A LinkedIn newsletter is the only format on the platform that notifies a list of named people every time you publish.

What is a LinkedIn newsletter?

A LinkedIn newsletter is a set of regularly published articles on LinkedIn, usually about one topic. Members subscribe to it, and LinkedIn sends push, in-app and email notifications to every subscriber each time the author publishes a new edition.

That last part is the whole format. An ordinary post waits for the feed to show it to someone. A newsletter edition is pushed to a list of people who asked for it, which is the closest thing on LinkedIn to an email list you did not have to build somewhere else.

It costs nothing, it lives inside the same publishing tool you would use for a single article, and it works whether you publish as yourself or as a company page. What changes between those two is who may start one and how the first subscribers arrive.

LinkedIn documents the mechanics in its Help center. This guide stays inside what is written there, and says so plainly wherever a number or a rule is simply not published.

LinkedIn newsletter vs article vs post

LinkedIn Help defines the formats separately. Posts are content shared through the feed and may carry media or a third party link. Articles are long form, in-depth content. Newsletters let you write about a professional topic on a regular basis, with subscribers who are notified each time.

So a newsletter edition is an article with a delivery mechanism bolted on. Everything an article can do, an edition can do: images, video, embeds, code blocks, mentions, a custom URL and SEO fields.

One practical limit applies to both. LinkedIn Help states that writing and publishing articles is not available in the LinkedIn mobile app, so editions are written on desktop even though subscribers read them anywhere.

Why a B2B seller or company runs one

For a sales team the appeal is not reach, it is repetition with named people. A subscriber is someone who agreed, once, to hear from you again, and LinkedIn tells you who they are.

• Distribution you do not have to win twice. Each edition reaches subscribers directly instead of competing for feed placement every time.
• A named audience. Newsletter analytics report subscriber job titles, company, company size, seniority and location, which is the same shape as an ideal customer profile.
• A reason to be in touch. A weekly edition gives a rep something to send that is not a follow-up asking for a meeting.
• A public page. The newsletter page can be read without logging in, so it can be linked from an email signature, a proposal or a website.
• Compounding relevance. Narrow topics attract the buyers who care about that topic, which is what makes the list worth anything.

Eligibility, access criteria and creator mode

The toggle itself is gone, and what replaced creator mode is covered separately.

LinkedIn Help is direct about members: all LinkedIn members have access to create a newsletter. There is no follower threshold published for a personal profile, and Premium is not mentioned as a requirement.

What a company page needs

Pages are evaluated instead. LinkedIn Help lists three criteria for Page access to newsletters:

• Audience base: Pages with more than 150 followers and/or connections are eligible to be evaluated for newsletter access.
• Recent shares of original content: LinkedIn looks for Pages that already post text, images, video or articles.
• Good standing: only Pages and admins with a clean record under the Professional Community Policies are considered.

Meeting the follower number does not grant access by itself. The wording is that such Pages are eligible to be evaluated, and creating a newsletter as a Page also requires you to be a super admin or content admin of it.

Creator mode no longer exists as a toggle

Older instructions tell you to switch on creator mode first. LinkedIn removed that on and off toggle from the Resources section of profiles in March 2024, and removed profile hashtags in February 2024.

Access to the sharing tools, including newsletters, now depends on the access criteria rather than a switch. Anyone who already had newsletter access with creator mode on kept it, and the analytics and tools stayed in place too.

What LinkedIn publishes as a limit, and what it does not

This is where most guides start guessing. The table separates rules that appear in LinkedIn Help from details that do not appear anywhere in it.

If you see a specific character count or a named list of cadence options elsewhere, treat it as an observation of the interface on a given day rather than a documented rule.

How to create a LinkedIn newsletter

The steps below follow LinkedIn Help for a personal profile. The company page route has its own screen and is covered in the next section.

1. Open the publishing tool on desktop

   Click Write article in the share box near the top of the homepage. If you administer a Page you will first see a Publish as choice: pick the account you want, then click Next.

2. Find Create newsletter

   Click the Manage dropdown near the upper right and select Create newsletter. If that option is missing, you do not currently have access, which for a Page means the access criteria are not met yet.

