The essential purpose of a small business or company is that your product or service provides some kind of solution to some kind of need or problem. In other words, people’s problems are your opportunities.

That’s pretty oversimplified but holds true. If you don’t know what’s bugging your prospects and keeping them up at night, then you won’t know what solution your services and products need to offer them.

From a marketing point of view, you have to be very clear about what your customer’s problems are in order to “talk” to them. When you think of what you are selling as a solution to your prospects’ problems or a way to improve their lives, you are speaking their language. And when you speak their language, they are much more likely to listen, because you are tapping into the conversation that is already going on inside their head!

People want to know you understand them, that you have compassion for their concerns and want to help with your services and products.

Your goal is to create a clear, concise and strong marketing message that resonates with your prospects’ wants and needs. Your marketing message needs to clearly show the connection between your services and your prospective clients’ needs.

Your target or niche market shares commonalities in the frustrations and issues they face. As a good marketer and business owner, you need to identify these and be able to talk about them in your marketing communications.

Your prospects are walking around with needs and problems and they are looking for solutions. They are not necessarily walking around looking for the product or service you sell. So, when you can position your product or service as a solution to their problem, you immediately get their attention!

To be more accurate, your prospects and clients experience various symptoms or emotions caused by their problems. For example, people come to professional organizers because they feel many of the following symptoms: stress, anxiety, feeling out of control, unhappy, inefficient, feeling bad about self, ineffectual and so on. They may have different problems, i.e. messy office, no workable filing system, cluttered garage, but they all pretty much feel the same and experience the same symptoms.

By tapping into people’s underlying issues and the emotions that are created from this problem or need, you can ensure that your marketing materials talk directly to these symptoms and problems.

So how do you figure out what your prospects’ and clients’ problems are?

* think about when you have been in the same situation and what your main issues and feelings were

* ask current and potential customers what the key issues facing them are

* stay current with any studies, literature and news about your target group and things that are “hot buttons” for them

* periodically check out your competitor’s websites and see how are they talking to their customers, what kind of language they are using

* do research on your target market (via websites, magazines, trade shows, online forums) to see what they’re talking about amongst themselves

You need to stay educated and informed of your prospect’s problems; otherwise you won’t be able to communicate that you understand their problems. And if you can’t do this, then your potential clients will not respond; and as a result they will not buy your products or services.

The principle is very simple: if you can clearly articulate a problem your client has, and you can demonstrate credibly that you can provide a solution to that problem, they will listen to you.

Creating a TV ad for your small business can seem a daunting, intimidating and expensive task. Fortunately, with today’s easy access to the tools and technology of TV production, producing a TV spot is well within your reach. One caution: Making a TV ad may be relatively easy. Making a good TV ad is much more challenging. Don’t get so caught up in the production process that you lose sight of your advertising objective. Awards are nice, but it’s not creative unless it sells!

Once you’ve got your advertising message in mind, the 3 key stages of TV production are:

1) Pre-production – Planning, writing, scheduling, location scouting and all the preparation and details before a frame of video is ever shot.

2) Production – The actual video shooting of the ad. Depending on your needs and budget, could be anything from one camcorder to a multi-camera Hollywood extravaganza.

3) Post-Production – While on the shoot, you may hear the common refrain, “We’ll fix it in post.” Post is where everything comes together to produce the ad – Editing, graphics, music, titles, voice over, special effects and, eventually, a “final cut.”

Here are the most effective solutions for getting your own TV ad produced:

• Set clear goals

Know and communicate your marketing objective. Determine your budget and develop a plan. What do you hope to achieve with your TV ad? Where and when will it run?

Get-It-Done: The Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB.org) is an excellent resource for first-time TV advertisers. The Association of National Advertisers (ANA.net) is another good starting point.

• Determine your target audience

Television is still a mass medium, but you better know your target before you shoot! Who are you trying to reach, and will your message resonate with your intended audience?

Get-It-Done: Advertising Age (AdAge.com) is the industry Bible. More in depth demographic research is available online at their sister publication, American Demographics.

• Content is King

Craft your message and determine your content. Consider whether you’re producing a 30-second TV spot, a :20, :15, : 10 or some combination. Be sure to refine your script and storyboard – a visual representation of each shot in your ad - until you’re convinced the commercial is ready to shoot.

Get-It-Done: Need ideas and inspiration? Hop across the pond (online) to “thinkbox,” Great Britain’s great website for television marketing in the UK.

• Plan the shoot

You’ll need to decide on the “creative” for your TV ad. Considerations include tone, pacing, mood, style, music,etc. Should it be humorous? Dramatic? Animated? The clearer your vision before the shoot, the better television you’ll produce.

Get-It-Done: The TV marketing and ad whiz kids at Promax.org are some of the best “promo producers” in the world. See what ad producers from NBC, Discovery, MTV Fox and others are doing and tap into their collective knowledge.

• Fix it in post

Post production is “where the magic happens.” Edit the footage from your shoot, adding music, graphics, effects and finishing touches. Find a professional video editor, or take a crack at it yourself with a program like iMovie.

Get-It-Done: Mandy.com lists hundreds of production vendors, as does LA411 and NewYork411, depending on your coastal preference. Procure a Pro is a more broad based B2B directory.

Some final TV Production tidbits include:

• If you do decide to go it alone, creative is still key. Creative trumps budget every time. A good idea with lower production is still better than a slick ad that misses the mark.

• Software called “Visual Communicator” from Adobe allows you to create pro videos using only a webcam and some pre-packaged graphics.

• Your local TV station may provide commercial production assistance (at extra cost) if you buy an ad schedule on that station.

• Think about other “venues” for your finished TV ad, such as streaming video on your website.