The art of B2B personal branding: strategy, steps and examples

What do people say about you, when you’re not in the room? This is the question Jeff Bezos uses to define the concept of personal branding.

Personal branding is the image you choose to project online, as an individual. And it’s an essential social selling lever, at a time when marketing no longer relies solely on the content created and distributed by brands… But also on the visibility of each person who embodies them: from executives to marketing managers, sales people or entrepreneurs.

So, are you ready to get started? On your (personal) marks, get set… Follow the guide!

On the program:

• What is personal branding?
• 5 steps to a (successful) personal branding strategy
• Personal branding on LinkedIn: the place to b…to B?
• Examples of successful personal branding in B2B

What is personal branding?

Personal branding: definition

Personal branding is sometimes referred to as self-marketing. These synonyms all mean the same thing: it ‘s a strategy for an individual to promote his or her own image. To stand out in the professional world.

Personal branding relies on well-known marketing levers used by brands… but for personal purposes. With personal branding, anyone can enhance their online profile and attract the best opportunities for themselves and/or their company (job search, career development, signing new contracts, media invitations, etc.).

Personal brands, which put people at the heart of communication initiatives, are becoming essential today. Especially in B2B: gone are the days of dusty communications, when brands shone solely through their logos… Personal brands are now center stage. With a social networking strategy, through a blog, podcast or newsletter, individuals create and embody their own communication. Whether it’s to communicate their know-how… or their savoir-être.

Why is personal branding crucial in B2B?

Personal branding is a lever available to everyone, from student interns to company directors. It’s an HtoH (Human to Human) channel, with numerous advantages for BtoB:

• Gain visibility : communicating in your own name allows you to be spotted (by recruiters, future customers, investors, prescribers…). By becoming visible, you generate more personal and professional opportunities. And since the algorithms of social networks like LinkedIn favor the reach of publications on personal pages (rather than company pages)… This boost is a gift for your visibility!
• Establish your credibility : personal branding involves creating content on a regular basis, to enhance your profile, your image and your know-how. The more you promote your know-how (while maintaining your authenticity), the more credibility you gain in the eyes of your network.
• Stand out from the competition: personal branding allows you to create a distinct identity, highlighting everything that sets you apart: your values, your career path, your expertise… You differentiate yourself from silent (or simply different) competitors, by sharing your “soft-skills”, your “hard-skills”… And even your “mad-skills” (all those crazy things that make you unique!).
• Building trust: this “HtoH” lever reinforces interpersonal communication, and the creation of powerful trust capital. The more transparent and authentic your communication, the more Internet users will trust you. Stay true to yourself!
• Influence the perception of your company: the way people perceive you rubs off on the way your company is perceived. For example, if you’re an executive or marketing manager, your personal communication amplifies the brand’s visibility. To strengthen a company’s e-reputation, strong personal branding is a golden lever!

Bonus: personal branding can also be a lever for B2B acquisition and conversion. 89% of customers trust their peers more than what brands say (source: Nielsen study). In the age of social selling, the Inbound Marketing sales cycle no longer depends solely on content created by brands… but also on content created by the Humans who embody them!

B2B personal branding: which tools to use?

The boundaries between B2B and B2C channels are becoming increasingly blurred. In other words, B2B personal branding no longer relies solely on professional social networks like LinkedIn.

The list of B2B personal branding channels and tools is growing:

• LinkedIn
• X
• YouTube
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Substack and newsletter/blog tools
• Medium
• Personal website
• Podcast

For example, entrepreneur Axel Kaletka develops his personal branding through his newsletter, LinkedIn posts and podcast. (Pssst: Adeline Lemercier, our Head of Marketing, was even lucky enough to be interviewed there!)

The personal brand of a B2B professional can also be developed through “guest content”. The aim is simple: to create a resource in one’s own name, to be published on another company’s media. Here’s an example, with the co-director of Customerz, who wrote an article in her own name, published on the Skalin company blog:

Bonus: you don’t have to choose between “content published on personal channels” and “guest content”. Mix the two to gain visibility and expand your target audience!

5 steps to a (successful) personal branding strategy

Step 1: Define your identity and values

This is an essential first step: defining who you are, what you stand for and what you want to convey. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Who am I? Think about the elements that make up your professional identity, in terms of your career path, your personal history and your personality.
• What do I know? List your areas of expertise. To succeed in this exercise, we advise you to identify your “sweet spot”. We talk about it here, in our article on how to improve your marketing skills!
• What do I do? After being and knowing, it’s time to do: do you have any projects you’ve completed that you can put to good use? Any fruitful collaborations to highlight? On a day-to-day basis, what do you do that enriches, drives and motivates you?
• What are my values and mission? Identify the values that guide you and reflect what motivates you. Express your mission too: do you want to help, inform, innovate, educate, through your future personal content?
• What do I want people to remember about me? This brings us back to Jeff Bezos’ famous question. Think about the perception you want to leave in people’s minds. It could be your seriousness, your sense of innovation or your unique expertise.

