What methods to use to create small, editable pieces of text for static pages?

For many of the sites I do for clients, the designers will make pages with small pieces of text in various places. For example, the home page will have a headline, a tagline, and a small box with contact information. The about us page will have a main body of text, but then also a side box with a past client quote in it. The contact us page will have a short blurb before the form.