I was reading one of my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and instantaneously started destroying. Shaan Puri Beehiiv…
Being a full time designer is tough. I’m typically getting pitched different tools and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last six months experimenting with various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to aid construct my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful alternatives for writing e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t discover one that made me offer a certain “yes”.
The concern with many existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me fully customize my newsletter layouts, makes it super simple to create and send out e-mails, and provides me devices that aid me examine metrics and obtain more clients.
I think I’ve ultimately located the appropriate device.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for every person. 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 e-newsletter platform that makes it very easy to style, compose, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous employees at the renowned newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help developers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this write-up, I’m mosting likely to explain my individual experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to ultimately select it as my newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I have actually watched for a modern e-newsletter system for fairly time currently. I’ve postponed hard when it pertained to finally releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of e-newsletter creators appreciate preferred newsletters with millions of clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have wonderful content, tons of subscribers, and a creative referral program that enables them to get even much more subscribers.
So, I went on a quest to identify just how these big e-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 produce a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to every one of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device really comprehend newsletter development and growth.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the initial marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter system. One that’s focused on maker growth.
Because, any kind of designer recognizes, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the ideal newsletter pile (that scales) typically means utilizing numerous different devices to aid accomplish one goal– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to set up references. It can obtain expensive.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was complimentary to start utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a great system used by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own website and use the platform as your all-in-one option for sending emails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also offers you an internet site similar to Substack. However, if you have your own website already, you can likewise make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site subscribers right to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit individuals to register for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to utilize various marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack choice.
Just how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content developer that wants a platform that permits them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a website.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or web content creator, you need to seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to get going and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely an excellent indication that people love reading your things.
Register for a free plan
The very first 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 enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, provide you access to website hosting, a newsletter CMS, development modification, analytics, exterior embed types, and a lot more. It’s a very generous offering for those simply beginning (or for those searching for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your internet site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise choose your brand name colors and design to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your major control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed details on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning creating”, “Blog posts”, “Target market”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Analyze”. And at the very lower you’ll see the setups alternative.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view 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 advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you create your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting, and have a concept you intend to discuss, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking on “Start creating”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– focus on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and user-friendly user interface for writing.
As soon as you begin creating, you can optimize headings, add links, and design your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for different types of web content like videos, web links, pictures, and extra.
The team at beehiiv is also constantly releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a great deal much more content features depending on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
As soon as you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Below, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time subscribers, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit background shades, borders, spacing, fonts, picture styles, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever single point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Just try the system absolutely free and see it on your own!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it a wonderful publishing platform for any type of newsletter maker.
Below are a few of the vital features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder Shaan Puri Beehiiv
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it super very easy to create and send out e-mails. I stated over several of the things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll save you some added analysis.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the much better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) live on an internet site. Consider it as a web site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and an area where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, provide you a website. However, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a custom-made domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is necessary. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv web site or via embed types.
If you already have a web site, and want individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to make use of an embed form. This is what I make use of on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different alternatives– a full width, a repaired width, and a slim installed. I directly utilize the slim installed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you wish to forward UTM criteria for tracking objectives– pretty cool.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the group is dealing with updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of concerns I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a solution for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your checklist to onward your emails to pals and colleagues and if they get other individuals to register for your listing, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you desire. I’ve seem several e-newsletter firms give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your customers right into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– providing you another opportunity for growing your e-mail listing.
Nonetheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to an extra superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this write-up.
Premium memberships
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription income is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are just sent to paying customers. This can be very lucrative depending on what your newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that creates millions in profits a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Information analytics
Among the important things I love concerning beehiiv is just how tidy and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client matter.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that client matter go up is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you every little thing you require to begin and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with addition of priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit choice for lots of customers.
I’m unsure exactly how the system business economics service this, however beehiiv is most definitely cheaper (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Right here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
- Easy to establish and begin sending out newsletters free of charge
- Tidy and modern customer analytics
- Great deals of flexibility with email designs.
- Referral program feature Shaan Puri Beehiiv
- Site hosting
- Create premium alternatives to generate income from
- Polls
To be honest, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter platform that has been able to package all of these features together so well.
Yet obviously, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I have actually discovered while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around including custom fonts
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure system of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in too much information why I like Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow testimonial if you ‘d like to discover more.
Right now, there actually is nothing else way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site aside from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not such as making use of iframe’s because they tend to slow down my internet site a little bit. Every single time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to load on the page. It’s very recognizable when you’re on a sluggish internet link. However I can navigate that.
The main gripe I have is that I can not use a regular Webflow form (which I love making use of). There are means around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier but that would certainly just include additional prices that I do not need. To be sincere, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I assumed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much outweigh the cons here. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will ultimately produce a better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is a fantastic service for any person looking to study the globe of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform much exceeds several that are presently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you actually have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly economical wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is unheard of. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t compose testimonial blog posts frequently. I only do when I really make use of the device myself and would advise it to a buddy.
I wish you discovered some quality on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.