If you’re looking to engage your audience on arguably the best social media platform for businesses, then you need to know how to create an effective LinkedIn newsletter.
That’s right, newsletters are no longer bound to just email addresses. There are new ways to put your brand right in front of your audience, while also promoting your social channels in the process!
Countless marketers have already begun to experiment with it, and have recorded some pretty unique results – especially marketers operating in the B2B sector.
We know this because we’ve read a lot of LI threads praising this new feature; hell, we’ve even commented on a few threads praising this feature!
In this post we are going to be exploring LinkedIn newsletters in full, covering why you need to be creating them, what type of content you can include, and, ultimately, how to gain conversions.
Essentially, everything a savvy marketer needs to get going.
This post was made for marketers at all levels, regardless of how much you already know about LinkedIn newsletters (we’re assuming some of you have tried it out already?).
Now, let’s begin.
A Quick Disclaimer: We should point out that LinkedIn only introduced newsletter functionality earlier this year as of this writing, meaning what we cover in this post might change as time goes on. If it does, we’ll be sure to update this post accordingly, to ensure that the information within helps.
What is a LinkedIn Newsletter?
The hint is in the name; a LinkedIn newsletter is a set of regularly published articles on the platform, typically about a specific topic.
Subscribing to these newsletters can trigger a push, in-app, or email notification, alerting the subscriber as and when a new newsletter goes out. All LinkedIn members have the ability to discover, read, and even share LinkedIn newsletters, which is one of the main pros of this feature when you compare it to traditional email marketing.
You see, sharing newsletters through the platform will only increase the number of how many people engage with you. Especially if someone sees your post, shares it, and then it’s shared once again.
Like email newsletters, subscribers have the ability to opt out of receiving them. They also have to subscribe to the newsletter directly; simply following you on LI does not group them into your newsletter list.
For clarity, here’s the difference between follow and subscribe:
- Follow: Following a person or company will mean they receive some notifications about specific content but they won’t automatically subscribe to that author’s newsletter.
- Subscribe: When a member subscribes, they will always be notified when new articles go out, but they might not be a follower of the newsletter author’s other content.
This is worth covering as you’d be surprised to learn how many marketers get it confused. Plus, the platform doesn’t really explain it that well, unless you’re going to the LinkedIn Help page.
Ideally, you should want your audience to both follow and subscribe. Which is why we’d recommend posting organically about subscribing to your newsletter, and then in your LinkedIn newsletter, encourage them to follow.
How to Create LinkedIn Newsletters: A Step-by-Step Guide
Now that we have a better understanding of what a LinkedIn newsletter is and how your audience can subscribe, it’s time to get into the nitty gritty, or more specifically:
How you create LinkedIn newsletters.
Before we begin, know that the process is incredibly simple; LinkedIn’s Creator Mode has practically done all of the work for you. That said, you will need to personalise your LI newsletters; it’s not like the platform does that for you.
Step 1: Turn on LinkedIn Creator Mode
Right now, there are two things you need to do to start creating a LinkedIn Newsletter. The first step involves turning Creator Mode on. Secondly, you must have created a post sometime within the past 3 months.
Let’s start with the first thing you need to do. To turn on Creator Mode, simply log into your account and head to your profile. In the private resources section, you should see a link that allows you to turn Creator Mode on.
Turn this on and read through the notices that LI shares with you talking about Creator Mode.
Step two shouldn’t require a lot of explanation. Simply start creating content and you should gain access to the Creator Mode!
The image included above covers all criteria that will need to be met before you can start putting out newsletters.
Step 2: Set Up Your LinkedIn Newsletter
Now that your account has Creator Mode turned on, it’s time to set up your LinkedIn Newsletter. To create the newsletter, click on create a post and select the option to create an article.
When inside the publishing editor, click on the option to create a newsletter. This will open a new window which asks that you fill in various details about said newsletter. You’ll be asked:
- Newsletter title: Your title is similar to the subject line in an email. Marketers should choose a title that’s clear and conveys the overall value of the information you want to share with subscribers. How creative you want to be will depend on you.
