Please feel free to use the lists to help answer your question or scroll through the questions at your leisure. If you do not find the answer you are looking for, or would like further clarification, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Who are you?
- What is going on here?
- Easy… really?
- What is WordPress?
- Who are Simply Advice Websites?
- Who are The DMA?
What do you offer?
- Will my website look like all the other advice websites?
- What are the ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Clarity’ themes?
- What compliance benefits do Simply Advice Websites provide?
- Does that mean you’ll be interfering with our website?
- What happens with my website analytics?
What is the build process?
- If I fill out the Get Started form, what happens next?
- How long will it take to complete the build?
- What happens once the site is complete?
What do I need?
- I don’t have a registered domain, is that a problem?
- I already have a registered domain, what happens then?
- Do I need to pay for an SSL certificate to make my site secure?
- My email addresses currently use the same domain as my existing website, will they be affected?
- I currently use a generic email (@gmail, @bigpond, etc) account. What should I do?
What are the service logistics?
- How do I pay for the service?
- What ongoing costs are there?
- Wow! That’s so cheap! What’s the catch?
- What happens if I don’t want to work with Simply Advice Websites anymore?
- Thanks, but my nephew said he can do the same thing for $200.
Who are you?
What is going on here?
Advisers have got a lot on their plate, more than ever. We feel you. This is an initiative designed to make it easy for Australian financial advisers to get a great website up and running quickly, easily, and cost-effectively.
Easy… really?
Yes! We help you with each step of the process so that you know exactly what you need to do and what we are doing for you. First, we’ll have a consultation to identify what you would like to achieve through your website. Then, we’ll ask you to send some certain items, such as content and team member descriptions. Finally, you’ll provide us with feedback on our build so that we ensure it matches your vision and you and your clients reap the rewards of your new website.
Importantly, you will be working with experienced designers and experts in advice so that we can produce optimum results and ensure your build is unique, tailored to your company’s needs.
What is WordPress?
WordPress is a full Content Management System (CMS). As a platform, it is intended to make websites easy to design, publish and maintain.
Of the top 10 million sites on the internet, over 33% are built with WordPress (W3Techs, 2019).
Who are Simply Advice Websites?
Launching in 2019, Simply Advice Websites aims to help Australian financial advisers achieve simple, effective websites that offer optimum experiences for themselves and their clients.
Our team is led by our Founder, Patrick, and our Project Manager, Jacqueline, based in Brisbane.
Our development team is operated by The DMA, based in New South Wales.
You can read more about our team here.
Who are The DMA?
Based in Sydney and founded in 2008, The Digital Marketing Agency is Australia’s leading WordPress expert. Having worked in partnership with Patrick since 2013, they have experience working with a number of financial advice firms at both the licensee and practice level.
What do we offer?
Will my website look like all the other advice websites?
Your site will be tailored to your business needs, including updates to:
- Colour scheme (to match your logo and corporate identity)
- Number of pages (including names and content within)
- Images used
The more you consult with us to develop a unique look and feel, the less you will look like other advice sites. For each build, we love to understand your ideal vision for your site, and are happy to schedule a time to plan your premium outcome. Depending on the depth of engagement, we can adjust your level of website uniqueness and design complexity.
If you would like a website built from scratch with advanced additional functionality, please contact us to discuss this. We are happy to build you something that meets your unique requirements. In this instance, we will complete an in-depth consultation with you so that we can provide you with an accurate quote for the build.
What are the ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Clarity’ themes?
Each ‘theme’ represents a starting point, you could call it a template but it might be best represented as a ‘default’, which we use as a starting point. Many components don’t need to change, many do. Either way, no matter how much customisation it’s still faster to start with the right foundation ready to go. Ultimately, that way, you aren’t paying to recreate the wheel.
‘Simplicity’ is a modern approach to website design that takes a mobile-first design approach. This involves reducing the amount of information shown and relying more on vertical scrolling.
‘Clarity’, our latest theme, allows for a little more complexity allowing you to make the complex more simple.
If this doesn’t suit you, please contact us. We have more in the works or could even look at some custom work.
What compliance benefits do Simply Advice Websites provide?
There are four key aspects.
- The site is structured in a way that it makes it difficult to fail to meet compliance requirements. Compliance specific needs are mostly met in the footer, the ‘About <Licensee name>’, and ‘Important Information’ sections. These are set for you, so neither you nor a 3rd party support person can amend these.
- Before a site goes live we undertake a detailed checklist to ensure all compliance requirements are met. Whilst our list may differ to your licensee, this serves as a minimum standard before your site goes live.
- We monitor compliance requirements that relate to advice websites generally on an ongoing basis. This will include things like overall disclosures and privacy opt-ins, but will not include requirements that relate to your content on the site. For example, we will be reviewing any changes to the use of General Advice Warnings. We won’t be reviewing whether or not your LRBA SMSF information is true, correct, or misleading.
- We work directly with your Compliance team. Whilst we keep you in the loop, we get the feedback from the source and save you the heartache of being a middle person. (That might be a lot of heartache with compliance staff. Most are lovely, but umm… a little dry.)
Does that mean you’ll be interfering with our website?
If a compliance-led change needs to be rolled out centrally, we’ll advise you two weeks in advance and seek feedback. We’ll take any feedback seriously and consider it in light of the inspiration for the change. If we’re not convinced that it can be avoided, we’ll make the change at the end of the two-week notice period.
That’s it.
