The LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel: How to 10X Your Newsletter Subscribers

Grow your subscribers 10X and set your newsletter on fire by leveraging this "secret" LinkedIn hack

📌🚀 Free 5-Day Email Class: “How to Grow & Monetize Your LinkedIn in 2024”

I’ve put together a new email class on how to grow your LinkedIn and turn it into a 24/7 sales system. This class will help freelancers, founders, solopreneurs, and coaches grow their brand & business. Join the Email Class Here!

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It’s no secret that newsletters are the “hot new thing.” Having the ability to step right into your audience’s inbox is an attractive thing.

Furthermore, Substack has become the cool place to be. We’re seeing “newsletter celebrities” pop up right and left, and the barrier to entry is pretty low.

In fact, I was able to grow 2000+ Substack subscribers over the summer. And that was off the back of 115K+ LinkedIn followers and 50K LinkedIn newsletter subscribers.

How have I been able to do this by only investing a few hours per week? Let’s talk about it.

How I Grew Newsletter Subscribers 10X with LinkedIn

LinkedIn has allowed me to run a six-figure writing & coaching business for nearly 10 years. It’s a fantastic place to build long-term trust and credibility with followers and ultimately clients.

The platform has millions of active subscribers but less than 1% are considered very active (and prob only 1% of 1% actually understand how LinkedIn works). So, what I’m saying is that LinkedIn is a goldmine that’s yet to be tapped.

After being let go from my job as a wine shop manager, I turned to freelance writing to help tide me over until my next job. Little did I know that layoff would lead to a six-figure business that allows me to work anywhere in the world.

LinkedIn has been a major reason why I was able to scale up my business to six figures. It’s one of the best places to build authority in your industry as a thought leader and connect with potential clients.

Introducing: The LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel

So, what’s Substack? According to its website, Substack is “an American online platform that allows journalists, writers, and other content creators to publish newsletters and establish a subscription-based audience.”

I’ve found Substack to be a very user-friendly platform. It basically works as a blog with a social media aspect to it. You can write articles and grow an email list for free (which is almost unheard of these days). With the growing popularity of Notes (Substack’s social media feature similar to X), you can grow your subscribers all within the same platform.

Recently, I discovered the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel. While you can grow your subscribers within Substack’s platform itself, you can 10X your growth by linking it with LinkedIn.

To give you an example, over the Summer of 2024 I grew a new email subscriber list of over 2000+ simply by sharing my opt-in link on LinkedIn. This happened by posting on LinkedIn 5-6X per week and mentioning my newsletter opt-in link built into the LinkedIn platform. (more on that later)

Based on recent data, it would have cost me an average of $3000-$5000 to acquire 2000 email subscribers / leads by using Facebook ads alone. Learning to leverage the power of LinkedIn is not only profitable, but also a major cost saver.

Understanding the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel

Let’s dive into how the concept of this LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel works.

LinkedIn now allows you to add any link you want to the top of your profile. When you use the newer “enhanced profile” feature, you can add a call-to-action (CTA) with words like “View my Newsletter” “View my Website” or “View my Blog” etc.

If you want to grow your Substack subscribers, you will use that LinkedIn CTA feature to add your Substack homepage link (or one of your best Substack posts).

Now, you can simply post and share daily content around your newsletter’s topic. You don’t need to get too deep here. Think of viral and sharable content that will boost your visibility on LinkedIn.

The way LinkedIn’s algorithm works is that once you post a piece of content, LinkedIn will share it to a handful of your first-level connections. If those first-level connections engage with a like, comment, or repost, then LinkedIn will share it with some more people. And on and on…

Getting More LinkedIn Engagement

If your post gets a good amount of engagement, LinkedIn will think that people want to see your content. At that point, LinkedIn might push it to a wider range of people on LinkedIn, including your second-level and third-level connections.

That’s why your LinkedIn posts must be sharable and grab attention within the first 2 seconds. People don’t want to think. Before you post on LinkedIn, ask yourself, “Would I share this if I saw it in my feed?” If the answer is “no” then think of a way to edit your post to make it more share-worthy.

