I was reading among my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and immediately started wrecking. Beehiiv Referral Program…
Being a permanent maker is difficult. I’m typically obtaining pitched various tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I invested the last six months trying various e-mail and newsletter systems to aid develop my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific alternatives for creating newsletters. However I couldn’t discover one that made me give a definite “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully personalize my e-newsletter styles, makes it very simple to create and send emails, and offers me devices that help me assess metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I think I’ve ultimately discovered the appropriate tool.
However, I know beehiiv might not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it simple to design, write, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid makers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to finally opt for it as my newsletter platform of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter platform for fairly a long time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it concerned ultimately introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie systems. Then, Substack. And lastly, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain numerous e-newsletter makers look up to popular e-newsletters with countless customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have terrific web content, lots of customers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get back at a lot more subscribers.
So, I went on a search to find out just how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they create a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to respond to all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn the people that developed this device really recognize e-newsletter production and growth.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the initial marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I knew this was going to be a various e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on designer growth.
Due to the fact that, any designer knows, you require development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the appropriate newsletter stack (that scales) frequently indicates making use of several different tools to assist achieve one goal– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to set up references. It can get costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was cost-free to begin utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful platform utilized by countless independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own web site and make use of the system as your all-in-one option for sending e-mails (while producing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv additionally offers you a web site similar to Substack. But, if you have your own site currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email listing. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to utilize different marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
How to begin using beehiiv email marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content maker that wants a system that allows them to send custom-made newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or material maker, you ought to seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s entirely cost-free to begin and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you actually end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a great sign that individuals enjoy reading your stuff.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you accessibility to website hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, external embed forms, and more. It’s a really generous offering for those just starting (or for those trying to find a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying clients?”, and more.
You’ll then develop a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout 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 control panel
Once you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have detailed information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start composing”, “Articles”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Generate income from”, “Design” and” Examine”. And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Begin composing is where you create and release newsletters, Articles is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can watch who your clients are (and damage them down right into segments), Grow is where you have access 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 newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you make your newsletter landing page and post template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of all of your admin things.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you wish to discuss, I suggest just going to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start creating”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later on– concentrate on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and easy to use interface for writing.
As soon as you begin creating, you can maximize headings, include links, and style your material exactly how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of alternatives for various types of material like video clips, web links, photos, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise continuously launching item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a lot more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to very first time customers, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify history shades, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture styles, and more. I’m not going to experience ever before single thing you can optimize with your e-mail template because it’s a whole lot. Just check out the system free of cost and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it an excellent posting platform for any type of newsletter developer.
Right here are some of the vital features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Beehiiv Referral Program
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly easy to create and send e-mails. I discussed over several of the things you can do with your setups and email style so I’ll spare you some added analysis.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely one of the far better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) reside on a site. Consider it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can register for your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, including the free one, provide you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan areas your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your newsletter straight from your beehiiv web site or through embed types.
If you currently have a web site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed kind. This is what I use on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different choices– a complete size, a repaired width, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to forward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– pretty neat.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I’m sure the group is working on updates for these, yet I mentioned a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a service for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your listing to onward your e-mails to buddies and coworkers and if they obtain other people to sign up for your list, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I’ve seem lots of newsletter firms provide benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your customers into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you another method for growing your e-mail list.
Nonetheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a more exceptional plan. I’ll look at all the plans later on in this short article.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership earnings is certainly a monster of its very 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 to paying customers. This can be very lucrative relying on what your e-newsletter needs to use. As an example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that generates millions in income a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among things I love about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on just how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that customer count increase is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan offers you every little thing you require to start and grow your newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain, surveys, and accessibility to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 per month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for lots of customers.
I’m unsure exactly how the device economics service this, however beehiiv is certainly cheaper (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are several of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve personally experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of selection:
- Easy to establish and begin sending out newsletters completely free
- Clean and modern-day customer analytics
- Lots of adaptability with email designs.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv Referral Program
- Site hosting
- Produce premium choices to generate income from
- Polls
To be honest, I haven’t seen another newsletter platform that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But obviously, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m going to discuss some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages I’ve found while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding custom font styles
I make use of Webflow as my internet site structure platform of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I enjoy Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow review if you wish to discover more.
Right now, there actually is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site aside from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not like making use of iframe’s since they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Every time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you get on a sluggish web connection. Yet I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a routine Webflow type (which I enjoy making use of). There are means around this by using a tool like Zapier however that would just add added expenses that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I assumed I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the cons here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will ultimately create a much better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a terrific remedy for any person looking to study the globe of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter platform far surpasses many that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather inexpensive for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not write evaluation posts often. I just do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a buddy.
I wish you located some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent system for you.