3. Fill in the four fields

   Add a newsletter title, a description, how often you want to publish, and optionally an image or logo. Avoid emojis in the title. Click Done when the pop-up is complete.

4. Write the first edition

   The newsletter title now appears near your name in the editor. Add a cover image, a headline and the body, then open Manage and set the article URL, SEO title and SEO description before publishing.

5. Publish, and add commentary

   Click Next, then Publish. A window appears where you can say what this edition is about, ask a question and mention people or Pages with the at sign. Clicking Post also shares the edition in the feed.

6. Let the invitations go out, then keep the promise

   By default your connections and followers are invited by notification to subscribe once the first edition is published. From then on, the cadence you chose is the thing subscribers agreed to.

Publishing that first edition also creates the newsletter page automatically, with an overview of the newsletter, your profile information and the list of editions.

Company page newsletters

A Page newsletter is created from the admin view rather than the share box. You must be a super admin or content admin, and the Page must meet the access criteria described above.

1. Go to the Page super or content admin view.
2. Click Create in the left menu, then Create a newsletter.
3. Enter a title, select how often you want to publish, and add a description.
4. Upload an image, then click Done.

Two details catch teams out. A newsletter created for a Showcase Page is not linked to the parent Page, so followers of the parent are not the audience. And Page followers are invited to subscribe by notification only after the first edition is published, not when the newsletter is created.

Page admins also get a Newsletter section inside LinkedIn analytics for the Page, alongside content, followers, visitors, search appearances and competitors, for trends, article totals and subscriber demographics.

Publish as yourself or as the company page

Both are allowed, and the five newsletter limit applies to either identity. The choice is about who the audience will trust and who will still be there in two years.

A common arrangement in B2B is one newsletter from a founder or a subject expert, and one from the Page for product and customer news, each with a clearly different promise. Your LinkedIn marketing strategy should say which is which before either launches.

The newsletter page is a public asset

Every newsletter on LinkedIn has its own page where members can learn about the newsletter and its author, see past editions, and subscribe or share. LinkedIn Help describes it as created automatically, with the Page version tying it to the first published edition.

The useful property is access. You do not have to be logged in to view a newsletter page, although members must log in to subscribe, react or comment. That makes the link safe to put in a signature, a proposal or a website footer.

If the newsletter belongs to a LinkedIn Page, the newsletter page is separate from the LinkedIn Page itself. Share it with the Share button at the top, and anyone who opens it sees a subscribe button.

Subscribers and notifications

Following and subscribing are two different actions. Following a person or company means some notifications about their content. Subscribing means being notified about each article published in that newsletter, whether or not you follow the author's other posts.

Subscriptions start in several ways. Connections and followers are invited by notification after the first edition. Anyone who starts following a member or Page that has a newsletter is automatically sent an invitation to subscribe. Members can also subscribe from the newsletter page, a shared edition in the feed, or the My Network tab.

Subscribing to a newsletter also makes the subscriber follow the author, which is why the format grows an audience beyond the list itself.

What the author can see, and what subscribers can turn off

• Visible to you: the subscriber's name, profile photo, job title and headline as they appear on their profile, subject to their settings.
• Visible to everyone: newsletters a member subscribes to appear on their profile unless they unsubscribe.
• No duplicate pings: LinkedIn states that a member who gets an in-app or push notification should not also receive an email for the same thing.
• Email only opt-out: a subscriber can click Unsubscribe at the bottom of a newsletter email to stop the emails and stay subscribed on LinkedIn.
• Full unsubscribe: from the notification, from an edition, or from the Subscribed button on the newsletter page.

Publishing cadence, and why it is a promise

You choose the publishing cadence when you create the newsletter, and you can change it later by editing the newsletter. LinkedIn Help does not publish which options the dropdown offers, so decide on the rhythm you can hold rather than the one that sounds ambitious.

The reason it matters is that LinkedIn lists maintaining your chosen cadence as a best practice, and the whole subscriber relationship is built on the expectation you set.

Changing cadence later is allowed and is better than silence. Missing the cadence you advertised is the one failure subscribers notice immediately.