Step 2: Determine your target and objectives

No surprise here: as with corporate marketing, you need :

• Define your target audience: Who are the people you want to reach? They could be buyer personas, customers, partners, investors, recruiters or other industry professionals. Try to understand their needs, interests and challenges.
• Define measurable objectives: Do you want to gain visibility? Increase your credibility? Generate leads? Clear objectives allow you to measure your success and adjust your approach if necessary (example: +30% followers on Instagram in 6 months to gain visibility).

Step 3: Choose the right channels

Select the platforms best suited to your target and objectives. As a reminder, channels that were originally B2C are now adapted to certain B2B audiences: for example, some executives like Maxime Digue (co-founder of Tiime) are developing their communication on LinkedIn, as guests on podcasts or even on Instagram, in video format :

At Plezi, our teams communicate mainly on LinkedIn, from their personal profiles. Our teams prefer to focus on this channel, to communicate on their own behalf. And they do this through 100%-written posts, short videos or carousels.

Even if you choose a single channel for your personal communication, you can try out different content formats. For example, from his profile, our acquisition manager Henri mainly alternates between :

• Carousel posts: several slides to scroll through, with didactic information.
• Static posts: text with a visual to illustrate what’s being said.
• Videos: short talks on a subject of expertise, on camera.

Step 4: Develop a content strategy

Content is the cornerstone of your personal branding. At this stage, we advise you to define a personal editorial line, which summarizes the following points:

• Objectives and target audience : as mentioned in Step 2 above.
• Style and tone: sustained language or humorous style? Short, dynamic sentences or more literary writing? Should readers be addressed as “Sir” or “Sir”?
• Publication frequency: maintain regularity to stay visible, but prioritize quality. It’s better to publish one resource a week than one a day with no added value!
• Channels and types of content: posts on social networks, podcasts, videos, blog articles… Adapt the format to your preferences, and those of your target audience.
• Themes: areas of expertise, case studies, storytelling about your career… It’s up to you to place the cursor between the different subjects of your editorial line. You can alternate between content that echoes “who you are”, “what you know” and “what you do” as a professional.

To boost your visibility, credibility and differentiation, make sure your messages reflect your sincerity, values and way of being. Authenticity is key: stay true to yourself, without thinking “opportunism” and “artificial communication”.

Step 5: Engage and interact

Personal branding also relies on interpersonal exchanges. To build a solid relationship with your contacts and improve your e-reputation, interaction is essential. Here’s our advice:

• Reply to comments and messages: Take the time to reply to reactions and comments, under your posts or in a private message. You don’t want your image to be that of a person who’s only there to shine, and not to share, learn from peers, etc.
• Engage with other experts: Commenting, sharing and interacting with other leaders in your sector amplifies your visibility and strengthens your credibility.
• Create a true B2B community: Encourage exchanges around your publications and create a space where your audience can also share their experiences and ask questions. This is exactly what Axel Kaletka proposes with his community “le café du market’”:

Personal branding on LinkedIn: the place to b…to B?

LinkedIn has been a leading B2B platform for many years. Today, it’s useful as a social selling tool, for developing your sales prospecting… But it’s not just that!

It’s no longer the dusty CV-library shunned by professionals, and only adored by recruiters. Today, it’s the ideal place to develop your personal brand, communicate in your own name, create quality resources… and enjoy all the benefits of a 2.0 business card.

By using it intelligently, the platform helps you position yourself as a trusted expert in your sector. It helps you connect with the right people… And more than just becoming “known”, this platform helps you to be “recognized” (for your skills, your background, your story, etc.) .

To develop your image, reputation and high value-added posts, here are 4 best practices to put in place. Starting now:

1. Optimize your profile

On this network, a user’s marketing funnel is (generally) as follows: he logs on to do his monitoring, he scrolls through his news feed, he reads interesting content… And if the latter is very interesting, the user interacts with the content and/or visits the profile of the publication’s author.

Your Content Strategy is therefore essential to capture attention… But optimizing your profile is just as important, to transform attention into action, once the visitor is on your profile. Your profile should be optimized as a personal sales page, making people want to follow you and contact you.

The most important parts to optimize are :

• Profile photo and banner: Choose a professional photo that reflects the way you are. For the banner, choose an image that represents your industry or highlights an aspect of your business (e.g. slogan, logo, etc.).
• Profile title: Your title is one of the first pieces of information users see; be specific and include relevant keywords.
• Redirect link: in free or premium mode, you have the option of displaying a link at the top of your profile (to your website, an appointment-setting tool, a newsletter… Use this link wisely!).
• Part “Info” : In the summary, share your story, your values, and explain how you’re helping your target audience. Use an authentic tone and speak directly to your visitors to engage them.
• Part “My Selection”: in this part, which appears under the “Infos” block, you can integrate clickable links, which appear in the form of visuals. You can link to internal content (your most relevant posts) or external content (once again, your website, appointment-setting tool, newsletter, white paper, etc.).
• Essential information: Make sure your experience, training and skills are up to date and relevant. You can also ask for B2B customer reviews in the form of recommendations at the bottom of your profile: they reinforce your credibility!

