Work /
Clark Schaefer Hackett Strategy & Redesign
Strategy, Copywriting, UX, Development, SEO, Ongoing Support
Accounting, tax, and advisory firm Clark Schaefer Hackett wanted a website that connected people with people. Ample worked with their incredible team, as well as their sister consulting firm Clark Schaefer Consulting, to craft a digital ecosystem that links thought leadership, people, and services together. The result is a smooth design and simplified user experience that directly connects potential clients to the services and experts relevant to their unique needs – making it easier than ever to start a conversation.
Our collaborative discovery process allowed us to get right to the core of CSH’s brand, resulting in a strategy that stays true to who they are. Through a series of interviews with key stakeholders, a thorough competitor analysis, and comprehensive brand research, we helped form a digital strategy that modernizes the user experience, simplifies dense material, and humanizes the CSH brand and story.
The accounting and advisory industry is always changing, and CSH needed a website that could grow and change with them. With flexible design, we’re able to create bespoke content on the fly – from event detail to marketing and campaign landing pages. This approach allows us to maximize user experience on both web and mobile, but it also allows for easy changes without requiring custom solutions or sacrificing interactive design. Flexible page layouts also give CSH the freedom and ability to make quick updates, create new pages, and keep their site looking fresh for years to come.
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Dynamic design puts the control in our client’s hands, allowing them to sequence visuals, organize cards and components, and stack content in a unique way as they create new pages. On the back end, content types are integrated efficiently, making it easy for the CSH team to crosslink between experts, services, and industries. Not only is cross-selling easier, users can also take advantage of clear pathways that take them seamlessly from one page to the next. All together, this results in a longer-lived, ultra user-friendly site.
In this business, thought leadership has got to be front and center. Clark Schaefer Hackett has some of the brightest minds, unique strategies, and industry insights in their toolbox, and over the years, they’ve developed a dedicated thought leadership and content marketing practice to showcase that. They just needed a content management system (CMS) that could keep up with them.
With their new custom knowledge hub, CSC and CSH are able to showcase their expertise, link directly from articles to the expert employees behind them, and help users find the services they need based on the articles they browse. With a user-optimized CMS that puts the Hackett team in the driver’s seat, it’s easier than ever to publish, optimize, and share content. The result is a beautiful, functional, and robust digital space where CSH can share their insights with their network.
The new Clark Schaefer Hackett site needed to seamlessly guide users to the right solutions for their needs – while letting them know that they’re in capable hands. Ample developed a tone of voice, content outline, and copy for key pages that emphasizes the trustworthiness, reliability, and integrity of the CSH team. This goes hand-in-hand with a design strategy that prioritizes clarity, functionality, and people.
Flexible components featuring the CSH team are placed strategically throughout the site, allowing potential clients to see exactly who they’ll be working with depending on their service or industry area. Pages aren’t just a place to find information, they’re an opening to a new relationship. Gone are the days of the “faceless accounting firm” – Clark Schaefer Hackett’s site shows users the individuals behind the expertise.
In order to meet – and exceed – the security standards in the accounting and advisory industry, the new CSH site was built in a closed management system that prioritizes security credentials, sanitizes incoming content, and secures database layers from the public. When it comes to cybersecurity, CSH can rest easy knowing that their data is robustly safeguarded against attacks.
For the Clark Schaefer Family of Brands, we created a shared component library that allows us to maintain multiple sites with the same general building blocks and structure, while differentiating enough to give each site its own feel. This not only makes each maintenance for each site effortless – it also ensures flexibility and scalability as the web continues to grow and change.
The shared component library also makes it easier for content administration, analytics, and user experience to stay consistent between the two sites – while still allowing them to flourish as separate entities.
