Baum, Smith & Clemens, LLP
Beyond the Service List: Defining What Sets BSC Apart
Work: Half-day leadership strategy session, positioning and message strategy, marketing plan, full website strategy, copywriting, design and development, full-staff elevator pitch workshop, and leave-behind materials.
The Challenge
Baum, Smith & Clemens, LLP (BSC) is an accounting and business advisory firm serving businesses, nonprofits, and individuals through tax, accounting, audit, forensic accounting, and consulting services.
The firm had deep technical knowledge, strong client relationships, and a reputation for responsive, personal service. But those strengths were not easy to recognize from its marketing.
Like many established accounting firms, BSC offered a broad range of services. Different members of the team naturally emphasized different parts of the firm’s work, often beginning with a list of capabilities.
The information was accurate, but it did not fully explain why clients chose BSC, why they stayed, or what made working with the firm different.
That created a broader business development challenge.
BSC wanted to increase awareness, strengthen referral relationships, and make it easier for prospective clients to understand the full value of the firm.
It also wanted to help existing clients better understand the full range of support available to them, including services that could help them make better financial and business decisions throughout the year, not only at tax time.
Many of BSC’s ideal clients were frustrated with accounting firms that were difficult to reach or only responded after a problem appeared. BSC already offered something better: proactive guidance, responsive communication, and personal attention.
Its message and marketing materials needed to make that difference easier to see.
The Shift
The work began with a half-day strategy session with BSC’s leadership team.
Together, we examined the firm’s target markets, growth goals, competitive position, existing marketing, business development challenges, and the qualities clients valued most.
The session gave leadership an opportunity to step away from day-to-day client work and consider how the firm appeared to prospective clients, current clients, and referral partners.
One idea kept surfacing.
BSC combines the expertise needed for complex financial matters with the accessibility and personal attention of a local firm. Clients have dedicated points of contact who understand their business, respond when needed, and help them plan ahead.
That idea became the foundation for the message, marketing plan, website, staff workshop, and supporting materials.
What We Did
Leadership Strategy Session
We facilitated a half-day session with BSC’s leadership team to examine the firm’s goals, audiences, strengths, challenges, and opportunities.
The discussion helped the team separate what BSC does from why its approach matters to clients. It also created a shared strategic direction before work began on the website or other marketing materials.
Positioning and Message Strategy
Using the leadership discussion and additional research, we developed a clearer position around the qualities that set BSC apart.
The message centered on proactive guidance, responsive communication, personal attention, and dedicated client relationships.
It also gave BSC a way to explain that clients do not have to choose between local accessibility and the expertise needed for complex financial matters. Through BSC’s team and its CPAmerica membership, clients receive both.
The resulting message positioned BSC as more than a firm clients contact at tax time. It presented the firm as an ongoing financial and business partner.
Marketing Plan
We created a marketing strategy designed to support BSC’s growth goals and provide a practical path forward.
The plan identified opportunities related to brand awareness, lead generation, referral development, client communication, digital visibility, staff training, and helping existing clients better understand the firm’s broader services.
Rather than beginning with disconnected tactics, the plan established the foundation first and outlined how BSC could apply the message consistently over time.
Full Website Strategy, Copy, Design and Development
Once the message was clear, our team translated it into a completely new website.
We developed the site strategy, page structure, copy, design, and development, carrying the message through the homepage, service pages, industry pages, team content, and supporting pages.
Rather than simply cataloging BSC’s capabilities, the website helps visitors understand the problems the firm solves, the broader ways BSC can support them, and the experience clients can expect.
The completed site makes BSC’s differentiators easier to recognize: responsive service, proactive guidance, dedicated relationships, local accessibility, and access to broader expertise through CPAmerica.
Full-Staff Elevator Pitch Workshop
We led a workshop for BSC’s full staff focused on 30-second commercials and elevator pitches.
The goal was not to give everyone a rigid script. It was to provide a shared framework employees could adapt to their role and the conversation.
Staff members practiced explaining who BSC helps, the problems clients bring to the firm, and what makes working with BSC different.
This gave the team clearer language for networking, referral, prospect, and client conversations while still allowing each person to sound natural.
Leave-Behind Materials
We created supporting materials that carried the same message as the website and staff training: a BSC General Services one-sheet, a Business Advisory rack card, and a Tax Planning rack card.
These gave the BSC team something consistent to share after meetings, networking conversations, and introductions, reinforcing the message prospective clients and referral partners encountered elsewhere.
What Is Different Now
BSC now has a clearer and more consistent framework for explaining the firm.
The message reflects both sides of its value: the ability to handle complex financial needs and the personal attention that has built its client relationships.
That idea is captured in the line:
“Big enough to handle complex needs, small enough to know your name.”
The message now carries through the website, staff conversations, and supporting materials.
The new website makes it easier for prospective clients to see that BSC provides more than tax preparation. The firm offers ongoing guidance across tax, accounting, audit, forensic accounting, and business advisory work.
The website and supporting materials also make it easier for existing clients to understand the additional ways BSC may be able to support them throughout the year.
Team members now have shared language they can adapt for networking, referral, prospect, and client conversations instead of relying only on a list of services.
The strategy gives BSC a stronger foundation for future marketing as the firm continues to build awareness, support referral relationships, and communicate the full value it brings to clients.
Why This Project Matters
BSC already had the experience, technical knowledge, relationships, and client service that made the firm valuable.
The opportunity was to make those strengths easier for other people to recognize and easier for the entire team to communicate.
This project shows why ID Nexus begins with strategy and messaging before developing websites or marketing materials.
The leadership session created direction. The message shaped the marketing plan and website. The staff workshop helped employees apply the message in real conversations. The supporting materials gave them something consistent to share afterward.
BSC did not just receive a redesigned website. The firm gained a clearer way to explain who it is, what sets it apart, why clients trust it, and how it can support them throughout the year.
Build a Clearer Path Forward
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