Newspaper ads. The Yellow Pages. Billboards. TV commercials. Magazine ads.

If you've ever watched the show “Mad Men," you may have some nostalgia for the Golden Age of advertising. In the 1960s, ad copy and television were the kings of marketing. In 1967, AT&T introduced the 1-800 number and phone call marketing changed forever.

For the next 30 years, insurance agencies across the country utilized newspaper ads, phone book listings, billboards and local ads to drive phone call traffic to their agencies.

If you've been in insurance for long enough, you probably know this. You may even remember when the Big “I" partnered with actor Raymond Burr to market independent agents. And you may remember insurance companies offering co-op money for billboards and signs at local sporting events. These efforts led to a sense of branding and marketing for independent agencies that made them a strong presence in their communities.

But in the late 1990s, the world changed again when the internet took hold. Websites began to move from being something new to something every insurance agency had to have. The rise of search engines meant that agents had to be found online, whether by their local community or by prospects in other locations.

Even as this landscape changed, independent agents understood that relationships and referrals were the key drivers for their businesses—and they were right. The independent agency channel grew and thrived, despite lagging behind other professional service providers in marketing strategy.

For years, the mantras of “our clients aren't getting insurance online" and “commercial insurance can't be done online" remained true. People searched online but ended up talking to an agent for their business insurance or high net-worth personal insurance needs. The consumers that did buy online were often nonstandard auto, renters or standard personal lines clients who were price-based shoppers.

But then the world changed again. In 2020, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted how we live, work and shop—likely forever. This includes buying insurance. Nearly 3 in 4 small business owners said they were extremely or somewhat likely to purchase insurance online in the future, according to a 2022 study by global research firm Celent.

Businesses may not be buying complex insurance policies online yet, but they are researching who to work with and what they need online. How are they finding out about your agency? Stellar Google reviews? Relevant content on your blog? Social media content that helps them get to know you? Testimonials that help them feel comfortable trusting you?

If you're not used to enhancing your digital footprint, it can be a daunting task. Or, you may simply feel that you don't have the time to do it. But there are easy steps you can take to improve your presence.

Here are four ways to propel your agency forward online:

1) Claim and update your Google Business Profile. Whether people search for you specifically or for insurance in your area, you need to show up in the results. To be effective in enhancing your search ranking, your Google Business Profile needs to be up to date. If you haven't done so already, you should:

1) Search for your agency name.

2) Find your agency's Google profile.

3) Select the “Own this business?" link on the profile and submit a claim for it.

4) Once activated, follow the prompts to update all the relevant fields.

2) Develop a plan for blog content. Blogs don't have to be massive technical and informational pieces of novel-worthy literature. Content like FAQs and updates on the insurance marketplace are extremely beneficial. While 500-1,000 words are ideal for search engine optimization (SEO), any valuable information for your clients can be a blog post.

If you already have an agency newsletter, are those articles on your blog? Are you sharing carrier articles?

3) Get started with social media content. We're in a relationship business, there is no doubt about that. If you're on social media personally, do you maintain and grow any relationships there? Do you learn about people's lives, wish them a happy birthday, see pics of their families and interests? Of course you do. Social media is a social relationship platform and your agency should have content for relationship development.

Make sure you have a LinkedIn business page, Facebook business page and Instagram business profile. Update them with your contact info and brand.

Then, get started by simply posting a pic of your team and saying something like, “Proud to have been serving the insurance needs of our community for 27 years." Invite some of your connections to follow the LinkedIn and Facebook pages and follow some of your insureds on Instagram. You'll see some results and it will likely motivate you to do more.

4) Measure your online presence. If you are consistent and put in six months of effort, you'll see the impact. But how will you know for sure? Google Analytics is the easiest way to track your traffic and measure results. If you don't have it set up, talk to your website provider to see if they can set it up or provide something similar.

Getting started is the hardest part. But starting your agency's digital marketing plan isn't just something you should do—it's something you must do. Our industry has changed dramatically since the 1980s. Is your agency's marketing keeping up?

Daniel Smith is chief marketing officer and co-founder at Market Retrievers. This article was originally published on the Trusted Choice^® blog.