Before asking for budget, step back. Effective employer branding aligns with wider company objectives. Whether you’re scaling, launching, or evolving, your talent needs—and your employer brand—must reflect that journey.

Ask key questions:

• What are the top strategic priorities in the next 12–36 months?
• What roles or skills are critical to success?
• How do we attract the right people ahead of time? What is the role of employer brand in doing so?

If your strategy is retention-focused, craft content that reinforces purpose and amplifies employee stories. For future hiring phases, build a brand that will resonate now with passive talent. Tie your business case back to broader business goals.

The challenge with branding is perception - it feels intangible. But that’s changing. With access to employer brand data, leaders can see the measurable impact of brand perception on hiring outcomes.

📊 Strong brands = cost savings

Companies with robust reputations reduce cost-per-hire by up to 50%. If you have a poor perception? Expect to pay far more per candidate.

🧠 Metrics to watch:

• Engagement scores
• Offer acceptance rate
• Employer brand tracking over time
• Cost-per-hire, time-to-fill, and sentiment benchmarks
• The changes in your employer brand awareness, consideration and appeal over time, and how you stack up relative to competitors (which you can find on Wisdom)

Once you’ve aligned strategy, show what real investment looks like. Outline how branding will support business goals - whether through storytelling, platform upgrades or campaign execution.

Examples include:

• Redesigning your Careers page to highlight your EVP
• Featuring employee-led video series
• Quantifying changes in awareness and appeal amongst target groups (using a platform like Wisdom).

Smart projects reinforce trust and build visibility. Start with smaller projects with a clear ROI, and use this to build momentum for broader business goals.

There's never been a better time to invest in employer brand. A host of new tools on the market means you can stretch your budget far further - make sure senior stakeholders know this, and you'll be far more likely to secure the additional budget you need.

New technology enable you to scale branding without adding headcount. From publishing stories to running programmatic ads, the right tools help bring your employer brand to life - for far less money.

New options on the market include:

• Scripe for drafting LinkedIn content
• Joveo for optimising your spend across different channels
• Vizzy for an entirely new way of applying and sharing CVs, and reaching neurodiverse talent.

Use tools that align with your employer branding strategy and enable you to track results - and show how these tools allow for an outsize ROI.

When facing budget resistance, lead with data and long-term thinking. Delaying employer brand investment now means playing catch-up later—at a higher cost.

• Set your baseline. Wisdom's brand tracking allows you to know where you sit in the market, and which part of the funnel (awareness, consideration or appeal) you need to focus on.
• Establish your position in the market. Tools like Wisdom allow you to show where you're falling short relative to competitors, and create a sense of urgency that can help with securing additional budget.
• Derisk your spend. Wisdom's content testing allow you to be confident in the effectiveness of what you're spending - before you go to market.

Consistent employer brand tracking helps show progress and surface leading indicators like engagement and sentiment before the business impact appears.