Just over two years ago, I went out hard on LinkedIn Company Pages long before anyone else, seeing them as an untapped business resource. That certainly has proven true. I’ll put it out there that LinkedIn newsletters, often shunned by the majority, are a feature you should consider seriously as part of your content strategy. You don’t grow in business by doing what everyone else is doing.
You need to find a way to stand out, and highly valuable original thought leadership is certainly a way to do that in the B2B world. Anyone can put a short post together, but not everyone can expand on those thoughts. It quickly sorts those that know their stuff from the Charlatans.
What is a LinkedIn Newsletter?
LinkedIn Newsletters are available for LinkedIn Creators and LinkedIn Company Pages. In the big scheme of LinkedIn’s history, they are relatively new and have much room to evolve. “A newsletter is a set of regularly published articles on LinkedIn, typically about a specific topic. You can subscribe to a newsletter to receive push, in-app, and email notifications whenever the author publishes a new article in the newsletter.” (Source: LinkedIn).
Newsletters can have text and images, embed podcast episodes, YouTube videos, external links, giphy, slides, quotes etc. The access criteria for newsletters can be found here.
Tip – Hold off creating your first newsletter until you have 1000+ followers/connections or better still higher. Why? Your first newsletter gets a free kick and goes to every single connection and follower for personal newsletters and every page follower. Don’t waste it! MJR
Pros and Cons of LinkedIn Newsletters
Let’s start with a quick list of pros and cons for you to be aware of when it comes to LinkedIn Newsletters.
Pros
- Free
- Quick and easy set-up – no tech required
- Leverage an existing LinkedIn community
- Build a subscriber base
- Google indexes newsletters, and you can piggyback off LinkedIn’s reputation.
- Content longevity
Cons
- You don’t own the subscriber list and can’t download this list
- Some limits to design – you can’t set up templates
- The extended time it takes to create long-form
- If LinkedIn withdraws the newsletter feature, you have lost your work
- Limited analytics to understand newsletter performance, e.g. open rates, % read etc
Let’s dive deeper into why your business should consider LinkedIn Newsletters to grow your B2B business.
LinkedIn is Investing Heavily in Newsletter Features
I confidently back LinkedIn Newsletters because I research and follow the investment signs from LinkedIn. LinkedIn does not invest in new features without a solid business case to support them.
One of the best insights into LinkedIn’s research is the 2022 Linkedin Edelman B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, which is a brilliant read. (Read here) The report covers four years of research. In summary, B2B brands that show original thought leadership will have more opportunities, especially in periods of economic downturn.
LinkedIn Newsletters are a great way to leverage LinkedIn to highlight your business’s thought leadership. This can be via the Company Page Newsletter or employee newsletters. Even better – a combination of both.
Latest Feature Upgrades for LinkedIn Newsletters
Let’s look at some of the recent feature upgrades for LinkedIn Newsletters. This round of updates appears to be focused on further improving discoverability and helping to build subscribers.
In 2022, we also saw improvements in tagging individuals and companies and adding hashtags for discoverability. Also, being able to add your newsletter to your Featured section on your profile, and it is front and centre on a Company Page. Any new connection request also sends back an invite to subscribe to the newsletter.
- LinkedIn is rolling out one-click subscribe URLs and embeddable buttons. This will make it easier to guide people to your Newsletter and subscription page.
- LinkedIn Newsletters will show under Creator’s name in LinkedIn search results.
- Rolling out in the near future is the ability to schedule Linkedin newsletters.
- Discover more newsletters by seeing which newsletters users are subscribed to.
- SEO Settings for LinkedIn Newsletters
Top 5 Reasons for Investing in LinkedIn Newsletters for B2B Growth
There are five key points to focus on when it comes to LinkedIn Newsletters, which apply to personal and company page newsletters to grow your business.
- Google indexes newsletters – your content can be discovered by a Google search and not just on LinkedIn. This doesn’t apply to LinkedIn posts. Why wouldn’t you want to be found on the world’s biggest search engine? If your content is more accessible – you will get more opportunities.
- Content longevity – when you create a standard post, it becomes yesterday’s news in about 72 hours and disappears out of the feed. However, when indexed by Google, newsletters are searchable years into the future. Also, because previous editions of the newsletter are displayed in one area, it’s easy for new subscribers to find older editions.
- Repurposing – newsletters are the perfect place to repurpose content you have already created to bring into one place. It can be video, images, posts, podcasts, slides etc. On the other hand, you can also repurpose the newsletter as a blog on your website (which is what I do).
- Subscribers – The LinkedIn home feed is super competitive, and you rely on the algorithm to reach your audience. With newsletters, your entire subscriber base is notified each time you publish a newsletter. (assuming they haven’t changed newsletter notification settings). This alone should make you pay attention. This is especially important to note for Company Pages.
- B2B Thought Leadership – your unique voice, knowledge, and experience make you stand out. Thought leadership can be from Founders, C-Suite employees or the company brand. Go back to the LinkedIn-Edelman report and read just how important this is in a predicted financially challenging year.
As with everything I present, read through with an open mind, and review against your business plan and LinkedIn strategy. Each business will have unique goals and resources that need to be considered.
I’m excited about what 2023 will hold for LinkedIn for B2B Growth. Newsletters will certainly be one area I’ll be focussed on, and I think you should seriously consider them too.
Cheers
Michelle J Raymond
Michelle J Raymond is the founder of B2B Growth Co and has made her mark as a leading LinkedIn growth strategist, offering comprehensive strategies and training to brands eager to harness LinkedIn for business growth through thought leadership, content marketing or social selling techniques.
With 20+ years’ experience in B2B sales, and almost a decade of social selling on LinkedIn, Michelle stands out for her significant LinkedIn contributions as the co-author of two globally acclaimed books: “Business Gold,” the first book exclusively dedicated to LinkedIn Company Pages, and “The LinkedIn Branding Book,” and her insightful podcast Social Media for B2B Growth. Follow her YouTube channel @MichelleJRaymond for helpful how to’s.
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