Episode 192
LinkedIn Newsletters vs Email Newsletters vs Substack. Where Should You Focus?
LinkedIn newsletters, email newsletters, or Substack? Which one is best for B2B right now? In this episode, LinkedIn expert Michelle J Raymond shares what’s changed since her last update in February, how both her LinkedIn and email newsletters are growing, and why Substack is suddenly the hot topic everyone’s talking about.
Whether you’re building an audience, frustrated with LinkedIn’s algorithm, or curious about Substack’s buzz, this episode will help you decide where to focus your time and effort.
Key moments in this episode -
00:00 Navigating the Content Landscape
00:41 Newsletter Recap
01:51 LinkedIn Newsletters: Benefits and Growth
02:25 Challenges with Email Newsletters
07:10 Substack: The New Contender
13:15 Leveraging LinkedIn Newsletters for Growth
18:24 Final Thoughts
To learn more about Pros & Cons of LinkedIn Newsletters - https://socialmediaforb2bgrowthpodcast.com/episode/linkedin-newsletters-vs-email-newsletters-which-one-wins-for-b2b
CONNECT WITH MICHELLE J RAYMOND
- Michelle J Raymond on LinkedIn
- Book a free intro call
- https://socialmediaforb2bgrowthpodcast.com/
- B2B Growth Co newsletter
Today's episode is sponsored by Metricool. Make sure to register for a FREE Metricool account today. Use Code MICHELLE30 to try any Premium Plan FREE for 30 days.
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Transcript
The LinkedIn algorithm continues to have everybody frustrated.
Speaker:Email newsletters are still dependable.
Speaker:Then we have the new kid on the block that's getting all the hype, Substack.
Speaker:Where should you spend your time and attention?
Speaker:Great question.
Speaker:Let's have a chat about that today.
Speaker:G'Day everyone.
Speaker:I'm Coach Michelle J Raymond, your trusted guide for building your brand
Speaker:and growing your business on LinkedIn.
Speaker:And we're gonna be chatting about all things LinkedIn newsletters, email
Speaker:newsletters, Substack today, because a few weeks ago when I did my episode
Speaker:about the content strategies that I think you should have with LinkedIn's
Speaker:algorithm shifts, that was super popular because I mentioned in that
Speaker:episode LinkedIn newsletters should be part of your strategy going forward.
Speaker:And I also said reach out to me if you've got some questions.
Speaker:And I've had a ton of questions, which has been amazing.
Speaker:So thank you to everyone that reaches out and connects with me.
Speaker:So a quick recap of that episode, of course, I will share the details on how
Speaker:you can see the whole thing in the show notes and go back and have a listen,
Speaker:because at that time, back in February I was deciding that I was going to
Speaker:start my very first email newsletter.
Speaker:So I have a successful LinkedIn newsletter.
Speaker:At the time, it had around, let's call it 8,000 subscribers and
Speaker:a brand new email newsletter.
Speaker:So what's happened between then and now?
Speaker:What have I discovered?
Speaker:What am I doing differently and where does Substack fit into all of this?
Speaker:First of all, I wanna reiterate, I absolutely love LinkedIn newsletters.
Speaker:I love the long form.
Speaker:I love the fact that they're indexed by Google.
Speaker:I love that that then means that ChatGPT and other tools like that
Speaker:are learning my content as well off the platform, which is amazing.
Speaker:It's getting discovered by new people.
Speaker:I love the fact that every time I post a new newsletter,
Speaker:my subscribers get notified.
Speaker:So I'm not fighting with, you know, the algorithm in the home feed, which is
Speaker:just gold given what's going on now.
Speaker:My email newsletter, uh, was at zero six months ago.
Speaker:I'm reporting back.
Speaker:I'm up to at 458 email subscribers if you are not one of them and would
Speaker:like to be, of course, again, the details will be in the show notes.
Speaker:I'd love to stay connected in between the podcast episodes.
Speaker:What I found with that I've got 458 subscribers.
Speaker:There's about another 120, which have not confirmed their email subscription,
Speaker:which I have found super annoying.
Speaker:Now, how does this happen?
Speaker:There's a double opt-in, which is best practices as far as I'm
Speaker:aware, for email newsletters.
Speaker:So what does that mean?
Speaker:You subscribe to the newsletter.
Speaker:It then sends you an email into your inbox to confirm, Hey, did you mean
Speaker:to subscribe to this email newsletter?
Speaker:And you have to say yes.
Speaker:And if you don't say yes, then you don't get added to the newsletter list
Speaker:and you don't receive my newsletters.
Speaker:Now given I've got 458 subscribers and 120 sitting in no man's land
Speaker:and you can't resend something to follow up with them, apparently
Speaker:that's against the rules as well.
Speaker:I can't automatically approve them, even if I know people, 'cause that again is
Speaker:against you know, the rules, so to speak.
