I was reading one of my favorite e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked it and quickly started tearing up. Swirling Visions Beehiiv…
Being a permanent maker is tough. I’m typically getting pitched various tools and solutions that do not appear to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I invested the last 6 months trying out various email and e-newsletter systems to help develop my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic alternatives for creating newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The issue with numerous existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me fully customize my e-newsletter designs, makes it incredibly simple to create and send e-mails, and offers me devices that assist me evaluate metrics and obtain more customers.
I believe I’ve ultimately discovered the appropriate device.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it easy to layout, create, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the popular newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid creators launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to discuss my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to finally go with it as my newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter platform for rather a long time now. I have actually procrastinated hard when it concerned lastly releasing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a couple of various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And finally, I wound up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain many e-newsletter makers look up to popular newsletters with millions of clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a lot. They have excellent material, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that allows them to get even extra customers.
So, I went on a hunt to figure out exactly how these big newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to answer all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this device really understand newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on creator growth.
Since, any type of developer recognizes, you require growth to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the right newsletter pile (that scales) commonly implies utilizing numerous different devices to assist accomplish one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to establish recommendations. It can obtain expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was free to begin 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, of course there is. Substack is a great system made use of by countless independent writers. With Substack you get your very own internet site and utilize the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv also provides you a website similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site subscribers straight to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to allow individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to take advantage of different marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack option.
Exactly how to begin using beehiiv email marketing software application.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that desires a platform that allows them to send out custom newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
The most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or content designer, you need to seriously considering trying out beehiiv. It’s entirely cost-free to begin and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you really wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely an excellent indication that people love reading your stuff.
Enroll in a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you accessibility to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development customization, analytics, exterior embed types, and much more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those seeking a new system to move to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and more.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your web site link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally pick your brand name design and colors to make sure your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have described info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin composing”, “Messages”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Generate income from”, “Style” and” Analyze”. And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot over), Beginning creating is where you create and release newsletters, Messages is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your clients are (and damage them down right into segments), Grow is where you have accessibility 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 develop your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of every one of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I suggest just going to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and easy to use interface for composing.
Once you start creating, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv offers you tons of options for various kinds of content like video clips, links, images, and more.
The team at beehiiv is also constantly launching item feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a lot more content features relying on when you read this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your email template and change some settings.
Here, you can update the name of your newsletter, give it a summary, include your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to first time subscribers, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit background colors, borders, spacing, fonts, picture layouts, and extra. I’m not going to undergo ever before single thing you can enhance with your e-mail template because it’s a great deal. Just experiment with the platform absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it an excellent publishing system for any kind of newsletter creator.
Right here are a few of the vital features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder Swirling Visions Beehiiv
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it very easy to compose and send out e-mails. I mentioned over a few of things you can do with your setups and e-mail design so I’ll save you some extra reading.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely among the better e-mail editors I have actually ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive an internet site. Consider it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a place where people can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, including the free one, give you a website. Nonetheless, 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 customers is very important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter directly from your beehiiv internet site or via embed forms.
If you currently have a website, and want individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to use an embed type. 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 kinds, you have 3 various choices– a full width, a dealt with size, and a slim embed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to ahead UTM parameters for tracking objectives– quite cool.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the team is working on updates for these, but I mentioned a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages area listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a remedy for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your listing to onward your emails to pals and coworkers and if they get other people to register for your listing, you can award them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I’ve seem numerous newsletter firms offer incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you an additional method for growing your email checklist.
Nevertheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to an extra superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this post.
Premium subscriptions
They claim all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription profits is certainly a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent out to paying subscribers. This can be very lucrative depending on what your e-newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a popular premium e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among the things I like about beehiiv is just how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time date on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer count.
You get access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber matter 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 offers you everything you need to begin and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and accessibility 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 top priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly generous in my viewpoint.
For example, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 monthly. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 monthly for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for many customers.
I’m not sure exactly how the system business economics work with this, yet beehiiv is absolutely more affordable (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every system, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are some of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of option:
- Easy to set up and begin sending out e-newsletters completely free
- Clean and contemporary customer analytics
- Lots of versatility with email styles.
- Referral program feature Swirling Visions Beehiiv
- Site hosting
- Develop premium choices to generate income from
- Polls
To be sincere, I haven’t seen one more e-newsletter system that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
However obviously, I don’t want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to state some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are several of the cons I’ve located while making use of beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv
- Limitations around adding customized font styles
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in way too much information why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow review if you want to find out more.
Right now, there truly is no other method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow website aside from making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not like using iframe’s because they have a tendency to slow down my web site a little bit. Every time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last thing to pack on the web page. It’s extremely recognizable when you’re on a slow-moving net link. But I can get around that.
The primary complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a routine Webflow kind (which I like using). There are methods around this by utilizing a device like Zapier but that would certainly simply add extra prices that I do not need. To be honest, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage but I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much surpass the cons right here. I’m also confident that Webflow will at some point create a better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Generally, beehiiv is a fantastic remedy for anyone seeking to dive into the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter platform far exceeds many that are presently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you really have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively low-cost wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unprecedented. If you were to have an e-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 write testimonial posts often. I only do when I actually utilize the device myself and would recommend it to a pal.
I hope you discovered some clearness on whether beehiiv is a great system for you.