Over 2 years ago, I read among my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked it and promptly started wrecking Beehiiv Bad Astronomy.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so psychological.
Being a permanent developer is tough. I’m commonly obtaining pitched various devices and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional due to the fact that I spent the last 6 months experimenting with different email and e-newsletter systems to assist build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great options for composing newsletters. However I couldn’t locate one that made me give a guaranteed “yes”.
The problem with many existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully tailor my e-newsletter designs, makes it incredibly very easy to write and send e-mails, and gives me devices that assist me assess metrics and obtain even more customers.
I believe I have actually lastly located the appropriate tool.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really right 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 simple to design, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous workers at the popular newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this post, I’m going to explain my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally go with it as my newsletter platform of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I have actually watched for a modern newsletter system for quite some time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it involved lastly launching my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I wound up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain many newsletter developers look up to popular newsletters with countless customers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have wonderful web content, lots of clients, and a smart referral program that allows them to get back at more clients.
So, I took place a search to determine exactly how these large e-newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more clients? How do they produce an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to answer every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this tool actually understand e-newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I understood this was going to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker development.
Because, any type of designer knows, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the ideal newsletter pile (that scales) usually indicates making use of numerous different devices to aid accomplish one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can get costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content maker that desires a system that allows them to send out customized newsletters with or without needing to have a web site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or material maker, you ought to seriously thinking about trying out beehiiv. It’s entirely cost-free to get going and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you actually wind up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indication that people enjoy reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a terrific platform used by countless independent writers. With Substack you get your own web site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv enables you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more style flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv additionally offers you a site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your own site already, you can also utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site clients right to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to utilize different marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you accessibility to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, external embed kinds, and much more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those looking for a new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Bad Astronomy
After creating an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that produce a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your web site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll also select your brand name design and colors to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have outlined information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start creating,” “Articles,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Evaluate.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your primary nerve center (screenshot above), Beginning composing is where you produce and release newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your customers are (and damage them down right into sections), Grow 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 e-newsletter with ads, Layout is where you create your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin stuff.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you wish to discuss, I advise simply going to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later– focus on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and straightforward user interface for composing.
When you start writing, you can optimize headings, add links, and style your web content how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for various kinds of web content like video clips, web links, pictures, and a lot more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally continuously releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot more content features relying on when you read this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
When you have a newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to create your e-mail template and adjust some settings.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a description, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time customers, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify history colors, borders, spacing, font styles, photo layouts, and more. I’m not going to undergo ever solitary point you can enhance with your email template because it’s a whole lot. Just experiment with the system completely free and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a wonderful posting system for any kind of e-newsletter developer.
Here are several of the necessary features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting platform. It makes it super very easy to create and send e-mails. I discussed over some of things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely one of the far better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you want) survive on a website. Consider it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your newsletter, and an area where people can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, including the free one, provide you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan places your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a custom-made domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is very important. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or through embed types.
If you already have a site, and want individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed form. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three various options– a full width, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s also an alternative for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to ahead UTM specifications for tracking objectives– rather neat.
However, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make certain the team is working with updates for these, yet I mentioned a few worries I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your list to ahead your emails to close friends and colleagues and if they get other people to subscribe to your listing, you can compensate them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually appear lots of e-newsletter business provide rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– giving you another method for growing your e-mail listing.
However, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this post.
Premium registrations
They say all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Registration income is definitely a monster of its own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” problems of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be really profitable depending on what your e-newsletter has to offer. For example, Trends.co is a prominent costs newsletter that creates millions in earnings a year simply by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Data analytics
One of the things I love regarding beehiiv is how clean and simple the analytics are. You get real-time day on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer count Beehiiv Bad Astronomy.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on exactly how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer count rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan provides you whatever you require to begin and expand your newsletter (up to 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my viewpoint.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 monthly for the same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit option for numerous individuals.
I’m uncertain how the unit economics service this, however beehiiv is absolutely cheaper (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Naturally, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Below are some of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while using 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 free of cost.
Tidy and modern subscriber analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Produce costs options to monetize.
Polls.
To be honest, I have not seen an additional newsletter platform that has been able to package every one of these features with each other so well.
However naturally, I do not intend to be biased so I’m going to state some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the disadvantages I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom typefaces.
I make use of Webflow as my internet site building system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter too much detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow testimonial if you would love to find out more.
Today, there actually is nothing else means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site besides utilizing an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s because they have a tendency to slow down my site a little bit. Every single time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s very recognizable when you get on a slow internet connection. Yet I can get around that.
The main gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow form (which I enjoy utilizing). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier but that would just include added prices that I don’t need. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage however I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the disadvantages below. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will at some point produce a far better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is a terrific remedy for any person seeking to study the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system far surpasses many that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly inexpensive wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist 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 monthly.
Anyways, I don’t write evaluation posts typically. I only do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would certainly recommend it to a pal.
I hope you discovered some quality on whether beehiiv is a great platform for you.