I read one of my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and quickly started tearing up. What Is Beehiiv Used For…
Being a permanent developer is difficult. I’m usually getting pitched different tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological due to the fact that I spent the last six months trying out various e-mail and newsletter platforms to help construct my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some excellent choices for creating newsletters. However I could not discover one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The concern with several existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me completely tailor my e-newsletter layouts, makes it very easy to write and send e-mails, and offers me tools that assist me examine metrics and get more customers.
I believe I’ve lastly found the right tool.
But, I recognize 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 newsletter system that makes it very easy to style, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by former workers at the renowned newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help makers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this article, I’m going to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to finally opt for it as my newsletter platform of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually been on the lookout for a modern-day e-newsletter platform for quite time now. I have actually postponed hard when it involved ultimately launching my e-newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up using beehiiv.
I make certain many newsletter creators respect prominent newsletters with numerous clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have great material, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get even extra subscribers.
So, I went on a hunt to figure out how these large e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more clients? How do they produce a newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to address every one of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this device really recognize e-newsletter development and growth.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the initial marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I knew this was going to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator development.
Since, any kind of developer recognizes, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the appropriate newsletter pile (that scales) typically suggests using numerous different tools to assist accomplish one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to set up references. It can obtain expensive.
So when I figured out beehiiv did every one of these points in one platform, and it was cost-free to start utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a terrific platform utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise provides you an internet site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own web site already, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I use) to send your internet site clients right to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to enable people to register for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to take advantage of different marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack option.
How to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material maker that desires a platform that allows them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media business, startup, or material designer, you need to seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to get started and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you in fact wind up having to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a good indicator that individuals like reviewing your things.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you accessibility to website hosting, a newsletter CMS, advance modification, analytics, outside embed forms, and a lot more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply starting (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also choose your brand name colors and design to make sure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
Once you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have outlined details on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Start composing”, “Articles”, “Audience”, “Expand”, “Monetize”, “Layout” and” Examine”. And at the extremely lower you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your primary nerve center (screenshot over), Begin writing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Target market is where you can watch who your clients are (and damage them down right into sections), Expand is where you have access to a referral program (and development 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 e-newsletter landing page and article template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin writing, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Start composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and styling later– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and straightforward interface for writing.
When you begin writing, you can optimize headings, add links, and style your web content how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of options for different kinds of content like video clips, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise regularly launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a whole lot a lot more material features relying on when you read this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your email template and change some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, add your logo, activate or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit history colors, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture formats, and extra. I’m not going to experience ever before solitary thing you can optimize with your email template because it’s a great deal. Just check out the platform for free and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of incredible features that make it a terrific publishing platform for any type of newsletter creator.
Below are a few of the important features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder What Is Beehiiv Used For
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it very simple to write and send e-mails. I pointed out over some of the important things you can do with your setups and email style so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely one of the much better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive a website. Think of it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, provide you an internet site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or with embed types.
If you currently have an internet site, and want people to register for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to use 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 types, you have three different choices– a complete size, a taken care of size, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to ahead UTM criteria for tracking functions– pretty neat.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the group is working with updates for these, but I mentioned a couple of worries I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a service for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your checklist to forward your emails to good friends and associates and if they get other people to register for your checklist, you can reward them. These rewards can be in whatever type you want. I have actually seem lots of newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you an additional method for expanding your e-mail listing.
Nevertheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this post.
Premium memberships
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership profits is definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re trying to find a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” concerns of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying clients. This can be really lucrative relying on what your e-newsletter has to supply. For example, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that produces millions in earnings a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Information analytics
One of things I love regarding beehiiv is how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on how your 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 exactly how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber matter increase is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you everything you require to get started and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 39/month) offers you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, polls, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76/month) gives you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my point of view.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 each month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for lots of customers.
I’m uncertain how the system economics work on this, however beehiiv is certainly more affordable (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Of course, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually personally experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of choice:
- Easy to establish and begin sending out e-newsletters free of cost
- Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics
- Great deals of adaptability with e-mail designs.
- Referral program feature What Is Beehiiv Used For
- Internet site hosting
- Develop premium choices to monetize
- Polls
To be sincere, I haven’t seen another newsletter system that has actually been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But naturally, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to state some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages 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 web site building platform of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much information why I like Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow evaluation if you wish to learn more.
Today, there actually is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow website aside from using an iframe embed. I personally do not such as using iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to decrease my web site a bit. Each time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s really noticeable when you’re on a slow net connection. But I can navigate that.
The main gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a regular Webflow kind (which I love utilizing). There are means around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would just add additional prices that I do not need. To be sincere, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I thought I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far exceed the cons right here. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will eventually create a better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a wonderful service for anybody aiming to study the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter platform far surpasses many that are currently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly economical wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not write evaluation posts usually. I just do when I actually use the device myself and would advise it to a close friend.
I wish you discovered some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a good platform for you.