The problem.
Most Australians don't have a financial adviser. Cost, complexity, and the awkwardness of "I just have one question" all keep people from getting answers they need.
Simple general advice was dominated by a few newspaper columnists. The lucky few got an answer. BT had an ambition to give more advice to more Australians. As newspaper sales were fading and digital penetration was exploding in the mid 2010s, an opportunity was available to be the digital newspaper column for those with simple advice needs. This was brand play 101.
The approach.
Ask one question and get a written answer from a BT adviser within 48 hours, free. Every answer met the same compliance bar as paid advice, and each one was a soft introduction to a full financial plan for anyone who wanted it.
- Asking a question took about a minute. The 20-minute form was the thing we were replacing.
- Built the back-office workflow, including answer review and approval, with tight SLAs (we promised a 48-hour turnaround).
- Worked with a build agency on implementation and an SEO agency so every answer earned its search traffic.
- Compliance review was a step in the workflow from the first answer we published.
The outcome.
A new kind of product for BT's advice business: it reached an audience that had never engaged with personal advice before.
Questions ranged from "should I salary sacrifice?" to "is my super on track?", the everyday questions people don't otherwise ask. The service answered them, on the record, for free. An ever-growing archive of answers turned out to be excellent for search.
Ask an Adviser was removed from the web in 2019 when BT closed their advice business.
What I learned.
Strong workflows with built-in reminders and escalations mean SLAs rarely slip.
Quality content outranks AI-generated slop every time. Putting a real adviser's eyes on every answer paid for itself in search traffic alone.