Editorial Guidelines

CustomerThink is dedicated to maintaining an authoritative, but conversational, voice. When we evaluate prospective articles for publication, we are seeking new information, new insights into the business-customer relationship or a cogent explanation of an aspect of customer management strategy, practice or technology.

Your article is more likely to be accepted if it conveys new information that's relevant to our community. Before submitting an article proposal, review our major topics to learn about subjects that fit our site. Also take a few minutes to search articles on the topic you have in mind to see what else has been previously published.

Guidelines

• Articles should have a strong point of view. We encourage the use of first person with good examples to "tell a story."
• Only single-author bylined articles will be accepted, to facilitate a conversational style and help the author engage with other CustomerThink members leaving comments.
• Articles should include supporting evidence such as industry research or examples of how an organization has succeeded in the steps you advocate.
• Unless you make it clear that an example is hypothetical, it must be true, but company names may be kept confidential if necessary.
• Please use active voice to make your article more conversational. In other words, instead of saying, "It is believed," say, "I believe" or "industry experts believe."
• Where possible, write your article for a specific role within our community. We publish content for CEOs and General Managers and executives/managers in marketing, sales, customer service and IT job functions.
• Do not "pitch" your business, products or services in your article. The author bio can include brief information about you and your firm, including a link back to your web site.
• You should cite your sources including research statistics and quotes, including those that were not made directly to you, including as much information as possible: the date, author name, publication and article name. Work this information into the body of your article, not footnotes.
• Most articles are 750 to 1,000 words long. However, the length depends on the scope of the topic and depth of content. We can run articles up to 2,000 words if appropriate.

If this looks like a lot of work, it is! Sure, blogging is easier, but keep in mind that we feature all new articles, which means they receive premium placement on our web site (60,000 visitors per month) and email newsletter (100,000 subscribers). As a result:

• On average, an article gets five times the views of a blog post
• Most articles garner 500-1,000 views in the first month after publication
• Most Top 10 articles are viewed up to 5,000 times in the first year
• Our all time best hits have received 10,000 views and counting!

Proposal, Approval and Submission Process

If you're interested in submitting an article, please send a proposal via email to the managing editor. Include the following information within the body of the email.

• Your name, title and company name
• Proposed topic and working title for your article
• Summary of main messages and examples/research that will be included
• Leadership role(s) targeted

You'll get a response from the managing editor with comments or questions about your proposal. Once the proposal is accepted, your first draft will be due at least 30 days before the planned publication month. If you don't already have a CustomerThink account, you'll need to create one so that you can post and edit your draft online.

Once you've submitted your article, the editor will work with you to shape it into a format that meets CustomerThink's standards. Please allow time for feedback and rewriting. Most articles require a couple of edit cycles.

If the author approves, we assume that all necessary approvals from others (e.g. sources quoted) have been secured by the author. CustomerThink does not submit to third-party approval. The author will have an opportunity to approve the final version, subject to the editor's final copy edit and decision on article title and subheads.

Basic CustomerThink Style Notes

Please follow these conventions when writing your article:

• Use U.S. spelling and punctuation
• Uppercase company names (unless the company does not capitalize its name)
• Don't hyphenate "email"
• Lowercase the "W" in "web" and make "web site" two words
• Use percent signs only in tables; otherwise spell out percent
• Place commas and periods inside quotes.
• Italicize article and book titles as well as magazine and newspaper names
• Spell out numbers under 10, except in percentages and currency.