Linkedin vs traditional newsletter

LinkedIn Newsletters vs. Email Newsletters: Which One Wins?

If you’re in B2B marketing, you’ve probably faced the age-old question: Should I publish a LinkedIn newsletter or go full-on email marketing with a platform like Mailchimp, Substack, or HubSpot?

The answer? Citing my good friend Vasileios Mylonas 🤘, it depends! (classic marketer response, right?).

The Value of LinkedIn Newsletters for Marketing

With over 1 billion LinkedIn members but few active newsletters, the competition for LinkedIn newsletters is low. LinkedIn’s built-in distribution system gives you a huge organic reach, sending direct notifications to your subscribers, making it easy for them to open.

Even better? LinkedIn wants newsletters to succeed; they keep users coming back, boost platform engagement, and give your content instant credibility thanks to LinkedIn’s domain authority. So, trust me, the algorithm will be on your side.

Also, newsletters let you go deep (up to 100,000 characters), giving you space to create powerful, in-depth content. But don’t get too wordy, to have to wow your subscribers with amazing graphics and useful content.

⚠️ Now, caution! Let’s be real for a moment: The Newsletter function/tab of LinkedIn hasn’t worked for a while, and it is hard to find new newsletters. LinkedIn also doesn’t push them enough through curated recommendations based on your content consumption.

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Let’s break down the Pros and the Cons of each:

Round 1: Audience & Reach

LinkedIn Newsletters

✅ Instant access to your LinkedIn network, your subscribers get a notification (and sometimes an email too).

✅ Leverages LinkedIn’s algorithm, boosting visibility beyond your current connections.

✅ Easy for professionals already scrolling LinkedIn to engage with your content.

❌ Limited to LinkedIn users (you don’t own the audience, LinkedIn does).

❌ Not so amazing for nurturing long-term leads outside the platform.

🔍 Data Point: LinkedIn newsletters can see open rates of 40-50%, which is double the average email marketing open rate (~21.5% according to Mailchimp).

Email Newsletters (Mailchimp, Substack, HubSpot, etc.)

You own your audience, no algorithm changes or LinkedIn policies can take them away.

✅ Full customization of branding, design, and automation.

✅ Works well for deep audience segmentation and advanced analytics.

❌ Lower open rates (the dreaded spam folder is real).

❌ Requires more effort to grow your subscriber base organically.

🔍 Data Point: The average email click-through rate (CTR) is around 2.6% (HubSpot, 2023), make content so awesome people want to learn more.

Round 2: Design & Customization

LinkedIn Newsletters

✅ Simple and easy to create, if you can write a LinkedIn post, you can make a newsletter.

✅ Minimal design effort required (great for quick content).

❌ No advanced customization, limited formatting, branding, and layout options.

Email Newsletters

✅ Fully customizable layouts with branding, colors, and templates.

✅ Ability to A/B test, automate, and personalize content based on audience behavior.

❌ Requires more design effort (or a designer, or a really good template).

Round 3: Analytics & Performance Tracking

LinkedIn Newsletters

✅ See total subscribers, open rates, and social engagement metrics (likes, comments, shares).

✅ Insights into audience demographics (who’s reading, job titles, industries).

❌ Limited A/B testing and deep email analytics.

Email Newsletters

✅ Track open rates, CTRs, bounce rates, and conversion rates.

✅ Integrates with CRMs (like HubSpot) to measure sales impact.

✅ Retarget and segment based on behaviour (e.g., who clicked but didn’t convert).

❌ Requires more setup and strategic follow-up.

Round 4: Lead Generation & Conversion

LinkedIn Newsletters

✅ Great for top-of-funnel awareness, positioning yourself as a thought leader.

✅ Builds credibility within professional circles.

❌ Harder to move readers down the funnel past the awareness stage.

Email Newsletters

✅ Perfect for nurturing leads, automating follow-ups, and driving conversions.

✅ Integrates with sales funnels, landing pages, and CRM workflows.

❌ Requires a well-planned content and email strategy to maximize ROI.

🔍 Example: HubSpot reports that companies using email marketing see 4x higher conversion rates compared to social media alone. If you’re selling something, email wins.

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The Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?

  • LinkedIn newsletters for growing personal brand: You want to grow personal brand awareness, establish thought leadership, and leverage LinkedIn’s network effect. Great for personal brands, consultants, recruiters, and industry leaders.
  • Email newsletters to sell: You want to sell and need more control, deeper analytics, and better conversion tracking. Best for companies with established lead funnels and sales processes.
  • Use both if you have the bandwidth! Start with LinkedIn to build an audience, then encourage subscribers to join your email list for exclusive content and deeper engagement.

