JMB Communications Writing Samples

Technical competence: Regardless of the nature of your products or services, we either know about them already or we'll learn about them and learn what excites your prospects and customers -- and we'll use that information to help you sell. We have heavy experience in many areas of technology including servers, workstations, PCs, networking and network access products, application software, telecommunications, CAD/CAM/CAE/CIM, financial services, product testing, semiconductor technology, and scores of other product/service areas -- even in foods and travel/tourism.

Wide-ranging communications experience: Check our capabilities and you'll find that for more than 30 years, we've been providing the total spectrum of marketing communications and PR services for some of America's most successful companies. Our Capabilities List is an accomplishments list, not a wish list.

Customer focus: We get inside your customers' heads so we understand how best to orient everything we write for you. The result is simply better at accomplishing your real objectives.

JMB Communications is frequently called upon by some of the country's highest-profile PR, direct response, Web marketing, and advertising agencies to do projects for some of the best known companies in the world. Some agencies use us as a resource their clients are unaware of . . . others use us as a direct member of their team . . .and still others tell their clients that they’re using us as consultants. We can't discuss most of those relationships or post samples, but we think this article – a White Paper we wrote for GHW Associates and CorpTech, their client – says a lot about what we can do for you. Contact us to learn more. We can also email you electronic samples we are unable to post here.

Here you'll find samples of different types of writing created for a wide range of clients -- large multinational technology companies, Web portals, regional financial services companies, and others. The samples show what clients ask us to do most often: Web content creation, customer testimonials, trade magazine articles, PR packages, marketing collateral, and annual reports, to name a cross-section. Click here for our complete Capabilities.

In the unlikely event you don't see what you're looking for here, e-mail us. We have more, including heavy client PR, additional collateral, more annual reports, business/product launch press kits, etc. Most of the links here bring you to documents displayed on our site. A few links are to downloadable Adobe Acrobat PDF documents. To see Acrobat PDFs, you'll need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

We've grouped these samples by type; just click what you want to see. To see all our samples, just scroll down this page. Thanks again for taking the time to visit us. Note: to see entire websites we've produced, click here.

We often do work for PR and advertising agencies, either handling their overflow or writing about technologies with which we're extremely familiar. For Limelight, we do a monthly Web article for their client, Softeach. Subjects include future technology, e-commerce, Internet privacy, preventing viruses, and other current technology topics. Some articles posted recently focused on Ilene: It's A Wonderful High Tech Life. That fascinating two-part series regarded sophisticated electronic devices you may not even know about...but you will. (Other, larger agencies we work for don't necessarily want their clients to know they farm stuff out to anyone...but they do, to us.)

We wrote all the Web content for this manufacturer of 3D graphic compression technologies. Their products enable their customers to post downloadable dynamic 3D product images on the Web. Click here to see their site.

These two writing samples for Internet.com concern, respectively, Investor Relations and the pitfalls of starting a freelance PR business. (We started ours 11 years ago after 20+ years working in corporations.) Here are the articles.

Several years ago, we posted an article on St. Maarten here as just another writing sample. It has developed into what we're told is the largest St. Maarten/St. Martin website in the world, and one of the most popular. Today it includes everything tourists could possibly want to know about this island and has scores of links. Includes shopping, touring, beaches, car rentals, villa rentals, hotel accommodations, boat charters, and copious information on restaurants. This site generates a lot of business for the island and has led a number of businesses to call us for their own websites. Click to go to our St. Maarten travelogue. We've also created sites for Caribbean restaurants; see below. And we've done a significant amount of work for Samsonite Corporation, the huge luggage company.

We do websites for technology and non-technology companies. Click here for our current list, and for links.

We write for magazines, frequently contributing to Alchemy Magazine and other publications from Putman Media and other publishers. This page shows you several articles dealing with CRM, supply chain issues, manufacturing software, and other subjects. Click here.

Crier Publishing Company's Frozen Seafoods and Retail Management International magazines run articles from us about various aspects of the US seafood industry and retailing, respectively. Check out some interesting technology and non-technology Crier Publishing articles.

Here you'll find a number of magazine articles written for Hotlist, the subscriber magazine of TIAC (The Internet Access Company), an Internet Service Provider covering the northeastern US. These major stories (over 2000 words each) deal with the Internet, the Web, and technology in general. Two of the stories -- one concerning Internet "cookies" and the other regarding press coverage of the Internet and the net's vulnerability to sabotage -- will be particularly interesting. Click here.