Trust us, we won’t be doing that any more than necessary. It costs us time and money, and frankly, we like both.
What happens with my website analytics?
You will have your own Google Analytics account to review your website statistics. Please note if you do not already have a Google Account, you will need to create one and provide the login details to us so we can connect Google Analytics to your website. You can read more about Google Analytics here.
What’s the process?
If I fill out the Get Started form, what happens next?
From end to end, the process covers six main steps and we’ll be there to support you the entire journey.
- Basics: Begin your journey by completing our comprehensive sign-up form, designed to efficiently capture pertinent facts, compliance details, and all the necessary information we need to get started on your tailored website build.
- Content: We can either guide you through the copywriting process or work directly with your copywriter of choice. Either way, we’ll help you get your message across.
- Construction: Once we have all the required information, sit back as our local team diligently builds your website over a two-week period.
- Review: Witness your vision materialising as we present the completed website for your review. In collaboration with you, we ensure the final website meets your expectations and supports your business needs.
- Compliance: We act as your liaison with your compliance team, keeping you informed as we handle all communications on your behalf. Our goal is to facilitate a smooth, streamlined process that results in a compliant, user-friendly website.
- Launch: With your sign-off, we launch your site and supply marketing content to optimise your return on investment quickly. We offer 1:1 training and user-friendly ‘how to’ guides to support day-to-day management of your new digital platform.
How long will it take to complete the build?
The build is normally scheduled two to three weeks away from once the Get Started form is submitted with payment.
The build itself usually takes approximately two weeks, with revisions needing a few days to a week depending on the feedback.
Compliance and finalisation take a few more days from there.
If it is an urgent build, please mention it in your request form and we’ll see what we can do.
What happens once the site is complete?
You will be provided a login to use.
You can use this to update your contact details, administer staff changes, update content, make blog posts, add/remove pages, and much more. You can access tutorial walkthroughs from within your website dashboard to show you how to make changes.
If you require design changes in the future, you can let us know and obtain a quote.
What do I need?
I don’t have a registered domain, is that a problem?
You will need to have registered a domain and obtain DNS hosting for the website to go live. We will provide the information required for you to link the registered domain with the newly hosted website.
We can work with any modern provider, however we recommend Net Registry as a leading Australian provider or GoDaddy as a lower-cost option. If using GoDaddy, please let us know up front and we’ll invite you.
I already have a registered domain, what happens then?
That’s great!
If you do not have an existing site, you will need to acquire DNS hosting for that domain as well.
Once your new site is ready to launch, we will provide you with DNS hosting details which you or your IT support will need to apply to your registration in order to make the site live.
For those who have existing sites, the DNS hosting settings can take up to 48 hours before it is pointing the entire internet to the new destination of your domain. With the exception of that delay, you will not experience any downtime.
Do I need to pay for an SSL certificate to make my site secure?
Nope, we do that for you as part of your ongoing service.
My email addresses currently use the same domain as my existing website, will they be affected?
No.
There is no requirement for your email hosting to change as part of this process.
I currently use a generic email (@gmail, @bigpond, etc) account. What should I do?
Change it!
Not only does it look unprofessional, it’s easy to fake, and if the provider is an overseas one you may be in breach of Australian privacy legislation. Your local IT support will be able to assist with this.
What are the service logistics?
How do I pay for the service?
All payments are generally made by credit card. We do this to keep costs down, so you’re not paying for things you don’t get value out of.
If you need to pay by invoice, please discuss with us. Additional charges will apply.
What ongoing costs are there?
Once your site becomes live, you will also have a payment of $50 + GST per month charged by credit card.
This includes:
- Website hosting
- Ongoing maintenance (such as applying WordPress updates)
- Security management
- Offsite backups
- Plugins centrally purchased to support your site
- Maintenance of universal compliance changes
In addition to our standard website build, we also offer a range of services that enhance client service, SEO, and engagement. These services are outlined here and provide a range of advantages for you and your clients.
Wow! That’s so cheap! What’s the catch?
There isn’t one.
There aren’t any shortcuts taken here. This service is a result of using the right partners, the investment made by into building the infrastructure that makes this easy, and generally working smarter not harder to avoid recreating the wheel each time.
The result is a unique service at a great price!
What happens if I don’t want to work with Simply Advice Websites anymore?
Your website will be built on the WordPress platform, the largest Content Management System on the internet. As a result, you have a number of options available to you:
- You can engage our partners at The DMA directly and continue using the WordPress theme outside of the Simply Advice Websites environment. The cost will vary depending on the complexity of your website. Please contact us to obtain a quote for the transition process and ongoing service.
- You can easily transfer your pages and posts (but not your layout and media) through an XML export. This can then be inserted into any other WordPress-based site, by any experienced WordPress professional.
- You can just let us know and we’ll turn it off.
If that’s something you’re considering, please give us a call. We’d love to work through any problems you may be having.
Thanks, but my nephew said he can do the same thing for $200.
Cool story.
Engaging an experienced and established team of professionals has merits above and beyond the initial website going live. Just like insurance or superannuation, getting it done right the first time can save a lot of heartache later on.
With the right set-up, and proper maintenance, your business can count on a quality solution going forward. You can expect it to keep up with technology, compliance changes, and stay up to date with new security threats.
If your website has a problem, you need someone with the skills, experience, and availability to get it fixed fast.
If you are a financial advice professional, you need a professional to run the face of your business.
Still unsure?
If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch.