Nine Steps to a Compliant Article

Here are some pointers on how to write articles using your compliance department as your partner, not your adversary.

1. Identify the common problem you intend to solve and related issues that are an offshoot of this problem.
2. Contact your compliance department and tell them what you intend to write about, and that you’ll send them a draft.
3. Identify the magazine you want to write it for.
4. After they give you a go-ahead from compliance, write a query letter to the intended magazine editor.
5. For the content of your article, write out the steps to address the main problem. Remember, you’re not pitching your service or product, but providing readers with a solution or alternative approaches. You are in a safe harbor by sticking with ideas, procedures, processes, systems, and methods of operation, or recent developments that your audience likely hasn’t heard of.
6. If you use any research studies, charts, or graphs, e-mail the original sources for permission to use them and cite them as the source in the article.
7. Conclude the article with a summary and call to action that paves a pathway back to you. It could be as simple as inviting the reader to “Contact the author for more information.” Now, read your article aloud.
8. Meanwhile, you get a positive response from the magazine editor. Before you send off the article, first send your completed draft to compliance and ask for a time frame for turnaround. Once they approve, send finished piece to the magazine.
9. After publication, remember to ask permission to reprint the article.