This is a guest post by Adam Hempenstall, who is the CEO and Founder of Better Proposals – simple proposal software for creating beautiful, high-impact proposals in minutes. Having helped his customers win $500,000,000 in the last 12 months alone, he’s launched the first Proposal University where he shares best practices on writing and designing proposals.

A great business proposal means the difference between an unsigned contract and a successful deal. A poorly written business proposal will get turned down, even if the offer is good.

Business proposals are considered to be an art form that only the extremely skilled can write.

However, after analyzing over 189,000 successful business proposals, I can tell you that there’s no secret to writing a great proposal.

Allow me to elaborate as I take you through our analysis findings, and run through the following topics, in this Process Street post:

• What is a business proposal & how do you create one?
• Business proposal finding #1: Visuals matter
• Business proposal finding #2: Video makes no difference
• Business proposal finding #3: Live chat increases conversions
• Business proposal finding #4: A single offer is better than a package
• Business proposal finding #5: Kiss PDFs goodbye
• Business proposal finding #6: People open proposals on their phones first
• Business proposal finding #7: It doesn’t matter when you send your proposal
• Business proposal finding #8: Clients love paying directly from the proposal
• Business proposal finding #9: Length matters
• Business proposal finding #10: The title of the pricing section makes a difference
• Business proposal finding #11: Act quickly
• Business proposal finding #12: Use a template
• Key takeaways: The magic business proposal solution

Let’s get started.

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Your boss has just asked you to write an email telling your customers their free trial has ended and encouraging them to upgrade to premium. But writing isn’t your thing and you could use some copywriting examples.

I mean, where do you start? What do these emails look like? If you had a swipe file, you’d have a reference point straight away.

Swipe files are collections of material kept by creatives for easy reference, consisting of great material you can learn from. If you’re just starting out, you’ll probably want to start making one and be prepared for your next assignment.

It’s best to amass your swipe file as you go, quickly adding quality copywriting examples when you see them and tagging for easy reference. Keep reading to find out how to do this using Evernote. But first, let’s look at where you can find awesome material to get started.

Swiped.co

While relatively new, Swiped is actively archiving a large selection of new and classic ads, emails, pop-ups, sales letters, direct mail examples and more.

If you’ve already got some material for your swipe file, go ahead and upload it to Swiped! It survives on user uploads and is an amazing labor of love by Mike Schauer.

It was created because archives of ads are sparse, and if you’re a copywriter or advertisers without a hefty swipe file you’ll have to rely on the rare chance that someone has uploaded the advert you want to reference somewhere on the web.

As it turns out, most people don’t really like ads that much. More often than not, you won’t find what you’re looking for.

Swiped’s collection is small, but growing quickly and has an active community of marketers uploading their finds and even making annotations to highlight the effective elements.

This is a guest post by Hannah Butler, who works as a web developer, designer, and writer.

According to a study by Digiday, Vanity Fair’s newsletter readers consume 2x more content than any other audience segment.

Another study by Parse.ly found that Greentech Media’s newsletter visitors spend 80% more time on site than visitors from other channels.

These studies reflect the effectiveness of business newsletters for engaging your audience, retaining readers, and converting prospects.

However, we at Process Street know that writing a business newsletter can be challenging.

That is why we have put together this article detailing how to write a business newsletter. You will learn the underlying principles behind newsletter writing, along with top tips and tricks for how to create compelling content consistently. And if that isn’t enough, we give you 30 top – free – template resources to speed up the process, helping you save time on tedious, repetitive tasks.

Check out our Creating a Newsletter checklist given below for a quick taster regarding what our templates have to offer.

Click here to access our Creating a Newsletter checklist!

Click on the relevant subheader to jump to the section of choice. Alternatively, scroll down to read all we have to say.

• Why bother writing a business newsletter?
• How to write a newsletter
• Business newsletter templates to streamline your newsletter campaigns
• Sending your business newsletter using an email marketing campaign process

With that said, let’s get started. Continue Reading

Who is Kanye West?

A musical genius? A passionate campaigner? Jesus? Or a spontaneous, unintelligible twitter ranter?

