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When Di-Ann Eisnor's clients began falling from grace last year, she didn't retreat or raise a white flag. Instead, the 28-year-old founder of Eisnor Interactive (EI), a promotions agency for online brands, tweaked her company until it hurt. The last time Fast Company spoke with Eisnor, her New York-based firm was launching successful guerilla-marketing campaigns for such cyber brands as About.com and newyorktoday.com, a New York Times Web site. In addition to these Internet pure plays, EI's unique street-level approach to consumers was also attracting the attention of diverse clients like Polaroid, Compaq, Reebok, and Staples.com.

Since then, like nearly every other marketing-services company in the digital-branding space, EI has weathered a series of shakeouts that have threatened to leave the company clientless. Indeed, nearly one-third of EI's clients have gone under in the past three years.

As the clouds gathered over Wall Street last spring, EI was busy partnering with marketing-communications giant Omnicom. Since that time, the two companies have worked together on an internal overhaul at EI. After nearly six months of collaboration with Omnicom, EI has regained its handle on the elusive technology market and its positioning therein. And Eisnor feels confident that the company is now in a position to succeed in the long haul.

Here are five lessons Eisnor learned from the trenches of a hard-fought battle.

It's All About the Partners

In March 2000, Eisnor Interactive took a minority investment from Omnicom, a large marketing-communications company that offers a vast network of contacts, consistent counsel, and knowledge about reevaluating strategy and rethinking business plans. Eisnor went through Ominicom's senior-management training program, which she calls one of the best corporate-learning initiatives she's seen. Omnicom provided EI with the resources and insight it needed to realize new internal goals and maintain a sharp external focus, even in the toughest of times.

Get Some Strategy

The market correction that began last year forced EI to become more flexible and develop a new focus on strategy. "We never had to be incredibly proactive," says Eisnor. "We were a hot company running on a good reputation, and there was more than enough money and business floating around to bring in thousands of leads a month. We literally kicked back and chose our clients."

Today, EI struggles with the new reality of the services sector: a thinning client base and stiff competition from traditional ad agencies with larger budgets and sturdier business plans. The marketplace has also forced EI to alter its time frame and project calendars. The sprint is over; EI is now pacing itself for the marathon.