The most sharable posts on LinkedIn include viral videos, inspirational quotes, and relatable stories.

You can find almost any viral video and share your perspective on it. For example, I recently shared a video of a woman’s journey who worked hard to lose weight over the period of a year.

I shared my perspective on the video of how small daily actions matter in our business and career. When we take small positive actions every day (just like the woman in the video), we’ll succeed and see results.

My perspective was very high-level and relatable to almost anybody. The result? It received over 5000+ likes, reposted 172 times, and over 500K+ impressions. I received dozens of new email subscribers and even some DMs asking about my services.

The beauty of LinkedIn is that your profile acts like a business card or landing page. You just need to peak someone’s interest enough in your content to make them want to visit your profile. Then, your profile will do the heavy lifting of sharing your story, connecting with your audience, and encouraging them to subscribe to your email list, newsletter, or Substack.

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Here’s how the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel Works:

Daily High-Level LinkedIn Content 👇

Some People Find Your Profile & Click Your Link 👇

Some People Join Your Substack 👇

Convert Those People to Paid Subscribers, Client, Student, etc.

It’s really that simple.

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How to Leverage LinkedIn Newsletters

Another great way to amp up the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel is to leverage LinkedIn Newsletters.

LinkedIn allows you to create your own newsletters and write an article or update that’s sent to all subscribers. When you create your LinkedIn newsletter and write your first article, all your LinkedIn followers & connections will receive a notification to subscribe.

Also, each new follower to your profile will automatically receive a notification to subscriber. This is a powerful way to quickly growth newsletter subscribers and a highly engaged audience.

Every time you write a new LinkedIn newsletter, all subscribers receive an email and an in-app push notification. When used correctly, LinkedIn newsletters are extremely useful.

When you leverage LinkedIn newsletters effectively, you don’t have to worry about playing the algorithm game. You have a direct line to your audience.

So how can we leverage LinkedIn newsletters to grow our Substack subscribers?

Each time you post a new LinkedIn newsletter, you can share a link at the top of the article directly to your Substack.

It could say something like this:

Want this read the full article on my Substack? Just click here and join 1000+ other Substack subscribers getting my ideas and content weekly.

You could also write the full post on Substack and only share a clip or snippet on LinkedIn. If someone wants to get the full article, they click over to your Substack and many will end up subscribing.

The Substack-LinkedIn Flywheel

This flywheel also works both ways. You can use Substack to encourage people to follow you over on LinkedIn. They’ll receive shorter clips of your content and ideas on LinkedIn, which can be a great way to build a long-term relationship and trust with your audience.

Furthermore, Substack now has its own social media platform called Notes. You could share a clip of your LinkedIn posts on Notes and then encourage someone to click over to LinkedIn to see the full post.

How to Profit from the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel

LinkedIn is a goldmine and Substack is a goldmine. When you combine these two platforms, you have the ability to set your business and brand on fire.

How can you profit from this flywheel?

You can work on converting your free Substack subscribers to paid subscribers. You can also offer digital products, like an e-book, mini course, masterclass, or templates.

Lastly, offering 1on1 coaching is one of the quickest way to start monetizing your knowledge and the LinkedIn-Substack Flywheel.

People want to hear from you. Don’t even think that you don’t have a voice worth listening to. As long as you are a few steps ahead of your target audience, you can teach someone how to do something and invite them into your daily world.

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Let’s Network in the Comments

Want to gain some new followers and subscribers? Introduce yourself in the comments and tell us who you serve and what you write about. Share your Substack or newsletter link, and let’s get this flywheel started.

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📌🚀 Free 5-Day Email Class: “How to Grow & Monetize Your LinkedIn in 2024”

I’ve put together a new email class on how to grow your LinkedIn and turn it into a 24/7 sales system. This class will help freelancers, founders, solopreneurs, and coaches grow their brand & business. Join the Email Class Here!