“I’m telling you, I am Warhol. I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare, in the flesh. Walt Disney. Nike. Google…”

“A lot of people here felt like they lost. You know why? Because y’all been lied to. Google lied to you. Facebook lied to you. Radio lied to you”

“My greatest pain in life is that I will never be able to see myself perform live”

Kanye West is a brilliant example of how impulsive, unplanned communication can ruin a reputation.

But it’s not only famous celebrities that suffer the cost of off-the-cuff comms.

Unplanned communication is costing companies over $37 billion every year. This is no surprise when you consider that over 60% of companies don’t create or follow a communication plan.

It’s time to stop winging it and start planning it.

Read this Process Street post, grab our free communication plan template, and learn how to communicate properly, as we go through the following:

• The basics: What a communication plan is
• Three must-have communication plans
• Why having a communication plan is a no-brainer (with true stories)
• How to build a communication plan with Process Street

If you’re keen to start planning your communication right now, grab this free Communication Plan Template Checklist:

Click here to access the Communication Plan Template Checklist!

(Sign up for a free trial here, if you’re not yet a Process Street user)

Let’s start talking…
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I have a proposal for you.

I can build you a house, complete with walls, windows, doors, and a roof for $350,000.

Do we have a deal?

No. I didn’t think so!

To make a decision like this, you need cold hard facts. You need details, clarity, and proof! You need budgets, breakdowns, and solid guarantees.

That’s exactly how a project stakeholder feels when they receive your project proposal, and to further complicate things, calculating an average proposal win rate is next to impossible.

Project stakeholders will, on average, receive around 50 proposals a week. To choose you out of this huge pile, they need clarity, details, specifics, lateral thinking, and a whole heap of persuasion.

You need to learn the art of how to write a project proposal, to stand any chance of winning their investment, and increasing your proposal success rate.

So, join me in this Process Street post where we will take the following lessons in how to write a project proposal:

• Lesson #1: What a project proposal is
• Lesson #2: What a project proposal reviewer is really looking for
• Lesson #3: The surefire way to succeed with your project proposal
• Lesson #4: The 4 types of project proposal & how to create them (with tips & templates)
• Lesson #5: A little more about Process Street and how it can help your project proposals

If you’re in a hurry, grab this Project Proposal Template Checklist, and catch up with the class later:

Click here to access the Project Proposal Template Checklist!

Now, butts on seats, no talking, and let the class begin!
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Without documentation, software is just a black box. And black boxes aren’t anywhere near as useful as they could be because their inner workings are hidden from those who need them in the open.

Software documentation turns your software into a glass box by explaining to users and developers how it operates or is used.

You’ve probably seen documentation before, but if you need a refresher, here’s an example from Slack‘s API:

As you can see, Slack explains everything about its API in excruciating detail. Any related pages are linked, there’s a sidebar with easy-to-access topics, and screenshots of what the user can expect to see.

To explain software documentation in more detail, we will cover the following topics in this Process Street post:

• What is software documentation?
• Software documentation hosting options
• Writing tools for software documentation
• Final words on software documentation

Let’s get started.

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Healthcare providers are the backbone of humanity.

It’s through their hard work, diligence, and courageousness that we’re able to recover from injuries and illnesses alike. However, even before the novel coronavirus struck, those working in the healthcare sector were run off their feet – especially considering there are only 2.6 doctors per 1,000 patients in the United States.

Healthcare providers, then, need to strike the fine balance of providing each patient with adequate care but within an appropriate timeframe.

To help make this near-impossible task a reality, many healthcare providers turn to what’s known as a SOAP note.

Not sure what a SOAP note is?

I’ve got you covered. (Spoiler: It’s not related to the cleaning product.)

In this short yet informative post, I’ll explain what a SOAP note is, its interesting history, why it’s useful, and provide a visual example of what a SOAP note looks like. To boot, I’ll also show you how Process Street makes writing and implementing SOAP notes extremely easy.

Read through the below sections to get clued-up:

• What’s the SOAP note definition?
• How a SOAP note works
• The history of the SOAP note
• The benefits of SOAP notes
• A SOAP note example
• Using Process Street for your SOAP notes (and more)!

So what’s up, Doc? Ready to get reading?
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How many proposals do you submit, on average, per month?

Five? Ten? Fifteen? …More?

And out of those, how many do you win?

Zero?… One?… Maybe two if you’re lucky?

“The U.S. Department of Transportation’s TIGER grant program accepted less than 10% of eligible grant applications” – CDN2, Four Types of Grant Funding

Hearing “No” after “No” after “No” is devastating, disheartening and downright depressing.

Where are you going wrong? How can you improve? What in God’s name do you need to do to get a YES?!

If you’re looking for ways to create a blinding proposal that will flatten your competitors, dazzle your prospective buyers, and result in a long-awaited YES from a panel of reviewers, you’ve come to the right place.

All you need is ten minutes and the following 12 free proposal templates:

If you don’t have ten minutes, feel free to dive straight into these winning proposal templates:

1. Bid Proposal Template Checklist
2. Business Proposal Template Checklist
3. Construction Proposal Template Checklist
4. Consulting Proposal Template Checklist
5. Contractor Proposal Template Checklist
6. Event Proposal Template Checklist
7. How to Write a Grant Checklist
8. Marketing Proposal Template Checklist
9. Project Proposal Template Checklist
10. Research Proposal Example Checklist
11. Sponsorship Proposal Template Checklist
12. Website Proposal Template Checklist

Or, if you’re curious, take a sneaky peek at the website proposal template to give you a taste of what’s to come!

These are the topics we will cover in this post:

• What you need to achieve with a proposal
• 8 ways to create the perfect proposal
• The 12 different types of proposal
• The real secret behind a successful proposal
• How to use Process Street to write your winning proposals

Ok, let’s go!

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What’s the difference between a winning grant proposal and a losing one?

Grant writing.

Grant funding today is more difficult to obtain than ever before. A recent National Institute of Health (NIH) report showed that out of 50,000 grant applications, only 10,000 were given funding. That’s only 19%, which has fallen from 33% in the last 15 years.

Why?

A lack of Government funding, fierce competition, and poor grant writing skills.

We can’t do anything about the Government funds. We can do little about fierce competition. We can, however, do a lot about poor grant writing skills.

From completing complex grant applications to writing tip-top proposals, we’ve created the following eight templates to hone your grant writing skills.

If you’re in a hurry, go ahead! Click on the links below to jump straight in!

1. Applying for a Government Grant Checklist
2. Budget Proposal Template
3. Grant Application Process
4. How to Search for Grants Process
5. How to Write a Grant Proposal Checklist
6. How to Write a Research Proposal Checklist
7. Proposal Template Checklist Process
8. Simple Proposal Format Checklist

Curious about what these templates looks like? Check out the Proposal Template embedded below.

Scroll down for more information on each template of our grant writing template pack.

In addition to introducing our grant writing templates, I’ll be taking you behind the grant writing scenes, covering the following topics:

• What is a grant? (Clue: it’s not free money)
• Uncover the truth about what grant writing really is
• How to write grant proposals that win every time
• How to ace your grant proposals with Process Street

Ready? Let’s start with the basics…

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Your attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s.

This isn’t meant to be a personal insult. All of our attention spans are now pretty ba-… wait, how was I going to finish this sentence?

Blame it on what you will – the break-neck speed in which content is published on the internet, the various devices all vying for our attention, or a lifestyle that’s overly digitalized – but there’s no getting away from it. There’s only an 8-second window before concentration plummets.

For journalists, content marketers, and pretty much anyone who uses the written word to deliver information, this isn’t news you want to hear.

But with the inverted pyramid, you can quickly supply global audiences with the news they do want to hear – and quickly (read: before they move onto the next shiny, sparkly thing).

In this post from Process Street, you’re going to learn about the inverted pyramid, the benefits of using it, see examples of it in action, and discover how checklists can help you with getting the right information out there. Fast.

Read through these sections to get completely clued up:

• What does inverted pyramid mean?
• Inverted pyramid examples (from 1865, 2018, and 2020)
• Benefits of the inverted pyramid writing structure
• How to not bury the lead (by taking a systematic approach)
• Ensure your audiences get what they need with Process Street!

Now, what was the topic again? Oh, right – the inverted pyramid!

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