Write for Employer Branding News (EBN)

Practical contributor guide for Employer Branding News. What we publish, who we serve, word counts, structure, SEO, images, author profile, pitching and an AI use policy. Useful, specific and brave.

A practical, public guide for contributors. If you can help employer brand leaders do better work next week, we want you here. Keep things useful, specific and human. A little wit is welcome. Fluff is not.

Jump to the "pitch the editor" form here.

What we publish

We commission operator‑grade articles that make the messy parts of Employer Branding simpler. Every piece should anchor to at least one of our core themes and leave readers with actions they can try immediately.

Core themes

  • Employer Value Proposition
    • What it covers: The promise between your company and the people who join and stay. We look for pieces that turn fuzzy value statements into testable propositions with research, segmentation and proof points.
    • Strong angles: Methods for EVP discovery, message hierarchies, proof mapping, activation across hiring and employee lifecycle, governance and maintenance.
    • Avoid: Slogans, value bingo and lists of generic attributes with no evidence.
  • Future of Work
    • What it covers: Trends and operating models that change how people work and how your employer brand competes. Hybrid patterns, skills‑based hiring, AI in recruiting, 4‑day weeks, cross‑border teams and labour market shifts.
    • Strong angles: Pilots with results, policy design that actually landed, change management playbooks, market data and second‑order effects on EB.
    • Avoid: Vague predictions and trend dumps without actions.
  • Leadership and Culture
    • What it covers: How executive behaviour, manager habits and rituals create lived culture. CEO branding, internal comms that move behaviour, decision‑making norms.
    • Strong angles: Artefacts and rituals, before‑after behaviour change, manager enablement, culture decks that were used, not framed.
    • Avoid: Values posters, “our people are our greatest asset” without receipts.
  • Retention and Engagement
    • What it covers: Keeping great people and lifting performance. Onboarding that sticks, career paths, internal mobility, recognition systems, feedback loops and wellbeing boundaries.
    • Strong angles: Regrettable attrition analysis, cohort views of tenure, program playbooks with numbers, links to productivity or quality.
    • Avoid: Perk spreads and generic wellness lists.
  • Talent Attraction
    • What it covers: How to grow qualified pipeline and improve hiring quality. Employer brand campaigns, careers site UX, job architecture, sourcing systems, referrals and recruiter enablement.
    • Strong angles: Funnel math and conversion lifts, channel mix experiments, JD rewrites that converted, creative that moved the right audience.
    • Avoid: Vanity metrics and impression chasing.

What is not a fit

  • Vendor pitches or thin listicles
  • Generic “future of work” takes with no proof
  • AI‑generated copy that reads like a brochure

Aim
Show how something works, why it matters now and what to do next.

Who you are writing for

Senior HR, Talent and Employer Branding practitioners who live in spreadsheets and stakeholder meetings. They skim first, save later. Speak as a trusted peer who has done the work, not a spectator. Write with clear language, short paragraphs and subheads that reward scanning.

Persona snapshot

  • Roles and context: CHROs, Heads of TA, Employer Brand leads, Recruitment Marketing managers, People Ops. Often solo or small teams, juggling exec asks and hiring manager needs.
  • What they need right now: Practical ways to move pipeline quality, hiring speed, acceptance rate and regrettable attrition. Tools to win internal debates.
  • Pain points: Thin headcount, scattered data, weak hiring manager alignment, brand debt from past campaigns, budget cycles, compliance and legal constraints.
  • What good looks like: Reusable frameworks, step‑by‑step plays, examples from real companies, risks and tradeoffs called out, internal comms they can paste into a deck.
  • Metrics that matter: Conversion by stage, time to hire, offer acceptance rate, quality of hire proxies, brand consideration, tenure curves, internal mobility, engagement scores.
  • Content they love: Specific numbers, screenshots, checklists, templates, calculators, before‑after deltas and links to sources.
  • Red flags: Vendor speak, absolute claims, trend dumps with no action, jargon for its own sake, cherry‑picked vanity metrics.
  • Accessibility and format: Short sentences, descriptive link text, clear charts with readable labels. Write for mobile. Put the point up front.

Word count and structure

Length

  • 1,200 to 1,800 words is the sweet spot. Heavier analysis up to 2,500 words if it truly earns the scroll.

How to structure your article

  1. Headline
    • Promise a concrete benefit or challenge a stale belief.
    • Example frames: “How to…,” “Stop… Start…,” “The playbook for…,” “What we learned from…”
  2. Hook (1–2 sentences)
    • Land a fact, a sharp question or a tiny story that signals real‑world experience.
    • Example: “We cut time‑to‑hire by 27 percent with one change: we stopped marketing jobs.”
  3. Problem and why it matters
    • Define the friction for EB leaders and place it in one of our themes. Be specific about impact on cost, time or quality.
  4. Evidence or case
    • Use numbers, process screenshots, quotes or before‑after examples. Credit sources. Readers trust specifics.
  5. Solution or approach
    • Give steps. Name owners, inputs, outputs and timeframes. Tell readers what to try this week and what to leave for phase two.
  6. Tradeoffs and pitfalls
    • What does not work, common traps, edge cases. Save someone a month.
  7. Conclusion
    • Restate the payoff. Offer a next step or a question worth taking to the team.
  8. Takeaways
    • End with a 7‑question FAQ. Each Q&A should stand alone and be valuable even if read in isolation.

