I read one of my favored email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and promptly began destroying. Beehiiv Open Source…
Being a full-time creator is difficult. I’m typically obtaining pitched various tools and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional because I invested the last 6 months trying different email and newsletter platforms to assist build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic options for composing newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The problem with several existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my e-newsletter designs, makes it extremely very easy to compose and send out e-mails, and offers me devices that aid me analyze metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I think I have actually finally discovered the appropriate device.
But, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to design, write, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by former workers at the renowned e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist designers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to lastly choose it as my newsletter system of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually watched for a contemporary newsletter platform for fairly time now. I have actually put things off hard when it pertained to ultimately launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter designers appreciate popular newsletters with countless clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have terrific material, tons of customers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get even more clients.
So, I went on a hunt to find out exactly how these large e-newsletters established 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 layout that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to respond to all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that constructed this device really understand newsletter production and development.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the initial marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I recognized this was going to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer growth.
Because, any kind of developer knows, you require development to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the ideal newsletter stack (that ranges) usually means utilizing multiple various devices to assist achieve one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get costly.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to start using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a terrific platform used by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your own site and use the platform as your all-in-one service for sending e-mails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv permits you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing customers to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise provides you a site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own website currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I make use of) to send your internet site subscribers right to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit individuals to register for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to leverage various marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack option.
How to begin using beehiiv email marketing software.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content creator that wants a platform that allows them to send custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media business, startup, or material creator, you ought to seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to get going and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you in fact wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent sign that individuals like reading your things.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you accessibility to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, exterior embed forms, and extra. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those looking for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll then produce a name and link for your e-newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your web site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll likewise pick your brand name colors and design to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have described info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin creating”, “Articles”, “Target market”, “Expand”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Evaluate”. And at the very bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your main control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you create and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can watch who your subscribers are (and damage them down right into sectors), Expand 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 article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage all of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you intend to blog about, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start writing”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and easy to use interface for creating.
When you start writing, you can enhance headings, include web links, and style your web content exactly how you like.
beehiiv gives you tons of options for different kinds of content like videos, links, pictures, and more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally frequently launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will be a lot more content features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to design your email template and readjust some settings.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, add your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time customers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background shades, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, photo layouts, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever solitary point you can maximize with your email template because it’s a great deal. Just try out the system free of cost and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a great publishing platform for any e-newsletter maker.
Below are several of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Beehiiv Open Source
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it incredibly easy to create and send out e-mails. I pointed out above several of things you can do with your settings and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some additional reading.
Things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely among the better e-mail editors I have actually ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive on a site. Think of it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can sign up for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, provide you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a custom domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is important. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or with embed types.
If you already have a website, and want individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to utilize an embed form. This is what I use on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 various alternatives– a full width, a taken care of width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim installed.
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 intend to onward UTM parameters for tracking purposes– rather cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I’m sure the group is servicing updates for these, but I mentioned a few concerns I had in the pros and cons section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing clients on your list to ahead your e-mails to close friends and coworkers and if they get other people to register for your list, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually appear lots of e-newsletter firms provide incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you one more method for expanding your e-mail checklist.
Nonetheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a more superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this post.
Premium registrations
They state all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Registration revenue is certainly a beast of its very own. If you’re trying to find a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “premium” issues of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be really profitable relying on what your newsletter needs to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that generates millions in income a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among the things I love about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer count.
You get access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client matter increase is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you whatever you require to get going and expand your newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, customized domain, polls, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) provides you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my viewpoint.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 per month. Instead of some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would charge $679 monthly for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a terrific Kit option for lots of individuals.
I’m not sure exactly how the unit business economics service this, however beehiiv is certainly cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
- Easy to set up and start sending out e-newsletters free of cost
- Clean and modern subscriber analytics
- Lots of flexibility with e-mail styles.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv Open Source
- Internet site hosting
- Develop premium choices to monetize
- Surveys
To be straightforward, I have not seen one more e-newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
However of course, I do not wish to be biased so I’m going to state some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the cons I’ve found while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around including custom typefaces
I make use of Webflow as my web site building platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow review if you wish to learn more.
Now, there truly is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site other than making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to slow down my web site a bit. Every single time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up installed is the last thing to pack on the page. It’s very noticeable when you get on a slow-moving web link. Yet I can navigate that.
The major gripe I have is that I can not utilize a normal Webflow form (which I like using). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would simply include additional prices that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the cons right here. I’m additionally enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point create a better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a terrific remedy for any person looking to dive into the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far surpasses many that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally rather affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t compose testimonial messages usually. I only do when I in fact use the tool myself and would advise it to a friend.
I hope you located some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent system for you.