Although they were launched way back in 2003, LinkedIn newsletters have only recently become a more popular social tool. The social platform’s newsletter function provides an opportunity to reach out to your LinkedIn audience more directly. Anyone who is set up in creator mode can use this tool. But what are the benefits of using LinkedIn newsletters and are they worth it?
What are the LinkedIn Newsletter Benefits?
Linkedin Newsletters Expand Your Audience and Boost Brand Awareness
By publishing newsletters on LinkedIn, you can reach a wider audience than a regular email list. People interested in your industry or services can easily subscribe, increasing your reach and fast. A LinkedIn newsletter not only increases the scope of your online messaging, but also helps to cultivate a consistent brand image and create more brand awareness.
Allows You to Drive Engagement Through Your Newsletter
Sending newsletters with relevant and engaging content encourages your audience to interact. A well-constructed LinkedIn Newsletter encourages people to comment, share and click through to your website, all of which increase overall engagement with your brand.
Foster an Engaged Audience Through Regular Communication
By sending newsletters on a regular schedule, you keep an open line of communication with your audience. Providing valuable insights, updates, and content helps build a loyal and engaged community around your brand. It is also a way of getting longer form content onto your social media, allowing you to engage more deeply with your audience and expose them to higher quality content.
Creates Authority in Your Space
Thoughtful and informative LinkedIn newsletters establish your brand as an authority in your industry. People will begin to look to your newsletters as a reliable source of information, strengthening your credibility and brand reputation.
LinkedIn is a great place for B2B PR exercises, especially in the tech and cybersecurity space. A newsletter is a great tool for this branch of digital marketing that can help establish you as a leader in your industry and showcase what you have to offer other businesses.
Quick and Easy to Set One Up, with Fast Growth
Platforms like LinkedIn offer user-friendly tools for creating newsletters, making them quick and easy to start. With the right strategy, you can achieve fast growth in your subscriber list and overall brand presence. Every time you post a subscriber will be instantly notified through LinkedIn and with an email to the person’s mailbox.
Now you know what the LinkedIn newsletter benefits are – what are the drawbacks?
You don’t own it
Unlike email marketing where you own your subscriber lists and the content, your LinkedIn newsletter is controlled by the platform. If LinkedIn suddenly decides to retire the newsletter feature or your account gets taken down for some reason then all your hard work in cultivating a community around your brand will be gone. Although, this is an unlikely scenario.
Lacks customisation
While an email newsletter allows you a lot more customisation, LinkedIn newsletters are much more limited in what you can do with them. You can’t do A/B split testing like with email marketing campaigns and doesn’t allow for personalisation of content to better target parts of your audience. Instead, a simple text and copy format is preferred. However, hashtags and links allow for some personalisation and strategic targeting to occur.
The data is limited
LinkedIn’s data analytics may not give you as accurate a picture as the likes of Google Analytics. While it does cover the basic performance markers, the lack of intricate detail gives you less of an insight into how your newsletter is performing and whether you need to change up your content strategy.
If you are looking to create a LinkedIn newsletter for your business, it is good to know how to use it effectively.
The best practice when publishing LinkedIn newsletters are as follows:
- Create an interesting headline
Like with any piece of great PR content, you need to pick a headline that makes people want to read more. You can have the best newsletter on the platform but if you have a badly worded headline then no one is going to want to read further. Make sure that your headline catches the reader’s attention straight away and makes clear what the newsletter is about.
- Write quality content
This goes without saying, but make sure the content of your newsletter is offering value to an audience with informative and interesting content. Have a clear idea of your target audience and what you want to say before starting your newsletter. Ask yourself is this bringing value to an audience? Otherwise, you will end up with a piece of digital marketing content that really isn’t doing its job.
- Include a call to action
When creating your newsletter like with any form of marketing content a clear call to action with what you want your audience to do is key. Whether you want to encourage readers to subscribe, visit your website or check out a new product, having a strong call to action will increase the effectiveness of your newsletter tenfold, both in terms of brand exposure and website traffic.
- Timing is important
Research by renowned email platform Hootsuite found that the best time to post on LinkedIn is at 9 am on Tuesday and Wednesday to give you the most engagement and get your newsletter in as many people’s feeds as possible. With weekends being the worst time to post. This is good to note when deciding when to post your newsletter and making sure you choose a time that will get you the best results. However, it is also important to look at the data surrounding your product and personalise sending times off the back of that.
- Consistency is key
For a LinkedIn newsletter to be truly effective and keep readers engaged it needs to be consistent. The amount of times you post your newsletter is up to you and your marketing goals. But whether you want a monthly, weekly or even daily newsletter make sure that both the time and content are consistent or it will lead to disengagement from an audience.
As a specialist tech PR Agency, we think LinkedIn newsletters can be a valuable communication tool and we recommend our clients to at least consider incorporating them into their digital marketing strategy.
Particularly within the tech and cybersecurity communities, LinkedIn is a key social platform that the majority of our clients prioritise in their social strategies. They spend so much time cultivating a relevant and engaged audience, and the LinkedIn newsletter allows them to communicate more directly with that audience.
If you are looking to boost your brand’s image and drive results through engaging PR marketing strategies then get in touch.