Over two years back, I was reading among my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked on it and instantaneously started wrecking Hustlers Outpost Beehiiv.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time creator is difficult. I’m typically obtaining pitched various 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 6 months checking out various email and e-newsletter platforms to help develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific alternatives for creating newsletters. Yet I could not find one that made me offer a guaranteed “yes”.
The problem with numerous existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me completely tailor my newsletter designs, makes it incredibly very easy to write and send e-mails, and gives me devices that aid me assess metrics and obtain more customers.
I think I have actually finally found the ideal tool.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually appropriate 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 easy to style, compose, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by former workers at the famous newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to lastly go with it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a modern e-newsletter platform for rather time currently. I have actually put things off hard when it came to ultimately introducing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up using beehiiv.
I’m sure many newsletter makers admire prominent e-newsletters with countless clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have wonderful content, lots of customers, and a brilliant referral program that enables them to get even much more clients.
So, I took place a quest to determine exactly how these huge e-newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device actually comprehend newsletter development and growth.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I knew this was going to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s focused on designer development.
Because, any designer knows, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the best newsletter stack (that ranges) typically implies using multiple various devices to aid attain one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to set up recommendations. It can get expensive.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was free to start using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material maker that wants a platform that permits them to send out custom-made newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, startup, or material creator, you should seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s entirely cost-free to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you actually end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely an excellent indicator that individuals love reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is an excellent platform utilized by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your own 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 sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv also offers you an internet site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your very own site already, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your website subscribers directly to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to allow individuals to register for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the versatility to utilize different marketing networks to get your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
How to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you accessibility to site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development customization, analytics, outside embed forms, and much more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding Hustlers Outpost Beehiiv
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and much more.
You’ll then produce a name and link 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 “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise pick your brand name colors and design to make certain your 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 info on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin creating,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Evaluate.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Start composing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your subscribers are (and break them down right into segments), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with ads, Style is where you design your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start writing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you wish to cover, I recommend just going to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning writing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– focus on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and user-friendly user interface for writing.
When you start writing, you can optimize headings, include links, and design your content just how you such as.
beehiiv offers you lots of alternatives for various types of content like video clips, links, pictures, and much more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally frequently releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a lot a lot more material features relying on when you read this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to make your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, give it a summary, include your logo design, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to first time customers, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit background shades, boundaries, spacing, fonts, image styles, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever solitary thing you can enhance with your e-mail template since it’s a whole lot. Just try the platform free of charge and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of impressive features that make it a terrific posting system for any type of newsletter creator.
Right here are a few of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it very easy to write and send e-mails. I discussed above a few of things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive a site. Think about it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and an area where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, including the cost-free one, give you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a custom domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or with embed types.
If you already have an internet site, and want people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed kind. 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 blog post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 various alternatives– a complete width, a repaired size, and a slim embed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise a choice for attribution monitoring if you wish to onward UTM parameters for tracking purposes– pretty neat.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make sure the team is working with updates for these, but I discussed a few issues I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a service for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your checklist to forward your e-mails to good friends and associates and if they get other individuals to register for your checklist, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever type you want. I have actually seem many e-newsletter business offer benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you an additional avenue for growing your e-mail list.
Nevertheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to an extra premium plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this post.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription income is certainly 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” issues of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be extremely profitable depending upon what your newsletter has to provide. As an example, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that produces millions in profits a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among the important things I love concerning beehiiv is exactly how clean and basic the analytics are. You get real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count Hustlers Outpost Beehiiv.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client matter increase is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you every little thing you need to get started and expand your newsletter (up to 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and accessibility to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather generous in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit option for lots of individuals.
I’m not exactly sure just how the unit economics service this, yet beehiiv is absolutely less costly (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Of course, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Here are some 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 platform of option:
Easy to establish and start sending out e-newsletters for free.
Clean and contemporary customer analytics.
Great deals of versatility with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Develop premium alternatives to monetize.
Polls.
To be sincere, I have not seen another e-newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
Yet naturally, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m going to mention some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages I’ve located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made typefaces.
I make use of Webflow as my site structure system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to enter way too much detail why I love Webflow so much however you can review my Webflow testimonial if you would love to find out more.
Today, there really is no other means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to pack on the page. It’s really noticeable when you get on a slow-moving net link. But I can get around that.
The major complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a routine Webflow kind (which I love utilizing). There are means around this by using a device like Zapier but that would simply include additional prices that I do not need. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I thought I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far surpass the disadvantages here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is an excellent option for anybody wanting to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far surpasses many that are presently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather cheap of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your listing is unusual. If you were to have an e-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 compose review posts often. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would recommend it to a close friend.
I hope you discovered some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.