Marketing Agency & Fractional
CMO Case Studies
See what happens when you work with us!
Our approach is always flexible based on what our clients need. We work on both an ongoing basis (monthly marketing management) and on one-time projects, depending on factors like budget and staff support. Here are a few examples of how our work has helped clients grow, plan and reach their goals.
CURRENT CLIENT
Ongoing Marketing Management: Stereo Stereo
Regional Business Marketing for a Boutique Purveyor of Luxury Home Audio Systems in Pittsburgh, PA
-
Full-Service Marketing Management
Regional business marketing for brick-and-mortar retail: website, SEO/AIO, social media, email, reputation management, graphic design, advertising strategy, brand management (including physical media & photography direction)Our involvement began at a critical transition point for a relatively new business; we helped the client re-orient his brand and public presentation to better match his renewed goals after a year of operation
As this client already had an established brand and marketing program, we began our work with an assessment. This involved getting to know everything we could about the client himself, his highly specialized products, the hi-fi stereo industry and the unique audience of audiophiles who make up his core customer base. With that foundation in place, we were able to use analytics data to create a customized strategic plan for improvement.
-
Stereo Stereo's owner, Michael Klein, has more than 50 years of experience in the high-fidelity audio industry. His first job as a teenager was in a stereo store, and he's been on the same career path ever since. Michael has seen it all, with the industry transitioning from vinyl to cassette, CDs and digital, and he's never lost his passion for what he does. That is unique, but it makes sense: his career is dedicated to his personal passion for music and high-quality audio.
Michael is a highly collaborative and creative client who helps us do our best work, but he also trusts us to bring our own expertise to the table. We love pairing with subject-matter-expert clients who respect our expertise and trust the process. The result is a special alchemy that combines each side's strengths to create an amazing finished product.
-
The client liked his logo when we started working for him, but we found it out of sync with the sophistication of his beautifully decorated showroom, and the luxury products housed within. We replaced the logo's illustration of a vinyl record with a more abstract concentric circle icon that recalls the grooves of an LP, but also looks like expanding waves of sound inspired by a vintage science book illustration.
For the text, we chose a sans serif font that reminded Sarah of the many childhood hours she spent listening to music while staring at the labels on the front of her parents' circa-1980s stereo system. We paired that primary font with a typewriter-inspired serif font to create the typography style.
For the brand's color scheme, we took inspiration from the interior design trends of the 1960s and 70s, focusing on warm maroon, red and gold, with a touch of blue for balance and versatility. Sarah worked with the client’s interior designer to choose the primary brand maroon color, which closely matches the paint color of a prominent section in the client’s showroom. The finished product is a brand style that is both clean and modern while also nodding to hi-fi's midcentury heyday, a perfect balance that represents the easy era-straddling nature of Stereo Stereo itself: a high-end, brick-and-mortar stereo dealership thriving in the age of cheap electronics sold online.
-
Like the brand, Stereo Stereo's original website wasn't quite polished enough for what we thought he needed and deserved. We also saw significant missed opportunities where SEO was concerned. For example, it wasn't ranking well for baseline success keywords like "stereo store near me." Additionally, the original site was built as a custom system accessible only through its original developer. We think it's best when our clients have as much ownership and control over their marketing channels as possible, so our first priority was identifying a new website content management platform on which to build the site, one that would allow anyone with appropriate user permissions to make edits. After choosing the option that best balanced quality and performance with budget-consciousness, we created a robust new website with one major goal: be visible to people who are looking for businesses like Stereo Stereo. With the refreshed brand style in place and a clear structure featuring SEO-optimized, brand-distinct copy, the new website has made a huge difference for the client. He gets frequent compliments on how stylish the website is, which matches the beauty of his jewel-box showroom. The increased foot traffic to the store doesn't hurt, either.
Creative Direction
Results: YOY 2024-2025
+29%
Revenue Growth
+400%
Website Traffic Growth
+71%
Impressions Growth Across Google
+99%
Website Traffic Growth from Google
Brand Evolution
Website Before & After
What the client says about us:
“Soon after I hired Lillian and Sarah, they traveled from Asheville to visit my store in Pittsburgh. I was a bit nervous that they might not fully understand my vision because they aren’t local to my area. However, those reservations quickly melted away. They were very prepared, professional and personable. They clearly cared about me, my business and my success. They were not afraid to be honest about what they saw as working and not working for my business. The plan they developed for me was customized and detailed, not a cookie cutter plan like I had seen from other marketing firms. But a plan based on intelligence and experience. And it has worked. I can absolutely trust them, and I let them work to their strengths. The work they promise is delivered on time, and it is effective. Since meeting them, I am a more successful, happier business owner. I cannot imagine Stereo Stereo being in the position where we are without them.
”
PAST PROJECT
Full-Service Marketing Management: Tall John's
Local Business Marketing for a Very Good Restaurant in Asheville, NC
-
DescripFull-service marketing management: website, SEO/AIO, social media, email, PR, reputation management, graphic design, advertising strategy, brand management (including merch design & photography direction)
Local business marketing for an inbound-driven industry (restaurant)
Involved from the beginning; we helped the client build this brand from the ground up, consulting on brand name and style guide (e.g., logo, brand fonts & colors), which were both developed with a design agency
See the website we built for them
Note: while we no longer provide full-service marketing support for Tall John’s, they are still an much-beloved client, with our work focused on more surgical strategic efforts to support their success.
