How and Why to Create a LinkedIn Newsletter

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So, I'm going to start by being completely transparent with you... I procrastinated for months on creating my linkedIn newsletter because I couldn't really see the value. 

After all, a newsletter is just a way of grouping articles together, isn't it? 🤷🏻

Anyway, I finally bit the bullet and did it and I was amazed by the results! In 24 hours I got over 1,000 subscribers and that was after posting on a Saturday morning - not the best time...

And now, after just a couple of weeks I'm at 2,726 subscribers and rising.

Why is that important? Well, when you publish a post you can easily get several thousand impressions as long as it's good content.

However, an impression counts simply as your post showing on someone's screen for more than 300mS so it doesn't mean it was actually read or interacted with. You also have no control whatsoever over whose screen the impression will be shown on. That's all done by the algorithm.

For articles I'm afraid it's even worse. If you get even a few hundred impressions of your article in the first few days you're doing extremely well! This is because LinkedIn throttles the reach of articles because they think that readers don't want to see long form writing in their newsfeed.

This doesn't mean you shouldn't write articles of course! They're great for showing your authority and for showing up in searches both on and off LinkedIn. So keep on writing... it's worth it in the end!

When someone subscribes to your newsletter though, they will get a notification every time you publish a new edition. This means that they will be way more likely to click through and at least have a bit of a read of what you've written. And, it goes to the same audience every time (your loyal subscribers 😉) so you can keep building rapport and increasing the 'know-like-trust' factor, which can and should eventually end in more paying clients!

I'm going to walk you through step-by-step how to create your own newsletter but before I do so I want to share with you why I think I had the success I did out of the gate.

Lately I've upped my content game on LinkedIn. I'm inherently lazy when it comes to creating content, or maybe I'm just too much of a perfectionist so it ends up taking me longer than I would like. Whichever it is doesn't really matter because the result is the same: I find it an effort to create content and whilst I kind of enjoy doing it, it doesn't feel like it's the most productive thing I can be doing in an already very busy schedule - so I avoid it!

Having said that, I also know the value it brings and I know what I have to share helps others and this is what spurs me on to keep doing it.

The result of me creating content AND doing it consistently (albeit only 2-3 times per week! 😅) is that a lot more people seem to be paying attention to it lately.

My viewing figures, comments, reactions and shares have all gone up.

And by the way, I'm also experimenting with new content strategies on LinkedIn right now and will update you in an upcoming newsletter once I have relevant data.

I believe this is the reason my newsletter was primed to do well out of the gate, so my advice to you is this: Get your content flowing for a few weeks before you launch your newsletter and make sure it's valuable content that people want to read and interact with. This should set you up well for success.

OK, now for the nitty-gritty. Once you've primed yourself for success with about 4 weeks of consistent, high-value content follow the steps below to get your first newsletter edition out there!

Step 1 - Turn on Creator Mode

Go to your profile page and scroll down to the resources section to switch Creator Mode on.

Then, click on the link ‘Creator mode’ as shown below to get into the Creator Hub.

Step 2 - Check Newsletters Are Available

Once the Creator Hub window opens scroll down to the Creator tools section and check that the Newsletters feature is available. 

If it isn’t you may not meet the criteria to have access to newsletter creation and may have to reach out to LinkedIn support by opening a ticket to get it enabled. To check if you meet the criteria, read this article from LinkedIn Support.

Step 3 - Start Writing an Article

Exit the Creator Hub and go back to your home page. Then click on ‘Write article’, choose the profile or page you want to write the article from (you should do it from your personal profile!) and then click ‘Next’

Step 4 - Select Newsletter from the Dropdown Menu

This will open the article editor page. In the top right corner of the editor you’ll see a button to ‘Create an individual article’. Click on it and that will open some options. You can see mine below that already has a newsletter option because I started it and the option to ‘Create a newsletter’ is greyed out because you’re only allowed to create one at the moment.

Select that option and start creating!

I’d love to hear your feedback on how you get on creating your newsletter. If this article helped, (or not!), please come back here and let me know.

If you got value from this article and you’d like to receive more content like this once each week straight to your email inbox then you can subscribe to my email newsletter here.

If you’d like to know how your business is doing on LinkedIn why not take my LinkedIn Health Check. It’s completely free and will show you exactly how you perform in each of the 3 key areas to successfully generate leads from the world's best platform for lead generation.