LinkedIn’s Introduction of Newsletters
You may have considered adding the creation of a LinkedIn newsletter to your marketing tool kit. But is it worth the additional time to create these for your audience? Let’s look at the pros and cons.
Let’s start with the positives of a LinkedIn newsletter:
1. Engagement is high
We often find the blogs no longer have the reach and engagement they once did, directly on your website, as many comments and interactions come now through their distribution on social media, so statistically, blogs don’t look like they perform that well. As we are already on a social media channel, the LinkedIn newsletters enable this type of interaction to take place with the original material at the source., which is having a significant impact on engagement stats.
2. No additional costs
If budgeting for your marketing is an issue and you are consistently paying out for external tools to support you, then at least the cost of the LinkedIn newsletter setup and management is taken on directly by LinkedIn so, zero costs for you—no additional software required.
3. You can still run your own email newsletter
The risks of talking on a Linkedin Newsletter are relatively low risk as it doesn’t have to be the exclusive location of your articles. It is just an additional tool, so an audience you have already crafted elsewhere shouldn’t be compressed; it can only enhance your audience reach. The time and money you have already invested using this part tools aren’t wasted, and that side of your creation can still continue as well as the development of a LinkedIn Newsletter.
The idea of having a second newsletter on LinkedIn often raises two concerns:
- Could publishing each article twice, once on your website and once on LinkedIn, hurt your SEO?
No. There is no duplicate content penalty, and Google knows that the original is on your website. There is no SEO risk involved. - If a subscriber gets your email newsletter and the LinkedIn newsletter, would this annoy them?
Maybe. But they can always unsubscribe from one and keep the other. They have a choice,e and they can choose based on their platform preference.
4. Fast list growth
The creation of your Newsletter subscribers happens the minute you launch a newsletter, as LinkedIn takes care of all of the list admin. They will invite your connections and followers and they can be added seamlessly without any additional hoops to jump through.
That can be a real-time and headache saver for many small business owners just trying to get things done.
5. Efficient and easily delegated
The process of creating a newsletter and publishing it within LinkedIn, is very easy to do and has great potential to delegate within your team or to support outsourced service.
Once the article has been created, it is easy to move it into the LinkedIn newsletter template and the internal formatting and editing tools are excellent and easy to use.
If you are looking back retrospectively to add repurposed articles you have published elsewhere, this again can easily be done by an external source (Company page Newsletters only)
Personal account newsletters are a little thicker as LinkedIn aren’t always that keen on multiple access to personal accounts, as we know!
Cons of a LinkedIn newsletter:
1 . Not great for SEO
For the effort of creating something keyword rich for your audience, there isn’t a great deal of SEO value at all. Even if the reader links their profile to your articles.
2. Analytics aren’t that informative
With the creation of a newsletter, you can review basic LinkedIn Analytics (impressions, views, and engagement), but that is really all that is on offer. In contrast to more sophisticated email subscriber readership data, you can obtain it from third-party sites. Maybe this will improve in time.
3. It’s not your own website
You don’t have control of the visitor’s experience, as it isn’t your website. Your newsletter will be only viewed under the terms of the LinkedIn Algorithm, and any calls to action are subject to their lead magnets.
4. It’s not your email list either
In addition to the above point, the details and dynamics of your subscribers is also limited. Time can be taken to trawl through subscribers individual profiles to ascertain their worth but that could be a long job. Also, their details are ring-fenced just for this communication and shouldn’t be taken and used anywhere see for additional marketing communication.
5. No real email marketing tools
There are no testing and personalisation options for the newsletter, which prevent A/B testing. It doesn’t even provide details of basic features of email marketing services providers,e like open rates or automation.
So food for thought on taking the time to create a Newsletter on LinkedIn. I hope this has given you some pointers, we will next be sharing some top tips to help you create your FIRST newsletter if you choose to give it a go. Check out our blog page.
If you would more information on using LinkedIn newsletters or any support on your profile, please do contact me at [email protected], we love to help. Or go to our Linkedin profile for more advice.
Other LinkedIn Blogs to review.
Top tips for LinkedIn content that boosts likes and engagement