- Newsletter description: The description of your LinkedIn newsletter will sit just underneath the title. Think of it like a summary of what people can expect to read within. You’ll only have 300 words to play with here, so be concise.
- Logo: The logo you include is a 300x300px image that sits within your newsletter. It can either be your brand logo or another image that’s relevant to the content within your LinkedIn newsletter.
- Anticipated schedule: In this dropdown menu you are asked how often you want to publish. You can choose to publish daily, weekly, biweekly, and monthly.
Do keep in mind that all of the details within this window can be edited. LinkedIn will warn you that changing these details may affect your subscribers, so edit wisely.
Changing the wording shouldn’t have too much of an impact on this. It’s only when you completely rework your newsletters that you should consider, as you could lose subscribers if the content they initially subscribed for is replaced with something else.
Step 3: Publish Quality Content
Your LinkedIn newsletter should now be set up, meaning every time you create an article, you’ll also have the option to associate said article with your newsletter, thus giving it an extra boost.
That’s right, everything you now share to the platform can be promoted through a newsletter, be it an image, a blog post, or a video from YouTube; all of it can be embedded.
Our advice would be to consider going back over some of your older content and repurposing it. It goes without saying that reading a newsletter is different to consuming a social media post. So try to publish content that serves both if you can.
LinkedIn is perfect for long-form posts/content, so try to expand on posts that only give a little bit of information. Try to find gaps that were otherwise unfilled and we can guarantee that your impressions will rise.
LinkedIn Newsletter Tip: Be as consistent as possible with your newsletters, especially if you plan on running them more frequently. Experiment where you can, but don’t trail too far from what got people subscribing in the first place.
If your goal is to get your subscribers onto your website, then another thing you could do is include snippets of blog posts from your site. For example, you could include the first 500 words of a blog you know has a very high conversion rate.
Doing so might net you even more conversions/leads.
Tips for Increasing Impressions and Conversions
Every marketer’s goal should be to increase impressions and conversions with their LinkedIn newsletters, otherwise, what would be the point?
There are various tips and tricks to utilise to get more people A) subscribing to your LinkedIn newsletter, and B) sharing that newsletter to increase its overall reach. In this section we are going to be covering all of them for you.
Some of these tips for increasing impressions and conversions you may be aware of already, others, not so much.
Encourage Shares Via CTAs
The fact that LinkedIn newsletters can be shared by anyone makes them very valuable to marketers. Unlike email newsletter where you are limited by how many people your subscribers can forward it onto.
On LinkedIn, once someone shares your newsletter, the visibility of said newsletter has the capacity to increase tenfold!
If your LinkedIn newsletter is good enough, then you’ll find that people share it automatically. To encourage more people to share it, we’d recommend adding a single call to action (CTA) at the end of the post.
The CTA could be something along the lines of:
“Thanks for reading! Be sure to save and share this article, it goes a long way in helping us grow our network and increase our standing as a brand.”
Do keep in mind that this is a very honest approach. What you choose to write for your CTA could be geared more towards the content shared in the post. That said, honesty does sell, so you could use that previous example if you’re a relatively small business.
Here’s another example that’s geared more towards the content shared in the post:
“Can you believe that LinkedIn has finally implemented a newsletter feature? Be sure to share this article, and let’s keep the conversation going.”
Or:
“Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this quarter. Please share this newsletter so that others can see just how far we’ve come since starting out as a company only two years ago.”
PSA-Style Reminders to Subscribe
We touched on this briefly above, but it’s worth mentioning again since we’ve mentioned encouraging people to engage with you.
Again, for those that need to hear it:
Followers aren’t automatically subscribed to your LinkedIn newsletters.
You can have hundreds, if not thousands of followers on the platform, but only have 50 or so newsletter subscribers.
