I was reading one of my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked it and instantaneously began wrecking. Beehiiv For Pop Culture…
Being a permanent developer is tough. I’m often obtaining pitched different tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I invested the last six months experimenting with different e-mail and newsletter platforms to aid develop my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great alternatives for composing e-newsletters. But I could not find one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The issue with several existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me completely personalize my newsletter designs, makes it very very easy to create and send emails, and offers me tools that assist me assess metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I assume I have actually lastly found the best tool.
Yet, I know beehiiv might not be for everyone. 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 simple to style, write, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the popular newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help developers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately opt for it as my newsletter platform of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary e-newsletter platform for quite a long time currently. I’ve hesitated hard when it came to ultimately releasing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous e-newsletter makers look up to prominent newsletters with countless subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have wonderful material, tons of clients, and a brilliant referral program that permits them to get even a lot more clients.
So, I went on a hunt to find out just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more customers? How do they produce a newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to address every one of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn the people that constructed this tool truly comprehend newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the first marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I understood this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Since, any maker knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the ideal newsletter pile (that ranges) often indicates utilizing multiple different tools to help attain one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to set up referrals. It can get expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a terrific platform used by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your own site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally provides you a website similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own web site currently, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your website subscribers straight to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to allow people to sign up for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to utilize different marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a great Substack choice.
Exactly how to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content creator that desires a system that allows them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most successful newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or web content designer, you must seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s completely complimentary to get going and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you actually end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a great indicator that individuals love reviewing your things.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button 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, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, external embed types, and a lot more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those just starting out (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise pick your brand colors and design to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have detailed information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning composing”, “Messages”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Generate income from”, “Design” and” Assess”. And at the very bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your main control center (screenshot over), Start creating is where you develop and release newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can watch who your clients are (and break them down into sections), Expand is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with ads, Style is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking “Start writing”.
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 user-friendly user interface for composing.
As soon as you start composing, you can maximize headings, add links, and style your content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of options for various kinds of material like video clips, links, pictures, and more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise frequently releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will be a lot a lot more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Maximizing 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 change some settings.
Here, you can update the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background shades, borders, spacing, typefaces, picture layouts, and extra. I’m not going to experience ever single thing you can maximize with your e-mail template since it’s a lot. Just try out the system completely free and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of impressive features that make it an excellent publishing system for any newsletter developer.
Below are some of the crucial features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Beehiiv For Pop Culture
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting platform. It makes it incredibly very easy to create and send e-mails. I stated above several of the important things you can do with your settings and email style so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely one of the far better e-mail editors I have actually ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you want) live on a site. Think of it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a website. However, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a custom-made domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or via embed types.
If you currently have an internet site, and desire individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed type. This is what I make use of 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 three different alternatives– a complete width, a fixed size, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim embed.
You can locate the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally a choice for attribution monitoring if you want to ahead UTM specifications for tracking purposes– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the group is working on updates for these, yet I pointed out a couple of concerns I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is an option for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your list to forward your e-mails to buddies and colleagues and if they get other individuals to subscribe to your listing, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever type you want. I’ve appear many e-newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your customers into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– providing you one more avenue for growing your e-mail list.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a much more premium plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this post.
Costs subscriptions
They say all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership income is certainly a monster of its very own. If you’re trying to find a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” issues of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be extremely lucrative depending upon what your e-newsletter has to offer. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that produces millions in earnings a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among the things I love concerning beehiiv is exactly how tidy and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber matter.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client count increase is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you whatever you need to get going and expand your newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and access to costs memberships. 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 eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my viewpoint.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the same quantity– making beehiiv an excellent Kit choice for several users.
I’m uncertain exactly how the device business economics service this, but beehiiv is certainly less costly (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of selection:
- Easy to establish and start sending newsletters free of cost
- Tidy and contemporary customer analytics
- Great deals of adaptability with email designs.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv For Pop Culture
- Web site hosting
- Produce premium alternatives to monetize
- Surveys
To be honest, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter platform that has been able to package every one of these features with each other so well.
But obviously, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to state some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the disadvantages I’ve found while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding customized typefaces
I utilize Webflow as my internet site building platform of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in way too much detail why I like Webflow so much but you can read my Webflow review if you would love to find out more.
Right now, there actually is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t like making use of iframe’s since they have a tendency to decrease my internet site a bit. Every single time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s extremely recognizable when you’re on a sluggish internet link. Yet I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can not use a normal Webflow form (which I like using). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier however that would simply include extra costs that I do not require. To be honest, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con yet I thought I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the cons below. I’m additionally enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point produce a far better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Overall, beehiiv is a fantastic remedy for anyone seeking to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter platform far surpasses several that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly economical for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unheard of. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not write review blog posts frequently. I only do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a close friend.
I wish you located some clarity on whether beehiiv is a good system for you.