Speaker:And so for me, having that 120 people there who wanted to stay in contact,
Speaker:that I can't do anything with unless I manually follow them all up.
Speaker:I find that super duper frustrating.
Speaker:If anyone listening to this podcast is an email newsletter expert and you
Speaker:wanna reach out and let me know if you've got some, you know, great advice.
Speaker:I'm all ears 'cause that is certainly not my area of expertise.
Speaker:How are they both growing?
Speaker:Well, when it comes to my newsletter, my email one, it's essentially, if
Speaker:people go to my website, if you're there for long enough, then it
Speaker:will give you a popup and say, Hey, come and, you know, check this out.
Speaker:I promote it on my LinkedIn newsletter as well, and my premium
Speaker:link on my profile directs people to sign up for my email newsletter.
Speaker:Now, you might be wondering, why do I have that as a strategy?
Speaker:Well, if anything happens to my LinkedIn account, of course I want to be able
Speaker:to stay in contact with my connections and have something that I own.
Speaker:That's the biggest difference here.
Speaker:I control that email list.
Speaker:As opposed to my LinkedIn newsletter, which is far easier to grow, like
Speaker:LinkedIn automatically invites everybody that's trying to connect with me.
Speaker:And so I'm growing at that at a rate of, I think it was about 250 to 300
Speaker:new subscribers every month, and that's without me doing anything.
Speaker:So I think that's why I love it.
Speaker:It's on autopilot.
Speaker:So from that perspective, it works really well.
Speaker:Now there are some of you who reached out with a question, which
Speaker:I'll just cover, should you do articles on LinkedIn or newsletters?
Speaker:I would steer clear of articles purely and simply because the
Speaker:features within articles and newsletters are exactly the same.
Speaker:The only difference is on newsletters, you have the ability to build up
Speaker:subscribers so they get notified.
Speaker:Where articles just get treated like a normal post.
Speaker:So that's the quick recap of where I'm at.
Speaker:I would say in general, I'm not as consistent as I should
Speaker:be with my email newsletter.
Speaker:I haven't quite found my mojo with that one.
Speaker:And sometimes I find when you spread yourself a little thin,
Speaker:then you'll probably relate to this as well, I would imagine.
Speaker:Uh, that once you spread yourself too thin, then you don't keep up with
Speaker:things and that consistency drops.
Speaker:And I found that that's what's going on with my email newsletter.
Speaker:So that's just up for me to try and get systems and processes in place to make
Speaker:sure that I am consistent with that.
Speaker:It turns out like they're both different.
Speaker:I enjoy writing them and I write them very differently.
Speaker:I feel like the email newsletter is a little bit more personal.
Speaker:I feel like that's like the next level of connection with my audience.
Speaker:But either way, I love the long form content.
Speaker:For those of you interested, my open rates on LinkedIn newsletters
Speaker:are around 38 to 42% on average.
Speaker:My email newsletters are sitting around 60%, sometimes higher,
Speaker:sometimes lower, but it's a much smaller number, so that makes sense.
Speaker:But ultimately I love them both.
Speaker:Just, I find the LinkedIn newsletter just so much easier to grow and I'm, I've
Speaker:got my groove on as far as that goes.
Speaker:You know, I do that.
Speaker:I smash it out every single week.
Speaker:And if you stick around to the end of this episode, I'm gonna share
Speaker:exactly how i'm using my LinkedIn newsletter to grow my email newsletter.
Speaker:And then I've noticed that Substack is popping up probably every fourth post.
Speaker:It seems like every man and their dog now has a Substack account.
Speaker:I have just set one up.
Speaker:I'm gonna talk about that in a moment and share with you where
Speaker:it's at and what I think is actually causing people to wanna look at that.
Speaker:So we'll go into that next.
Speaker:But first of all, I wanna share a quick word about some of the new features
Speaker:from our podcast sponsors Metricool.
Speaker:The Substack buzz is very real on LinkedIn, I feel like yeah, as I said in
Speaker:the intro, probably every fourth or fifth post has got somebody sharing that they've
Speaker:just started on Substack and I should come across and follow or subscribe or whatever
Speaker:the right terminology is over there.
Speaker:And I took the bait.
Speaker:I wanted to know what everyone was so excited about.
Speaker:The FOMO kicked in and I thought, hey, I better go over there
Speaker:and check what's going on.
Speaker:I got as far as registering my account.
Speaker:Now, the reason that I think it's a good idea to do that, even if you
Speaker:do nothing else, is I was able to claim my username so I wanna show
Speaker:up as Michelle J Raymond everywhere.
Speaker:So I was able to get in early and claim that.
Speaker:So if you have a common name, uh, make sure you just go over and register.
Speaker:It costs nothing to sign in.
Speaker:So from that perspective, you know, no harm, no foul.
Speaker:You never do anything with it.
