I was reading one of my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and quickly began tearing up. Is Beehiiv Safe…
Being a permanent developer is difficult. I’m often obtaining pitched different devices and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional because I spent the last six months trying different e-mail and e-newsletter platforms to assist construct my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific alternatives for creating e-newsletters. But I could not find one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The issue with several existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my newsletter designs, makes it very easy to write and send emails, and provides me devices that assist me analyze metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I assume I have actually finally found the right device.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it easy to style, compose, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous employees at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist designers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m going to describe 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 choose it as my newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter system for fairly time now. I have actually put things off hard when it came to lastly launching my newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up using beehiiv.
I make sure several newsletter creators appreciate prominent e-newsletters with countless customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have fantastic material, lots of subscribers, and a smart referral program that permits them to get back at a lot more customers.
So, I went on a hunt to determine exactly how these large e-newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more clients? How do they produce a newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to address every one of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn the people that constructed this device really recognize newsletter production and growth.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator development.
Because, any maker knows, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the appropriate newsletter pile (that ranges) usually suggests utilizing numerous various devices to help attain one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to set up references. It can get pricey.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was free 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 terrific platform used by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own web site and use the platform as your all-in-one service for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv also offers you an internet site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your own site already, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your website subscribers straight to your beehiiv email checklist. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to permit people to register for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to utilize various marketing channels to obtain your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack choice.
How to start using beehiiv email marketing software.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content creator that wants a system that permits them to send personalized newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media company, startup, or material maker, you should seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to begin and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you actually end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a great sign that individuals like reviewing your things.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and more. It’s a very generous offering for those just beginning (or for those searching for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand name colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
When you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have described info on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning creating”, “Articles”, “Target market”, “Expand”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Assess”. And at the extremely lower you’ll see the setups alternative.
Dashboard is your main control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you create and publish newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can see who your customers are (and damage them down right into segments), Expand is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you want to cover, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking “Begin writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and straightforward user interface for writing.
As soon as you start composing, you can optimize headings, add web links, and design your material just how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for various kinds of content like video clips, web links, pictures, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly releasing item feature and updates so I make certain there will be a whole lot more content features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your e-mail template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time customers, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit history shades, boundaries, spacing, fonts, photo styles, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before solitary thing you can maximize with your e-mail template since it’s a lot. Just check out the platform free of charge and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it a wonderful publishing system for any e-newsletter maker.
Below are some of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Is Beehiiv Safe
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it very simple to create and send emails. I discussed above some of things you can do with your settings and email design so I’ll save you some additional reading.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the much better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Internet site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive on a web site. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, offer you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or through embed forms.
If you already have a site, and desire individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to make use of an embed kind. This is what I make use of 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 kinds, you have three various alternatives– a full size, a dealt with width, and a slim embed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally an alternative for attribution tracking if you wish to onward UTM specifications for tracking objectives– pretty neat.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make certain the team is servicing updates for these, but I mentioned a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a service for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your listing to forward your emails to pals and coworkers and if they get other individuals to register for your checklist, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever form you desire. I’ve appear numerous newsletter companies offer incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you one more avenue for expanding your e-mail listing.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this write-up.
Premium memberships
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription revenue is most definitely a monster of its own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” problems of your newsletter that are only sent to paying clients. This can be extremely rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to offer. For example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that produces millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of the things I love about beehiiv is just how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that customer count increase is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you whatever you require to get going and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement 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) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 per month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 each month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a terrific Kit option for numerous users.
I’m unsure just how the unit business economics work on this, yet beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Right here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
- Easy to establish and begin sending newsletters free of cost
- Tidy and contemporary client analytics
- Lots of flexibility with email designs.
- Referral program feature Is Beehiiv Safe
- Web site hosting
- Develop premium alternatives to monetize
- Polls
To be honest, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter system that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But obviously, I don’t want to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages I’ve found while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding custom font styles
I make use of Webflow as my site structure platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow testimonial if you wish to learn more.
Today, there actually is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site besides utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t like making use of iframe’s because they have a tendency to slow down my website a little bit. Each time a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to pack on the web page. It’s extremely recognizable when you get on a slow net connection. However I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not use a regular Webflow form (which I like using). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would simply include additional prices that I do not require. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I thought I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much outweigh the disadvantages right here. I’m likewise hopeful that Webflow will eventually create a far better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
On the whole, beehiiv is a great service for anybody wanting to dive into the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform much surpasses several 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 also rather low-cost wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unheard of. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create evaluation messages commonly. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a friend.
I hope you found some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.