-
Tall John's is one of the best restaurants in Asheville, NC (the actual best, in our admittedly biased opinion)
This client gives us full trust and autonomy—they see us as true partners and delegate a high degree of responsibility to us. In return, we provide strategic marketing that pays for itself.
The quality of the product, and the demand for it, is undeniable—Tall John's has been recognized as an Essential Asheville Restaurant by Eater Carolinas, and recommended by the MICHELIN Guide 2025. The restaurant was poised for success from the beginning, but needed the right marketing support to realize its potential. We're proud to be part of their story.
-
Tall John's is a busy restaurant that's beloved by the public and critics alike. But we never take that success for granted. Our involvement has stayed sharp and dedicated, with consistent focus on maintaining brand integrity. Everything that gets seen or heard relating to Tall John's is always authentic and unique to the brand. We never follow the crowd or do what other restaurants do—we do what's right for this restaurant, and it pays off. From merch to print advertising and social media, we're proud of this brand's polish and consistency.
The Tall John's brand ethos is carried through in our approach to marketing. The restaurant is laid-back and friendly, and our marketing strategy is therefore "unthirsty." We're never desperate or annoying. Marketing is scaled to the on-the-ground reality of the business itself; we don't over-communicate with the audience, leaving them always hungry to hear more from Tall John's.
-
We focused our 2025 strategy on increasing Tall John's visibility in local search, particularly on Google Maps, under the assumption that contemporary diners tend to look for places to eat using map directories and search more than they rely on the press to tell them where to go. Being right there in the moments when people are actively searching for a place to eat is crucial. To boost visibility, we focused on increasing 5-star reviews from satisfied customers and were extremely pleased with the results (as was the client).
Results: YOY 2024-2025
+25%
Revenue Growth
+193%
Google Review Growth
700K+
Impressions on Google Search
4.8 ★
Google Rating (up from 4.7)
What the client says about us:
“From the very beginning, Payne Westwood has understood what Tall John’s is supposed to feel like. Not just what we do, but who we are. They’ve helped us grow without making the restaurant feel over-marketed or disconnected from the actual experience people have here. The work is thoughtful, consistent, and in our voice, and I trust them to protect the brand as much as they help promote it. Their strategic work has gone beyond marketing, helping us make clearer operational decisions that support overall business growth.
”
PAST CLIENT
Cut Stone Studios
Foundational Talking Points & Sales Strategy With Brand Messaging Clarification for an Importer of Custom-Cut Natural Stone Construction Materials in Weaverville, NC.
-
This project was designed to help the client's entire team do a better job of talking about their company, products and services across several sales and marketing channels. We analyzed their website, cold outreach sales email scripts, and social media, in addition to gathering info from their leadership and sales team. Using that information, we created a detailed set of guidelines on how best to talk about the brand.
Our deliverables came in the form of multiple in-depth reports to provide insight and guidance that the team would then use independently, without further oversight from us.
-
Empowered by our reporting and clear on how to move forward, the client's team got to work right away on a website refresh that implemented our new guidelines.
Why We Love Them
Cut Stone Studios is helmed by a charismatic expert who's been working in the natural stone industry for decades. She was charming and thorough in her responses to our questions, creating an easy foundation for us to build on. They've worked on some very impressive projects in their time, including restorations on the Biltmore Estate, one of Western North Carolina's most iconic attractions and a key part of our local economy.
What the client says about us:
“Can’t speak highly enough about working with Sarah and Lillian at Payne Westwood. They listened very well and customized their approach perfectly to what we were looking for. We absolutely loved the website outline they provided that gave us the perfect tools and guidance for our team to refresh our website.
”
PAST CLIENT
Colorado Mountain Ranch
Long-Range Vision for a Summer Camp Beloved by Generations in Boulder, CO
-
This project was the result of longstanding trust we had built with a former full-service client. They came to us at a critical pivot point in their business, when the current generation of leadership was entering retirement and wanting to step back from active operation of their family business. We audited their financials, resulting in detailed, research-backed annual budget recommendations. Additionally, we created succession guidelines based on a thorough analysis of roles and responsibilities, including the creation of a recommended new CEO role.
We provided detailed reports/guidelines and met with the client to discuss our findings and recommendations, ensuring we didn't just leave them with inscrutable documents. Our goal is always to ensure practical usefulness and applicability for any guidelines we provide.
-
Colorado Mountain Ranch moved forward with renewed clarity and optimism for long-term sustainability.
Why We Love Them
Lillian attended this camp as a child, and Sarah had similar experiences at different summer camps. The experience of being able to play freely outdoors in the fresh air and summer sun is essential to a happy childhood, in our opinion. Summer camp is an important institution that fights back against modern tendencies toward disconnection from nature. Beyond that, the CMR team is a delight, and we love getting to work with them whenever possible.
What the client says about us:
“I can only rave about the professional services of Lillian Payne and Sarah Westwood and the great value working with them brings to a small business such as ours. Their focus on organizational details contributes to smooth operation within our organization and raises the respect of those we serve. This has been essential to us for survival. Overall, working with the Payne Westwood team is now an essential pleasure.
”
Want to be our next success story?
Let’s make it happen.