I like to keep one eye on what the consumer and corporate marketers are up to, and it turns out there's a wholesale shift happening where even the CMOs are spending more and more time working on the company's brand. Why does that matter? You know how every time someone asks you what's the ROI of employer branding? You can always say that if branding isn't important, why is the most important marketing person in the company working on it so much?

This list of five things every brand marketer needs to be doing right now is focused on consumer brand, but you don't even need to translate ideas like Lean Into Purpose and Rethink Your Brand Culture into employer brand terms to see the thought processes.

I know you want to make BFFs with your marketing team, but a lot of you are having trouble making making it work. The culprit? It's that marketing doesn't understand you. They still see your team as a funnel-filler or Glassdoor review watcher. They treat your team as untested and untrained dilettantes "playing at marketing." Which is why I wrote this for you (to give to them): The CMO's Guide to Employer Branding. It's a long read, I'll grant you, but it should speak their language about your value.