Towards the end of 2025, I decided I wanted to start a LinkedIn newsletter. I have a lot of followers and subscribers, and I figured I should take advantage of those lists to reach more people. By “more people”, I mean the ones who aren’t on my regular email list and the ones who don’t see my regular LinkedIn posts in their feeds.

As I write this, I’ve sent four newsletters, and I’m not gonna lie. My efforts have produced “meh” results so far. I’ll share my stats in a bit, since I’ve got nothing to hide and plenty of lessons to share with you.

Why bother launching a LinkedIn newsletter when you’re already so busy?

I read somewhere that open rates for LinkedIn newsletters are 2-5x higher than for email newsletters. That alone is a reason to send a LinkedIn newsletter.

(Funny enough, that statistic is not true for me. My LinkedIn newsletter open rate (so far) is at par with my email newsletter open rate.)

Two more benefits:

The push notification feature. When you publish a LinkedIn newsletter, your subscribers get a notification.

Newsletters have a longer lifespan than a post. I read (in a few places) that newsletters are still getting engagement a few weeks after they’re sent, while a regular post typically only lasts a week.

A personal benefit is reusing existing content. I simply publish previous blog posts as the newsletter content.

The other benefits of a newsletter are the usual suspects. Great place to share thought leadership, great way to gain more followers on LinkedIn, and great method for generating leads (I’ll cover why in more detail below).

My newsletter performance so far

The overview boosted my ego a bit:

  • 355 article views
  • 192 new subscribers
  • 2,549 impressions
  • 63 engagements (comments, reactions, shares, saves)

So, then I dug into analytics for the individual newsletters.

The first one I sent was on Generative AI optimization: 249 impressions, 1 new follower, 7 article views.

The second newsletter covered the Brew360 LinkedIn algorithm update, and this one fared much better: 1,809 impressions, 146 views, 41% email open rate, 24 comments, two saves.

I stopped when I saw these numbers.

First, why didn’t I have an email open rate for the first newsletter? No idea.

Second, yay for saves! Saves are the holy grail of LinkedIn engagement. Good job, me.

Moving onto the third newsletter – this one was about lead magnets: 269 impressions, 1 profile view, 113 article views, 39% open rate (which went to four times as many subscribers this time), two saves.

The fourth and final newsletter I reviewed was on whether blogging is still relevant: 223 impressions, one new follower, 89 article views, 36% email open rate (the number of emails sent increased again).

My results are all over the place, so how can I improve?

Here are LinkedIn’s own best practices

Always remember that platforms want you to be successful, so you’ll continue using them. They can be great sources of tips.

Here is a list of LinkedIn newsletter best practices that the platform says can “help you create an engaging newsletter and reach a wider audience.”

  • Choose a name for your newsletter that describes a clear theme that your audience can understand. Done. Mine is called The Lead Gen Playbook.
  • Upload a logo for your newsletter to increase engagement (300x300 pixels recommended). Did this too.
  • Upload a cover photo for each individual article in your newsletter. Try to avoid Clipart or other generic stock images. Images with faces and people tend to resonate more with audiences. Above I said I re-use previously written blog posts, and the images from those always include faces. Another checkmark for me.
  • Choose a clear headline for each newsletter edition that can help your audience understand what your article will be about. Yeah, of course. Check.
  • Customize your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) titles and descriptions to control how your newsletters show up on search engines and make it easier for others to find your content. I didn’t know you could do this in LinkedIn.
  • You could get more engagement by adding a few lines of commentary or asking a question in a post when you share your newsletter. In your post description, you could also ask members to subscribe. Two more tips to add to my arsenal.
  • Share your newsletter editions or your newsletter page to your network on other social platforms or via email to increase your reach. LinkedIn is the only social media platform I use for work, and the same info goes to my regular email newsletter subscribers. I shall ignore this advice.
  • Maintain the publishing cadence that you chose for your newsletter so that your subscribers can engage regularly with your content. Trying to get on a twice-a-month cadence but it’s bumpy. And yes, that means I am ignoring my own content marketing advice around consistency.
  • Change the Connect button on your profile to Follow to enable people who view your profile to follow your activity and read what you’re sharing on LinkedIn. Already have this set up.

Psst - if you want to work with a content marketing strategist who is laser-focused on using marketing to build relationships that turn into clients, let’s talk. You can shoot me a note here: https://jansencomm.com/contact/

More tips I found to improve my LinkedIn newsletter

A/B test headlines

This is also something I didn’t know I could do, and you better believe I’ll start testing. A/B testing subject lines makes such a huge difference from email marketing, so of course it matters for LinkedIn newsletters.

Place calls-to-action in the middle of the post

This suggestion popped up in a few places, and it makes sense. If someone doesn’t make it to the bottom of a newsletter, you have the opportunity to grab their attention before they bounce.

Add questions for discussion

I always do this for regular LinkedIn posts. And since LinkedIn newsletters are published as an article, they show up in feeds and therefore can generate discussion.

Don’t ignore comments

Blasting out a message on a social media channel and then disappearing is a massive pet peeve. Plus, it hurts your reputation. Always check to make sure you’re responding.

(I do, and I am, so I guess this tip is more for you than me.)

What metrics to track

I really didn’t know what numbers to look at beyond the open and engagement rate. So here’s a full list of metrics to track:

  • Your subscriber growth rate. I saw a benchmark of 10% per month, so I’m going to use that for myself.
  • Email open rates
  • The number of saves and shares
  • The number of comments versus views. In other words, are people engaging, or scrolling past?
  • Subscriber churn

Now we all know how to improve our LinkedIn newsletters

In researching this article, I realized I was treating this poor project as a red-headed stepchild (apologies to all red heads and step kids out there). I know that if a marketing project or campaign is going to work, I need to put effort into it.

The tips I shared above? Gonna start following them.

Metrics? Gonna start tracking them every month.

If you have a LinkedIn newsletter, what other tips do you have to share to improve engagement and overall success?

If you don’t, what’s stopping you from starting one?

Related: Email Marketing ROI Still Beats Everything—Here’s How To Maximize It