The Science Behind Newsletters for Personal Branding and Reputation Management

With everyone on LinkedIn either having a newsletter or starting one, it’s natural to wonder, “Should I also start a newsletter?”

Before initiating the thought, reflect on these questions:

• Is it worth your time?
• Can you generate revenue from it?
• Does it make sense for your long-term strategy?
• Are you planning to hire a ghostwriter to reflect your voice?
• Do you want to use it as a tool to attract talent?
• Is it part of building your personal or business brand?
• Do you want to manage your online reputation and own your audience, independent of third-party platforms?

If you answered yes to most of these, a newsletter might be a great move.

Key Metrics to Monitor:

Once you start a newsletter, here are the central analytics to track:

• Click Rates: Who’s engaging with your links?
• Open Rates: Who’s reading your emails?
• Conversions: Who’s acting and purchasing through your emails?
• Bounce Rate: How many emails failed to deliver? Calculated as (number of bounced emails ÷ total emails sent) × 100.
• Subscriber Growth: Are you gaining more subscribers than you’re losing? Formula: [(new subscribers – unsubscribes + spam complaints) ÷ total email list] × 100.
• ROI: Are your email efforts profitable? [(₹ sales generated – ₹ campaign cost) ÷ ₹ campaign cost] × 100.
• Unsubscribe Rate: Who’s leaving your list because they don’t find value in your content?

Keep in mind the average open rate of a newsletter is 20.1%, with a click rate of just 2.3%. While the numbers may seem modest, email newsletters are powerful because they land directly in your audience’s inbox, which they check daily.

Even more importantly, you own your email list. If you’re ever banned from LinkedIn, your audience goes with it, but your email list stays yours. This control over your audience also gives you direct power over your reputation management, allowing you to craft and maintain the message that reflects your brand values.

What Takes to Start a Newsletter

Starting a newsletter is not as simple as writing an email. It requires:

1. Consistent, Engaging Content: You’ll need to send at least 2 newsletters per week, with content that keeps your audience interested enough to open  emails regularly.
2. Building Your Email List: Growing your list takes time. Organic content and lead magnets work best, but you might also need paid LinkedIn ads for faster growth.
3. A Clear Hook: What’s your newsletter’s unique angle? Are you educating, inspiring, or entertaining? Your hook will determine whether people stick around.
4. Design & Visuals: Hiring a graphic designer or using AI tools for creating appealing graphics and thumbnails will enhance the look of your emails.
5. Analytics & A/B Testing: Success requires constant tweaking. You’ll need to test different approaches to see what resonates most with your audience.

Is It Worth It?

The real question is whether starting a newsletter aligns with your goals. Review your objectives and decide if the commitment is worth the potential return. If you’re ready for the challenge and eager to engage directly with your audience, a newsletter could be a valuable addition to your strategy, especially in managing and protecting your reputation.

The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.

Shefali Khanna

Shefali Khanna, Chief Marketing Officer and Co-founder at Astrum, India's first specialist Reputation Management advisory, she applies the Science of Persuasion™ to ethically shape public opinion. Leveraging AI-driven insights and advanced analytics, Shefali crafts impactful solutions in Corporate Communications, Online Reputation Management, and Personal Branding. Her approach aligns with Astrum's core belief that "deep insights are the fountainhead of breakthrough thinking." Shefali holds an MBA from SIMS, Pune and a specialization in Digital Marketing from Columbia Business School, USA.