To me, that seems like a wasted opportunity, considering your followers more than likely have a vested interest in who you are, what you do, who you help, etc. Which is why you need to be doing all you can to earn their subscription.
To do this, we’d recommend regularly reminding them through LinkedIn (and even on other channels), that you run a newsletter on this platform, and these are the benefits as to why you should subscribe.
Reasons to subscribe could include:
- Brand Updates
- Exclusive Content
- Limited Offers
- And More
Consider the Buyer’s Journey
LinkedIn has always been a viable social platform for marketers to reach out to their customer base and help them through the customer journey. Which brings us to our next tip:
Consider what type of content you’re putting into your LinkedIn newsletter based on the different stages in the buyer’s journey.
See the graphic below if you’re in need of a catch up:
We’d say that a newsletter like this sits perfectly within the awareness stage – although, an argument could be made that it’s partly in that consideration stage, too.
We say it’s in the awareness stage as a lot of people will find your newsletter organically; they might have no prior knowledge of your brand at all before finding you on LinkedIn through this newsletter.
The point is, you need to think about the content that you’re offering them, and is it the type of content that is going to help move them along to the next stage.
Just remember that you can’t segment audiences on LinkedIn in the same way you can through platforms such as ActiveCampaign, meaning everyone will see the exact same newsletter each time.
Unless LinkedIn chooses to add this level of functionality at a later date.
Choose Carefully Between You and the Brand
Anyone who has spent enough time scrolling through LinkedIn will know that the majority of newsletters you come across are delivered by individuals, not brands.
This is purposeful by that individual as it serves as an indirect form of marketing, where their insights work to capture the attention of leads who are then entered into your marketing funnel.
Which brings us to our next consideration:
Think about how you want to present your newsletter, as in, are you going to post from the brand, or from your own personal page. Growing your personal brand to help boost the other brand is a tactic utilised by many marketers, and to great effect.
People are a lot more trusting when it comes to investing in an individual over a brand. They’re recognisable, and they tend to be a lot more receptive to what they have to say.
Do keep in mind that this is just something to think about. We understand that not everyone is interested in becoming a thought leader, but it does help differentiate your standard email newsletter from your LI one.
You could come at your email marketing strategy from both barrels, thus bringing you closer to your goals.
Just think about that for a second.
Try Copying Your Email Newsletter
We’ve covered email marketing quite a lot on the Canny blog, and with good reason. Email marketing is one of the strongest tools in the arsenal of a savvy marketer.
LinkedIn newsletters being so similar to the sort of content you produce in an email presents you with quite the opportunity – an opportunity to take the content from your typical email funnels and repurpose them for LinkedIn.
The benefit of doing that is it saves you a fair amount of time as you won’t need to create original content for LinkedIn, you simply take what you already have (what you know works) and repackage it for LinkedIn.
Hell, you might even just copy and paste your entire email blast for LinkedIn, just to see how it’s received!
If you find yourself stuck for what to include in your LinkedIn newsletter then this is the best way to start, pulling content from another area that already has the right tone of voice and content nailed down.
Again, this is something you might have already thought of?
Link Off to Other Content
Like email newsletter, marketers have the ability to populate their posts with all kinds of interesting content, they also have the power to include links to other valuable pieces of content.
While the temptation to pepper your LI newsletter full of links is strong, we’d recommend only including a limited number of them, depending on the length of your newsletter, that is.
Having your LI newsletter look like a sea of links looks incredibly spammy, and could be really off-putting to your reader. So off-putting, in fact, that they choose to click off and not get to the end.
In short, by all means include links in your newsletter, but choose them wisely, and don’t go crazy with them.
Consider What Images You Use
Visual representation of your content is very important as it’s what most will judge when they come across your LI newsletter for the very first time. Which is why you need to ensure that the images are high-resolution images, and they correspond to your brand.
Inconsistencies between the images you choose and your own brand will only stifle the potential you have to raise brand awareness and confirm quality to the reader.
