Digital Marketing Lead

San Carlo Restaurant Group; Manchester; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free meals on duty

50% staff discount

Refer a friend bonus

Elevate Training Academy

Volunteering Days

Squadra App

Legal and financial advice

San Carlo Awards

Best in Class Pension

Job summary

San Carlo Restaurant Group in Manchester is seeking a Digital Marketing Lead to own the group’s CRM, PPC, SEO, and website initiatives across multiple brands. You will coordinate agency partners and internal stakeholders to grow bookings and brand visibility.

You will analyse performance data, optimise guest journeys, and ensure GDPR-compliant customer experiences while maintaining a strong local search presence across the portfolio.

Qualifications

• Experience leading digital marketing across multiple brands.
• Proven ability to drive CRM campaigns and lifecycle marketing.
• Strong PPC and paid search management.
• Deep understanding of local and national SEO.
• Experience managing agency partners and vendors.
• Strong analytical thinking with data-driven decisions.

Responsibilities

• Own CRM strategy and campaigns across brands.
• Develop segmentation and automated journeys.
• Lead PPC and SEO agency relationships.
• Manage website content and landing pages.
• Optimize guest journey from discovery to bookings.
• Provide regular marketing performance reporting.

Skills

Digital marketing

CRM strategy

PPC / Paid search

SEO (local & national)

Website management

Analytics & data-driven decisions

Project management

Agency management

Multi-site brand experience

Tools

Google Analytics

Google Ads

Google Tag Manager

Job description

San Carlo are hiring a Digital Marketing Lead!

Our Story

The Distefano family, spanning two generations, started San Carlo over 30 years ago and seen it grow to twenty-five authentic Italian restaurants across the UK – from Covent Garden, Piccadilly and Knightsbridge in London to Bristol, Leicester, Liverpool, Leeds, Cheshire and Manchester and with a growing number overseas – Including Kuwait, Bangkok, Dubai, and Miami, with additional restaurant openings planned as San Carlo continues to expand globally.

Colleague Benefits

• Free Meals on Duty - Delicious, healthy meals, all free
• 50% Staff Discount - For you and your friends and family, in any of our restaurants around the UK
• Refer a Friend - Bring your friends and earn up to £1,000 per person
• Elevate Training Academy - Commitment to training and continuing professional development with our San Carlo training app
• Volunteering Days - Give back with dedicated volunteering days, making a positive impact in your community
• Squadra App - Offering you discounts and rewards with thousands of companies worldwide
• Legal and Financial Advice - Free legal and financial advice for you and your family
• San Carlo Awards - Our annual San Carlo Awards, dedicated to celebrating the incredible talent and hard work of our colleagues
• Best in Class Pension - San Carlo are partnered with an industry-leading pension provider, ensuring your hard work today supports your tomorrow

Key Responsibilities

• Own the group CRM strategy, coordinating campaigns across all San Carlo brands and restaurants and managing CRM agency and technology partners
• Develop customer segmentation and automated journeys (acquisition, welcome, retention and re-engagement), and grow the quality and value of the customer database in line with UK GDPR and PECR
• Lead the PPC/search agency relationship, setting briefs, objectives, budgets and KPIs, and challenging performance on spend, conversion, bookings and return
• Ensure paid search supports both always-on restaurant demand and specific campaigns or openings, coordinating the landing pages and offers needed to improve results
• Manage the SEO agency and organic search strategy, ensuring each restaurant and brand is optimised for relevant local and national searches
• Develop keyword priorities and use SEO insight to identify content opportunities across restaurant pages, landing pages and the blog
• Take day-to-day marketing ownership of San Carlo’s portfolio of websites, managing web development and design partners and coordinating content updates, launches and testing
• Continually review the guest journey from discovery to booking, identifying opportunities to improve UX, conversion and SEO performance
• Oversee restaurant business listings, particularly Google Business Profile, keeping addresses, opening hours, menus, booking links and imagery accurate and consistent, including seasonal and temporary closure updates
• Own the website content calendar, briefing SEO-led and brand-led blog content that balances our premium brand positioning with search requirements
• Act as the primary day-to-day contact for all digital, SEO, PPC, CRM and website partners, producing clear briefs with defined objectives, deliverables, budgets and deadlines
• Run regular agency performance reviews, challenge recommendations, monitor scopes, retainers and additional costs, and hold partners accountable for agreed actions
• Ensure agencies work together rather than in silos, sharing learnings across channels and turning wider San Carlo marketing campaigns into coordinated digital activity
• Own the digital reporting framework covering traffic, booking conversions, organic visibility, PPC and CRM performance, local search and results by restaurant, brand and campaign
• Interpret performance data and recommend clear next steps to drive bookings, guest acquisition, retention and revenue

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Strong digital marketing experience, ideally within hospitality, restaurants, hotels, luxury, retail or another multi-site consumer brand
• Demonstrable experience managing digital agencies and external partners
• Strong understanding of CRM and customer lifecycle marketing
• Good working knowledge of PPC and paid search
• Strong understanding of technical, on-page and local SEO
• Experience managing websites, web development projects and digital content
• Strong understanding of Google Business Profile and local search
• Comfortable using analytics and performance data to make commercial recommendations
• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple brands, restaurants, campaigns and agencies simultaneously
• Commercially minded and focused on turning digital activity into measurable customer action