Art is for everyone, but your communication needs to be highly focused. Arts organizations should be creating multiple types of communication for different audiences for different reasons, such as event attendance, fundraising (individual and corporate), advocacy, and more.

Effective marketing message needs to be focused, tailored, and specific to each audience and each action you’re attempting to create in order to best support and sustain your arts organization. Even though art is for everyone, you must be selective in your communication in order to be efficient. “Everyone” is not a target audience. …

In a “past life” I worked in corporate manufacturing marketing (as an employee and as a boss). The companies I worked for had a massive market share. They really hung their hat on market share as a point of pride. Which was fine for the time and industry, but in 2018–19 marketing is not the same as it was in 1997 or 2007. Market share is less important than ever before. Market share doesn’t pay the rent, doesn’t pay the bills because it doesn’t equate specifically to profitability. …

Your Audience Will Show You: Without sounding too obvious, you find influencers where your audience finds them. Think and act like your target market and the influencers will become obvious. Who are the people, groups, etc. that your audience is engaging with in-person, online and via social media? The market will always give you the answers.

If you know your audience well enough, and you pay attention to them, you can find their influencers before they become known (and then overpaid) as influencers. …

We (my business The Golding Group) say No to potential clients more often than we say Yes — and you should too. The most common reason is the project is doomed before it starts due to strongly held ideas and attitudes of those in charge. If you’re not willing to make changes, then why are you hiring us? We are not looking to rubber stamp your ideas (it’s all ego at the end of the day) so we can collect a paycheck.

Our focus is on making organizations effective, efficient and connected to their audience. This typically isn’t easy, fast…

The most important part of a branding strategy is focused on audience identification. Your brand needs to connect to the most specific target market possible, as quickly and easily as possible.

A simple, specific message directed at that target with consistency and repetition will begin to connect your brand to your audience. Message, channel, tone, etc. should all be based on traits of your best target demographic.

Sell your brand to the most potential audience first. Do not try to be everything to everyone. Identify and address your best customers first, the secondary audience will come later.

Business fails when you don’t focus marketing efforts precisely enough on the primary target audience. The worst thing any business can do is assume “everyone” is their client. Just not true and wasteful of limited time and budget. A successful business is highly focused on their best customer only and not the general public as a whole. The product or service offered must solve a problem OR be extremely attractive as a luxury BUT each of these has to be something others are willing to pay for (convenience or perceived value) and not just something of interest to the company…

I started my first business when I was 15 years old. I didn’t know I was being entrepreneurial or what an entrepreneur was. I was just trying to make some extra money. Here are three pieces of advice that I would give to my younger self with tips that I would have wanted to hear as an inexperienced business person.

1. If you start having some success, but that doesn’t mean everything will be this easy. Pay closer attention to the How and Why of that early success. Don’t assume you will always understand what worked and what didn’t. Write…

I was recently asked about the challenges currently facing the restaurant industry and key areas hospitality professionals need to be focused on.

Biggest Challenge: Overpopulation of the industry. Too many entrepreneurs trying their business hand in restaurants and too many semi-successful operators quickly moving to add more locations or their next big concept. Add the overall competition for discretionary income and you have a red ocean of competing interest.

There are way too many places of people to spend their money today, so letting your restaurant be a 4th or 5th or 12th choice is a recipe for disaster. Engage…