A Marketer’s Guide to LinkedIn Newsletters

For nearly all businesses, the ability to repurpose and repackage existing content in a fresh, engaging way is a marketer’s dream. 

Since its launch in 2003, LinkedIn has grown to over one billion users, with engagement increasing by more than 44% year over year, according to The Social Shepherd. This rapid growth has fueled LinkedIn to expand its offerings, including the introduction of short-form video features and the continued development of its LinkedIn newsletter capabilities. 

While there are many ways to create impactful content on LinkedIn, newsletters are a powerful tool for sharing in-depth insights in a compelling and accessible format, allowing marketers to repurpose long-form content to maximize its lifespan through this powerful social networking site.

We know capturing audience attention mid-scroll is key, and a well-crafted LinkedIn newsletter can keep them engaged and coming back for more. 

Launched back in March of 2022, the LinkedIn newsletter blends the feel of an email newsletter with a blog, allowing users to consume content directly on LinkedIn rather than being redirected to an external site. While LinkedIn didn’t reinvent the wheel with this launch, the feature made some waves because it was an opportunity for companies to engage one of their largest online audiences in a new way. 

There are many notable features to LinkedIn newsletters, including: 

• Subscription-based following: Users can subscribe to your newsletter to receive updates on new issues. 

• Engagement tools: Users can comment on, react to and share your newsletter issues, fostering discussions based on your content. 

• Long-form content friendly design: The newsletter feature was designed to support full articles and promote thought leadership. 

• Visually engaging layout: The customizable design allows for branded cover images and interactive inclusions, such as embedded links and LinkedIn profile mentions. 

While these features may not be revolutionary on their own, having them all on one platform enables brands to further engage their existing audience rather than building a following from scratch in a different forum. 

Whether you’re a B2B or B2C business, the key benefits of a LinkedIn newsletter are the same: 

• Further reach for your brand: Newsletters can help expand the reach of your content. With it becoming increasingly difficult to drive traffic to your website from social media, repurposing content in this format will help ensure it reaches more users and drives more action.  

• Increased page engagement: Newsletters foster deeper engagement with your audience, therefore driving more users to your page overall. 

• Additional credibility builder: Regularly sharing valuable content can establish you as a thought leader in your industry because LinkedIn newsletters are designed to be centered around a specific theme/topic that your brand specializes in. 

Building a newsletter on LinkedIn is simple. Whether it’s on your personal page or a company page, the newsletter feature is both user friendly and easy to navigate, making it a breeze to publish your first issue. If you need some support, LinkedIn Help has great resources to get you started.

Here are some tips we’ve learned along the way: 

• Include a unique cover image: The cover image isn’t only the first thing your viewer sees but also the main way to brand your newsletter. Some of the most successful LinkedIn newsletters maintain a consistent header design across various issues, allowing audiences to begin associating the compelling design with the brand. 

• Make important text stand out: The newsletter feature allows you to create titles, subtitles, bolded sections and more. Utilizing these various formatting options will help amplify the main sections of your content and drive your audience toward your key messages. 

• Maximize content: LinkedIn newsletters are a powerful way to repurpose content from blog posts, social media posts, webinars and even podcasts. With the built-in link feature, you can easily drive your audience to key resources and increase their reach. Although LinkedIn’s current algorithm deprioritizes external links in organic posts, LinkedIn newsletters provide an effective way to share your external resources (and an additional opportunity to drive increased traffic to your site, as well). 

• Establish thought leadership with executive insights: Featuring insights from your CEO or other executives in your LinkedIn newsletter is a great way to reinforce your brand’s unique perspective. Making a dedicated section for these snippets can be very powerful in building credibility and expanding engagement and reach of the content. By tagging executives, they are empowered to cross-share the content with their networks.

When it comes to fostering success with your LinkedIn newsletter, the main focus should be consistency. Establish a strong theme, create a catchy name and maintain a regular posting schedule so your audience knows when to expect the next issue. Additionally, promoting your newsletter on your brand’s main LinkedIn feed will help expand reach because it will appear across user’s feeds in a variety of different formats.  

Another perk of LinkedIn newsletters is the built-in subscriber notification feature. When you publish your first issue, your followers automatically receive an invitation to subscribe, helping you gain immediate traction and grow your audience from day one. 

Many companies are effectively leveraging LinkedIn newsletters to expand their reach, but one standout example is Microsoft. Their newsletter, The Monthly Tech-In, delivers “byte-sized” updates on Microsoft innovations and global technology advancements. Microsoft excels in all key areas of a successful newsletter – maintaining a strong and consistent cover design, adhering to a reliable posting cadence and keeping audiences engaged with valuable content. If you’re seeking inspiration for your own LinkedIn newsletter strategy, this example is worth checking out. 

While adding a LinkedIn newsletter to your social media strategy may seem like an extra task to manage, this outlet is a powerful way to grow your brand’s presence in a unique and impactful way. I’ve seen many companies leverage this feature over the past year, resulting in significant spikes in their overall LinkedIn following and engagement.  

In our experience managing LinkedIn newsletters for Franco and clients, it’s a viable option to consider and experiment with.  

Grace Alaska is an Integrated Communications Coordinator at Franco. Connect with her on LinkedIn.