Crux reimagined SSC’s brand voice, visuals, and web experience—helping this employee-owned CPA firm show up with confidence, clarity and purpose in every channel.
SSC CPAs + Advisors is a Kansas-based, employee-owned CPA and financial advisory firm with multiple offices and a bold, people-first approach to finance. With decades of experience and a comprehensive suite of services—ranging from tax and payroll services to accounting and strategic advisory—SSC helps individuals, businesses and nonprofits maximize profits, ensure compliance and build lasting financial stability. Their employee-owned structure fuels a culture of collaboration, accountability and long-term client relationships.
Despite a deep bench of expertise and track record of outstanding service, the firm felt its visual identity didn’t match its credibility, and that its brand voice lacked the strength and clarity SSC is known for in its client work. SSC needed a partner to modernize and unify its brand to position the firm for long-term, sustainable growth.
Crux began by diving deep into SSC’s DNA. Through stakeholder interviews and persona development, the team uncovered insights that shaped a strong communications strategy rooted in clarity, relevance and credibility.
Crux crafted a bold, authentic brand narrative that put SSC’s ESOP structure, independence and people-centered approach front and center.
The team established brand pillars that emphasized the firm’s proactive, collaborative approach, as well as a brand essence and new tagline that perfectly captured SSC’s ethos:
Propelling Futures Together.
Realizing the logo couldn’t undergo a full redesign, Crux’s creative department optimized the logo’s usability and built out a full suite of visual assets that brought the brand to life in digital and print, including a custom icon and pattern system inspired by movement and momentum, a refreshed color palette and type system, as well as graphic treatments and layouts for use across social, blogs, print collateral and presentations
The Crux team then applied the new messaging and visual identity across SSC’s digital presence, from social media to the website. Every page—from homepage to service lines—was rewritten with SSC’s core personas in mind, and the design was elevated to align with the refreshed brand. Special attention was given to UX updates that would help better qualify leads, increase engagement and drive more quality engagements.
SSC was excited to roll out its new messaging and visual looks to both internal teams and clients. The refresh on visual and messaging gave SSC dynamic tools, coupled with the flexibility and consistency they needed to show up with confidence in every medium. The website better told the SSC story and conveyed their ESOP structure and differentiation from their PE-backed competitors, while empowering their internal team with a clearer way to communicate their mission, vision, and values.
Structurally, the website better served SSC by creating a better user journey for prospective clients, helped increase visibility with SEO-driven content and parent/child pages that not only made sense to the end user, but showed up when prospective clients were searching for services.
The brand refresh also gave SSC confidence to re-enter the world of social media, increasing brand awareness and building thought leadership with a refined social media strategy created by Crux. Centered on three pillars—thought leadership, brand awareness, and culture—the plan positioned SSC to share insights, celebrate people, and highlight client success stories that reflect their people-first values.
Within the first quarter of 2025, SSC’s refreshed brand and social strategy delivered measurable impact across platforms. From January through April, SSC achieved nearly 230,000 total impressions across channels—more than doubling reach compared to the previous period. Engagement rates also far exceeded industry benchmarks, averaging 18.8% on Facebook and 9.1% on LinkedIn (versus an industry average of 1.2% for each).
The top-performing posts highlighted real SSC people and milestones, reinforcing that authenticity and culture-driven content resonate most with their audience. Thought leadership and team highlights generated the highest click-through and engagement, with consistently strong reactions from clients and prospective talent alike.
