LinkedIn Will Now Enable Brands to Sponsor User-Generated Newsletters

After launching sponsored newsletters for company pages last month, LinkedIn is now expanding this to newsletters created by other users in the app, so brands can now put their branding on popular newsletters created by thought leaders in their niche.

As you can see in this example of a company page originated sponsored newsletter, the option enables brands to promote their newsletters to a broader audience via paid boost.

Which will also now extend to any newsletter in the app.

As per LinkedIn:

“We’re introducing sponsored newsletters as a way to extend the reach of your existing long-form newsletter content. You can now sponsor any member’s newsletter content (upon receiving approval) or any newsletter published on your Company Page as a single image ad through Campaign Manager.”

To clarify the different sponsored content options:

• Sponsored articles are individual, standalone, long-form posts in the app
• Sponsored newsletter articles are part of recurring, serialized newsletters on LinkedIn that members can subscribe to

Sponsoring a newsletter therefore provides more exposure opportunities, though at an ongoing cost.

It works like this:

“Now, when you log into Campaign Manager, you can select a newsletter article you wish to promote from your own content library. Alternatively, you can boost a newsletter article from your organization’s Page Admin view.”

So you can choose a user-generated newsletter in Page Admin view to effectively sponsor, boosting its reach with paid promotion.  The same as LinkedIn’s “Thought Leader Ads”, creators are prompted when a request to sponsor their newsletter comes through, which they can then approve or deny as they see fit.

Also worth noting: Sponsored newsletter articles under the “Lead Generation” objective will be gated with an “Unlock Article” CTA button, which will require users to enter their details to read the full post.

It could be a good option, and with newsletters steadily rising in the app, it could actually provide a significant, targeted push in your efforts.

LinkedIn says that over 184,000 newsletters are now being hosted in the app, while in the past year, LinkedIn’s also seen engagement with newsletters rise by 47%. So it’s not just that people are publishing more, they’re also being read at much higher rates.

As noted, LinkedIn rolled out sponsored newsletters back in July, as an expansion of Sponsored Articles which it added in January, with each providing more ways for brands to both promote and gate their posted content in the app.

And now, it’s also providing more ways to use both, in boosting the reach of user-generated content, as a means to link into their established audience.

It could be a valuable consideration for niche targeting, while also giving LinkedIn newsletter creators a means to gain more exposure for their work. Though like Thought Leader Ads, creators won’t be able to generate income via ad revenue share.

That seems like a future opportunity, which could get more creators spending more time on their LinkedIn content efforts. But right now, in the early stages, LinkedIn is more focused on providing more promotion options for brands.  

You can read more about LinkedIn’s Sponsored Newsletters here.