There is no definitive origination for the term “Shoestring Budget”. Some have suggested that the analogy comes from the fact that a shoestring is slender and therefore relates to having slender resources. Having spent 20+ years developing and marketing software, my view on “shoestring” as it pertains to marketing is a little more precise than merely spending within a budget, or having only limited resources. Many marketing organizations actually have more than just shoestring budgets, but yet they operate and deliver results which are less than optimal.
How Shall I Tie Thee, Let Me Count The Ways?
Let’s visualize the shoestring as being the integral component that ties together an overall marketing plan and strategy. Just as there are many different techniques and ways to lace up a shoe (over 33 different combinations illustrated on this website), so there are many different ways to combine marketing activities to meet an organizations’ objective. Which of course means that the goals of that organization have to be directly correlated to the deliverables and metrics of the marketing plan.
Any marketer can list out and execute against all of the traditional activities which include: logos, trademarks/servicemarks, presentations, whitepapers, datasheets, brochures, mailers, promotions, advertising, website, web content, web presence (SEO), webinars, pricing, competitive analysis, positioning, value proposition, press releases, media/analyst relations, events, speaking, sponsorships, social media, blogging and more. But the truely effective and optimal marketing plan selectively determines the activities (eyelets in the shoe) which our shoestring will pass through in order to deliver the desired and effective results. Certainly you can pass through every eyelet (and some more than once) if you have unlimited resources and time, but most of us have to deliver using our shoestring, and that means being efficient and relevant.
Forget Me Knot?
Just as you typically tie a knot to secure your loops through your eyelets, your marketing plan and strategy must have a core objective and focus to which all activities lead. Much has been written about using Six Sigma techniques (DMAIC – Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) to ensure the proper processes for effective marketing and it can certainly help adjust and calibrate the effectiveness of marketing efforts to “tie” together target goals. But even without the rigour of Six Sigma, simple checks and balances can help ensure that marketing isn’t way off course or off base with expenditures on activities that aren’t delivering. When you build your marketing funnel it’s important to understand your audience and the messages that resonate with their issues and ultimately the manner in which they want to be reached in order to determine the correct mix of activities. This is particularly relevant in the light of new channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and alike.
The Sole Of Marketing
In olden days there were several superstitions around shoes such as when the right shoestring became undone, something good was being said about you, whereas the left shoestring coming undone meant the opposite. Probably a good reflection of the fickleness of a PR barometer, but I digress. I can’t say whether marketers are a superstitious group as a whole, but we are creatures of habit. What worked before must work again, and if I do everything under the marketing handbook it would surely work eventually. Guerrilla marketing, social marketing, solution selling aren’t about major new breakthrough techniques, rather they should be viewed as a guide to the most effective execution of marketing activities based on the audience and desired objectives.
So next time someone mentions “Shoestring Marketing Budget” to you, don’t panic and complain about how much you have to do, and how impossible it will be to achieve the results with so few resources and $$$. Think about the whole shoestring and how you are going to determine which eyelets to lace-up and ultimately tie your knot. Remember that you are responsible for a platform upon which the rest of the organization will depend upon for steady and secure revenue generating footing.
For more ideas about marketing, please take a look at my 2010 marketing resolutions post.