If a goal without a plan is just a wish, then many RIA’s goals for technological implementation are merely wishful thinking.

Those were some of the words of advice from a panel of advisors at the TD Ameritrade’s National LINC conference. They stressed that without a clear plan for how new financial technology will be implemented, advisors may be wasting their technology budgets.

“We created a committee several years ago to help guide us through the process of what we wanted to implement, when, and why,” said Heather Fortner, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer at Atlanta-based Signature FD.

Signature FD, which manages around $2.5 billion in assets, uses client relationship management (CRM) software like SalesForce, Orion’s integration platform and TD Ameritrade’s iRebal for trading.

At Phoenix-based Dynamic Wealth Advisors, an RIA and practice development firm partnering with 35 advisors nationwide, CEO Jim Cannon said that technological strategic plans should be focused on the short term.

“We started a roadmap for technology three years ago,” Cannon said. “Based on the fact that technology moves quickly, having a 12- to 18-month plan was the way to go.”

The panel’s moderator, Technology Tools for Today publisher Joel Bruckenstein, said that advisors are reporting that CRM and financial planning software are producing the greatest return on investment.The panelists agreed, all pointing to CRM largely driven by SalesForce as their most important technological investment.

“The advisors who work with us are now more planning focused than investment management focused,” said Cannon. “By doing so, they’re more successful in retaining clients, and client satisfaction is higher. Having a tightly-integrated technological solution is more important to the end user and for the client experience.”

Dynamic’s advisors use a custom-built version of SalesForce and the integration platform Orion to cover portfolio management, e-mail and documentation needs.

At Minneapolis-headquartered Nepsis Capital Management, a retirement advisor, asset manager and practice management firm, Mark Pearson said his advisors use SalesForce extensively for marketing.

“It’s going to drive traffic onto your website because it’s what is going to drive your campaigns,” Pearson said. “Prospects aren’t prospects at first, they’re leads and suspects, and SalesForce is the best tool to manage them. It’s an investment, but as you grow your business the return on that investment for us has been exponential.”

Bruckenstein pointed towards TD Ameritrade research suggesting that clients are demanding more attention and prompter responses from their financial advisors, linking technology with a better experience.

Regardless of size, planning firms need to embrace the challenge of implementing technology, said Mark Pearson, chief investment officer of Nepsis Capital Management.

“When you’re smaller and starting out, it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive,” Pearson said. “It depends on size and how you want to do integration. I suggest that you get yourself in a platform that gives you plenty of expandability and flexibility.”

Pearson said that smaller RIAs should explore whether they can use a custodian’s resources for free or at a reduced cost.

The panelists said that they were becoming more technology-focused not just in their client outreach, but also in their marketing. Bruckenstein noted that technology may be the only way to effectively communicate with younger clients, especially those under the age of 35.

“Millennials have the attention span of fleas,” Bruckenstein said.”Younger people want shorter messages and prompter responses. If your technology doesn’t support that, that’s problematic.”

That messaging starts with a website, which is where panelists suggested advisors should broadcast their core appeals to current and prospective clients.

Keeping in mind the short millennial attention span and the minimalist aesthetic conventions of today’s Internet, many advisors’ websites fail to put a positive face on their business, panelists said.

“Keep it simple, don’t say too much,” Pearson said. “People don’t need 50 pages on a website giving them all the intricate details.”

An updated website should load quickly, Pearson said, and have a limited number of subordinate pages.

The tech marketing effort can’t end there, said Fortner. The website and its content have to be promoted on social media. At Signature FD, much of that work is accomplished through campaigns coordinated on SalesForce.

“You have to drive traffic to your website,” Fortner said. “You also have to drive engagement. You can’t just walk away from content, especially on social media.”

Social media and web content are also good ways to keep clients engaged, Pearson said, as Nepsis has used video and e-mail blasts to calm clients and to inform investors during the volatile markets of early 2016.

Such tools can also be used to receive feedback from clients and prospects, said Bruckenstein.

“In-person interviews, client surveys, net advocacy scores and social media interactions give you an idea of what they’re saying,” he said.

Bruckenstein also said that advisors should stop worrying and learn to love robo-advisors because their clients likely want some sort of automated investment management.

“Those of you who say that your clients aren’t interested in any kind of digital advice platform should know that isn’t what the statistics are showing us,” he said.

All three of the panelists were interested in robo advisors, with one firm, Pearson’s Nepsis Capital Management, implementing Jemstep.

Fortner said that Signature FD is still in the early planning stages, exploring its digital advice options.

Advisors shouldn't go through the time and expense of adopting a robo-advisor technology unless they have a clear plan for how to use it, he advised.

“If you don’t know why you’re implementing technology like a robo-advisor, it’s probably not going to be successful,” Fortner said.