Like all industries across art and culture, digital marketing is becoming increasingly fragmented. People no longer consume news, podcasts, or video streaming across a single channel, but across multiple channels spanning multiple devices.
This fragmentation has led to the rise of independent content creation platforms like Substack, Medium, and Patreon.
In response, popular social media sites like X and LinkedIn have attempted to reward content creators and open up newsletters, like long-form posts and newsletters, to keep people engaged.
You may be thinking, “Why would I need a LinkedIn newsletter when I already produce my own on my website or write on these alternative platforms?”.
LinkedIn is by far the most trafficked platform among business professionals and entrepreneurs, providing a unique advantage that you simply can’t reach on other platforms.
After a year of using LinkedIn newsletters for several of our clients, including in the pest and e-commerce industries, we doubled the size of their audiences on these platforms and massively grew leads to their businesses.
This guide will show you why any brand worth its salt should experiment with LinkedIn newsletters and share a few tips we’ve learned along the way to help you build your audience and lead flow.
Why Invest in LinkedIn Newsletters?
According to Cognito, over 500 million people on LinkedIn are subscribed to at least one newsletter.
One advantage of starting with LinkedIn newsletters is that you basically have a built-in, established audience within your own network. In fact, LinkedIn will promote your newsletter to your connections and followers when you launch it.
However, the primary advantage of LinkedIn newsletters over traditional newsletters is how people engage with the platform. For example, many website newsletters are sent to existing clients and other email lists that may mix with other marketing materials.
These newsletters can also be buried in subscriber emails and, if done poorly, annoy customers and cause them to unsubscribe.
LinkedIn newsletters have the option to be sent directly to subscribers’ inboxes or LinkedIn inboxes, giving you multiple delivery options. Additionally, these newsletters will be marketed with LinkedIn’s branding, giving it more trust and ensuring it won’t get lost in subscribers’ inboxes.
Finally, LinkedIn newsletters allow you to provide valuable content that promotes your thought leadership to a professional audience. This matters greatly for fellow professionals who value technical expertise and informative content.
7 Steps to Write LinkedIn Newsletters that Grow Your Audience
Now that we understand the why of LinkedIn newsletters, it’s time to understand how, what, when, and where.
Step 1: Create a Theme or Topic of Focus
What should your LinkedIn newsletters discuss? This is arguably the most important part of building and connecting to the right audience.
While personal brands can discuss any topic in theory, if you’re jumping around to multiple topics every week or month, you will notice some subscribers start to trail off.
Similar to starting a business, we recommend tackling a niche that appeals to your audience.
Ask yourself:
- What problem does your target audience need help solving?
- What industry trends are they trying to keep up with?
- What questions do they constantly ask you?
For example, ContentMender founder Ron Lieback recently launched a LinkedIn newsletter discussing productivity and AI’s role in the digital marketing world.
This consistency provides valuable information on a niche topic that appeals to a wide swath of business professionals and also keeps people in expectation of the next newsletter.
Platforms like Medium and Substack are better suited for content without a central focus or topic.
Step 2: Choose a Format You Can Sustain
LinkedIn newsletters can be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, but consistency is just as important as frequency.
The best format for your newsletters is one you can keep up with and your audience can come to expect. Common formats include:
- Tips & How-Tos: Teach something useful each issue.
- Behind-the-Scenes: Share lessons from your own experience.
- Trend Commentary: Analyze industry news and what it means.
- Case Studies: Break down real-world examples.
- Listicles: Quick-hit ideas or mistakes to avoid.
For example, Robinhood hosts a daily newsletter (outside LinkedIn) that discusses one trending topic and 3-5 little “snacks” or nuggets of info that readers find valuable. This consistent format makes it desirable for people who want to quickly consume their morning news without having to navigate to multiple websites or links for their quick fix.
Step 3: Write Compelling Headlines
You can do everything right when it comes to formulating content, but if no one clicks on your newsletter, what is the point? Headlines are the all-important metric when it comes to click-through rates (CTR), especially for that first newsletter.
There are lots of formulas for writing headlines that you can follow, but the key is to stand out. Some tips to make your headline stand out include:
- Highlight a guaranteed promise or benefit: Ex. “SOLVED: How I Was Able to Overcome the Business Growth Dilemma”
- Capitalize benefits with power words: Ex. 7 PROVEN HR Tips to Boost Employee Morale.”
