I read one of my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and quickly started wrecking. Marc Lou Beehiiv…
Being a full time creator is tough. I’m often getting pitched different tools and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional due to the fact that I invested the last 6 months checking out different email and newsletter platforms to assist build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent choices for creating newsletters. But I could not find one that made me offer a certain “yes”.
The concern with several existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me fully tailor my e-newsletter designs, makes it incredibly simple to create and send out emails, and provides me tools that aid me assess metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I think I’ve lastly located the appropriate device.
Yet, I know beehiiv might not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it simple to layout, compose, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous workers at the popular newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid designers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to explain my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally opt for it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I have actually watched for a modern-day e-newsletter system for rather some time currently. I have actually procrastinated hard when it came to lastly introducing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And lastly, I wound up using beehiiv.
I make certain several e-newsletter designers look up to preferred e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have terrific content, tons of subscribers, and a smart referral program that allows them to get back at a lot more customers.
So, I took place a search to find out exactly how these large newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they create an e-newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to address every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this device really recognize e-newsletter production and development.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the initial marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my mind took off.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer growth.
Because, any designer understands, you require development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And locating the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) usually means utilizing multiple various devices to aid attain one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one platform to establish referrals. It can obtain costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points 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 may be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a great platform used by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you get your very own web site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending out e-mails (while creating an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also provides you a website similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your website subscribers straight to your beehiiv email checklist. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to take advantage of various marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack option.
Just how to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material creator that desires a system that allows them to send out personalized newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or material developer, you ought to seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s entirely free to get going and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you actually wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a great indication that individuals enjoy reviewing your stuff.
Enroll in a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you accessibility to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, outside embed types, and a lot more. It’s a very charitable offering for those just beginning (or for those trying to find a new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally choose your brand name colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
Once you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have detailed information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning composing”, “Blog posts”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Style” and” Assess”. And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot above), Beginning creating is where you produce and release newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Audience is where you can watch who your subscribers 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 ads, Style is where you create 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 stuff.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I recommend simply going to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use user interface for composing.
As soon as you begin writing, you can maximize headings, include links, and style your web content just how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for various sorts of material like videos, web links, pictures, and more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise regularly launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot much more content features depending on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo design, switch on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify background shades, borders, spacing, font styles, picture styles, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before single point you can maximize with your e-mail template since it’s a whole lot. Just try the system free of charge and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of outstanding features that make it an excellent posting system for any type of newsletter creator.
Below are several of the crucial features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Marc Lou Beehiiv
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it extremely simple to write and send e-mails. I stated over a few of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail 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 truly modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) live on an internet site. Think of it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and an area where individuals can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, give you an internet site. Nevertheless, the free plan places your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a personalized domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a web site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed kind. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three various alternatives– a full width, a taken care of size, and a slim installed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment monitoring if you want to onward UTM specifications for tracking functions– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make sure the team is working on updates for these, however I discussed a few concerns I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your listing to forward your emails to close friends and associates and if they get other individuals to sign up for your checklist, you can compensate them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve appear many e-newsletter business offer benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– giving you one more opportunity for expanding your email listing.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more premium plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this article.
Costs subscriptions
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription revenue is most definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent to paying customers. This can be very rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter has to offer. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that creates millions in profits a year just by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among the important things I love about beehiiv is just how tidy and basic the analytics are. You get real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count.
You get access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that customer count go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you everything you need to get started and grow your newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for numerous individuals.
I’m unsure just how the unit economics service this, yet beehiiv is definitely less expensive (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
- Easy to establish and start sending out newsletters absolutely free
- Tidy and contemporary customer analytics
- Lots of versatility with e-mail designs.
- Referral program feature Marc Lou Beehiiv
- Site hosting
- Create premium options to monetize
- Polls
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter platform that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
Yet naturally, I don’t want to be biased so I’m going to discuss some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the cons I’ve discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
- Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding custom-made typefaces
I make use of Webflow as my website building system of option (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in way too much detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot however you can review my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to discover more.
Right now, there actually is nothing else way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I personally don’t like making use of iframe’s because they often tend to slow down my site a little bit. Every single time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s extremely recognizable when you get on a sluggish web link. However I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow form (which I enjoy making use of). There are ways around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would just include additional costs that I don’t need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I believed I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far outweigh the disadvantages here. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will eventually create a much better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Overall, beehiiv is a wonderful solution for anyone looking to dive into the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform much outweighs lots of that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you really have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t write evaluation posts often. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a close friend.
I wish you located some clarity on whether beehiiv is a great system for you.