Takeaways (7‑Q FAQ) guidance

  • Cover: what it is, why it matters now, what good looks like, first steps this week, pitfalls to avoid, metrics that prove it works, what to read next.
  • Keep each answer to 2–4 sentences. Be direct, avoid hedging and avoid nested jargon.

SEO and discovery

We write for humans first, then make discovery easy for search and AI surfaces.

Meta basics

  • Meta title: 50 to 60 characters. Put the primary keyword early.
  • Meta description: 150 to 160 characters. Promise the benefit in plain language.
  • URL slug: short, hyphenated, descriptive and under 60 characters.

On‑page practices

  • Put the primary keyword in the first 100 words.
  • Use related terms naturally in H2s and body copy.
  • Add 3 to 5 internal links to relevant EBN articles with descriptive anchor text.
  • Link to credible external sources when you cite a stat or definition.
  • Use meaningful subheads and short paragraphs to help skimming.

AI surfaces

  • Make early paragraphs self‑contained so summarisation engines lift cleanly.
  • Use named entities, concrete numbers and clear definitions.
  • Write Takeaways as direct answers that can stand alone.

GEO signals

  • If your story is location specific, name the city or region in the headline or first 100 words and in one subhead.
  • Use local currency, dates and spelling.

Images and media

Good visuals clarify. Bad visuals distract. Include only what helps the reader act.

What to include

  • One hero image and any charts or diagrams that support the argument.

File naming

  • ebn-primarykeyword-topic-author-YYYYMM.ext

Caption

  • Explain the “so what” in one sentence and cite the source.

Alt text

  • Describe what is in the image and why it matters to the article. Include the primary keyword only if natural. Avoid stuffing.

Quality

  • Compress images for fast load, using .webp aiming for 200kb or less. Use accessible color contrast in charts.

We create an author page for every contributor with a short bio, headshot and link.

What we need

  • Bio: 40 to 60 words in third person that shows credibility.
  • Headshot: square, high‑resolution.
  • Link: personal site or LinkedIn.

Backlinks

  • We provide a dofollow link in your bio and welcome reciprocal dofollow backlinks.

How to pitch and submit

We accept commissioned articles and strong cold pitches.

Pitch checklist

  • Working headline, the reader problem you will solve and why now
  • A 5 to 7 bullet outline tied to one of our themes
  • Two to three sentences on your experience with this topic
  • Sources or data you plan to use

Submission format

  • Google Doc with comment access or Markdown file
  • Include suggested meta title, meta description and URL slug
  • Include image files with captions and alt text

Editorial process

  • We edit for clarity, accuracy and house style. You review before publish.
  • We do not publish vendor pitches. We do publish practitioner insight with proof.

Rights

  • Original work only. If you republish later, credit Employer Branding News as the original and link back to the article.

Pitch the editor

AI use policy

Use whatever tools help you think, but ship human‑grade work. If you use AI, you are responsible for accuracy, originality and voice.

Standards

  • Facts and quotes verified against original sources
  • Numbers re‑calculated and linked
  • Examples grounded in your own experience

Red flags that get rejected

  • Vague, high‑gloss phrasing (“in today’s fast‑paced world,” “unlocking synergies,” “revolutionising at scale”)
  • Hedging and filler (“might,” “perhaps,” “it is important to note that”) when you should be precise
  • Repetitive sentence openings and robotic transitions (“Moreover,” “Furthermore,” “In conclusion” stacked)
  • Lists that say everything and therefore nothing

A quick self‑check

  • Read the first 150 words aloud. Does it sound like you talking to a peer at work
  • Underline every claim. Can you link a source or show data
  • Remove every sentence that could appear in any industry and not change meaning

Quality checklist

Before you hit send, confirm all of this is true.

  • Headline that promises a specific benefit
  • Primary keyword appears in the first 100 words
  • Clear subheads that map to the structure above
  • Seven‑question Takeaways section at the end
  • Three to five internal links to EBN content with descriptive anchor text
  • External sources linked for any numbers or definitions
  • Images named, captioned and alt‑tagged per guidance
  • Meta title, meta description and URL slug included
  • Spelling, grammar and links double‑checked

Quick templates

SEO title
Primary keyword: specific promise for EB leaders

Meta description
A crisp benefit in 150 to 160 characters that tells EB leaders what they will do differently after reading.

Outline starter

  1. Headline
  2. Hook
  3. Problem and why it matters
  4. Evidence or case
  5. Solution or approach
  6. Tradeoffs and pitfalls
  7. Conclusion
  8. Takeaways (7‑Q FAQ)

Image alt sample
Bar chart showing EVP message recall by channel, highlighting careers site outperforming social by 18 percent

House style in one line
Be useful, be specific, be brave.