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Proofed | Editors | Emeritus | Columbia Business School (CBS) Marketing Content Style Guide

Notes

The notes below refer to CBS marketing materials.

This card should have everything you need for marketing materials, but if anything is not covered here, then please consult the CBS style guide.

  • Always use program and not course.
  • American English.
  • For general spelling, use Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th edition (US).
  • Don't use titles Professor or Prof for faculty. Use the person’s full name in the first instance, and then surname only in subsequent mentions.

school and program details

  • Always write out as Columbia Business School Executive Education
    • For character limits, acceptable abbreviations are:
      • Columbia Executive Education
      • Columbia Business School
      • Columbia's two-month program (only if absolutely necessary)
    • Instead of saying Columbia Business School Executive Education’s Chief Marketing Officer Program say → Chief Marketing Officer Program from Columbia Business School Executive Education.
  • Certificate: CBS only gives a Certification of Participation. Do not say get certified or get a credential etc. in ad copy. Participants receive a certificate of participation but do not "get certified” in the topic.
    • Allowed: Online Certificate
    • Not allowed: Profession Certificate, digital certificate, certificate program
  • Instead of using the word elite (as in the case of an elite community or elite club), use the phrase distinguished global.
  • Always spell out program titles in full, even if they include acronyms — e.g., Chief Financial Officer Program and not CFO Program
    • If the program title includes extra defining elements, e.g., (Online), always ensure to include them at every mention too.
  • Use fee not cost. Be careful using the singular form if it’s a total fee. If you are mentioning more than one fee (program fee + enrollment fee), then use the word "fees" (plural).

Capitalization

  • Title case: all prepositions are in lowercase (ignore the CBS style guide here).
    • See exception below re compounds adjectives.
  • In title case, capitalize both words in a compound adjective (Real-World, World-Renowned)
    • Capitalize prepositions in such compounds too, e.g., Hands-On, Peer-To-Peer
  • No need to capitalize common nouns (generic terms) within sentences, such as Customer Worth or Customer Lifetime Value. Instead, customer worth or customer lifetime value.
  • If a program title has "Program" in it, it should be capitalized ("program" is not capitalized on its own).
  • For a question following a colon, the first word will be lowercase (e.g., Use it to answer the question: how is it possible?)
  • Designations in lowercase when mentioning a role, e.g., He is a research associate.
  • Capitalize specific program titles, but not more generic reference to the subject:
    • Professor Smith's course, Economic Analysis
    • Professor Smith's introductory course in economic analysis
  • Program titles, module titles, and module topics should be written in title case.

Punctuation

  • Use the serial (Oxford) comma.
    • Avoid using semicolons to separate list items.
  • For singular nouns ending in s, to make them possessive, just add an apostrophe (e.g. Emeritus')
  • Use spaced em dashes. Exceptions: No spaces should be used around the em dash in brochures or month in the life (MITL) documents.
  • Follow standard US English guidelines for punctuating quotes: periods and commas inside closing quotation marks.
  • When mentioning America, use "United States" as the noun in running text. Use "US" when used as an adjective.
    • In running text, spell out United States
  • Don’t use commas with descriptive adjectives
    • e.g., “… a comprehensive nine-month learning experience …” and not “… a comprehensive, nine-month learning experience …”
  • Do not use ampersand (&) anywhere (except in brand names, where required).
  • Use hyphenation with the prefix "co-":
    • co-founder
    • co-director

Numbers, times, dates

  • Spell out numbers one to nine in running text; numerals for 10 and above.
    • Exceptions (always numerals): dates, times, page numbers, decimal amounts, ages, percentages
    • In graphics/lists, figures are usually used instead of spelling out every low number.
  • When used as a compound adjective in running text, all words are spelled out (e.g., eleven-month program, not 11-month program/twenty-first century, not 21st century).
    • However, when used as a compound adjective in bullets, all numbers are written as digits (e.g., 6-week course, not six-week course).
  • Never start a sentence with a number
  • When not using "between... and" or "from... to," separate numeric ranges using an unspaced en dash:
    • 21–28
  • Use "one-on-one", not numerical 1-1.
  • Time:
    • Use the fewest number of digits possible, but use a consistent number of digits for a range:
      • 8–9 a.m.
      • 8:00–9:30 a.m.
      • 8 a.m. to Noon
  • Comma use in date ranges as follows:
    • May 30, 1996, to June 17, 1997
  • Use thousand-separator commas, including in pricing ($3,500)
  • Spell out "percent" in running text, use % symbol in figures/charts
  • Do not hyphenate percentages or number rankings:
    • two percent rule
    • the fifth largest group

