At The Verb Garden, we know how to match the right words to the right methods of communication to reach your audience. As a journalist and with a Masters degree in Organisation Communication, Donna Ambler is well placed to guide you in your internal and external communication planning. Donna has experience in both the corporate and government sectors and has worked in regional NSW, Sydney and the United Kingdom.

While Corporate Policy and Communication Manager with State Water Corporation, Donna was responsible for the strategies in response to both the staff and customer service surveys and the organisation's marketing strategy, including a range of branding and promotional initiatives. She can also help you develop staff and customer surveys and provide an independent review process to present the survey findings, with recommendations about how to use the results to your best advantage.

Donna was also instrumental in supporting senior management to communicate the need for an efficiency-driven restructure and in providing information to keep employees engaged in the process and to support those who left the organisation.

Your promotional initiatives should be well planned to achieve your strategic objectives, from improved brand awareness to more bookings or an increase in sales. We can help you develop those strategies, review your objectives, set realistic and achievable targets and implement actions that will make a difference.

From preparing articles for inclusion in relevant trade journals to recommending networking opportunities and writing papers or speeches for you to present at a conference or developing marketing and promotional materials to promote your business to increase brand awareness, The Verb Garden can turn your words into action.

We have used some innovative concepts when working with businesses and organisations to develop marketing strategies and tailor their marketing communications to attract new business, gain sponorship support and increase brand awareness.

Who better to provide strategy and advice to you on how to develop effective relationships with the media and to use them to your advantage than a former journalist? You need somebody advising you that understands how the media works, what they are looking for and where you may be wasting time and resources.

The Verb Garden can support you in the preparation of media releases, through to management of media and communication campaigns. We can also provide you with the skills and some simple tips and templates to produce your own media releases, confidently conduct interviews and develop a reputation as a reliable and respected professional who is good media "talent".

Strategic public relations

How is your organisation regarded by the public and your stakeholders? Good public relations needs to be managed and is about more than sponsoring the local footy team or taking an ad in the local paper. This is particularly important in the ever changing environment that has now given us a multitude of social media opportunities to consider when planning a public relations strategy.

With a Masters Degree in Organisation Communication, Donna Ambler understands the importance of identifying your stakeholders or target market and tailoring your strategies to meet their needs and expectations.  She can also help you improve your brand awareness and tailor a strategy that covers a wide range of promotional opportunities -from increasing your profile as a recognised expert in your field to reaching new markets, as well as ensuring your logo features prominently on the footy jerseys, as well as your own team's uniforms and using Facebook and Twitter to create a following for you and your business.

Facilitation and Stakeholder Consultation

It sometimes helps to step outside the square and to take a fresh look at what you are doing. Often, what you need to do is bring in somebody from outside your organisation to make you sit up and think about what you are doing and why. Do your activities meet your strategic objectives? Do you have a strategy to work from?

The Verb Garden has the skills, expertise and understanding to work with a full range of stakeholders. We can provide an innovative solution to your issues - whether your needs are for in-house facilitation to bring your staff to a common understanding,  to work with staff and Board members to develop a strategic plan or for community or stakeholder consultation on a difficult issue or to introduce something new.

We can conduct small, highly focused interactions to address single issues or progress difficult negotiations. We can also draw on our experience and local and state government expertise, as well as work with our associates to assist in conducting broad and intensive community consultations.

The Verb Garden offers a full range of professional writing services. Tight, concise copy in plain English is what The Verb Garden produces - and all in half the time that you might labour over trying to find the right words.  Whether you are preparing an award submission, want help in producing a tender or help to become "tender ready", The Verb Garden can make your life easier.

Newsletters, reports and corporate documents all have specific audiences and require different writing styles.  Where annual reports are concerned, you also need to consider your legislative requirements, obligations to your sponsors or funding bodies and the right level of transparency. We have written for a range of publications and media and can manage big and small projects, delivering on-time results. We can even write a speech or presentation or coach you to take the stress out of a big sales pitch, interview or presentation to a large group.

All you need to do is provide The Verb Garden with a brief of what you want to say and who you needs to read or hear your message. It's as easy as that - we can quickly turn your words into action.

Website text development

Finding a company that can develop a good looking website for you is only part of the exercise. You still need content that reflects the professionalism of your business and speaks to the audience or customer about what it is that they want. The Verb Garden's aim in web copywriting is to strike a balance between copy that is searchable and copy that is readable. Our skill is in bringing your website over the final hurdle by producing the words that make it effective.

In developing copy for the web, The Verb Garden focuses on helping businesses engage potential customers by providing fast access to the information they need and giving them no reason to move on to the next site.

The focus is on understanding three things:

1.       What content the client wants written

2.       Who the target audience is

3.       What the client wants the website to achieve.

We have considerable experience in writing and editing copy for the web and can work with your existing material or help you create material for a new website.

Policy documents need to reflect the needs of an organisation, while also considering how they will affect the users. At The Verb Garden, we use our extensive communication skills and experience to work through the whole policy development process with you. We take into account the affected staff and stakeholders, their needs and how easy the policy or process is for them to understand and put into place. At the same time, we make sure to address your statutory obligations and operational requirements.