Curtis Smith Director of Business Development Carmichael Lynch Spong

David Erickson Director of e-Strategy Tunheim Partners

Doug Barton Managing Partner Trone, Inc.

So what exactly are the brightest and best of your PR firm colleagues doing to get the word out to clients and prospects today? What new tools and techniques are they embracing—and what tried and true tactics are they revisiting? For the answers, we interviewed several sources to find. Here's how they're handling current challenges—their advice is both simple and profound:

1. Dig deeper, not wider—focus on your strengths. Cast a wide net—but not too wide. "Despite the recession, our firm is pressing forward like we've always done," says Curtis Smith, director of business development at Carmichael Lynch Spong. "The most important plan for our firm is to keep a strong marketing presence using several disciplines from direct database mailings, email marketing, advertising, interactive and, of course, public relations. The key is to cast a wide net without spreading your resources too thin."

David Erickson, director of e-strategy at Tunheim Partners, calls for a similar balance. A common agency mistake—especially during a recession—is casting too broad a net, he says, rather than "being strategic and targeted in your marketing communications."

Keep a strong presence in as many areas as you can without overextending your reach, counsels Smith. "Some agencies tend to try several things and abandon their efforts too early without looking closely at the return," he cautions.

Similarly, Doug Barton, managing partner, Trone, Inc., says the recession represents a time to focus on your strengths. For Trone, that means building relationships with prospects, focusing on areas—such as pet care—where it has a high degree of expertise, says Barton. It's a matter of going deeper instead of wider. "We're deeper in a category, as opposed to trying to touch all these categories where we don't have a level of expertise to differentiate ourselves. We tell our clients to differentiate themselves. Let's try to practice what we preach."

It comes down to relevance, he says. That's the difference, obviously, between a targeted, customized email marketing effort and spam. It's also the key to search-engine optimization.

2. Get listed—revisit firm directories, online and off. Keeping your agency profile up-to-date in various online and print industry directories is very important, especially with the directories that have a search option, says Smith. "If a prospective client is looking for specific experience that you've recently acquired, you'll want to be easily accessible." (for Council members, the Council's "Find a Firm" online directory is a significant New Business generator.)

Erickson emphasizes the value of comprehensive online profiles. "Because social networks examine the commonalities (contacts, education, employment, industries, interests, etc.) between members of the network, the more you give, the more you get. The more information you divulge about yourself on these networks, the more opportunities you'll have to make connections."

3. Show and tell—use Web video to spotlight work. "The nice thing about the Web is that you can demonstrate, rather than simply tell people about your expertise," says Erickson. His advice? Use online video. Video "allows you to highlight projects in which you've excelled in an easily consumed and much more compelling manner than text."

Smith offers similar advice. "We're currently working on a redesign of our website, which will include highlight videos and photos, visual profiles of our client work, and images of our new headquarters in Minneapolis, as well as other offices, an important part of our agency's culture. It's important to use these visuals across several different areas—social media, email and website."

4. Deploy social media—start with staff networks. During this recession, agencies have access to robust social media, providing them with robust, low-cost marketing tools. In some ways, the recession may be speeding the inevitable. "Advertising and marketing budgets have been moving online as a general trend during the past few years and the weak economy has accelerated that trend," says Erickson, who blogs about these issues at e-strategyblog.com.

While social media worked well marketing Trone's clients, it hasn't been quite as effective for marketing the agency, says Barton. Nevertheless, "It has yielded some success within targeted industries. Part of that has to do with age," he says. Many decision makers on the client side are older, and they simply aren't embracing social media. But that's going to change as the generations change. Accordingly, all three experts we consulted tap social media to market their firms during down times. Here are some of their tips:

• Social media begins at home. Social networking depends upon relationships between people, so start with your employees' own social networks and help them build their own business relationships using tools like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, Erickson counsels. There's always a risk of employees posting inappropriate content or divulging sensitive information, but an agency's social media policy must be "flexible enough to allow employees to get the most out of this medium," he says. Trone deals with this by encouraging all employees to blog on the agency's intranet. It takes away much of the risk and allows material to be vetted. Select content is posted on the agency's public website. "It keeps our people engaged, but lets us be a little more selective of what goes outside the walls."

• Know your prospects. Monitoring online conversations about brands and industries allows Trone to stay on top of what's happening with clients and prospects—and quickly provide the intelligence they need. It's about creating relevant insight quickly, Barton says. And that's a powerful marketing tool.

• Don't expect immediate results. Social media marketing typically doesn't have an immediate payoff, says Erickson. Although these networks take time to build, the benefits will be realized over the long term and their value will grow over time.

• Find ways to measure impact. "Some of the great social media tracking sites like Addict-o-matic and Serph have been extremely helpful in keeping an eye on the agency's reputation," says Smith. (See more on metrics next week.)

5. Watch your step—"low cost" doesn't mean lowering standards. While discussing low-cost marketing strategies, our experts offered a few warnings about potential pitfalls, caveats and cautionary tips. Among them:

• Maintain your standards. Don't abandon—or fail to create—agency-specific prospect criteria, Smith says. "Ensuring the pursuit of the right opportunities in a troubled economy is essential to using your resources in the most effective way."

• Don't forget about current clients. "Tell your existing relationships things they may not know about you—like in-house expertise, specialty practice areas, etc.," says Erickson.

• Don't discount your value. "Probably the biggest mistake I see agencies making is lessening the value and cost of their services," says Smith. "Giving discounted rates can only minimize what your agency does as a value-based service."

Roxanna Guilford-Blake [roxannaguilfordblake (at) yahoo (dot) com]