I was reading among my preferred email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and immediately started destroying. Beehiiv Time Magazine…
Being a permanent maker is tough. I’m typically obtaining pitched different devices 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 6 months checking out various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to assist construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic choices for composing newsletters. Yet I couldn’t locate one that made me offer a precise “yes”.
The problem with several existing e-newsletter platforms is that they do not feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully personalize my newsletter styles, makes it very very easy to write and send emails, and provides me tools that aid me examine metrics and get more customers.
I believe I have actually lastly located the right device.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to layout, compose, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous workers at the renowned newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist makers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this post, I’m going to explain my individual experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to lastly choose it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day e-newsletter system for quite some time now. I have actually hesitated hard when it concerned finally launching my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain numerous newsletter designers respect popular e-newsletters with numerous clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a whole lot. They have great material, lots of clients, and a creative referral program that allows them to get back at a lot more subscribers.
So, I went on a hunt to identify just how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this device truly recognize e-newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the initial marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I recognized this was going to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on designer growth.
Since, any maker understands, you need growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the best e-newsletter stack (that scales) commonly suggests using numerous different devices to assist achieve one objective– one system for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to set up referrals. It can get costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these things in one system, and it was complimentary to start making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a fantastic system used by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you get your very own website and utilize the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv also offers you a web site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own site already, you can likewise utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your website clients directly to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit individuals to sign up for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the adaptability to utilize different marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack choice.
How to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content developer that desires a system that enables them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or web content maker, you ought to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to get going and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you really end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a great indication that people love reviewing your things.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you access to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advance modification, analytics, outside embed types, and more. It’s a very charitable offering for those just starting out (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your internet site link may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll also choose your brand design and colors to make sure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have described information on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin composing”, “Blog posts”, “Target market”, “Expand”, “Generate income from”, “Style” and” Analyze”. And at the very lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your major control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you develop and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can watch who your clients are (and break them down into sections), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of all of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just beginning, and have a concept you wish to cover, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Begin writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– concentrate on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and straightforward user interface for writing.
As soon as you begin composing, you can maximize headings, include web links, and style your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for different sorts of content like videos, links, pictures, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is likewise regularly releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a lot extra material features relying on when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your email template and change some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, give it a description, add your logo, activate or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify history shades, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, image formats, and more. I’m not going to experience ever solitary thing you can maximize with your e-mail template since it’s a lot. Just try the platform free of cost and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of outstanding features that make it a terrific posting system for any newsletter maker.
Below are some of the essential features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Beehiiv Time Magazine
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it very simple to create and send out emails. I pointed out above a few of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll save you some added reading.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely among the far better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Internet site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you want) reside on an internet site. Consider it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, give you an internet site. However, the free plan areas your web site 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
Obtaining customers is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter right from your beehiiv web site or with embed forms.
If you currently have a site, and desire individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various choices– a complete size, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim embed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to forward UTM specifications for tracking functions– rather neat.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the group is servicing updates for these, yet I mentioned a couple of concerns I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your list to ahead your emails to friends and associates and if they obtain other people to register for your listing, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually seem many e-newsletter business offer rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you an additional method for expanding your email checklist.
Nevertheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more premium plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this post.
Premium subscriptions
They say all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Registration revenue is certainly a monster of its own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your newsletter that are just sent to paying subscribers. This can be extremely lucrative depending upon what your newsletter needs to use. For instance, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that creates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only newsletter material.
Information analytics
One of things I love regarding beehiiv is how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber matter go up is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan offers you every little thing you require to begin and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, customized domain, surveys, and accessibility to costs memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) gives you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my point of view.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 per month. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 monthly for the very same amount– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit choice for lots of users.
I’m uncertain exactly how the unit economics deal with this, but beehiiv is definitely less costly (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Naturally, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Right here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
- Easy to set up and begin sending e-newsletters completely free
- Tidy and contemporary subscriber analytics
- Great deals of adaptability with email designs.
- Referral program feature Beehiiv Time Magazine
- Web site hosting
- Develop costs choices to generate income from
- Surveys
To be sincere, I have not seen an additional newsletter system that has actually been able to package every one of these features with each other so well.
Yet of course, I don’t intend to be biased so I’m going to state some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the cons I’ve located while making use of beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around including custom typefaces
I make use of Webflow as my internet site building platform of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much but you can read my Webflow review if you would love to learn more.
Now, there actually is nothing else method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not like using iframe’s because they have a tendency to decrease my web site a little bit. Whenever a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s extremely visible when you get on a sluggish internet connection. But I can get around that.
The main gripe I have is that I can not use a normal Webflow type (which I love utilizing). There are methods around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would certainly simply include extra expenses that I don’t need. To be sincere, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I assumed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the cons below. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will ultimately produce a far better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Generally, beehiiv is a fantastic solution for any individual wanting to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system far surpasses many that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally relatively cheap for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is uncommon. 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 monthly.
Anyways, I do not create evaluation posts typically. I only do when I in fact make use of the tool myself and would certainly advise it to a good friend.
I wish you found some clarity on whether beehiiv is a great system for you.