Style notes

  • Don't underline for emphasis, use bold instead.
  • Avoid shortening words. Don’t remove "and" to shorten titles for social media. Choose AI and ML versus AI, ML. Don’t remove articles such as "the" and "a." It will be assess the price and not assess price. Avoid shortening words like Co. and Dept. It will be Company and Department.
  • Don’t say Say .
  • Don't use a forward slash:
    • BFSI and fintech, not BFSI/fintech
    • highlights and benefits, not highlights/benefits
  • Avoid exclamation marks.
  • Entities, brands, companies, schools are plural; use they, their and not it, its.
  • Avoid overly casual/phrasal verbs (e.g., "check out this new video").

Bullets

  • No periods at the end of bullet points, even if they are complete sentences.
  • Ensure parallel grammatical structure within a bulleted list (i.e., all full sentences or all fragments).
  • Ensure consistency of punctuation throughout the bullet list.

Subject-specific terms and phrases

For any terms that aren't listed here or in the style guide, use Google to find common usage, follow any patterns seen here, or leave a comment for Emeritus to check/tell the ops team so that we can add the terms to the list.

  • dot com company
  • data set (two words)
  • decision making (noun) / decision-making (adjective)
  • deep dive (noun)
  • early-warning
  • e-commerce
  • email (no hyphen)
  • enroll in, not enroll for
  • enterprise-wide
  • future leaders — don't use this phrase to describe students
  • Ground Zero — never use this unless it's in relation to 9/11
  • homepage
  • in person (standalone) / in-person (adjective before noun)
  • internet
  • life cycle (two words)
  • log in (verb), login (noun)
  • multimodal (not multimodular)
  • newsletter (not e-newsletter/enewsletter)
  • organization, not company or firm
  • quality-adjusted
  • real time (noun) / real-time (adjective)
  • road map (two words)
  • startup
  • World Wide Web, the web

In addition to the above, there are a few guidelines that the school has given specifically for each of the different marketing collaterals. In case of a clash with the overall feedback, please go with what is in this section.

Google Ads

  • Avoid using Columbia University. Use Columbia Business School.
  • Include the name of the program followed by the word online along with the school name in all the text ad copy within the headline.
  • Projects guided by coach / project coach, not faculty
    • Text can refer to the full Columbia Business School faculty
  • Periods should be used after all descriptions.
  • Unspaced en dash for duration
  • Sentence case for bullet points
  • Use "and", not "+"
    • Use "&" only if there's no other option for character limit
  • Prices must have thousand separator comma (US$28,000)
    • Abbreviation option = US$28K
  • Whenever space allows, spell out numbers one to nine in headlines and descriptions
  • Either use full program name or change to lowercase
    • B2B Marketing Strategy (Online) or B2B marketing program
  • Columbia Exec Ed as abbreviation of the school name is allowed only for Google Ads
  • Do not abbreviate program names, but you can use them as roles, e.g. CMO role but not CMO Program
  • Months can be abbreviated (Mar, Nov) where necessary for character limits
  • Do not use the words "training" or "course"

Social/Webinar Ads

  • Use crisp phrases and avoid minor (unnecessary) words, e.g., instead of saying Safeguard it against fluctuations say Safeguard against fluctuations.
  • Don’t use the + sign in ads — use "and" in all instances.
  • Periods should be used after all descriptions
  • Months can be abbreviated (Mar, Nov) where necessary for character limits

Mailers

  • Don’t use the + sign, use "and", e.g., Online and In Person.
  • In subject lines: CMoS title case, no italics, and use numerals for all numbers.

sepo notes

  • Do not use an en dash for complex range hyphenation in running text
    • Correct: 9- to 12-month
    • Incorrect: 9–12-month
  • Hyphenation:
    • noun – "decision making"
    • verb – "decision-making"
  • Bullet lists: no periods
  • Subheaders: sentence case
  • Don't capitalize "success coach" unless preceding a person's name
  • Don't make changes to module titles
  • Standard usage for introducing criteria: inclusions/exclusions, not included/excluded
  • No colon to introduce "call to action" (i.e., clickable) buttonsScreenshot 2022-08-03 at 17.27.31.png

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