Are you contemplating launching a LinkedIn Newsletter to elevate your personal brand or establish thought leadership? Are you wondering whether to write articles or start a newsletter as part of your LinkedIn strategy?
Understanding LinkedIn Newsletters
A LinkedIn newsletter is a series of articles published regularly and delivered directly to your subscribers on LinkedIn. Unlike standalone articles, newsletters provide a consistent communication channel with your audience, fostering ongoing engagement. They offer unique features like subscriber metrics and a dedicated section on your LinkedIn profile, making them a powerful tool for building a loyal audience.
Steps to Launch a LinkedIn Newsletter
Define Your Objective
Before diving into the technical setup, clearly define your newsletter’s purpose. Are you sharing industry insights, offering career advice, or highlighting company news? Understanding your objective will help you tailor content to attract the right audience.
Set Up Your LinkedIn Newsletter
Decide whether to launch your newsletter from your personal profile or a company page. To start from your profile, navigate to the ‘Write an article’ section and select ‘Create a newsletter.’ Choose a name that reflects your content and craft a compelling tagline to attract potential subscribers.
Manage Your LinkedIn Newsletter
Create a 1920×1080 cover image for your newsletter. You can save a draft and return to it later. Standard formatting options include bolding, italicizing, headings, lists, quotes, and hyperlinks. When ready, publish your newsletter or schedule it for later.
Content Planning and Strategy
Consistency is crucial for newsletter success. Develop a content calendar outlining topics and themes over time. Stay organized to ensure your content remains relevant and engaging. Consider setting a regular publishing schedule—weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or quarterly—to keep your audience engaged.
Publishing and Promoting Your Newsletter
Once your content is ready, publish your inaugural issue with a compelling introduction that sets the tone for future newsletters and appeals to the masses. After publishing, promote your newsletter on LinkedIn, other social media platforms, and via email to expand your reach.
Pros of Writing LinkedIn Newsletters
Audience Engagement
LinkedIn newsletters typically see higher engagement rates as they are delivered directly to subscribers. LinkedIn notifies subscribers of new issues, ensuring your content reaches a targeted audience interested in your insights.
Brand Building
Consistently publishing high-quality content through a newsletter can significantly enhance your personal or company brand. By regularly appearing in subscribers’ inboxes, you establish yourself as a reliable source of information and a thought leader in your field, building trust and increasing visibility on LinkedIn.
Analytics and Feedback
LinkedIn provides detailed analytics for newsletters, allowing you to track subscriber growth, impressions, engagements, and demographics. This data is invaluable for refining your content strategy.
Cons of Writing LinkedIn Newsletters
Time Commitment
Running a LinkedIn newsletter requires a significant time commitment. From researching topics to writing and editing, producing high-quality content regularly demands effort. Without proper planning, it’s easy to fall behind, potentially tainting your reliability.
Content Fatigue
Balancing content frequency is key. Overwhelming your audience with too much content can lead to content fatigue, reducing engagement and increasing unsubscribes. Maintain a balance to keep your audience engaged.
Subscriber Management
Building and retaining subscribers can be challenging, especially in the early stages. Consistently delivering value is essential to growing and maintaining your subscriber base.
LinkedIn Articles vs. Newsletters: A Comparison
Reach and Audience
LinkedIn articles have a broader reach as they are accessible to all LinkedIn users and can be discovered through searches, shares, and hashtags. Newsletters, however, focus on a more targeted audience of subscribers who have opted in to receive your content.
Engagement and Interaction
Newsletters often see higher engagement rates as they cater to a dedicated audience that is more likely to interact with your content.
Flexibility and Format
LinkedIn articles offer more flexibility in publishing frequency and format, allowing for “one-off” publications. In contrast, newsletters require a more structured approach with consistent, regular content delivery to maintain subscriber interest.
Conclusion
Both LinkedIn articles and newsletters have unique strengths and play an important role in your content strategy. Your choice should depend on your goals, audience, and available resources. A LinkedIn newsletter may be the ideal tool for building a more engaged and loyal audience. Experiment with both formats to find the best fit for your strategy, and continuously refine your approach based on audience feedback and engagement data.
Add a LinkedIn Signature to Your Post
After writing your long-form content, consider adding a “LinkedIn signature” to your posts. This reiterates your BIO and includes a call to action to follow your hashtag and company page. You can also add emojis from emojipedia to liven up your post and make it more visually appealing.
Consider adding a “LinkedIn signature” to your posts to keep reiterating your mini BIO of what you do, and a call to action to follow your hashtag and company page.
I use the format below with emojis for my “LinkedIn signature” at the bottom of many of my posts before adding hashtags.
〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️ 〰️
👋 Hi! I’m Lynne with an E (E for education)
🤖 Employ keyword strategies on resumes & LinkedIn™
📊 Use data-driven decision-making & trends
👩🏻🏫 Share tips, strategies, & best practices
Like what I share?
🔔 Ring the bell on my profile
✍🏼 Subscribe to my weekly newsletter Career News Today
➡️ Follow #GreatCareersPHL & Great Careers Network
➡️ Follow #CareerNewsTodayLLC & Career News Today LLC
Call to Action
What’s been your experience with LinkedIn articles and newsletters? Share your thoughts in the comments below! If you haven’t already, subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter, Career News Today, for more tips and strategies on maximizing your LinkedIn presence.
NEXT STEPS
- Subscribe to my newsletter on LinkedIn™ for bright ideas on how to manage your career.
- If you need a resume or LinkedIn™ profile to get you to your next step, book a call to chat!
- Join as a member at https://greatcareers.org/membership of the #1 business networking association on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s Book of Lists four years in a row!
- To support our charity at KeepOnSharing.com and use the referral code Career
- Follow #GreatCareersPHL
BIO
Lynne M. Williams is the Executive Director of the Great Careers Network, a volunteer-run 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides career development and networking connections for 1) job seekers in career transition, including veterans, and 2) employed and self-employed for career management.
Aside from writing keyword-focused content for ATS resumes and LinkedIn profiles, Lynne is writing her doctoral dissertation on LinkedIn for Job Seekers. She is a contributing author on “Applying to Positions” in Find Your Fit: A Practical Guide to Landing the Job You Love, along with the late Dick Bolles, the author of What Color is Your Parachute?, and is also a speaker on career topics.
