Dorianne Ciccarelli, the VP of Digital at MikeWorldWide, shares best practices for launching a LinkedIn newsletter that grows your audience. Learn how to set clear goals, choose a consistent theme, publish on schedule and design a recognizable brand identity. This video covers picking the right voice for thought leadership, engaging your audience, promoting across channels and tracking metrics to keep improving. Plus, find out why the first edition is your best chance to reach your entire follower base and drive subscriptions.
These tips are part of "Leveraging LinkedIn Newsletters for Thought Leadership."
This session was part of the PRNEWS's Thought Leadership Masterclass, Part 3: "All About LinkedIn Leadership: Activating Where It Matters Most"
Watch the full session at this link.
Full transcript:
[DORIANNE CICCARELLI]
Decide on a purpose for what your newsletter will serve, and then it's about building um that brand... so is it gonna be about building brand authority, you know driving leads, community engagement. What are we trying to do here? And then having that clarity up front really shapes everything else coming next.
Um so following that we're gonna need to establish our theme and our content focus, right? So anchor your newsletter in a theme that's consistent over time...something aligned with your expertise or relevant to your audience. And consistency in that content focus is really what keeps the audience coming back for more.
Then commit to a cadence. So whether you choose to publish weekly, biweekly, monthly—uh monthly is actually the most common one that we see...but the key is actually reliability. So publishing consistently builds that trust with your audience, but it also creates a habit for them to keep coming back for more. And it lets them know when to expect the next edition and when to expect that next piece of content to be coming out.
From there it's you know designing the details, creating a strong identity with a clear description, cohesive visuals, all branding em- elements like logos, cover images... things of that nature...all to make your newsletter instantly recognizable for your audience when they see it time and time again on the screen.
And then of course of course it's also important to select the right voice. You know you need to choose a leader and author that has credibility...that has an authentic presence...and just you know this voice is really what humanizes the content and makes it resonate. And this also kind of goes hand in hand with audience targeting and value. So really be intentional about who you're writing for and just as importantly what they will gain from what you're writing and sharing. And really the clearer the value exchange the stronger your subscriber base is going to be.
After that comes engagement and distribution. So we're not just publishing and hoping for the best. We're publishing, and then we're going out and we're promoting each edition through you know employee advocacy, cross-channel promotion, uh repurposing content into blogs, social posts, speaking points. uh website uh content things like that. This all helps amplify the reach and really gives extra legs to the content.
Then comes metrics and iteration. So we want to make sure that we're tracking subscriber growth, open rates, engagement all over time so that we can refine our strategy. What works—we repeat. What doesn't—we adjust.
And then finally you know always include a call to action. Always let the audience know what to do next, so you know whether it's encouraging them to comment, share, register, download...whatever it is. Call to actions help to move those passive readers into active participants just a little bit quicker, and that really helps to keep driving your newsletter results and success.
So you know following these steps: clear goals, strong identity, the right voice, consistency, smart measurement all sets you up for success, for long-term success, on the platform through the newsletter.
Okay launching for impact. Um so one of the most important things to understand about launching a LinkedIn newsletter is that you really get one shot to reach your entire follower base directly via launch um to drive those subscriptions. So the moment you publish your first edition every single one of your followers is notified and they're invited to subscribe.