- Use an allusion or popular reference: Ex. “Don’t Look Back in Anger: 7 SEO Mistakes I Wish I Knew When I Started My Business”
- Use numbers to catch attention: 75% of New Hires Made this Mistake When Starting a Job”
- Experiment with trigarms: “7 Reasons Why…”
- Tease part of your article to create interest: “10 Movies that Will Help You Understand Partenting (#5 Is a MUST)”
Ultimately, you should aim for clarity over cleverness. Your headline should immediately answer: “Why should I read this?”
Step 4: Open Strong
Once your readers click through to your article, you’re going to need to hold their attention.
The first 1–2 lines of your newsletter are critical for this. Not only is a strong hook necessary to keep people from bouncing, but it’s also previewed in the email so that people will immediately be able to identify the tone/intent of your newsletter before even opening.
There are thousands of tips to write opening hooks, but you don’t want to be boring or generic. You could start with an interesting story or anecdote if you have an established audience and newsletter.
For newer newsletters, providing a striking statistic or a bold statement that may even fall along the lines of controversial (not offensive) can be a good attention grabber. Ultimately, you want to experiment with ways to stand out without being too over the top, and it may take some experimenting to strike this balance.
Newsletters aren’t just for thought leadership; they can and should drive business outcomes. But that doesn’t mean every issue should be a sales pitch.
Designing your CTA for LinkedIn newsletters will differ from your website or traditional newsletter. We often use soft CTAs, such as the following example.
“P.S. I help B2B teams build LinkedIn strategies that convert. Want help? Let’s talk.”
Another example may be to mention relevant offers in the context of your newsletter, such as:
“If this post resonated, you’ll love our free guide on writing cold emails. Grab it here.”
Or if you have marketable material you can offer as a lead magnet, promote it if it will provide value to your audience: “Download our free checklist: 10 Ways to Improve Your Demo Close Rate.”
Step 6: Promote Each Edition
What is the best part of creating newsletters on LinkedIn? You have an entire network of professionals to promote it to!
There are lots of places to promote your newsletter on the platform, including:
- Posting a teaser on your LinkedIn feed: Use a story, quote, or stat to pull readers in — then link to the full issue.
- Tagging relevant connections: “@Alex thought of your recent post on hiring SDRs when I wrote this.”
- DMing loyal readers: Ask for feedback or invite them to share with others.
- Reposting on other platforms: Turning newsletter snippets into Twitter threads, Instagram carousels, or email blasts.
Be sure to encourage readers to share your newsletter with other connections to help grow your base.
Step 7: Measure What Works
Finally, it’s time to put those SEO analytical skills to work.
LinkedIn provides basic metrics like views, open rate, and subscriber count to help you monitor your campaign performance. While not as detailed as traditional email analytics, it’s enough to guide improvements.
Watch for the following stats to see where improvements can be made:
- Which headlines get the most opens
- What content drives the most engagement
- Which topics lead to inbound messages or leads
Simply double down on what works. Don’t be afraid to ask subscribers directly what they want more of. Engagement is a two-way street.
Bonus Tips to Maximize Results
While we could write an entire book on how to optimize your LinkedIn newsletters, here are a few tips that can help nudge your views and readership:
- Use your name + niche in the newsletter title. Example: The Freelance Marketer’s Playbook.
- Stay consistent. Weekly is ideal, but even monthly is fine if you’re consistent.
- Repurpose your best posts. If a LinkedIn post performed well, expand it into a full newsletter.
- Feature your audience. Highlight reader wins or crowdsource questions.
- Don’t stop at 1 issue. The magic happens after a few months of regular publishing.
Additionally, you can apply these newsletter writing tips to your LinkedIn newsletter to boost conversions and lead generation.
LinkedIn Newsletters are one of the best-kept secrets in online marketing right now. You don’t need a massive following to get started–just valuable content and good promotional strategies.
If you commit to delivering value with every issue, your newsletter will build an audience that trusts you. Over time, that trust will lead to additional business opportunities that you did not think possible.
FAQs
How often should I publish my LinkedIn newsletter?
Consistency is key. Aim for once a week if you can maintain quality, but even bi-weekly or monthly works if you stay consistent. The important part is setting reader expectations and delivering reliably.
Do I need a big following to start a newsletter?
Nope! LinkedIn promotes your first issue to your connections and followers; even a small audience can give you early momentum. Focus on delivering value—growth will follow.
What’s a good length for a LinkedIn newsletter?
There’s no perfect word count, but 500–1,200 words is a solid range. Focus more on clarity and usefulness than word count. Use bolded subheadings and short paragraphs to improve readability.