We've done many projects for CAD giants Parametric Technology Corp. and Computervision Corp., which are now merged, and also for Adra Systems. We're quite familiar with CAD/CAM/CIM and CAE (and with lots of other highly specialized technologies). "PTC" does many customer testimonials regarding high-profile customers. Our samples include case studies/testimonials regarding Medtronic Corporation, Brother International Corporation, and others. Medtronic is the company that designed the pacemaker/defibrillator that was implanted in Dick Cheney in mid-2001. To see these testimonials, click here.

We do a spectrum of product promotional and Web intranet work for Houston-based Compaq Computer Corporation. Nothing tells your product's story better than the results achieved by satisfied customers. We've written customer testimonials for many companies and they continue to be a significant part of our business. LinkWorks is a sophisticated business software product marketed by Compaq. Check out these two LinkWorks customer testimonial/case studies we wrote for Compaq (when LinkWorks was still branded as a Digital Equipment product). Compaq's LinkWorks product group is headquartered in the Netherlands. Other Compaq samples are available upon request. To inquire, call us at 508-830-3456.

This series of three testimonials was part of a 2001 direct marketing program created for this exceptional East Coast computer services provider. To see all three, click here. The first is about 900 words; the rest are brief, about 600 words each.

Note: Additional samples of testimonials created for other clients are available on request.

We frequently collaborate with PR, marketing, Web, and advertising agencies on projects for their clients. This Customer Newsletter was created in cooperation with our long-time marketing partner, Panagas Communications of Massachusetts. To see this downloadable Adobe PDF, you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. To download the 8-page Adra Customer Newsletter, click here.

We've been working with graphic designer Hal Coughlin for many years. One of his clients is FAO Schwarz, for which he has designed several "One to One Variable Data" newsletters, Best of FAO, distributed to FAO's best customers across the USA. "One to One Variable Data" design and printing is a computerized process enabling Relationship Marketers to use individual prospect text and images or customer names on individual personalized copies of marketing documents. This was the first full-color, variable data-print newsletter we collaborated on for FAO; JMB doesn't do "just" technology. This, like the Adra newsletter noted above, is a downloadable Adobe PDF document. Downloading may take a few minutes with slow connections -- this piece is 400K. Click here to download the "Best of FAO" Newsletter.

Corptech deals with corporate data nationwide. They're a client of direct marketing guru GHW Associates, which asked us to write this paper concerning methods of approaching and interacting with technology companies. This is one of several white papers we've written for this client. To see the Corptech sample, click here.

We've written several extensive white papers regarding insurance/finance for a top client of GHW Associates. To download a small file-size PDF of "Is Life Insurance Really Necessary?" click here. To download "Answers to Questions about Retirement Annuities," click here. Both files are Adobe PDFs, for which you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download it at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

Everything we do can't go on our Web site. We're often called upon by pre-IPO companies in the US and in Europe, or by large corporations "incubating" startups, to do entire PR packages under total NDA. We typically do lead releases, market backgrounders, company backgrounders, key executive bios, "What People Are Saying" (quote) documents, product category or other product-related White Papers, product launch releases, all launch-related Web content, and much more. For samples and to learn more, ask us.

We've prepared hundreds of news releases over the years for many high profile companies. Subjects: product/service introductions, company launches, analyst advisories, and scores more. Samples are available on request. Click "Contact Us" at the top of the page, or call us at 508-830-3456.

We did a complete collateral hierarchy for eMation, a builder of unique Internet-enabled remote-monitoring / control technologies for businesses. Here's a downloadable PDF of the corporate brochure we did for them. eMation invented "Device Relationship Management," described in the brochure. The file size is small for quick downloading.

We've done a great deal of work for both Computervision Corporation and its successor company, Parametric Technology Corp., as we noted above. For several samples of collateral, click here, then click the link to "CV Collateral."

EDIC (Eastern Dentists Insurance Company) is a malpractice risk retention group for dentists. We created their 1999 Annual Report; the file is a downloadable PDF of about 900K. Click here to download. We also created their Financial Services Brochure (smaller, about 400K). To see either file, you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.

This material involves a wide range of networking products and technologies, and was written for several clients. We also do telecommunications, voice recognition, Internet enabled machinery, and much more. For networking collateral and PR samples, click here.

Intertek is one of the world's oldest and largest product testing organizations. Here you'll find both a direct response piece and a technical bulletin. Click for ITS writing samples.

