Over 2 years ago, I was reading one of my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and instantly started wrecking Segmentation Beehiiv.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a permanent maker is difficult. I’m frequently getting pitched different tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological since I spent the last six months trying out different email and e-newsletter platforms to aid construct my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful alternatives for creating e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t find one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The concern with many existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me totally personalize my e-newsletter designs, makes it extremely simple to write and send out e-mails, and offers me tools that help me assess metrics and obtain even more clients.
I believe I’ve ultimately discovered the appropriate device.
Yet, I understand beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it simple to design, write, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous staff members at the popular newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist developers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m going to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to lastly choose it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter platform for fairly time now. I have actually put things off hard when it pertained to ultimately introducing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain many e-newsletter designers look up to prominent newsletters with millions of clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a lot. They have terrific web content, tons of customers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get back at much more customers.
So, I took place a search to identify exactly how these large 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 more customers? How do they develop an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to address all of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this device really recognize newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the initial marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker development.
Since, any type of developer knows, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the appropriate newsletter pile (that scales) usually suggests utilizing numerous various tools to assist attain one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content creator that desires a platform that allows them to send custom newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or web content developer, you should seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to begin and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you really end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indication that individuals like reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent platform utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own web site and utilize the system as your all-in-one solution for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to obtain the word out.
beehiiv additionally gives you a website similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your own website already, you can additionally use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your site clients straight to your beehiiv email listing. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to utilize various marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack choice.
Exactly how to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you access to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advancement customization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and a lot more. It’s a very generous offering for those simply beginning (or for those searching for a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Segmentation Beehiiv
After producing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your first e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your web site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll also select your brand name design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
Once you reach your main control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have described information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin composing,” “Messages,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Evaluate.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your main control center (screenshot over), Start composing is where you produce and publish newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and damage them down into segments), Expand 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, Layout is where you create your e-newsletter landing page and post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you wish to write about, I advise just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start writing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later on– concentrate on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and easy to use user interface for creating.
Once you start writing, you can optimize headings, add links, and style your web content just how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of choices for various sorts of material like videos, web links, photos, and more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally constantly releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a whole lot extra material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Below, you can update the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit history shades, borders, spacing, typefaces, picture layouts, and more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before solitary point you can maximize with your e-mail template since it’s a lot. Just try out the platform for free and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of outstanding features that make it a terrific publishing system for any e-newsletter creator.
Right here are several of the important features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it super very easy to write and send e-mails. I discussed above some of the things you can do with your setups and e-mail design so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
Things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly one of the better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) survive a site. Think of it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your newsletter, and a place where people can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, offer you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a personalized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter right from your beehiiv site or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a site, and desire individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed type. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 different choices– a full size, a dealt with size, and a slim embed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can locate the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to ahead UTM specifications for tracking functions– pretty cool.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the group is servicing updates for these, yet I mentioned a couple of problems I had in the benefits and drawbacks area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is an option for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your list to forward your emails to good friends and colleagues and if they obtain other individuals to register for your list, you can award them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve seem many newsletter firms provide rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you another opportunity for expanding your email checklist.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this short article.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration earnings is certainly a monster of its own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” concerns of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be very lucrative depending on what your e-newsletter needs to offer. As an example, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that creates millions in income a year just by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among the important things I enjoy about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Segmentation Beehiiv.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is really doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that customer matter rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you whatever you need to begin and grow your newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and accessibility to premium memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with addition of priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 each month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit alternative for several customers.
I’m not sure exactly how the system business economics work on this, however beehiiv is most definitely cheaper (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Obviously, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of option:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters free of charge.
Tidy and modern subscriber analytics.
Lots of flexibility with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Produce premium options to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter system that has been able to package all of these features together so well.
However naturally, I do not intend to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are several of the cons I’ve discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made font styles.
I make use of Webflow as my site structure platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much detail why I like Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow review if you want to find out more.
Now, there truly is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow site aside from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not like making use of iframe’s because they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s very visible when you get on a sluggish internet link. But I can get around that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not make use of a regular Webflow kind (which I enjoy utilizing). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would just add additional costs that I don’t require. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I thought I would state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far surpass the cons right here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point create a far better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is an excellent service for any person aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter platform much surpasses several that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively economical wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not create evaluation blog posts typically. I just do when I actually make use of the device myself and would certainly recommend it to a close friend.
I wish you discovered some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent system for you.