Pro Tip: The Hybrid Strategy

Want the best of both worlds? Publish a teaser of your email newsletter as a LinkedIn article and include a call-to-action to subscribe to the full version via email. This way, you maximize reach and own your audience.

Take it a step further, consider sponsoring the article on LinkedIn for maximum visibility and to increase subscribers even faster out of your network.

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📣 Some examples of awesome LinkedIn newsletters: The Future of Work 🤖 | The Marketing Week 📅 | The Marketer’s Brief 🩲 |

🔸Create and Manage a Newsletter on Linkedin

🔸Create a Newsletter as a Company Page

🔸Linkedin Newsletter Requirements for Company Pages

🔸Linkedin Newsletter Best Practices

What’s your take? Are you all-in on LinkedIn, or do you swear by email? Tell me in the comments! 👇

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A No-BS Guide to Inclusive Prompting

Your AI Is Biased (Unless You Do This): A No-BS Guide to Inclusive Prompting

Creating content for the world means more than just translating words; it’s about showing up with cultural smarts, inclusive vibes, and zero bias.

If you’re using AI to craft content (and let’s face it, who isn’t?), this guide is your go-to playbook for making sure what you put out there is respectful, diverse, and truly global. Let’s ditch the stereotypes and start telling stories that everyone can see themselves in.

Let’s dig in:

1. Start with Awareness

Before using AI, reflect on:

  • Who is your audience? (Are you thinking beyond your own context?)
  • Whose voice is missing? Audit your brand and content, and be aware of your bias.
  • Could this content reinforce a stereotype or assumption? Sometimes we need for someone else to look at our content to know whether we are biased or not.
  • Are you listening? How do you ensure you know what’s happening in the world and what your customers, partners, employees, etc, care about?

💡 Tip: Global audiences are not a monolith. Always aim for representation across regions, races, cultures, and languages.

2. Be Explicit in Your Prompts

Tell the AI exactly what you want, and what to avoid. Be specific and accurate.

Example Prompt 1:

  • Not bad: “Create a social media post about innovation in leadership, highlighting contributions from different cultures. Avoid stereotypes and use inclusive language.”
  • Even better: “Create a LinkedIn post (max 300 words) that explores innovation in leadership through the lens of cultural diversity. Highlight at least three real-world examples of leaders from different regions, such as Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America, or Indigenous communities, who are redefining leadership in non-traditional or culturally rooted ways. Avoid Western business clichés, hierarchical bias, or gendered assumptions. Use inclusive, accessible language, and ensure cultural accuracy and respect in tone. The tone should be insightful, empowering, and globally relevant, appealing to a professional, international audience.”

Example Prompt 2:

  • Not bad: “Generate a product story that reflects a global perspective and avoids Western-centric assumptions.”
  • Even better: Write a compelling product story (approx. 400–500 words) that introduces [insert product] to a global audience. Highlight how the product supports real needs across different cultural and regional contexts (e.g., in rural India, urban Brazil, or Indigenous communities in the Pacific). Include user perspectives or scenarios that showcase geographic and cultural diversity. Avoid Western default frameworks (e.g., Silicon Valley tech metaphors or U.S.-centric success metrics). Use inclusive storytelling techniques, ensure the language is respectful and culturally adaptable, and avoid idioms or references that may not resonate globally. The tone should be engaging, human-centered, and values-driven.”

3. Ask for Cultural Nuance

Invite broader perspectives and specificity in your prompts. Don’t be shy and ask you Gen AI chatbot to help you prompt to go Beyond Bias!

Example:

🛑 Avoid: “Write about how people celebrate New Year.” (This assumes a universal experience that may not exist.)

  • Instead: Write an informative and culturally sensitive blog post (approx. 600–800 words) that explores how different communities around the world celebrate the concept of the New Year, acknowledging that not all cultures follow the Gregorian calendar. Include specific examples from regions such as East Asia, Africa, the Middle East, South America, and Indigenous cultures, highlighting the diversity of New Year observances, including but not limited to Lunar New Year, Nowruz, Diwali, and local harvest-based transitions. Avoid stereotypes, overly commercialized depictions, or assuming a single global standard. Ensure each tradition is described with respect to its cultural significance, local context, and unique expressions. Use inclusive language that embraces spiritual, seasonal, and community-based interpretations of renewal. The tone should be celebratory, curious, and inclusive, inviting readers to appreciate the richness of global perspectives without prioritizing any one cultural worldview.

