Text Ad’s
2 x Display Ad’s
6.23) Facebook Organic, Paid and Retargeting.
Facebook is by far the largest Social Media platform in Ireland with current user levels
estimated at 2.25 million according to recent research (Irish Independent, 2014). McMunns
are effectively using Facebook but could improve on the engagement levels on their organic
posts. The use of Facebook Edgerank will give us better insights into post performance.
Sponsored adverts can be used to target buyer personas such as golfers in the USA.
Facebook Retargeting will also be used for users who have been on the McMunn’s website
and have not converted once the bookassist reservation option has been embedded on the
site. Targeted buyer personas will be the Dublin Family who visited the site but did not
book. Please see Appendix E and F for Sponsored and Retargeting Adverts respectively.

18. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 18
7.0) Measurement
Key to the whole Digital Marketing strategy will be the use of Analytics to measure the
tactics against their relevant KPI’s that have been set out in the plan. We will use both
Google Analytics and Facebook Insights to track conversions and developer deeper
understandings of our Buy Persona’s.
7.1) Google Analytics
First and foremost GA will be embedded on each page of the McMunn’s website. The code
will be generated from setting up a GA account and then pasting the GA code into the
header of the site.
We will also use the Audience Overview element of GA to add details to our Buyer Persona’s
collecting information on demographics, interest’s, geographic location and also the devices
that they are using to access the site through.
One of the most important elements of GA is that it allows us to set up goals on our website
so that we can effectively create a funnel that we would like our customers to journey
through. Goal conversions that we set up on the site will be both revenue and content
related.

19. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 19
Top levels goals will be as follows:
 Increase Bookings (Revenue Goal)
 Email Signups (Revenue Goal)
 Content Engagement Time (Content Goal)
We will also use the Campaign feature in GA so that we can effectively measure the success
of each of our digital strategies. Google AdWords is already synchronised with Google
Analytics but for other campaigns such as Display and Email we will first generate the URL
from URL Builder and then create the campaign on GA so that we can clearly see the
performance of the activity. We can then use Bitly to shorten the URL’s so that they are
more pleasing on the eye for prospective customers.

20. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 20
The following is an example of an email campaign for the “5 Must do Things in Kerry” that
we are going to send out through Mailchimp. First of all we can create the Campaign URL:
We have also used the Campaign content labelling system to reflect the A/B Testing that we
are going to carry out with each campaign to see which produces the most conversions so
we can adapt our campaigns going forward. We can then paste this URL into to tidy up the
URL and hide the source code which can be off putting to some users.

21. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 21
8.0) Implementation
A digital marketing degree graduate will be hired under the Job Bridge scheme for 3 months
to implement the strategy. They can be based anywhere in Ireland and work remotely.
8.1) Budget
A budget of €600 has been secured for the three month strategy. The focus of the budget
will be very much on prospecting with a 70/30 split between prospecting and retention in
terms of spend. A concerted effort will be made across all channels to reduce cost so for
example in the area of PPC we will endeavour to get high quality scores in AdWords to
reduce CPC. There will be a strong focus on utilising free resources which are available
including owned media such as SEO, Blog and Email.
January February March Total: Hours
Website €240 €240 0
SEO In House 12
Blog In House 12
Email In House 12
Facebook Organic Organic Organic In House 18
Twitter Organic Organic Organic In House 18
FB Retargeting €60 €60 €120 6
PPC €120 €120 12
Display €40 €40 €40 €120 12
Totals: €400 €100 €100 €600 102

22. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 22

23. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 23
Bibliography
McMunn’s (2014) ‘McMunn’s’ [Online] Available from:
http://www.mcmunns.com/index2.htm [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Ballybunion Golf Club (2014) ‘The Club’ Available from:
http://www.ballybuniongolfclub.ie/the-club/ [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Wikipedia (2014) ‘Wikipedia’ [Online] Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballybunion [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Tripadvisor (2014) ‘Tripadvisor’ [Online] Available from:
http://www.tripadvisor.ie/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g212527-d1552131-i94660004-
McMunns_Restaurant-Ballybunion_County_Kerry.html [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Google (2014) ‘Page Speed Insights’ [Online] Google PageSpeed Insights Available from:
https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/ [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Failte Ireland (2013) ‘Regional Tourism Performace 2013’ [Online] Available from:
http://www.failteireland.ie/FailteIreland/media/WebsiteStructure/Documents/3_Research_
Insights/2_Regional_SurveysReports/Regional-tourism-performance-in-2013.pdf?ext=.pdf
[Accessed 15th December 2014]
Anderson N. (2013) ‘Tourism industry to create 8,000 jobs in 2015 generating billions in
revenue’ [Online] Irish Independent 15th December 2014 Available from:
http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/tourism-industry-to-create-8000-jobs-in-2015-
generating-billions-in-revenue-30838010.html [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Backlinkwatch (2014) ‘Backlink watch’ [Online] Backlinkwatch Available from:
www.backlinkwatch.com [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Inforgraphic Journal (2014) ‘An insight into the Irish staycation’ [Online] Available from:
http://infographicjournal.com/an-insight-into-the-irish-staycation/ [Accessed 15th
December 2014]

24. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 24
Adventure Media Group (2014) ‘Adventureppc’ [Online] Available from:
http://www.adventureppc.com/most-expensive-adwords-2014/ [Accessed 15th December
2014]
Bookings (2014) ‘Bookings’ [Online] Available from:
http://www.booking.com/region/ie/kerry.html [Accessed 15th December 2014]
Ipsos MRBI (2014) ‘Social Networking Quarterly August 2014 Q3’ [Online] Available from:
http://www.ipsosmrbi.com/social-networking-quarterly-survey-aug-14.html [Accessed 15th
December 2014]
Robson F (2014) ‘Consulting, Email Marketing, Email Media The importance of E-Media’
[Online] Aro Blog June 2nd Available from: http://www.aro.ie/2014/2/6/Email-Media/
[Accessed 15th December 2014]
Weckler A. (2013) ‘Irish are the biggest Facebook users in English speaking world’ [Online]
Irish Independent 18th September 2013 Available from:
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/irish-are-the-biggest-facebook-users-in-
englishspeaking-world-29587083.html [Accessed 15th December 2014]

25. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 25
Appendix A (Sample Tweets)

26. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 26
Appendix B (AD Group “Kerry Holiday”)

27. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 27
Appendix C (AD Group “Golf in Ireland”)

28. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 28
Appendix D (Ad Group “Placements”)

29. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 29
Appendix E (Facebook Sample Sponsored Advert)

30. McMunn’s of Ballybunion Digital Marketing Strategy 30
Appendix E (Facebook Sample Retargeting Advert)