What goes in an edition

Subscribers accepted a topic, not a company. The strongest newsletters address one subject consistently enough that people look forward to the next one, which is exactly how LinkedIn Help describes the most engaging ones.

A repeatable structure does more for retention than variety. Pick a shape and keep it: a short opening that states the question, the substance, one thing to do this week, and a closing line that invites replies.

Images and headlines

• Newsletter logo: LinkedIn recommends 300 by 300 pixels.
• Edition cover photo: LinkedIn recommends 1920 by 1080 pixels and suggests avoiding clipart and generic stock images.
• Headline: Help asks for a clear headline per edition that tells the audience what the article is about.
• Mentions: typing the at sign mentions a member or Page, hyperlinks them, and notifies them.
• Drafts: you can preview an edition and share the draft with other logged-in members before publishing.

Choosing the topic and building the content plan

The newsletter title is a promise about content, and the audience you attract is the audience that promise describes. A narrow topic with one reader in mind builds a smaller list of far more useful subscribers than a broad one does.

LinkedIn Help asks for a name that describes a clear theme your audience can understand. That is a content strategy decision rather than a branding one: pick the question your buyers keep asking, and let every issue answer a piece of it.

Before edition one goes out, build a list of twelve topics. If you cannot reach twelve, the subject is too narrow for a weekly cadence and belongs on a monthly one instead.

• Start from real questions. Objections, onboarding calls and support threads are a better source of topics than any keyword list.
• Check what already works. The posts with your strongest engagement are validated topics, because readers told you so before you wrote anything long.
• Keep one reader in view. Write to a single job title and let everyone else read over their shoulder.
• Separate the series from the news. A recurring series gives subscribers a reason to expect the next issue; news gives them a reason to open this one.
• Decide what you will not cover. Newsletters about everything give an audience no reason to stay subscribed.

SEO settings for newsletter editions

Newsletter editions are indexable pages, and LinkedIn gives you the two fields that decide how they appear in search results. Both sit under Manage, then Settings, in the publishing tool.

• Article URL: set it before publishing, so the slug reflects the topic.
• SEO title: used instead of the article title on search engine results pages. LinkedIn states that an SEO title over 60 characters will be truncated.
• SEO description: used instead of the first lines of the article. LinkedIn suggests using keywords and aiming for 140 to 160 characters.

This is the same discipline as any other page you publish, and it is covered further in our guide to LinkedIn SEO. Most newsletter authors skip these fields entirely, which is why the search result for a good edition often shows a truncated opening sentence.

How to promote a newsletter

Invitations get you the first wave. After that, growth comes from the same places as any other content, so treat each edition as a piece of content in its own right.

• Post about each edition separately. LinkedIn suggests adding commentary or a question when you share it, and asking people to subscribe in the post description.
• Share the newsletter page, not only editions. It works without a login, so it travels off LinkedIn by email and on other platforms.
• Schedule publication. The clock icon next to Publish schedules an article for later, which keeps a cadence realistic during busy weeks.
• Reuse the material. A strong edition becomes a LinkedIn carousel, a short post series, or the agenda for a LinkedIn Event.
• Boosting is available. LinkedIn lists newsletter posts among the types that can be boosted, and states that boosting turns the post into an ad under the LinkedIn Ads Agreement.
• Set Follow as your primary profile action. Help lists this as a newsletter best practice so profile visitors can follow your activity.

Automated mass invitations and scraped subscriber lists are a different matter. Our guide to LinkedIn automation covers where LinkedIn draws the line.

The first ninety days

Growth in the opening weeks comes from the invitation wave, and then it stops unless something replaces it. A plain weekly rhythm keeps engagement alive long enough for the list to build on its own.

• Weeks one and two: publish two editions before promoting anything, so new readers arrive at a shelf rather than an empty page.
• Week three: share the newsletter page everywhere you already have an audience, including your email signature, your website, other social profiles and a pinned post.
• Weeks four to eight: hold the weekly cadence and post separately about each issue. This is where most newsletters quietly die.
• Week nine: open subscriber demographics and ask whether this audience is your buyer. If it is not, the topic is wrong, not the promotion.
• Weeks ten to twelve: message the new subscribers worth talking to and ask what they want more of. Their answers become the content plan for the next quarter.