4. Avoid Generalizations

When prompts are vague or overly broad, generative AI often defaults to dominant cultural narratives, typically Western, urban, and English-speaking perspectives (Where most of the content used to train the first AI models originated).

This not only limits the richness of your content but also risks reinforcing harmful stereotypes or leaving entire communities out of the story. To create truly global and inclusive content, your prompts need to be specific, grounded, and culturally aware.

Instead of asking for a sweeping view, break your prompt into clearly defined perspectives and ask for real-world context that reflects regional, historical, and cultural diversity.

Do this:

  • “Describe how education reform is approached in three distinct regions, such as Scandinavia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. Include how each region’s cultural values, historical context, and socioeconomic factors shape their priorities and challenges. Avoid generalizations and ensure each example reflects the voices and lived experiences of local communities.”

Not this:

  • “Write how people around the world view education.”

5. Build in a Review Step

Generative AI is a helpful tool, but human review is non-negotiable. Think of AI as your creative assistant, not your final editor.

To ensure your content is inclusive, accurate, and truly resonates, human oversight is essential at every stage to bring empathy, context, and cultural understanding into the process.

What to check:

  • Does it default to Western norms or a specific country?
  • Are any cultures reduced to tropes or clichés?
  • Is anyone misrepresented or excluded?

👥 Optional: Ask someone with lived experience to review content for sensitivity.

6. Use Inclusive Language

Language shapes how people feel, connect, and understand your message. Using inclusive language isn’t just about being politically correct; it’s about being respectful, accessible, and relevant to a global audience.

The right words can open doors, while the wrong ones can unintentionally exclude or alienate. When creating context, add “expectations” to the prompt to obtain an outcome that isn’t biased.

“Ensure the content is inclusive and free from cultural, racial, gender, or regional bias. Represent diverse perspectives respectfully, avoid stereotypes or generalizations, and use language that is accessible and welcoming to a global audience.”

📌 Watch out for:

  • Biased language
  • Ableist or gendered phrases
  • Cultural references with narrow origins

7. Test, Compare, and Improve

One prompt is rarely enough to get to the best result. Think of prompt writing as a creative process, not a one-and-done task. Use a sequence of prompts to refine the tone, improve representation, and deepen cultural nuance. Review each output critically for:

  • Balance of representation
  • Bias in tone or framing
  • Cultural accuracy

Keep experimenting, tweaking, and improving your prompts as your team learns more, because the most inclusive and resonant content usually comes from iteration, not automation.

Bonus: Create a Reusable Prompt Template Library

To streamline inclusive content creation and reduce bias in day-to-day workflows, build a Reusable Prompt Template Library. This is a central resource of pre-tested, bias-aware prompt templates that marketers can use and adapt for different types of content, from social media posts to campaign headlines to video scripts.

By standardizing prompts that already include guidance around inclusivity, cultural nuance, and respectful language, your team can produce consistent, high-quality global content faster while staying aligned with your brand values. Keep the library dynamic: update it regularly with real examples, learnings, and improvements as your team’s cultural intelligence grows.

Here’s a starter you can adapt:

“Write [type of content] for a global audience. Ensure content reflects cultural, racial, and regional diversity. Avoid stereotypes, clichés, and language that assumes a single worldview. Use inclusive, respectful language throughout.”

Final Thoughts

As marketers, we have an incredible opportunity (and responsibility) to shape the narratives that people see, hear, and believe. In a world increasingly connected by technology yet grounded in deeply rooted local identities, the content we create should reflect both the global diversity of human experience and the empathy needed to honour it.

Living in Aotearoa New Zealand, I’m constantly reminded of the power of place. How cultural identity, language, and legacy shape the way people see the world. And yet, I also see how digital tools and generative AI can connect us across those differences, if used thoughtfully.

When we design prompts that consider lived experiences beyond our own, we’re not just avoiding bias, we’re building bridges. We’re creating space for more voices, more perspectives, and more meaningful connections.

That’s where the real power of Generative AI lies: not in how fast it can create content, but in how deeply it can connect people.

So let’s use these tools not just to scale content, but to scale empathy. Let’s think globally, act locally, and write with the kind of intention that respects both.

Because inclusive content doesn’t just reflect the world as it is, it helps shape the world as it should be.

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