2. Develop a consistent content strategy

Regularly publishing content is essential to maintaining your visibility and engaging your network. To create your Content Marketing strategy from your personal profile, here are our tips:

• Choose strategic topics: focus on subjects that interest your target audience. Share analysis, feedback and practical advice. Present figures, case studies or customer testimonials to illustrate the impact of your work. To gain visibility and extend the reach of your content, you can also occasionally share content that highlights your personality, your background or your personal story.
• Vary post formats: use a variety of formats – short posts, videos, image carousels – to generate interest. You can also try out polls to interact directly with web users. Finally, let yourself be tempted by the booming video format: since mid-2024, on the mobile application, a news feed specifically dedicated to video has even appeared in addition to the traditional news feed!
• Publish regularly : publish at least once a week, ideally at times when your target audience is active (often early morning on weekdays or early evening). The aim is to create a regular rendezvous with your network.

3. Engage your audience with personalized interactions

Remember that LinkedIn is a social platform, where exchange counts. To animate your audience while strengthening your online reputation, here are our recommendations:

• Reply to comments and messages : take the time to reply to comments under your posts and to private messages. This way, you’ll avoid the simple top-down “presence”, while showing your interest in your target audience.
• Interact with other experts: by commenting on your network’s posts, you’re already creating content, making yourself visible… while strengthening your online relationships. We advise you to build into your schedule not only a routine of writing and publishing posts, but also a routine of commenting on this network.
• Support your colleagues publicly : if your colleagues post on social networks, be the first to support them. Comment on and share their posts. In this way, you’ll create a real “Avengers” approach: it’s one of the keys to social selling!

4. Monitor your statistics and adjust your strategy

Like all marketing processes, what can’t be measured can’t be improved. The platform offers detailed analyses for each publication, as well as global monitoring of your profile’s performance. To make the most of this information :

• Analyze engagement rates : from the “statistics” section of your profile, you can access the ranking of your publications, based on their impression and interaction rates. Identify the publications that generate the most reactions, and adjust your content according to the best-performing formats and topics. You can also recycle your content easily, by following our guide.
• Monitor the growth of your network: follow the evolution of your connections and subscribers to understand which type of content attracts the most new contacts. You can also track who’s visiting your profile, again from the statistics tab: ideal for identifying interesting prospects to contact…
• Experiment and improve: “test and learn” should be your ally. Test different types of content (long or short posts, visuals, videos, etc.) to find out what works best with your audience. Adapt your approach according to feedback, trends in your sector… and changes in the LinkedIn algorithm.

Examples of successful B2B personal branding

Before taking the plunge, take a look at what other professionals are doing… And take inspiration (or not) from them. At Plezi, we like to follow these different accounts:

• Amandine Bart, the SEO pro: she’s THE reference on the subject of natural referencing. Her unique identity revolves around the concept of “SEO without headaches”, with a key mascot (the otter). Her content is always high-quality and practical: a must-see!
• Victoria Debargue, LinkedIn mentor and B2B writer : we love her writing (of course) and her light, humorous tone, which brings a breath of fresh air to our LinkedIn feed. She alternates between different editorial pillars: posts about her expertise, her freelance career, her life experiences… A clever balance that always catches our attention.
• Cédric Costa, king of Inbound Marketing: he helps freelancers create their own Inbound machine and find customers (without prospecting). His posts, always full of humor, good advice and unlikely characters (like Zgeg the millionaire) are to be enjoyed without moderation.
• Caroline Mignaux, marketing expert and speaker: do we really need to introduce her? When it comes to personal branding, Caroline breaks all records. Through her social networks, podcast, book and conferences, she passes on to her subscribers the keys to creating (and sustaining) their own marketing strategy.
• Axel Kaletka, creator of the café du market’: thanks to all his content (podcasts, newsletters, etc.), Axel has been able to gather an audience around the theme of B2B marketing… Then create a community of committed marketers. We love his expert posts, always full of super-actionable advice.
• Enzo Colucci, sales coach: he trains salespeople to “modern, fun and actionable selling”. His business positioning matches his personal branding strategy. He stands out for his creative universe, his humor and his pertinent advice for sales teams.

No more excuses: now you know who to follow for inspiration… And how to launch your own personal branding, without further ado.

Remember the benefits: your visibility tomorrow will influence your sales the day after tomorrow. Personal (and professional) branding is one of the best acquisition and conversion levers in BtoB, thanks to the embodiment and humanization of your messages. Make way for HtoH, thanks to personal branding!