Speaker:The world's not gonna end, so it'll be fine.
Speaker:So I go across, I register, it's free, it's easy.
Speaker:I've got options there that I can do posts, I can have videos, and there's
Speaker:like, you know, subscriber options.
Speaker:I think this is what people are actually super keen to get, and that is the
Speaker:ownership of a community, just like email newsletters without algorithms getting
Speaker:involved between you and the community.
Speaker:And I think that's what people are craving.
Speaker:I think that's what is drawing them to Substack.
Speaker:As well as the opportunity, you can charge a fee for people to become
Speaker:subscribers and make money from this.
Speaker:If I think about how much content I've put out on LinkedIn and got
Speaker:not 1 cent from LinkedIn at all.
Speaker:Honestly, like it makes me want to cry some days.
Speaker:Now I get that I make money from it in other ways, don't feel sorry for me.
Speaker:Everything's under control.
Speaker:But ultimately, even if I look at my YouTube channel, which isn't that big,
Speaker:you know, I'm making a grand total of a couple hundred dollars a month these days.
Speaker:But ultimately that is more, again, considering how much time
Speaker:and effort I put into LinkedIn.
Speaker:That is not a reason to choose a platform or not choose a platform.
Speaker:You have to come back to your strategy.
Speaker:I have not started posting over on Substack.
Speaker:I do not understand enough about it to just want to dive in there.
Speaker:And go.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I'm just gonna post off for the sake of it.
Speaker:I like to have a little bit more research under my belt about best practices.
Speaker:I am looking forward to having an opportunity potentially to
Speaker:repurpose a lot of my existing content because I have a lot.
Speaker:I already have good systems on LinkedIn and repurposing content, and of course
Speaker:using Metricool helps us with that.
Speaker:Lil does all of that work.
Speaker:Do not think if you see my content everywhere, it is just me doing it.
Speaker:I have help, right?
Speaker:If you do not have help, before you bite off other platforms.
Speaker:If you haven't mastered one ie LinkedIn where you know your
Speaker:audience is, then please do not run off and spread yourself too thin.
Speaker:As I shared, I struggle to keep up with just the two newsletters, and
Speaker:ultimately from that perspective, I have to keep looking and checking
Speaker:in with myself and going, is this getting me closer to my goals, or is it
Speaker:distracting me because the FOMO is real?
Speaker:I'm spreading myself on other places that I really don't need to show up.
Speaker:Think about that for a moment, right?
Speaker:Are you going to do it because of FOMO?
Speaker:Or are you doing it because it aligns with your strategy, aligns with your
Speaker:goals, you know your audience is there, and so that is what's driving you
Speaker:towards other platforms like Substack.
Speaker:And you can apply this, whether it's Substack that you're considering, whether
Speaker:it's TikTok, whether it's YouTube, you know, have people come to me and say I
Speaker:wanna do this and I wanna do that, and I'm gonna start a podcast like, do you
Speaker:know how much work goes into a podcast?
Speaker:It is crazy.
Speaker:For the 20 minutes that you listen to.
Speaker:Just to give you an idea, I would estimate that that is around six to
Speaker:eight hours of work in our business, so you can enjoy 20 minutes.
Speaker:Crazy, right?
Speaker:So this happens with every platform.
Speaker:So don't go diving in.
Speaker:They are some of the ways that I would assess where I was going to spend my
Speaker:time and effort when it comes to LinkedIn newsletters, when it comes to email
Speaker:newsletters, when it comes to Substack.
Speaker:But after this short break, I wanna talk to you about how I'm
Speaker:leveraging LinkedIn newsletters in ways you may not have thought about.
Speaker:But if you start to do this.
Speaker:I promise you that you are going to have better conversations and
Speaker:maybe even discover warm leads that you haven't even considered.
Speaker:I love being able to save the best tips for those of you who listen all the way
Speaker:through the podcast, and this my friends, is something that I don't think many
Speaker:people out there are doing, and this is one of the pieces of gold that comes
Speaker:out of having a LinkedIn newsletter.
Speaker:When I talk about LinkedIn newsletters, why do I love them?
Speaker:As I said, because you get subscribers, but having them subscribe and just getting
Speaker:notified when your newsletters go out.
Speaker:Now mine goes out weekly, so it's pretty regular.
Speaker:That is just the foundation cool stuff that comes out of a
Speaker:LinkedIn newsletter subscriber.
Speaker:Have you actually realised that?
Speaker:If you go into your newsletter, you can then have a look at who is subscribed
Speaker:and it will show you who are your first degree connections, who are your second
Speaker:degree connections, or third, and anyone that is a second or third means that you
Speaker:are not actually connected with them.
Speaker:Now, if someone chooses to enjoy your newsletter.
Speaker:Something about your content has drawn them, and I go through my
Speaker:newsletter subscribers on LinkedIn.
