I read one of my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked on it and promptly began destroying. Beehiiv Email Automation…
Being a full time designer is tough. I’m commonly getting pitched different devices and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological due to the fact that I spent the last six months checking out different e-mail and e-newsletter systems to help develop my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic choices for writing newsletters. However I couldn’t discover one that made me offer a certain “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me fully personalize my newsletter styles, makes it incredibly very easy to compose and send out emails, and offers me devices that assist me assess metrics and obtain more clients.
I assume I’ve lastly located the best device.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it easy to style, compose, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by former employees at the renowned e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist developers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly select it as my newsletter platform of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter system for rather some time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it pertained to ultimately releasing my newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain many newsletter designers respect popular e-newsletters with countless customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have excellent material, tons of customers, and a creative referral program that permits them to get even much more subscribers.
So, I took place a quest to figure out exactly how these large e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address all of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device really understand newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind took off.
I knew this was going to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer development.
Due to the fact that, any maker understands, you need development to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the appropriate newsletter stack (that ranges) often means using numerous different devices to help attain one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to set up referrals. It can obtain pricey.
So when I figured out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was totally free to start using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a terrific platform utilized by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own web site and use the system as your all-in-one solution for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing clients to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also offers you a web site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site already, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to leverage various marketing channels to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start utilizing beehiiv email marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content maker that wants a platform that allows them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without needing to have a web site.
The most effective newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or web content developer, you need to seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to start and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you really wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a great indicator that individuals love reading your things.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, provide you access to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement personalization, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and much more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those looking for a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any type of paying clients?”, and extra.
You’ll after that develop a name and link for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand name design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have detailed information on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin writing”, “Messages”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Evaluate”. And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings option.
Dashboard is your primary control center (screenshot above), Start composing is where you develop and release e-newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can see who your clients are (and break them down into sections), Expand is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with ads, Style is where you make your e-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 things.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re just beginning, and have an idea you intend to write about, I advise just mosting likely to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later on– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and user-friendly user interface for composing.
As soon as you begin writing, you can enhance headings, include web links, and style your material how you such as.
beehiiv offers you lots of choices for various sorts of web content like videos, links, images, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is additionally frequently releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will be a great deal more content features relying on when you read this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to design your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time subscribers, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background colors, borders, spacing, typefaces, photo layouts, and much more. I’m not going to experience ever before solitary point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a whole lot. Simply check out the platform totally free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a fantastic publishing platform for any e-newsletter developer.
Right here are several of the essential features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Beehiiv Email Automation
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it very very easy to write and send out emails. I pointed out over some of the important things you can do with your setups and email style so I’ll save you some added reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely among the much better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a site. Think about it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can sign up for your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the complimentary one, provide you a website. However, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a personalized domain to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is very important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv website or via embed forms.
If you currently have an internet site, and want individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed kind. This is what I use on this internet site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 different alternatives– a complete size, a fixed size, and a slim embed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you wish to forward UTM criteria for tracking purposes– rather neat.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the team is servicing updates for these, however I discussed a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a service for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your list to onward your emails to buddies and associates and if they obtain other people to sign up for your list, you can compensate them. These benefits can be in whatever form you want. I have actually appear lots of newsletter companies provide benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your customers right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you an additional opportunity for growing your email list.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more exceptional plan. I’ll look at all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs registrations
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership income is certainly a monster of its own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” problems of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying customers. This can be extremely profitable relying on what your newsletter has to provide. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that creates millions in profits a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Information analytics
One of things I love about beehiiv is exactly how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count go up is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you every little thing you require to get going and grow your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain name, polls, and accessibility to premium registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 each month. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit option for many users.
I’m uncertain just how the system economics work on this, however beehiiv is definitely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Right here are a few of the pros and cons I’ve personally experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
- Easy to establish and begin sending out newsletters free of cost
- Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics
- Great deals of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv Email Automation
- Website hosting
- Create premium options to monetize
- Surveys
To be honest, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter system that has been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
However naturally, I don’t want to be biased so I’m going to point out some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are several of the cons I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding custom-made font styles
I use Webflow as my web site building system of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter too much information why I love Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow review if you want to find out more.
Now, there really is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from using an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s because they have a tendency to decrease my web site a little bit. Every time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last point to pack on the page. It’s extremely obvious when you get on a slow-moving web connection. But I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t use a regular Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are means around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier however that would certainly just add extra expenses that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con but I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the cons right here. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will at some point create a far better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is a fantastic service for anyone wanting to study the globe of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system far outweighs many that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you really have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I do not write evaluation messages often. I only do when I in fact utilize the device myself and would certainly suggest it to a buddy.
I hope you located some clearness on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.