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- How to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your B2B Newsletter
How to Use LinkedIn to Grow Your B2B Newsletter
LinkedIn is one of the best beginner-friendly social platforms.
You’re competing with, generally, a bunch of stiff corporate folks who are not strong copywriters and were taught in their corporate jobs to say a lot while saying very little.
(No offense meant - I used to work at The Boston Consulting Group, which is about as corporate as it gets. I was totally one of these stiff people when I was 22/23!).
It’s also the only platform where you can see your audience’s job title, company, etc. Which is INCREDIBLY helpful for understanding which followers can be your customers.
Both of these things mean you can go from 0 to 1-5k+ engaged followers and close 5-figures in revenue in 2–3 months.
Stick with it for a year, and you can build a pipeline that yields:
→ traffic to your newsletter
→ inbound leads
→ your first newsletter sponsors
I’ve done it myself.
Started posting seriously in November ‘24 after my buddy Rowan told me I needed to create content.
I now have 4K+ engaged followers - not much, but it’s generated dozens of sales calls + helped us add $30-40k in MRR.
Today I’ll break down the exact tactics that helped folks like Justin Welsh, Dickie Bush, and Tom Alder turn LinkedIn into a high-converting newsletter subscriber / customer engine.
1. Who should use this playbook
If you monetize your newsletter through one (or more) of these tactics:
sponsorships
productized services
premium subs
or, cohort-based programs
And your ICP is B2B marketers or decision-makers (founders, execs, niche operators), LinkedIn is the perfect place.
2. Build an audience before you launch
Tom Alder grew his newsletter to over 55,000 subscribers in just 14 months. And he got over 5K subscribers even before he launched his newsletter.
Here's how he did it, and you can too.
Tom built an audience first and then launched his newsletter.
He started posting on LinkedIn in July 2021. He committed to a 30-day posting challenge — one post a day.
At first, Tom talked about fintech and Australian startups.
Then narrowed down to what actually got attention: business strategy breakdowns.
By the time he launched Strategy Breakdowns, he already had 5K subscribers before the first newsletter went out.
3. Turn your profile into a landing page
Your profile should convert, not just describe you.
Here’s a checklist:
Headline: Make it about your newsletter.
About section: What readers get. Why it’s worth it. Add a CTA to join.
Link: Link directly to your newsletter sign-up page or lead magnet that ultimately gets people in your newsletter.
Proof: Add social proof. Mention subscriber count, sponsor logos, or testimonials.
Rowan Cheung gets this. That’s why his newsletter has 1M+ subscribers.
Here’s what he does right — and what you should steal:
Headline = value prop
→ Founder of the largest AI newsletter with 1,000,000+ readers.
It tells you what he built, how big it is, and why you should care. In one line.
No buzzwords. No fluff.
Banner = ad space
→ Clear CTA: Learn how to make AI work for you.
→ Adds logos (Forbes, BI, Fast Company) = instant credibility
→ Bonus move: includes a real preview of the newsletter
Link = no friction
→ Join 1,000,000+ readers → straight to the signup page
Your link section should go straight to your landing page or lead magnet.
4. Use LinkedIn’s Featured section to drive subscribers
Your Featured section is free, and it sits right under your “About” section. That means if someone checks your profile (from a post, a comment, a DM), it’s one of the first things they’ll see.
Use it to promote your lead magnet or direct newsletter signup.
If you're a creator monetizing your newsletter with courses or coaching, take a cue from Nicolas Cole. He uses free email courses to build his list.
If you run a media business and your newsletter is the product, do it like Rowan Cheung.
His entire Featured section pushes one thing: The Rundown. Clean visual. Direct link. No distractions.
5. Content types that grow your list
Focus 80% of your posts on educational content. Share frameworks, lessons, or systems people can use right away.
Give away real value. No fluff. No clickbait.
Your only goal through these posts is to help your audience learn something useful and want more.
Here are 3 formats that work:
Take 1–2 key takeaways from your latest issue.
Write it as a short post.
That’s Tom Alder’s go-to move.
He’ll take the most compelling part of a newsletter issue — in this case, Dropbox’s growth story, and turn it into a short, story-style LinkedIn post.
Then he’d add a line about his newsletter and ask his followers to click the link to read the full content.
It works because:
The post delivers standalone value
It makes you want the full story
The CTA feels natural, not forced
You’ve already earned your audience’s attention.
If you’re writing great issues, use your posts to tease them like this:
Tease before you send
You don’t always need to recap the newsletter. Sometimes, the best move is to build anticipation before it goes out.
That’s what Justin Welsh did here.
He often shares the theme, a big question, maybe one insight, and then says when he’s dropping the newsletter issue covering it and links to it.
Teach something in a list-style post
Take a niche topic your audience cares about.
Break it down into a list — 3, or 5 parts.
Make each point actionable, punchy, and clear.
Then drop a CTA that leads people straight to your newsletter or email course.
That’s what Dickie Bush did in this post.
Why it works:
You teach and sell in the same post
The value is front-loaded
Signing up feels like a natural next step
Turn your ideas into a swipe file
Carousels are built to break down complex or long ideas into small pieces.
If your idea is visual, structured, or step-by-step — make it a swipe post.
Think:
Frameworks
Toolkits
Charts or timelines
“Do this, not that” comparisons
Sahil Bloom does this perfectly.
In his “How We Spend Our Time” carousel, he visualized how time compounds across decades.
Just one clear concept, made visual.
In the caption and the last slide, he teases his newsletter and asks them to join.
Why carousels work:
It pulls people in with a clear hook on slide one
It holds attention as users swipe — increasing time-on-post (a key LinkedIn signal)
It’s saveable and shareable
It makes your idea instantly usable
Mix these formats, but keep the goal the same: Teach first. Link second.
Dedicate 20% of your posts to share freebies / lead magnets
Lead magnets are the fastest way to grow your newsletter list.
Here’s how to make them work on LinkedIn:
→ create a hyper-specific freebie (e.g. toolkit, checklist, swipe file, short report)
→ tell people what they’ll get
→ show a sneak peek — a screenshot or 1-2 bullets
→ ask them to comment a word
→ send the link via DM — gate it with email
Here’s a recent post I did on LinkedIn.
It was valuable for my audience. It was timely.
Each time I do this, my list jumps.
No paid tools. No hard sell.
Why this works:
→ boosts visibility (LinkedIn favors real engagement)
→ builds 1:1 relationships
→ builds email list without friction
→ gets me inbound leads
6. Targeted outreach
Most people chase size. I care about who is on the list.
That’s why quality > quantity — and why I do manual outreach every day.
Here’s how to do it:
Send daily manual outreach to 20–30 ICPs
Use filters: job title, company size, industry
Script: short, personalized, value-focused → send newsletter link if interested
Steal our cold DM template that got us over hundreds of sign ups:
LinkedIn beats every other channel for B2B lead gen for one simple reason: there’s no anonymity.
You can see exactly who’s engaging.
Who liked your post.
Who viewed your profile.
Who downloaded your lead magnet.
Name, title, company, team size — it’s all right there.
And that makes it incredibly easy to test and see results fast, then iterate.
Start with one post this week. Add one lead magnet. DM five people.
Watch what happens.
Serious about growth?
This 90-day framework will get you 10K subs.
Small list? Doesn’t matter. You can still land great sponsors.