CMO Services Case Study
gusto!
gusto! transformed its marketing into a disciplined growth engine, driving a 66% increase in tracked revenue while building the foundation for continued expansion.
“I had elements of the brand swirling in my head for almost a decade that I couldn’t get out until Mike came on board. He translated my vision into a thoughtful brand positioning we could actually execute against. It was liberating and such a great collaboration.” – Nate Hybl, Founder
Overview
gusto! is an Atlanta-based fast casual restaurant brand with 12 locations and a loyal customer following. Built on fresh, healthy food and a strong founder-led culture, the company had built a solid reputation, but the brand had outgrown its internal marketing capabilities.
Like many restaurant brands coming out of the pandemic, gusto! saw consumer behavior shift heavily towards digital ordering, third-party delivery, catering, and loyalty programs while in-store traffic was stagnant. The company needed to solidify its core positioning, better understand their core customers, and reconfigure the team under new leadership so marketing was more accountable for results.
TechCXO Partner Mike Martin joined as Fractional Chief Marketing Officer to help reposition the brand, modernize its marketing operations and tech stack, and build a scalable growth engine.
Challenges
As gusto! reconsidered which revenue channels to pour fuel on, they faced several marketing and organizational challenges:
- The company had outgrown its existing marketing leadership and operating model.
- Various iterations of the brand messaging continued to swirl inside the founder’s head and his vision needed to be translated for brand consistency and better clarity in the marketplace.
- Paid media was aimed at the wrong customer segments, limiting campaign effectiveness.
- Customer acquisition, loyalty, catering, and digital marketing efforts operated independently rather than as an integrated system.
- Marketing technology, reporting, and the internal team structure, as well as external vendor resources, were not designed to support continued growth.
Goals
To support the company’s next stage of growth, gusto! needed to:
- Identify its highest-value customer segments using AI-enabled market data and behavioral insights.
- Align brand positioning, messaging, and channel strategy around those ICPs.
- Build an integrated marketing organization with clear priorities, standard processes, reporting that was actionable, and a hybrid team that was more accountable for results.
- Accelerate growth across loyalty, catering, 3PD, and localized marketing.
- Create a scalable marketing infrastructure utilizing its first CRM tool, as part of a larger OLO ecosystem, capable of sustaining long-term growth.
The objective was to build a marketing organization capable of repeatable growth during a period of shrinking margins largely due to the ever-rising cost of goods.
Solutions
In the Fractional Chief Marketing Officer role, Mike Martin led a comprehensive transformation of the company’s marketing strategy and operating model in close collaboration with the executive team. Mike transformed disconnected marketing activities into the company’s first integrated campaign guided by a new Go-To-Market Strategy he wrote with heavy involvement from the founder and members of the marketing team.
A pivotal turning point came when customer research challenged one of the company’s core assumptions. While gusto! had built its brand around a younger, lifestyle-driven audience, the data showed that some of its most valuable customers were older, more affluent, and motivated by health as a long-term lifestyle priority. That insight reshaped the company’s positioning, messaging, channel mix, and pricing strategy.
Key initiatives included:
- Conducting customer research using Placer and Spatial AI to identify gusto!’s highest-value customer segments.
- Refining the brand’s positioning and messaging to better align with shifting customer motivations and buying behavior.
- Reprioritizing marketing investments toward loyalty and catering, including a dedicated catering growth strategy that generated immediate revenue while supporting longer-term brand development.
- Rebuilding paid search, local SEO, and digital acquisition strategies around customer intent.
- Implementing CRM, lifecycle marketing, email, SMS, and loyalty programs through Olo Engage.
- Reorganizing the marketing team, introducing KPI reporting, and creating a repeatable operating cadence.
- Recruiting, onboarding, and coaching a new Director of Marketing to ensure continuity after the engagement concluded.
Interim & Fractional CMO
Mike helps founder-led and growth-stage companies translate customer insight into actionable marketing strategies that strengthen brands, improve performance, and deliver sustainable revenue growth.
Outcome
The transformation produced measurable improvements across every major marketing channel and helped position the company for new investment and continued expansion.
Tracked revenue increased 66% year over year, loyalty revenue grew 39%, and same-store catering sales increased 23%.
Improvements in search, paid media, lifecycle marketing, and local discovery also increased customer engagement while lowering acquisition costs and improving marketing efficiency. Revenue from revamped location pages increased 3X.
Marketing efficiency improved as well, with paid search costs falling 79%, cost per lead decreasing 70%, and email-driven revenue increasing 1,045%.
Revenue performance
Momentum built across every major revenue channel, from loyalty and catering to digital acquisition and local search.
Growth capacity
gusto! now has a customer-focused marketing organization with stronger customer insight, integrated marketing operations, and performance measurement to support continued expansion.
“Mike came alongside our executive leadership like a member of the team and not just fractional help. He collaborated with us on our high-level business goals, strategic initiatives, and planning for the future. Mike was pivotal in totally transforming our Marketing department and functions during his engagement.”
- Richmond Green Vice President of Operations
