I was reading among my preferred email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and instantly started tearing up. Beehiiv For Podcasters…
Being a full-time creator is tough. I’m often getting pitched different tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional because I spent the last six months trying different email and e-newsletter systems to help develop my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful alternatives for composing newsletters. However I couldn’t discover one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The issue with many existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally personalize my newsletter styles, makes it very easy to write and send emails, and gives me devices that assist me assess metrics and get more subscribers.
I assume I have actually ultimately found the right device.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it very easy to style, write, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by former workers at the popular e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid designers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately select it as my newsletter platform of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter system for quite some time now. I’ve put things off hard when it came to ultimately launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up using beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous newsletter developers look up to prominent e-newsletters with numerous customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have excellent web content, lots of clients, and a brilliant referral program that enables them to get even much more customers.
So, I took place a hunt to determine exactly how these huge e-newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce a newsletter style that remains 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 constructed this tool really recognize e-newsletter development and development.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I recognized this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s focused on creator growth.
Due to the fact that, any kind of designer knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the appropriate newsletter pile (that scales) often means utilizing several different devices to assist attain one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to set up references. It can get costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was free to start using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a wonderful platform used by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own website and use the system as your all-in-one option for sending out e-mails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise gives you an internet site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your own web site currently, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site customers straight to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to permit people to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to utilize various marketing channels to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack choice.
How to begin utilizing beehiiv email marketing software.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material creator that desires a system that enables them to send customized newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, start-up, or content creator, you ought to seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely free to get going and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you really end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly an excellent sign that individuals enjoy reviewing your stuff.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you accessibility to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just beginning (or for those searching for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll also select your brand name colors and design to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed details on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin writing”, “Blog posts”, “Target market”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Assess”. And at the really lower you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot above), Start writing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down right into segments), Grow is where you have accessibility 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, Style is where you develop your newsletter landing page and post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle all of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you wish to discuss, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward user interface for writing.
As soon as you start creating, you can maximize headings, include links, and style your web content just how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of alternatives for various types of web content like video clips, web links, pictures, and more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise constantly releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a lot much more material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to design your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, photo formats, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary thing you can maximize with your e-mail template due to the fact that it’s a great deal. Simply experiment with the platform for free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a wonderful publishing system for any type of newsletter creator.
Right here are several of the necessary features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Beehiiv For Podcasters
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it very simple to compose and send out emails. I mentioned over several of things you can do with your settings and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly one of the better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) reside on a site. Think about it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can register for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the complimentary one, give you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a personalized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is very important. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter right from your beehiiv website or through embed forms.
If you already have an internet site, and desire people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to utilize an embed type. This is what I utilize on this internet site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 different choices– a full size, a repaired size, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s also an alternative for attribution monitoring if you wish to ahead UTM criteria for tracking functions– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I’m sure the team is servicing updates for these, however I mentioned a few worries I had in the advantages and disadvantages section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is an option for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing clients on your listing to onward your emails to buddies and coworkers and if they get other people to subscribe to your listing, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually seem lots of newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you one more opportunity for expanding your e-mail checklist.
Nonetheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to an extra exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this article.
Premium registrations
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription profits is most definitely a beast of its own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” concerns of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be very lucrative depending upon what your e-newsletter needs to use. As an example, Trends.co is a popular premium e-newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
One of things I love concerning beehiiv is just how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that customer matter increase is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you everything you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with addition of concern support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly generous in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 per month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 monthly for the same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for several customers.
I’m not exactly sure just how the system business economics deal with this, but beehiiv is definitely cheaper (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Of course, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of selection:
- Easy to set up and begin sending out newsletters totally free
- Clean and modern-day customer analytics
- Lots of adaptability with email designs.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv For Podcasters
- Website hosting
- Develop costs alternatives to monetize
- Surveys
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen an additional newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
Yet certainly, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding custom font styles
I make use of Webflow as my internet site building system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not going to go in excessive detail why I like Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow testimonial if you would love to learn more.
Today, there truly is nothing else means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow site aside from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not such as using iframe’s since they tend to decrease my internet site a bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last point to pack on the web page. It’s extremely visible when you get on a slow-moving internet link. However I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are means around this by using a device like Zapier but that would simply include added expenses that I don’t need. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage however I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much exceed the cons below. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will eventually develop a better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a fantastic option for anybody seeking to dive into the globe of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter platform far exceeds lots of that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly inexpensive wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create evaluation messages usually. I just do when I really utilize the device myself and would certainly advise it to a buddy.
I hope you discovered some clarity on whether beehiiv is a good system for you.