The value of a newsletter to a sales team shows in that last step, not in the subscriber count. A hundred readers who match your ideal customer profile are worth more than a thousand who do not.

Turning posts into editions, and editions into posts

Newsletters and feed posts feed each other. Short posts test a topic cheaply, and the ones that earn real engagement tell you which idea deserves a full edition rather than a paragraph.

Going the other way, one edition holds enough material for a week of social content. Pull the strongest section into a standalone post, the framework into a carousel, and the closing question into a prompt for comments.

Keep the social posts and the newsletter on the same subject. A reader who followed you for one topic and then receives another is the most common reason a subscriber leaves.

Newsletter analytics: what LinkedIn actually reports

Newsletter analytics are their own screen, reached from the Activity section of your profile, then Newsletter, then the newsletter, then View analytics. Pages reach the equivalent from Page analytics.

At the top you choose a date range, from the past seven days up to the past 365 days. That range applies to Trends and Article totals only. Subscriber demographics and New subscribers are not limited by it.

Two definitions are worth holding on to. Article views count clicks to read an edition, on the article page or inside a newsletter email, and exclude views from organizations. Email sends count the subscribers who received an email for that article.

Retention differs by content type. LinkedIn states that article performance, article viewer demographics and newsletter specific analytics are available for two years, and newsletter article totals cover editions posted within two years.

Impressions here mean the same thing they mean everywhere else on the platform, which our page on LinkedIn impressions explains in full. LinkedIn also notes that analytics figures are estimates and may not be precise.

Turning subscribers into conversations

The New subscribers list is the part of this feature that most sales teams never open. It is a named, dated list of people who chose to hear from you, with a message button next to each one.

That makes it a warm signal rather than a lead list. A useful monthly routine takes about twenty minutes:

1. Open subscriber demographics and compare job titles and company size against your ideal customer profile.
2. Scan the new subscribers from the last month for anyone at a target account.
3. Message a small number of them about the edition they subscribed after, not about your product.
4. Note which editions produced subscribers worth talking to, and write more of those.

This belongs to the same motion as LinkedIn prospecting, with one difference: the person already opted in, so the opening line is obvious. Editions can also carry people who are not ready yet, which is B2B lead nurturing by another name.

Editing, deleting and the two week wait

Open Write article, use the Manage dropdown to select the newsletter, and click Edit below your name. You can change the title, the description, the publishing frequency and the image or logo.

Deleting works from the More icon next to the newsletter's name, then Delete newsletter and a confirmation. Individual editions can be edited or deleted at any time, and comments can be disabled on a published article.

Remember the timing rule before you delete anything. After creating or deleting a newsletter, you must wait two weeks before creating another one, so a rename is almost always better than a fresh start.

Common LinkedIn newsletter mistakes

• Launching before you have three editions written, then missing the cadence you advertised in week four.
• Naming it after your company instead of the topic, so nobody can tell what they are subscribing to.
• Deleting a newsletter to fix the name, then discovering the two week wait before you can create another.
• Treating every edition as a product announcement, when subscribers opted in to a subject.
• Leaving the SEO title and description empty, so search engines show a truncated first sentence.
• Publishing the edition and never posting about it, which wastes the feed distribution entirely.
• Reading impressions instead of article views, and calling a wide edition a well read one.
• Starting on a Showcase Page and assuming the parent Page followers will be invited.
• Never opening the New subscribers list, which is the only place the format hands you names.

The message to a new subscriber

The template below was written for this page. It is for a new subscriber at an account you already care about, sent within a week of them subscribing, and it refers to the edition rather than to your product.

Hi {{firstName}},

Thanks for subscribing to {{newsletterName}}. You came in around the edition on {{editionTopic}}, so this is a fair guess: {{problem}} is on someone's list at {{company}} this quarter.

If it is yours, I have a one-page version of that edition with the checklist pulled out, and I am happy to send it with no strings. If it is not, tell me what you would rather read and I will point you at it.

{{senderName}}

Frequently asked questions