Six weeks ago I started this “Ace of Media’s Free Support” LinkedIn Newsletter. I realise that might have seemed like a weird decision considering I was already writing and posting an article every other week, so why did I decide to start a Newsletter?
To notify a targetted audience
As you may know, I decided to reshare some of my old articles as part of my new newsletter. A lot more people have read the reshares and the articles have had a higher engagement rate. Last week’s article “Your first steps on Pinterest” was read 69 times, when I originally shared it as an article, it was read 9 times.
Did you know that when you start a Newsletter on LinkedIn every single one of your connections gets notified about your first article? That means you don’t have to rely on the algorithm and hope it gets shown to the people you are targeting – it also means your first article needs to be really really good!
Around 50% of the reader of my articles were Social Media specialists, but now that I am sharing them as part of a newsletter, that percentage has dropped down to around 15%. Don’t get me wrong, I love that other Social Media specialists read my articles, but they aren’t my target audience.
To create a landing page
If you write articles – as part of a Newsletter or not – your followers can find them all on your profile under ‘All Activity > Articles’.
When you have a Newsletter, you get a landing page for it that includes a description of your Newsletter, how often you share new articles, the number of subscribers and all of the articles. This landing page can be added to the ‘Featured’ section of your profile and can be shared with a wider audience. When you share your Newsletter landing page with someone who doesn’t have a LinkedIn, they can read of your articles – but they can’t engage with them.
My landing page looks like this, and I have a QR code to it on my business cards.
Things to consider before starting your Newsletter
So far this article really sounds like everyone should be starting their own Newsletters. That’s not the case! Different tools work for different kinds of businesses.
If you don’t think you’ll be able to consistently write Newsletter articles that will benefit your readers, don’t put that extra pressure on yourself. Keep your tips and tricks for posts or even the odd article.
Before starting a Newsletter, make sure you are happy with the name and make sure your first article is awesome!
If you have an idea for a Newsletter but aren’t sure if it’s a good idea or not, feel free to pop me a message and we can have a chat.