We frequently tackle highly complex projects. Among the most complex we've completed over the last few years are: Microcom Access Integrator Product Guide, an 88-page technical guide to new products used by Microcom (now Compaq) sales engineers; VPN Technology Guide, a 30-page guide-presentation developed as a giveaway for attendees at Virtual Private Networking (VPN) Seminars; a heavily technical feature article for Solid State Technology magazine on Digital Semiconductor's new Fab 6; and an Environmental Backgrounder, also on Fab 6. Because these documents are several megabytes in size we cannot post them here, but they are available on request if you email us. In 2001, we completed several additional heavily detailed internal product guides for Compaq Computer Corporation, now used by their business-to-business technical sales people around the world. Proprietary materials are of course not available as samples.

JMB supports several leading market research firms either with direct research or, more often, research report preparation. This report regards the future of contract electronics manufacturing, an area in which San Francisco-based Technology Forecasters has exceptional expertise. Click to see this report.

Popular Massachusetts political figure Sen. Therese (Terry) Murray faced a grueling battle against a particularly obnoxious opponent in 2000. We wrote her campaign's centerpiece mailing, a newspaper which arrived in every constituent mailbox less than a week before the election. She won in a landslide, trouncing her opponent even in his home town. To see this downloadable Adobe PDF, you'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader which you can download at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html. Click here to download Sen. Murray's newsletter (800K).

Business screensavers are becoming an increasingly popular way of displaying promotional photography on otherwise idle PCs. Regardless of whether your business is a travel destination or a silicon wafer-transporting robot, we can build a screensaver quickly using your photographs, either by themselves or combined with slides generated with Microsoft® PowerPoint and even video and music files. See a beautiful but quiet (no sound/video) sample by downloading our "Funky" St. Maarten screensaver; click here. Support for installation is available here.

Over the years, we've interviewed hundreds of personalities in various professions for magazine features and other purposes. Soon, we'll post an extensive story about Austin Kelly, a collector of rare books who is one of the most fascinating people we've ever known. Early on, we also interviewed a large number of popular musicians including Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, The Byrds, Joan Baez, Judy Collins, and many more. The first of these, our interview with Simon & Garfunkel, will be published here within a few months.

Some people say when you place articles in trade magazines, you get what amounts to free PR. But good trade magazines never publish hollow articles focused only on the needs of the company that's selling the product. Writing trade magazine articles that work means focusing on the audience and on the needs of the publication. You'll find this article extremely valuable if you ever contemplate doing trade articles.

On a number of occasions we've edited friends' resumes as a favor. One such friend suggested we put that knowledge in writing. In 1995, when we started this site, we posted it as another writing sample. Today that page alone gets thousands of hits a month, a shock to us, and it has won awards and spawned a side business. Click to read "How to Write An Effective Resume. . . and What To Do With It Once You've Got It . . . . "

If you like stories of intrigue, where man confronts incredible odds and withstands tortuous elements to triumph over evil... and if you like stories where individuals with keen minds try to anticipate tenacious moves by ingenious enemies... then you might like this story. Then again, you might not, but that's your business. Curious? Then click! Incidentally, this article is what led FAO Schwarz to become a JMB client...we do FAO's newsletter for their best customers.

Why not? Recipes are writing -- especially this one. It is the only recipe we've ever written -- for which my wife is profoundly grateful. Check out Chicken Soup.

If you use AOL, you may be interested in this brief article about a wonderful product (sold for $5) which stops AOL from nagging you when you're online. Click here. (Our use of this product was featured in PC World, January, 1999.)

Regardless of what you're looking for, chances are we've done it -- we just don't have time to post it all. We have hundreds of other samples -- to see more, just write to us and ask. We write for a huge variety of companies, from the Fortune 100 to startups. Most of our work is for technology companies but even FAO Schwarz is a client, as you read above. What can we do for your company?

We're adding new writing samples frequently, so please bookmark this site and come back often.

The writing samples pages on this site are still undergoing a long-overdue redesign. While it's in progress, you may see some pages which differ in style. Except for our brick-wall style "Capabilities" page, all of the samples pages will be changing eventually to the simpler, cleaner style you already see on this page. We appreciate your indulgence as these changes are completed. Unlike work we do for clients, our own redesign project doesn't get our top priority... (3/8/02)

We work hard to respond to your needs -- even urgent ones where you need something "yesterday." We can't always respond as quickly as we'd like, but we'll do our best to make sure you always know up-front how quickly we can help.

To speed the process, we don't usually ask for a letter of credit. Instead, we are prepared to accept initial payments by credit card (in addition to customary corporate checks or wire transfers). You can establish credit instantly with VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Small, new, or overseas companies frequently prefer this quick, hassle-free approach. Note: JMB prosecutes credit card fraud.