Table of contents

Eric is in charge of content and SEO at La Growth Machine. A specialist in Outreach topics for over 8 years, Eric has written for numerous French and English blogs, sharing his experiences, hacks, and other use-cases. A trainer and speaker in his spare time, he is a reference for all topics related to B2B prospecting and automation.

Personal branding is a well-known concept when it comes to marketing and sales.

Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, a creative professional, or simply an individual with a story to share, cultivating a compelling personal brand has become a crucial key to success in today’s interconnected landscape.

What is personal branding? Why does it matter? How to develop your personal branding? What are the main tools you can use to do it?

This comprehensive guide is your roadmap to understanding, creating, and harnessing the power of personal branding. We’ll delve deep into the what, why, and how of this transformative concept, exploring real-life examples, expert insights, and actionable strategies that will not only elevate your online presence but also help you carve your unique identity in a crowded digital sphere.

Personal Branding: What Is It?

By definition, personal branding is the practice of crafting and managing your public image in order to distinguish yourself from others. It involves showcasing your unique skills, expertise, and personality to create a lasting impression on others.

Your personal brand is essentially your reputation in the professional world, and it can greatly impact your career success and opportunities.

But personal branding goes beyond just creating a good impression. It is about strategically positioning yourself in the minds of others so that you are seen as the go-to person in your field.

When it comes to B2B, personal branding is highly correlated with LinkedIn. Indeed, LinkedIn is one of the most powerful platform to develop your personal branding strategies with many features such as:

It’s one of the most relevant tool to develop your networking, which is one of the main goal with personal branding.

Looking for ways to expand your network on LinkedIn?
We've written a great post about how to develop your network on LinkedIn. This post contains all our tips, crafted from our own experience as sales experts. Feel free to read it right away to discover everything you need to know about this topic!
Learn how to develop your LinkedIn network

It’s about standing out from the crowd and being recognized for your expertise and accomplishments.

Example 🔍

Take the example of John, a sales expert who has mastered the art of personal branding. John’s personal brand is built on his extensive knowledge of the industry, his strong communication skills, and his ability to build meaningful relationships with clients. But it doesn’t stop there. John also consistently shares valuable insights and tips related to sales on his blog and social media platforms.

Through his consistent efforts, John has established himself as a trusted and reliable expert in his field. People seek out his advice and recommendations because they know that he has a deep understanding of the sales industry and can provide valuable insights that others may not be able to offer.

Furthermore, personal branding is not just about what you say, but also about how you present yourself. John understands the importance of maintaining a professional and polished image. He always dresses impeccably and carries himself with confidence, which further reinforces his personal brand as a sales expert.

Building a personal brand takes time and effort. It requires a clear understanding of your strengths, values, and goals. It also involves consistently delivering value to your audience through various channels, such as speaking engagements, networking events, and online platforms.

Ultimately, personal branding is about creating a positive and authentic image that resonates with others. It’s about showcasing your unique qualities and expertise in a way that sets you apart from your competitors. When done effectively, personal branding can open doors to new opportunities, attract clients and employers, and propel your career to new heights.

Who Can Benefit from Personal Branding?

Personal branding is not limited to any specific profession or industry. In fact, anyone who wants to stand out and make a lasting impression can benefit from building a personal brand.

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a job seeker, a freelancer, or a professional in any field, personal branding can help you differentiate yourself from the competition and increase your chances of success.

This is particularly true for our industry, which is B2B sales.

Get 3.5X more leads!

Do you want to improve the efficiency of your sales department? With La Growth Machine you can generate on average 3.5x more leads while saving an incredible amount of time on all your processes.

By signing up today, you’ll get a free 14-day trial to test our tool!

Try now for free!

By developing a strong personal brand, they have been able to secure more job opportunities, increase their visibility to their B2B leads, and position themselves as thought leaders in the field.

What Are the Advantages of Building a Personal Brand?

Indeed, there are many advantages to applying a personal branding strategy. Below, we’ve listed 5 of them:

  • Networking;
  • Job opportunities;
  • Showcase your skills;
  • Support Your Business Endeavors;
  • Provide value to followers.

Networking

Building a personal brand allows you to expand your professional network and connect with like-minded individuals.

By attending industry events, joining professional associations, and engaging with others in your field, you can build valuable connections that can lead to new opportunities and collaborations.

For example, I regularly attend sales conferences and webinars where I have the opportunity to meet and network with other professionals in the industry. This has not only helped me gain valuable insights and knowledge but has also led to new business partnerships and referrals.

When it comes to B2B sales, a good place to do this remains LinkedIn.

Exposure to Job Opportunities

When you have a strong personal brand, you become more visible to potential employers and clients. Your unique skills and expertise become synonymous with your name, making you a top choice for job opportunities that align with your brand.

Example 🔍

A sales professional who has built a personal brand centered around their expertise in closing deals and increasing revenue. When a company is looking to hire a salesperson, they are more likely to consider this individual because their personal brand demonstrates their ability to deliver results.

Showcase Your Skills

One of the key advantages of personal branding is the opportunity to showcase your skills and expertise to a wider audience. By consistently sharing valuable content, insights, and experiences related to your field, you establish yourself as an authority and attract opportunities to further develop your skills.

This can be declined as a strategy to generate leads on LinkedIn for example.

Support Your Business Endeavors

In addition to benefiting individuals in their careers, personal branding can also significantly impact entrepreneurs and business owners. The idea is to attract the right audience and build trust and credibility with your leads.

Aside from your sales strategy, this gives you a flow of inbound leads coming at you without doing anything.

What could be better? 🙂

Provide Value to Followers

Lastly, personal branding gives you the opportunity to provide value to others by sharing your knowledge, insights, and experiences. By freely sharing valuable content, you become a trusted resource for others in your industry and can establish yourself as a go-to expert.

