Client: Elai, Basingstoke

Getting to know Elai

Elai is an authentic Keralan restaurant located in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Established by experienced restaurateurs Unni Balasubramanian and Nidhin Satheesan in July 2022, their menu is focused on the flavours of high-quality South Indian and Indo Chinese cuisine.

Alongside the traditional dining experience, Elai is a venue for corporate meetings, birthday parties and family gatherings alike.

Elai’s Goals

As a newly opened restaurant, Elai approached us to design and implement a complete multi-platform marketing strategy, focused on both traditional and digital methods of promotion. Unni and Nidhin wanted to generate brand awareness among the local community, increase bookings for both dinner and lunch service and place Elai as the ‘go to’ hub for events in Basingstoke – ranging from Onam to Diwali.

As a Basingstoke-based marketing agency, Elai felt that our knowledge of the local area and community would help reach their goals. Moreover, our understanding of organic growth would suit their smaller budget.

With our shared expertise and core marketing knowledge, we worked closely with Elai from June ‘22 to October ’22 to develop a multi-platform marketing strategy that would span across five months. With this, Elai has achieved considerable growth both online and in the local community, leading to increased table bookings and venue hires.

Phase 1: Creation Of Social Channels, Content Calendars, SEO Strategy

In phase 1 of our partnership with Elai, it was imperative that we focused on the creation of social media channels to generate brand awareness and excitement among the community. Moreover, to aid the performance of the existing website, we built a complete SEO strategy backed by extensive keyword and competitor research.

As Elai’s website had already been designed, we began by identifying gaps in their existing online content to increase visibility on Google. From there, we used our competitor research to design a package of social media calendars and additional content calendars for multi-purpose use. 

Initial Phase 1 Projects Included:

  • Creation of Facebook, Instagram and Google Business profiles for immediate local visibility. On Facebook and Instagram, we engaged with the local community and other small businesses to form partnerships and increase brand awareness in Basingstoke and beyond.

  • Thorough keyword and competitor research, which allowed us to develop a holistic SEO strategy for Elai. Our research also allowed us to identify errors on their website which could hinder their visibility online if not resolved.

  • Creation of organic social media calendars, which included the development of static posts, stories, reels and captions to be purposed across multiple social channels.

  • Creation of a blog calendar to expand Elai’s web content, with suggested keywords, backlinks and search intent include, all of which served to support one main goal- increase online visibility in Google’s SERPs.

Over the next five months, we frequently revisited Elai’s website to review its overall health, compliance with Google’s best practices and ranking keywords. If search trends had changed, our strategy would change to ensure it was responsive to the way in which people were searching for Elai’s services and or related offerings, online.

Overall, in just 5 months, we were able to create new landing pages and optimise existing website content to generate 13 page 1 ranking keywords, 13 page 2 ranking keywords and 8,500 website visits, with 53,000 individual page views.

Moreover, we continued to engage with the local community on social media and update each channel with posts weekly to ensure Elai remained relevant online. This resulted in a combined following of 761 users across Facebook & Instagram, and 88,600 Google Business profile views.

Phase 2: Paid Advertisements, Content Creation & Event Promotion

Once we had the initial digital plans set in motion, phase 2 of our partnership with Elai revolved around the continuous creation of content and the introduction of paid campaigns. We also designed a promotional plan for two of Elai’s upcoming events – Onam and Diwali.

To ensure Elai’s social media platforms were achieving the best results, we worked with a local food photographer to capture some of the restaurant’s specialist dishes. We used these images in our paid advertisements on Facebook and Instagram, and utilised Google to promote both events: Onam and Diwali.

Initial Phase 2 Projects Included:

  • The organisation of a photoshoot with Cath Lowe to capture high-quality images for Elai’s social media channels, paid advertisements and latter flyers.

  • The planning and implementation of a series of paid advertisements on Facebook. These adverts promoted the general opening of Elai, events and the restaurant’s lunch menu.

  • The creation of an event strategy for both Onam and Diwali. This strategy included the use of Facebook & Google adverts, flyer promotion in the local community, PR coverage and the creation of two individual landing pages on the website.

The high-quality photos captured by Cath increased Elai’s Instagram and Facebook engagement by around 60% in two months compared to lower-quality alternatives. Moreover, despite a small budget of £155, our four separate targeted Facebook adverts generated 2,027 direct website clicks and gained 58,342 impressions.

Our use of multiple platforms in the Onam and Diwali strategies also proved successful, reaching near full capacity and generating extra revenue for Elai.

Phase 3: Press In The Local Community & Traditional Advertising Methods

To achieve Elai’s goal of recognition among the local community, phase 3 of our partnership focused on traditional advertising methods. This would generate buzz in Basingstoke and beyond, but also reach diner’s who wouldn’t necessarily use social media – such as older citizens.

Initially, we leaned on our own press contacts to promote Elai. We then used our in-house graphic design skills to create a range of flyers for event promotion and brand awareness.

Initial Phase 3 Projects Included:

  • Forming relationships on behalf of Elai, with local press outlets across Hampshire, Surrey, Southampton and Reading.

  • Creation of two press releases for Elai; one focused on the restaurant’s opening and the other focused on Onam. We’d later ‘sell this in’ to the press outlets we had built relationships with.

  • Explore paid press options in Hampshire Living and Hampshire Life magazine.

  • Design a pack of print advertisements for Elai to hand out in the local community, including a generic promotional flyer, an advertisement for Christmas and a loyalty card, each of which you can view below.

  • Working with Surrey Live to organise a visit from an established food reviewer.

During our five month partnership, we were successful in landing promotion in the Basingstoke Gazette in June and August, and the print version of Basingstoke Observer. The food reviewer from Surrey Live also went on to write a fantastic article, which helped bring in diners from afar.

To further increase brand awareness in communities outside of the digital sphere, we printed 11,000 flyers in total to be distributed among residents of Basingstoke. Moreover, we worked with Hampshire Living to reserve a spot in their Christmas edition for Elai’s menu.

Elai’s Core Results

With our combined focus on traditional and digital marketing methods, our five month strategy produced the following results for Elai.

  • A combined following of 761 users across Facebook & Instagram, with a combined reach of 72,341 and 9,130 engagements, achieved by a pairing of paid and organic methods.
  • Despite a small budget of £155, we delivered four targeted Facebook ads that generated 2,027 direct website clicks and gained 58,342 impressions.
  • 8,500 website visits, with 53,000 individual page views. 4270 of these visits came from organic search, 1085 came from direct search and 1952 came from organic social; the rest came from paid search and referrals.
  • Promotion in a range of local press outlets, including the Basingstoke Gazette in June and August and the print version of the Basingstoke Observer.
  • A focus on SEO generated 13 page 1 ranking keywords and 13 page 2 ranking keywords on Google. Moreover, 52 remaining keywords ranked in the top 100.
  • 88,600 Google Business profile views, resulting in 2,624 direct website clicks. A further 298 customers called Elai from Google Business to arrange table bookings – the rest booked via the website.
  • Despite a small budget of £150, our targeted Google Ads generated 20,000 impressions and 488 additional direct website clicks.
  • A campaign with Hampshire Living centred around Elai’s Christmas menu. This is due to go live in mid-November.
  • A fantastic review from a food reviewer in Surrey Live which encouraged diners to visit from outside of Basingstoke.
  • The production of high-quality content, including photos, online event pages and blogs. Ultimately, this led to increased engagement on social media, website visitation and Google ranking.
  • Onam and Diwali events reached near full capacity, generating extra revenue for Elai.