Speaker:Have a look for those who are in my target audience.
Speaker:So shout out to the B2B marketers, anyone that's a social media manager,
Speaker:business owners that might be responsible for marketing within their business.
Speaker:That's who I love to work with.
Speaker:So I then send them a personal message from my Michelle J Raymond
Speaker:account and say, thank you for subscribing to my newsletter.
Speaker:I hope you enjoy it.
Speaker:It would be great to be connected as well.
Speaker:And from there I can open up conversations with people who often just accept 'cause
Speaker:they're familiar with my content and then I can start to ask them more questions
Speaker:around what drew them to the newsletter.
Speaker:What are they hoping to learn?
Speaker:I can offer to share other newsletters that I've done in the past that might be
Speaker:helpful for a problem that they've got.
Speaker:And it really starts a conversation and they are my warm leads.
Speaker:Like they are already familiar with who I am and what I do, and it's just
Speaker:about starting a conversation with them.
Speaker:And that is something that I don't think many people do.
Speaker:I think they just collect all the subscribers and don't think actually this
Speaker:is a great place to have a conversation because I know that my newsletters are
Speaker:really built on thought leadership.
Speaker:I get to expand what I think about certain topics, and I get to include different
Speaker:kinds of formats, so it's not just text.
Speaker:I embed my podcast episodes.
Speaker:I embed my YouTube videos.
Speaker:I show off my book in images or my speaking images, and there's so many
Speaker:different rich formats that you can put into your newsletter, so they're
Speaker:getting a taste of everything.
Speaker:Not only do I do this if I'm already connected with people, I use this
Speaker:same list to go through and say, thank you for subscribing to my LinkedIn
Speaker:newsletter, if you like this newsletter did you know that I also have an email
Speaker:newsletter where I share tips that I don't share on LinkedIn with anybody
Speaker:else except them, and I share them first.
Speaker:So if you wanna hear from me first, that is where you need to sign up.
Speaker:And most people, if they like one newsletter, they'll like the other one.
Speaker:And if they don't read it.
Speaker:It's fine.
Speaker:Like if they read one and not the other, that's fine.
Speaker:I've got two opportunities to stay in contact with them.
Speaker:And I would say I in general, because I add so much value in my
Speaker:LinkedIn newsletter and getting so many people excited to sign
Speaker:up for my email newsletter.
Speaker:So I'm now using the ease of LinkedIn helping me build
Speaker:my newsletter subscribers.
Speaker:To then direct them onto the newsletter list that I own.
Speaker:So it cuts down the amount of work.
Speaker:I get a high success rate of people actually accepting
Speaker:and wanting to join my list.
Speaker:And from there, it just makes my life so much easier.
Speaker:But I think at the end of the day when you are choosing whether it's email
Speaker:newsletter, whether it's LinkedIn newsletter, whether it's Substack
Speaker:or any of those other platforms, you have to do what feels right to you.
Speaker:Because if it feels inauthentic, you just won't do it consistently,
Speaker:and that becomes the real problem.
Speaker:To wrap this one up, I don't think the question you should ask yourself
Speaker:is really, is it newsletters, is it email, or is it Substack?
Speaker:The goal is actually the same.
Speaker:How can you create a connection and community with your audience
Speaker:and stay in contact with them?
Speaker:And for some of you, the algorithm can get in the way, and for some of you it might
Speaker:be helping you, but ultimately think about what are the goals that you have for your
Speaker:business, what's your game plan gonna be?
Speaker:So that you can allocate the right time and resources.
Speaker:And for many people, time is the deciding factor.
Speaker:You are better to stay focused.
Speaker:Do something at the highest level than what you are to spread yourself
Speaker:thin and come across as average or below standard or worse still
Speaker:almost blend in with the crowd.
Speaker:Because that will be completely ineffective.
Speaker:So my question for you listeners is do you have a newsletter?
Speaker:Have you tried the newsletters?
Speaker:Let me know in the comments, or I always welcome your messages over on LinkedIn.
Speaker:For those of you you know, genuinely wonder, is it me that responds?
Speaker:Yes, you'll be surprised.
Speaker:It really is me and I really am genuinely excited to hear from you.
Speaker:If you don't have a newsletter, let me know why not.
Speaker:If there's a challenge that you're having or a question that you've got,
Speaker:always makes great content ideas for me.
Speaker:I'm also gonna throw it out there.
Speaker:Listeners, I would love to hear from you.
Speaker:Do you have an idea for a podcast episode?
Speaker:I've never done this before, but I would love to do it.
Speaker:If you've got one, let me know and who knows?
Speaker:It may show up in the next few episodes because I create this podcast for you.
Speaker:How can you use LinkedIn to grow your business?
Speaker:So let me know what's getting in the way.
Speaker:Until next week.
Speaker:Cheers.
