I read among my preferred email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked it and immediately started tearing up. Beehiiv Network…
Being a permanent creator is tough. I’m frequently getting pitched different devices and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last 6 months trying out various e-mail and newsletter systems to aid build my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic alternatives for composing newsletters. But I could not locate one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The issue with lots of existing newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me totally personalize my e-newsletter styles, makes it extremely very easy to write and send emails, and offers me tools that help me examine metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I think I’ve finally located the best device.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to style, compose, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by former staff members at the renowned e-newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to ultimately select it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually been on the lookout for a modern-day e-newsletter platform for quite some time currently. I have actually postponed hard when it pertained to finally releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up using beehiiv.
I make sure several e-newsletter makers appreciate preferred newsletters with numerous subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have fantastic web content, lots of clients, and a creative referral program that enables them to get back at extra customers.
So, I took place a quest to identify how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to every one of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this tool really comprehend newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on creator development.
Since, any type of developer knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And finding the ideal newsletter pile (that ranges) typically indicates making use of multiple different tools to aid accomplish one objective– one system for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to establish references. It can obtain expensive.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these points in one platform, and it was complimentary to begin utilizing, 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, of course there is. Substack is an excellent system used by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own internet site and use the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also provides you a web site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own website currently, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your internet site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email list. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow people to sign up for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This gives you the flexibility to take advantage of various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start utilizing beehiiv email marketing software application.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content developer that desires a system that allows them to send out personalized 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 focuses on offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media company, start-up, or material designer, you should seriously considering trying beehiiv. It’s absolutely cost-free to get going and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you actually end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent sign that individuals enjoy reading your things.
Sign up for a free plan
The primary step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, provide you accessibility to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, external embed forms, and more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting (or for those seeking a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding
After producing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and much more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your web site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll also choose your brand colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
Once you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed information on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin writing”, “Posts”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Analyze”. And at the very bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Dashboard is your major control center (screenshot over), Start composing is where you create and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can watch who your clients are (and break them down right into segments), Grow is where you have access 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 e-newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin stuff.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start writing, with little to no friction. If you’re just beginning, and have an idea you want to blog about, I advise just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later– concentrate on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use interface for composing.
As soon as you begin creating, you can enhance headings, include links, and style your material just how you such as.
beehiiv offers you lots of options for different kinds of material like video clips, web links, pictures, and a lot more.
The team at beehiiv is also continuously launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a whole lot more content features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to design your email template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify history shades, borders, spacing, font styles, photo layouts, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before single point you can maximize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a great deal. Just check out the platform free of cost and see it for yourself!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a wonderful publishing system for any kind of newsletter maker.
Below are a few of the vital features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Beehiiv Network
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it super simple to create and send e-mails. I discussed over several of things you can do with your settings and email layout so I’ll save you some added reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) live on an internet site. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your newsletter, and a place where people can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, including the cost-free one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your web 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 require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter right from your beehiiv site or with embed kinds.
If you already have a web site, and want individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to utilize an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 various options– a complete size, a taken care of width, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to onward UTM criteria for tracking functions– quite cool.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make sure the team is working with updates for these, yet I discussed a couple of issues I had in the pros and cons section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a remedy for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing subscribers on your checklist to forward your e-mails to friends and associates and if they get other individuals to sign up for your list, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever form you want. I have actually seem many newsletter business offer rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– giving you an additional avenue for growing your email checklist.
However, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more exceptional plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription revenue is certainly a monster of its very own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying customers. This can be really profitable depending upon what your newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a prominent premium newsletter that produces millions in profits a year merely by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among the things I enjoy concerning beehiiv is exactly how clean and easy the analytics are. You get real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on exactly how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count increase is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you everything you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain name, polls, and access to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) provides you every little thing in the Grow plan with addition of top priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite charitable in my viewpoint.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the very same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit choice for many customers.
I’m not sure just how the unit economics work with this, yet beehiiv is absolutely less costly (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Right here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
- Easy to set up and begin sending out e-newsletters for free
- Clean and modern-day client analytics
- Lots of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv Network
- Website hosting
- Create premium alternatives to generate income from
- Surveys
To be truthful, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter platform that has had the ability to package all of these features with each other so well.
Yet naturally, I don’t want to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to mention some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I’ve discovered while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around including custom-made fonts
I use Webflow as my site structure system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much but you can read my Webflow review if you ‘d like to find out more.
Today, there actually is no other method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site other than making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not such as making use of iframe’s because they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Whenever a web page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s really obvious when you’re on a sluggish internet connection. But I can get around that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not use a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would certainly simply add additional costs that I don’t need. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage but I assumed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far outweigh the disadvantages below. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will at some point produce a much better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
On the whole, beehiiv is a great solution for anyone aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter platform much exceeds several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally rather affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your listing is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t compose testimonial messages often. I only do when I actually make use of the tool myself and would certainly recommend it to a friend.
I wish you located some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.