Over two years back, I read among my preferred e-mail 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 Custom HTML.
I wasn’t certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time creator is difficult. I’m usually obtaining pitched various tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I spent the last six months trying various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to assist construct my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic options for writing newsletters. However I could not find one that made me provide a guaranteed “yes”.
The issue with numerous existing e-newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me completely tailor my newsletter styles, makes it super simple to write and send out emails, and offers me tools that help me assess metrics and obtain more clients.
I think I have actually lastly discovered the ideal tool.
Yet, I understand beehiiv might 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 platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it very easy to design, create, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous employees at the popular newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist designers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m going to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately go with it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter system for rather some time currently. I’ve put things off hard when it involved ultimately introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter creators admire prominent e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I appreciated a lot. They have terrific content, tons of subscribers, and a clever referral program that allows them to get back at more clients.
So, I took place a hunt to identify how these large newsletters established their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more clients? How do they develop a newsletter layout 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 constructed this tool actually recognize newsletter production and development.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I understood this was going to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer growth.
Since, any creator understands, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the right newsletter pile (that ranges) often indicates making use of numerous different devices to aid accomplish one goal– one system for your e-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 all of these things 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 developer that desires a system that allows them to send custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a web site.
The most effective newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media company, startup, or content developer, you ought to seriously considering trying beehiiv. It’s absolutely complimentary to begin and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you really wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that individuals enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is an excellent system made use of by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your very own internet site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a website similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own site currently, you can additionally use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site clients right to your beehiiv email list. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to allow individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the flexibility to take advantage of various marketing channels to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack choice.
Just how to start using beehiiv email marketing software program.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you accessibility to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough personalization, analytics, outside embed forms, and more. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting (or for those trying to find a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Custom HTML
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your web site link may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise select your brand name design and colors to ensure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your major control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will have described info on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning creating,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Examine.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your major control center (screenshot above), Start composing is where you produce and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your clients are (and damage them down into segments), Expand is where you have access 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 newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin things.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you want to cover, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking “Begin creating”.
You can fine-tune your template and styling later on– concentrate on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and easy to use user interface for composing.
Once you begin creating, you can optimize headings, include web links, and style your web content just how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for various kinds of content like video clips, links, pictures, and more.
The team at beehiiv is also constantly launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot a lot more material features depending on when you read this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and adjust some settings.
Below, you can update the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, add your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image styles, and more. I’m not going to experience ever solitary thing you can optimize with your email template since it’s a whole lot. Just experiment with the platform for free and see it for yourself!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of remarkable features that make it a fantastic publishing platform for any type of e-newsletter developer.
Right here are several of the important features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it incredibly easy to create and send out emails. I stated over a few of the important things you can do with your settings and email design so I’ll save you some added analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely among the far better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) survive on a website. Consider it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your newsletter, and an area where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, offer you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining clients is essential. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your newsletter straight from your beehiiv internet site or via embed types.
If you currently have a website, and want individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I make use of on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three different choices– a full width, a dealt with size, and a slim embed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can locate the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an alternative for attribution monitoring if you want to onward UTM specifications for tracking functions– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the group is dealing with updates for these, however I stated a few issues I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing clients on your list to forward your emails to buddies and colleagues and if they obtain other people to sign up for your listing, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever form you want. I have actually seem numerous e-newsletter business offer benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you another opportunity for growing your e-mail checklist.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a more superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs memberships
They state all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration income is most definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” issues of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be extremely profitable relying on what your newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a prominent costs e-newsletter that creates millions in revenue a year just by having pay-only newsletter content.
Information analytics
One of things I love about beehiiv is how clean and basic the analytics are. You get real-time day on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count Beehiiv Custom HTML.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that client matter rise is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan provides you everything you need to get going and expand your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite charitable in my viewpoint.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 monthly for the very same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit choice for several users.
I’m uncertain exactly how the system economics service this, but beehiiv is certainly less expensive (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Obviously, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Here are several of the pros and cons I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to establish and start sending out newsletters for free.
Clean and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Develop premium options to monetize.
Polls.
To be truthful, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter system that has actually been able to package all of these features together so well.
However certainly, I don’t want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made fonts.
I use Webflow as my site structure system of option (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much information why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow review if you ‘d like to discover more.
Now, there really is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site aside from making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not such as making use of iframe’s because they often tend to slow down my web site a bit. Every time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s really visible when you’re on a slow internet connection. But I can get around that.
The major complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are means around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would simply add added prices that I don’t need. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far surpass the cons right here. I’m also confident that Webflow will eventually produce a far better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
On the whole, beehiiv is a terrific service for any individual aiming to dive into the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter platform far exceeds several that are presently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you actually have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather low-cost of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your listing is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t compose review posts often. I only do when I actually make use of the tool myself and would suggest it to a close friend.
I hope you found some quality on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.