I read among my favored email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked on it and promptly began wrecking. Is Beehiiv Worth It…
Being a full time designer is tough. I’m commonly obtaining pitched various tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was psychological because I spent the last 6 months experimenting with different e-mail and e-newsletter systems to aid build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great choices for writing e-newsletters. But I couldn’t discover one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing e-newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me completely personalize my newsletter styles, makes it extremely simple to compose and send out emails, and provides me devices that help me assess metrics and obtain more customers.
I think I’ve ultimately located the right device.
However, I understand beehiiv might not be for every person. 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 easy to layout, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous workers at the well-known e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help developers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly opt for it as my newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter platform for fairly a long time now. I’ve postponed hard when it involved lastly introducing my e-newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure many e-newsletter makers admire prominent e-newsletters with countless subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a great deal. They have terrific material, lots of subscribers, and a creative referral program that permits them to get even much more customers.
So, I went on a quest to figure out just how these big newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to address all of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this device actually understand newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on designer development.
Because, any type of creator recognizes, you require development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the best newsletter stack (that scales) usually implies using several different tools to aid attain one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to set up references. It can obtain costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to start using, 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 authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent platform used by countless independent writers. With Substack you get your own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to get the word out.
beehiiv also provides you a website comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own internet site already, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to utilize different marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack option.
Exactly how to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content developer that wants a platform that enables them to send custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a web site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media company, startup, or content creator, you should seriously considering trying beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to begin and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you really end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly an excellent sign that individuals love reading your things.
Register for a free plan
The very first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you accessibility to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advance modification, analytics, external embed forms, and extra. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting (or for those looking for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive 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 select your brand design and colors to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
When you reach your major control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have detailed details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning writing”, “Messages”, “Target market”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Layout” and” Evaluate”. And at the very lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot above), Beginning writing is where you create and release newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can watch who your customers are (and break them down into sections), Grow is where you have accessibility 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, Layout is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Composing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Beginning composing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later on– focus on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and easy to use user interface for composing.
As soon as you begin composing, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you lots of choices for different kinds of web content like videos, links, photos, and more.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a lot extra material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and change some settings.
Here, you can update the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background colors, borders, spacing, fonts, image styles, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before solitary thing you can optimize with your e-mail template because it’s a great deal. Simply experiment with the system free of charge and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it a great posting platform for any kind of newsletter developer.
Right here are some of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Is Beehiiv Worth It
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it extremely easy to create and send emails. I stated over a few of the things you can do with your settings and email design so I’ll spare you some additional reading.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely among the far better e-mail editors I have actually ever before written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a website. Consider it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a location where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, provide you a website. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a customized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or via embed kinds.
If you currently have a site, and desire people to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to make use of an embed kind. This is what I use on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 different choices– a complete size, a fixed size, and a slim embed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally an alternative for attribution tracking if you want to onward UTM parameters for tracking functions– rather cool.
However, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make sure the team is working with updates for these, yet I discussed a few issues I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a service for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your list to ahead your e-mails to close friends and associates and if they obtain other individuals to subscribe to your listing, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually appear several newsletter firms provide rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– giving you one more avenue for expanding your e-mail list.
Nonetheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to a more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this short article.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription revenue is certainly a monster of its very own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” problems of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be very lucrative relying on what your e-newsletter has to offer. For instance, Trends.co is a preferred premium newsletter that creates millions in profits a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among the important things I like regarding beehiiv is just how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber matter.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count rise is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you need to get started and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 per month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit option for many individuals.
I’m unsure exactly how the device business economics deal with this, yet beehiiv is certainly less costly (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Certainly, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of choice:
- Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters free of cost
- Tidy and contemporary subscriber analytics
- Great deals of versatility with e-mail designs.
- Referral program feature Is Beehiiv Worth It
- Site hosting
- Develop premium alternatives to monetize
- Surveys
To be sincere, I have not seen an additional newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
However certainly, I don’t want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to mention some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the cons I have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding personalized typefaces
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much detail why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can review my Webflow testimonial if you wish to find out more.
Today, there actually is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site other than making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not such as using iframe’s since they tend to slow down my website a little bit. Each time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you’re on a slow-moving web link. But I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow kind (which I enjoy making use of). There are means around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would simply add extra costs that I don’t need. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I thought I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much outweigh the disadvantages here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a much better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a great option for anyone looking to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system much exceeds lots of that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather inexpensive wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is unprecedented. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial blog posts commonly. I only do when I actually make use of the device myself and would recommend it to a close friend.
I hope you discovered some clearness on whether beehiiv is an excellent system for you.