Category Archives: How to Write Effective Marketing Documents

For More Effective Grant Writing, Learn the Truth Behind These 5 Grant Myths

Because grant writing is one of my services, I often talk with people about their expectations regarding grants. Through these conversations, I have come to realize that grants are somewhat misunderstood by both for-profit companies and nonprofits. However, you will have a much easier time writing a grant proposal (and will be more likely to [...]

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Write a Case Study to Show How You Shine

We all know that what other people say about you carries more credibility than what you say about yourself. Many businesses understand this, and display testimonials or customer quotes on their websites and other promotional documents. But, a testimonial only says so much. Yes, they contribute validity to your message, and are great to have, [...]

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How to Write a Business Proposal That Will Wow Your Prospect and Win You the Sale

So, you’ve done the legwork and found a fantastic prospect. You’ve communicated your value and shown how it can contribute to the prospect’s success. You’ve discussed a specific project to partner on, and the prospect has requested a business proposal. Congratulations! This is great, right? “Right,” you might be thinking, “but how do I make [...]

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How to Write a Corporate Brochure

Though the Internet offers the opportunity to get much information online, there is still room for physical communication pieces, such as brochures. They serve as good leave-behind items when you visit with customers face-to-face, or nice pieces to send to distant customers when you are not able to meet with them in person. A brochure [...]

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How to Write Content for a New Blog

Whether or not you believe that content is king in the blogging world, the fact is that if you have no content, you have no blog. So, when starting a blog, in addition to getting WordPress set up, doing keyword research, creating a nice design, and all those other important “behind the scenes” activities, you [...]

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Writing Good Tag Lines

Everyone loves good tag lines and, whether we want to admit it or not, they are an integral part of our culture.We repeat them and incorporate them into our vocabularies (e.g. “Just Do It”). They become jumping off points for other campaigns (e.g. “Got Milk?”). They serve as bases for humor and entertainment (e.g. “Where’s [...]

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Why You Need to Ditch Your Elevator Speech – Part III: Let Them See Your P.O.V.

This post is Part III in a three-part series in which Marcia Hoeck, a dynamic business coach, presents a fresh, effective way to verbally engage with customers and contacts. In Part I , Marcia shares her opinion of elevator speeches (they don’t sound natural, and don’t help people to talk), and introduces us to the [...]

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Why You Need to Ditch Your Elevator Speech – Part II: Talk to the Five-year-old

This post is Part II in a three-part series in which Marcia Hoeck, a dynamic business coach, presents a fresh, effective way to verbally engage with customers and contacts. In Part I , Marcia shares her opinion of elevator speeches (they don’t sound natural, and don’t help people to talk), and introduces us to the [...]

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Why You Need to Ditch Your Elevator Speech – Part I: That’s Interesting, Tell Me More

The Final Draft Communications blog is all about how to put your best word forward in business—in both writing and speaking. Recently, I wrote a post titled How to Elevate Your Elevator Speech. In it, I suggested several ways to improve your elevator speech (an introductory speech brief enough to be delivered during an elevator [...]

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7 Grant Proposal Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make

You know you have a great agency that truly helps your clients and the community. You know there are funders that want to support programs like yours. But, you also know there is fierce competition, and resources are limited, so you need to make your grant proposals shine. Here are seven mistakes you’ll want to [...]

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