I was reading among my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and instantly began tearing up. Beehiiv The News…
Being a full-time maker is difficult. I’m commonly obtaining pitched different tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last six months trying different email and e-newsletter platforms to help build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic alternatives for composing newsletters. Yet I could not discover one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The problem with many existing newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me fully customize my e-newsletter designs, makes it incredibly easy to write and send out e-mails, and provides me tools that help me assess metrics and get even more customers.
I assume I have actually lastly discovered the best tool.
But, I understand beehiiv might not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really ideal 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 easy to layout, compose, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous employees at the popular newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid developers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to lastly select it as my e-newsletter system of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve watched for a modern newsletter system for rather a long time currently. I’ve hesitated hard when it pertained to finally launching my e-newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain numerous newsletter makers appreciate preferred e-newsletters with countless clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have terrific content, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get back at much more clients.
So, I went on a quest to identify just how these huge e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device truly comprehend newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my mind took off.
I understood this was going to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on designer development.
Due to the fact that, any creator understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And finding the ideal e-newsletter stack (that scales) often means utilizing multiple various tools to assist attain one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to set up referrals. It can get expensive.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was totally free to start 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, yes there is. Substack is a great platform used by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your very own website and make use of the platform as your all-in-one service for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to obtain words out.
beehiiv also provides you a web site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your own web site currently, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your web site customers right to your beehiiv email checklist. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to allow people to sign up for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage different marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack option.
How to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content designer that desires a platform that enables them to send custom newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, startup, or content developer, you need to seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you actually end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a great sign that people love reviewing your stuff.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development customization, analytics, external embed forms, and a lot more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website link may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll likewise select your brand design and colors to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your main control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have outlined details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin composing”, “Articles”, “Target market”, “Grow”, “Generate income from”, “Design” and” Examine”. And at the very bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you produce and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Audience is where you can see who your customers are (and damage them down into segments), Expand 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, Design is where you make your newsletter landing page and message template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of every one of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you wish to blog about, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Start composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later on– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a clean and easy to use interface for writing.
When you begin writing, you can maximize headings, add links, and design your material just how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of alternatives for various kinds of web content like video clips, links, photos, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is additionally regularly releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a lot more material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your email template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome e-mail to very first time subscribers, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image layouts, and more. I’m not going to undergo ever before solitary thing you can maximize with your e-mail template since it’s a great deal. Simply experiment with the platform completely free and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a fantastic publishing system for any e-newsletter creator.
Right here are some of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Beehiiv The News
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it very very easy to write and send out emails. I discussed above several of the important things you can do with your setups and email design so I’ll spare you some extra analysis.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly among the better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) survive on a site. Think about it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your newsletter, and an area where people can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a site. Nevertheless, the free plan places your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a personalized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is essential. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter directly from your beehiiv internet site or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to utilize an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 various alternatives– a complete width, a fixed width, and a slim embed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also a choice for attribution tracking if you want to onward UTM specifications for tracking functions– quite cool.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the team is working with updates for these, however I discussed a few concerns I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a service for developing a referral program.
You can motivate existing clients on your checklist to forward your emails to buddies and associates and if they obtain other people to sign up for your listing, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever type you want. I’ve seem numerous newsletter business 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 e-newsletter– offering you one more opportunity for expanding your email list.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this article.
Costs subscriptions
They say all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription income is definitely a monster of its own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” concerns of your newsletter that are just sent to paying subscribers. This can be really rewarding depending upon what your newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
Among the things I love regarding beehiiv is exactly how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on just how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer count rise is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to get started and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) provides you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom domain, surveys, and accessibility to premium memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) gives you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit option for lots of users.
I’m not exactly sure exactly how the system economics deal with this, but beehiiv is certainly less expensive (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Of course, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of choice:
- Easy to set up and start sending out newsletters free of cost
- Clean and modern-day customer analytics
- Great deals of flexibility with email styles.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv The News
- Web site hosting
- Develop costs choices to generate income from
- Surveys
To be sincere, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter system that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But naturally, I don’t want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the disadvantages I have actually discovered while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around including custom font styles
I use Webflow as my internet site structure system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to enter too much information why I like Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to find out more.
Now, there actually is nothing else method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not such as making use of iframe’s because they have a tendency to decrease my website a little bit. Every time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s very obvious when you get on a sluggish internet link. But I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow form (which I like using). There are ways around this by utilizing a device like Zapier but that would certainly simply include extra prices that I don’t require. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much surpass the cons here. I’m likewise hopeful that Webflow will ultimately produce a much better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a wonderful option for anyone seeking to study the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system much outweighs numerous that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively affordable for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not create review blog posts often. I only do when I actually make use of the device myself and would certainly advise it to a close friend.
I wish you found some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent system for you.