A Bold and Robust Solution for a Fast Rising Accounting Firm

The world of accounting is full of heavyweights. But a gigantic marketing budget and a thousand offices isn’t a measure of effectiveness — and it’s for that reason that Cherry Bekaert, one of the nation’s best and fastest growing accounting and consulting firms, looked to cut through the noise and increase website capabilities with a new Optimizely site.

Blend worked with Cherry Bekaert to nail down both a look and a vibe — to develop a personality that told two stories: that Cherry Bekaert is an industry thought leader, and that they’re uniquely qualified to balance extensive knowledge with a personal touch. Strategic planning identified key content model additions, and architecture was developed to help pair their services with their thoughts.

Beyond the content itself, Cherry Bekaert asked Blend to punch up site design to stand out in a crowd. While most of us might find accounting and tax-based thought leadership to be a dry subject, Cherry Bekaert and Blend worked together to provide a spark, offering performant and accessible design that stood out from the typical sterile sites so prevalent in professional services. This design treatment, and the system underlying it, provides a personality that’s often hard to find.

And that personality is the star of the show. A thought leadership model that provides increased readability, automated connections between articles, podcasts, and white papers, and a mobile-friendly design make the site an easily accessible repository for all things accounting. Content is king, as they say, and the new Cherry Bekaert site makes certain that the king has all of the best trappings.

It’s this customizability that really shines. Knowing that those looking for jobs are a completely separate and important audience, the new Cherry Bekaert site allows for custom surrounds for new sub-sites, giving the Careers section its own identity while still feeling a part of the larger Cherry Bekaert universe.

The end result is a new site that helps Cherry Bekaert show its stuff and look the part — a thought leader, a trusted resource, and one of the best in the business, all backed by the kind of design that makes people take notice … and start listening.

Project results.

• Full project discovery from interviews and testing to wireframes and feature prioritization
• Mobile-friendly and fully accessible design to reach all users, regardless of ability or screen size
• Custom development in Optimizely to highlight education and articles regardless of content type
• Adaptable site surround to help editors create unique-but-similar careers subsite and further scalability