Example 🔍

For instance, I regularly host webinars and workshops where I share my sales strategies and techniques with aspiring sales professionals. Through these initiatives, I have been trying to inspire and educate others, while also building my personal brand as a mentor and thought leader in the growth marketing industry.

7 Steps to Developing Your Personal Branding

We’ve already seen the What and the Why. Now let’s proceed with the How. As seen above, developing a personal branding strategy has great insights and impact on your business.

In the following section, I’d like to give you my personal technique when it comes to crafting your own personal branding strategy.

This can be declined in a 7 steps guide, giving examples from my own experience for each section.

Step 1: Craft your brand vision

Your brand vision is the guiding force behind your personal brand. It involves clearly defining your goals, values, and the impact you want to make. Take the time to reflect on what sets you apart and craft a compelling brand vision that aligns with your aspirations.

For example, my brand vision is to empower and inspire sales professionals to achieve their full potential by providing them with proven strategies and insights.

Step 2: Decide what you want to be known for

Identifying your unique selling proposition is crucial in building your personal brand. Determine what specific skills, expertise, or qualities you want to be known for and focus on showcasing those consistently in your professional interactions.

As a sales expert, I have chosen to be known for my exceptional communication skills, strategic thinking, and ability to build strong client relationships.

Step 3: Define your audience

Understanding your target audience is key to effectively building your personal brand. Identify who your ideal audience is and tailor your messaging and content to resonate with them.

This will help you establish a genuine connection and attract the right opportunities. If you’ve already created your sales personas, I’d suggest you use them for this stage.

For me, my target audience includes sales professionals at various stages of their careers, as well as entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking to improve their sales strategies.

Step 4: Develop a consistent message

Consistency is very important when it comes to personal branding. Develop a clear and concise message that aligns with your brand vision and consistently communicate it across all your channels, both online and offline.

Basically, this is all about tuning your tone of voice, and deciding what you want to share with your audience (step 2 and step 3).

For example, in my case, my consistent message revolves around empowering sales professionals with practical strategies to achieve their sales goals.

Step 5: Be authentic

Authenticity isn’t something you can ignore in personal branding. Be true to yourself and let your personality shine through in your interactions. Authenticity not only helps you build trust with your audience but also sets you apart from others who may be trying to portray a false persona.

Remember that you’re a human with feelings, talking to humans with feelings.

Step 6: Create your own website

A professional website is an essential tool for personal branding. It serves as a central hub where you can showcase your expertise, share valuable content, and provide a platform for potential clients or employers to learn more about you.

Your website can be either your company’s website or your personal website when leading a consulting activity for example.

Step 7: Build your social media presence

Social media platforms are the place you’ll spend the most time to. Not all the platforms are necessarily relevant when it comes to personal branding, so I advise you to pick them wisely, not to waste time.

adrien profile

Choose the platforms that are most relevant to your target audience and consistently share valuable content, engage with your audience, and build relationships with other professionals in your field.

As a sales expert, I have found LinkedIn to be particularly effective in building my personal brand. I regularly share industry updates, engage in meaningful conversations with fellow professionals, and connect with potential clients or employers.

Quick Tip 💡

We’ve already written a great post about building your profile on LinkedIn as a sales professional.

Key Areas to Define for an Effective Branding Strategy

An effective branding strategy requires careful consideration of a few key areas:

  1. Your unique selling proposition: What sets you apart from others in your field? Identify your unique skills, expertise, or qualities that make you stand out.
  2. Your target audience: Who are you trying to reach with your personal brand? Define your ideal audience and tailor your messaging and content to resonate with them.
  3. Your brand image: How do you want to be perceived by others? Determine the values, personality traits, and professional image you want to convey.
  4. Your brand message: What is the core message you want to communicate to your audience? Develop a concise and consistent message that aligns with your brand vision.
  5. Your brand visuals: Consider the visual elements that represent your personal brand, such as your logo, color scheme, and overall design aesthetic.
  6. Your online presence: Establish a strong online presence through a professional website and active engagement on relevant social media platforms.
  7. Your offline presence: Don’t underestimate the power of face-to-face interactions. Attend industry events, join professional associations, and actively network with others in your field.

What Are the Essential Tools for Personal Branding?

Building a personal brand requires the right tools and resources. Remember that in 2023, 80% of your personal branding will happen through social media, and if you’re working in B2B, 80% of the time you’ll spend will be on LinkedIn.

Therefore, if you’re looking for a single tool to help you with your personal branding efforts, I would highly recommend choosing a social media planning tool such as Hootsuite.

By the way, we’ve written a post about LinkedIn tools to help you with planning your posts in advance or with other actions that might be interesting for your personal branding.

This can also provide you with some interesting data to monitor your efforts.

Apart from that, you’ll find a few essential resources to consider:

  • A professional website: Create your own website to showcase your expertise, share valuable content, and provide a platform for potential clients or employers to learn more about you.
  • A strong social media presence: Choose the social media platforms that are most relevant to your target audience and consistently share valuable content, engage with your audience, and build relationships.
  • An elevator pitch: Craft a concise and compelling elevator pitch that effectively communicates your unique selling proposition and captures the attention of others.
  • A personal brand statement: Develop a clear and memorable personal brand statement that conveys your brand vision, values, and expertise.
  • A portfolio: Create a portfolio of your work, projects, and achievements to showcase your skills and expertise to potential clients or employers.
  • Testimonials and recommendations: Collect testimonials and recommendations from satisfied clients or colleagues to highlight your credibility and expertise.
  • Continuous learning resources: Stay updated and continuously expand your knowledge and skill set through books, courses, workshops, and industry events.