Restaurant Marketing Strategy for Multi-Site Growth in Manchester
Overview
Hello Oriental is a three-storey pan-Asian hospitality venue located at Circle Square in Manchester, offering an Asian-inspired bakery and café, a Vietnamese restaurant, and a vibrant street food hall. Since its launch in 2022, the business has expanded from one location to four, including a new venue at Trafford Centre.
KO Consulting has worked with Hello Oriental since May 2022, providing ongoing marketing consultancy and strategic support to help drive sustainable growth across digital channels—without relying on paid advertising.
The Challenge
Three months after launching, Hello Oriental faced a familiar problem: strong local press and a high-quality product, but low visibility, inconsistent footfall, and a digital presence that wasn’t converting.
The business relied heavily on organic social media, but performance wasn’t translating into bookings or measurable revenue. There was no formal CRM in place, limited SEO value on the website, and no consistent strategy for email, Google visibility, or user engagement.
Key Issues Identified:
A lack of integrated digital strategy for restaurants
No email database or automated customer journey
Poor visibility in local and organic search
Under-optimised Google Business presence
A website not structured for SEO or conversions
No clear system for tracking or encouraging customer reviews
My Response
As a restaurant marketing consultant based in Manchester, I designed and implemented a digital strategy focused on long-term growth, customer engagement, and local visibility.
This included:
Website optimisation: Reworking site structure, content, and navigation to support SEO and improve user experience.
CRM & email marketing: Building the email database from zero to 16,000 through data capture across ordering systems, Wi-Fi, and an integrated app.
Email automation: Introducing strategic flows and campaigns to drive repeat visits, offers, and announcements, achieving an average open rate of 31% (well above the 18% industry benchmark).
Google Business optimisation: Full management of Hello Oriental’s listing, including content, images, keyword-rich descriptions and structured review generation.
Search performance: Enhancing organic discoverability, especially for key search intent around specific food offerings and Manchester-based dining experiences.
Event marketing: Strategic promotion and partnerships including KOMPD, live music, and collaboration events to drive footfall and local relevance.
Support across PR and social: Ensuring messaging and digital assets aligned with earned media and in-house marketing output.
Results for Hello Oriental
The Results
In the past 12 months alone, Hello Oriental has seen significant returns through organic digital activity:
128,000+ website sessions
95,000 active users, with 83,000 arriving via organic Google search
£500,000+ estimated revenue from online bookings, excluding walk-ins
Email list grown from zero to 16,000
31% average open rate across email campaigns
Higher visibility across Google with improved customer ratings and review frequency
No reliance on paid ads during this period
Conclusion
This case study demonstrates the impact of a tailored digital marketing strategy for hospitality businesses. With a long-term, insight-driven approach, Hello Oriental built a resilient online presence that fuels growth across multiple venues. By implementing a connected and scalable digital marketing strategy, Hello Oriental has grown from a single site into a multi-venue brand with strong, self-sustaining performance across its core channels.
The case of Hello Oriental illustrates the power of strategic marketing rooted in insight, consistency, and careful execution—backed by meaningful data and a clear understanding of the hospitality landscape.