LinkedIn Newsletter Tip: Remember to make sure that all images are the exact same size as each other. Failing to do so can make your newsletters look unprofessional.
You see, quality in the eyes of customers has a lot to do with just how consistent you really are. Our advice would be to utilise custom imagery – imagery that you know for a fact plays into your brand and its established identity.
Alternatively, you could check out one of the free stock websites out there, such as Unsplash or Pexels. These sites are teaming with high-quality imagery.
LinkedIn Newsletter Examples
To help you gain a better understanding of these newsletters, we’ve gone and scoured the platform for the best LinkedIn newsletter examples we could find.
Once you’ve finished reading this post, we’d highly recommend you check each of these examples out for yourself to get a feel for how they look and the type of content included within.
Bob Glazer: Elevate
The first LI newsletter we want to direct your attention to is one of the more popular ones. Bob Glazer: Elevate has over 300,000 subscribers, and is a newsletter that covers “leadership building capacity, and reaching potential.”
It’s a weekly newsletter where Bob shares his insights on business, brain capabilities, and psychology.
On top of that, he also talks about relevant topics within the wide world of marketing, such as his post titled ‘Has Your Digital Marketing ROI Collapsed This Past Year? Here’s Why, and What You Can Do About It.’
Bob’s approach here is very long-form, but goes to show how much content you can potentially include within your LinkedIn newsletter (as long as it’s engaging).
Dorie Clark: Dorie Clark Newsletter
Dorie Clark’s weekly newsletter is similar to Bob Glazers in that she shares tips and ideas on how to succeed in business, alongside other key areas in life.
She teaches executive education at Duke University and Columbia University, two of the most prestigious schools in America. This should give you a pretty good idea of the level she’s at and the type of content offered.
Dorie’s CTA found at the top of every newsletter is what I want to direct your attention to.
Remember what I was saying before about finding the right CTA that is fitting for you, well, check this one out:
“I hope that you like my first LinkedIn newsletter. Every week, I’ll share tips, ideas, and strategies to help you become more effective in business and life.
To make sure you don’t miss an issue, if you haven’t subscribed yet, just click the “Subscribe” button in the upper right corner above.
If we haven’t been acquainted yet, here’s a little more info about me and the things I do (a few of them: teach executive education at Duke & Columbia, write books, give keynote speeches, and invest in Broadway shows!).
One of the most common challenges for my executive coaching clients is how to build a great network of high-level peers and colleagues – and keep it up, when they’re so busy, themselves. I hope this article below might be helpful, and take care.
-Dorie”
Gary Vaynerchuk’s Blog
Gary Vaynerchuk is a name that many marketers will know. He’s an entrepreneur, a public speaker, and a writer – known across the globe for his drive and ambition.
Which explains why he’d be so bold as to stick his own name on the title of his very own blog. Gary currently has over 54,000 newsletter subscribers as it stands, with each new entry providing hot business takes and marketing opportunities.
Easily one of the best things about his newsletter are the thumbnails he uses. They’re bright, they feature relevant information, and they are easily distinguishable from each other.
Marketers, take note.
A Marketers Guide to Creating a LinkedIn Newsletter
LinkedIn is the first social media platform to offer this type of functionality. Whether or not we see Twitter – another popular business channel – follow LI down this road is another question entirely.
Would we like to see other platforms offer a newsletter-style roundup? Sure, if it was of the same quality as LinkedIn newsletters. And that quality is only going to get better with time as they improve the feature!
There’s no telling what LinkedIn newsletters might look like in the not too distant future. For now though, we hope you have everything you need to get your own LI newsletter up and running!
The LinkedIn newsletter examples we’ve included should help provide context to everything else covered, so feel free to check those out as your next point of action.
And if you can think of any other great LI newsletters you’ve seen out in the wild, don’t hesitate to share them with us via social media (maybe over LinkedIn?).
