I read one of my favored e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and instantaneously started tearing up. Netter News Beehiiv…
Being a full-time developer is difficult. I’m frequently obtaining pitched different tools and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional due to the fact that I spent the last 6 months experimenting with different email and e-newsletter platforms to aid build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful options for creating newsletters. Yet I could not discover one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The issue with lots of existing e-newsletter platforms is that they do not feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me completely customize my newsletter designs, makes it extremely simple to write and send e-mails, and gives me devices that aid me examine metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I believe I have actually lastly found the ideal device.
Yet, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it very easy to style, compose, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous employees at the famous newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist creators launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this write-up, I’m mosting likely to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally select it as my newsletter system of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I have actually been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter platform for fairly a long time now. I have actually postponed hard when it came to lastly releasing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous e-newsletter makers admire popular e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a great deal. They have fantastic web content, lots of clients, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even a lot more subscribers.
So, I went on a search to determine exactly how these huge e-newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they create an e-newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address every one of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this device truly understand newsletter creation and development.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator growth.
Since, any kind of designer knows, you require growth to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the appropriate e-newsletter pile (that ranges) usually implies utilizing numerous different devices to assist achieve one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to establish references. It can obtain pricey.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was free to start making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful system used by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your own web site and utilize the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv also provides you a web site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own web site already, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site clients right to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to enable people to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage different marketing networks to get your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a great Substack option.
Just how to begin making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content designer that desires a platform that permits them to send out custom-made newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media business, start-up, or content designer, you ought to seriously thinking about trying out beehiiv. It’s totally free to get started and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you really end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indication that individuals like reading your stuff.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you access to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough personalization, analytics, external embed kinds, and a lot more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting out (or for those seeking a new system to move to).
Onboarding
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your internet site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand colors and design to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
When you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined details on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Start composing”, “Messages”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Generate income from”, “Style” and” Examine”. And at the really lower you’ll see the settings option.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you produce and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down into sectors), Expand is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with ads, Layout is where you develop your newsletter landing page and message template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle every one of your admin stuff.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start writing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you intend to cover, I recommend just going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Start composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and user-friendly interface for writing.
Once you begin creating, you can optimize headings, include web links, and style your web content exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you lots of options for various sorts of material like videos, web links, images, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise frequently releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot a lot more material features depending on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and change some setups.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a description, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify history shades, borders, spacing, fonts, picture layouts, and much more. I’m not going to undergo ever single thing you can enhance with your email template due to the fact that it’s a great deal. Simply try the platform free of charge and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a terrific publishing platform for any kind of newsletter creator.
Below are several of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Netter News Beehiiv
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it incredibly very easy to compose and send out emails. I stated over several of things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly one of the far better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) reside on a website. Think of it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your newsletter, and a location where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, including the free one, provide you a site. Nevertheless, the free plan places your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is essential. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or via embed types.
If you already have a web site, and want individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to use an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this internet site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three various options– a full size, a taken care of size, and a slim embed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to forward UTM criteria for tracking objectives– rather cool.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make certain the team is working with updates for these, however I mentioned a couple of problems I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing clients on your listing to forward your e-mails to friends and colleagues and if they get other individuals to subscribe to your listing, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you desire. I have actually appear numerous e-newsletter companies offer rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you another method for expanding your email checklist.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to an extra superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this post.
Premium memberships
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership income is most definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your newsletter that are just sent to paying subscribers. This can be extremely lucrative depending upon what your e-newsletter has to supply. For example, Trends.co is a prominent costs e-newsletter that generates millions in earnings a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among the important things I love concerning beehiiv is how clean and simple the analytics are. You get real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on just how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer matter go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you need to get started and grow your newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) gives you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit alternative for several customers.
I’m not exactly sure how the unit economics service this, but beehiiv is definitely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Obviously, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of selection:
- Easy to set up and start sending newsletters absolutely free
- Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics
- Lots of flexibility with e-mail layouts.
- Referral program feature Netter News Beehiiv
- Internet site hosting
- Develop premium choices to generate income from
- Surveys
To be honest, I have not seen another e-newsletter system that has actually been able to package every one of these features with each other so well.
But of course, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I’ve discovered while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding custom fonts
I use Webflow as my site structure platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in way too much information why I like Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow review if you wish to find out more.
Right now, there actually is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site besides making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not such as making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to reduce my web site a bit. Each time a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s very obvious when you’re on a sluggish internet connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The primary complaint I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow kind (which I enjoy utilizing). There are ways around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly just add extra prices that I don’t need. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con yet I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much surpass the cons right here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a far better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Overall, beehiiv is a wonderful solution for anybody looking to dive into the globe of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter platform far surpasses numerous that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly economical for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t compose testimonial blog posts often. I just do when I really make use of the device myself and would advise it to a buddy.
I wish you discovered some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a good platform for you.