Over 2 years back, I was reading one of my favorite email e-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 promptly started tearing up Beehiiv API Key.
I had not been certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full-time designer is tough. I’m usually getting pitched different tools and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I invested the last 6 months trying out various e-mail and newsletter systems to aid build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some great choices for creating e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t find one that made me provide a precise “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me totally tailor my newsletter styles, makes it very very easy to write and send emails, and gives me devices that assist me analyze metrics and obtain more customers.
I think I’ve lastly located the best tool.
But, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it easy to design, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous workers at the famous e-newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help makers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately opt for it as my e-newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually watched for a modern e-newsletter platform for fairly a long time currently. I’ve put things off hard when it concerned finally launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make sure several newsletter developers look up to popular newsletters with numerous clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have great content, lots of subscribers, and a creative referral program that allows them to get back at a lot more clients.
So, I took place a quest to find out how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to respond to every one of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this tool really recognize e-newsletter production and growth.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker development.
Because, any type of developer understands, you require development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the right e-newsletter pile (that ranges) usually implies using several different devices to aid attain one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to set up references. It can get pricey.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was cost-free to start making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that wants a system that permits them to send out personalized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most successful newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, startup, or web content creator, you need to seriously considering trying out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to get going and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you in fact wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indication that people enjoy reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful platform used by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own web site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise offers you an internet site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your very own site already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your website subscribers straight to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to utilize various marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack alternative.
How to start using beehiiv email marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you access to site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advance modification, analytics, external embed forms, and extra. It’s a very generous offering for those just beginning (or for those looking for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv API Key
After developing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that develop a name and link for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally select your brand colors and design to make sure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined info on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Start composing,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Analyze.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your major control center (screenshot above), Beginning composing is where you create and release e-newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your clients are (and damage them down right into sectors), 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 design your newsletter landing page and post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of all of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking “Start writing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– focus on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and easy to use user interface for creating.
When you start composing, you can maximize headings, add web links, and style your content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of alternatives for various sorts of material like video clips, links, pictures, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is additionally constantly releasing item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot more content features depending on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to design your e-mail template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to first time customers, and more.
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 more. I’m not going to go through ever single point you can optimize with your email template because it’s a great deal. Just try the platform for free and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of remarkable features that make it a terrific publishing system for any kind of newsletter maker.
Here are some of the vital features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it incredibly simple to create and send emails. I discussed above some of things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some added reading.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely among the much better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) reside on a website. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, give you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter right from your beehiiv web site or through embed types.
If you currently have an internet site, and desire people to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have three different choices– a full width, a fixed size, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim embed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you want to forward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– rather cool.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the group is servicing updates for these, however I mentioned a couple of concerns I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding 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 clients on your listing to onward your emails to good friends and associates and if they get other individuals to sign up for your checklist, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve appear lots of newsletter firms offer benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– offering you an additional opportunity for expanding your email checklist.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this post.
Premium memberships
They state all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership profits is most definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re looking 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 clients. This can be very lucrative relying on what your e-newsletter has to use. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that creates millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Data analytics
One of things I love concerning beehiiv is just how clean and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber matter Beehiiv API Key.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on exactly how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that client count increase is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan provides you every little thing you require to start and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and access to costs registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather generous in my viewpoint.
For example, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 monthly for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for several customers.
I’m uncertain how the unit economics deal with this, however beehiiv is certainly cheaper (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Obviously, with every system, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Right here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of choice:
Easy to set up and start sending e-newsletters completely free.
Clean and modern-day client analytics.
Great deals of versatility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Produce costs alternatives to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be honest, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter platform that has had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
But obviously, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m going to discuss some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I’ve found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized font styles.
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long 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 evaluation if you would love to discover more.
Now, there truly is nothing else way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not like using iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to reduce my web site a bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s very visible when you’re on a slow-moving internet link. But I can get around that.
The primary complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a normal Webflow form (which I like making use of). There are ways around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would just include extra costs that I do not require. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con but I thought I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the cons right here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually produce a far better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
In general, beehiiv is a fantastic remedy for any person aiming to study the globe of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter system much outweighs several that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly economical wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unheard of. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create evaluation articles commonly. I only do when I really use the device myself and would certainly advise it to a friend.
I wish you discovered some quality on whether beehiiv is a good platform for you.