Over 2 years earlier, I was reading among my favored email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked on it and promptly started wrecking Beehiiv Footer.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time designer is tough. I’m frequently getting pitched different devices and solutions that do not appear to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I spent the last 6 months checking out various email and newsletter systems to help build my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful choices for writing newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me offer a precise “yes”.
The issue with many existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me completely tailor my newsletter layouts, makes it extremely easy to compose and send e-mails, and gives me tools that aid me analyze metrics and get more clients.
I think I’ve ultimately located the appropriate device.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to layout, create, send out, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the renowned newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist designers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to discuss my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to ultimately go with it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually watched for a contemporary newsletter system for rather time currently. I have actually put things off hard when it came to finally releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain many newsletter creators respect prominent e-newsletters with millions of clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have terrific content, tons of customers, and a smart referral program that allows them to get back at more clients.
So, I went on a search to find out just how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce an e-newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to respond to every one of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this device truly recognize newsletter development and development.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I knew this was going to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator development.
Due to the fact that, any type of designer recognizes, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the appropriate newsletter pile (that ranges) frequently indicates making use of numerous different devices to aid accomplish one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to set up referrals. It can obtain pricey.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one platform, and it was complimentary to start making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content creator that desires a system that enables them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or material designer, you should seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to begin and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you really end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a good sign that individuals love reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a wonderful system used by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own internet site and utilize the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing customers to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise gives you a website similar to Substack. However, if you have your own site currently, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your web site subscribers straight to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to leverage various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, give you access to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, external embed forms, and more. It’s a really generous offering for those just starting out (or for those searching for a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Footer
After developing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll then produce a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand design and colors to ensure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
When you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will have described details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin composing,” “Articles,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Analyze.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot over), Start writing is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can watch who your clients are (and damage them down right into sectors), Grow 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 ads, Style is where you develop your newsletter landing page and message template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I advise simply mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start writing”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward user interface for composing.
Once you begin composing, you can maximize headings, include links, and style your material just how you like.
beehiiv offers you lots of alternatives for different kinds of content like video clips, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise constantly releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will be a lot more material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to make your email template and change some settings.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome email to first time customers, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, picture styles, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever single point you can enhance with your email template since it’s a lot. Just experiment with the system absolutely free and see it on your own!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of incredible features that make it a great publishing platform for any newsletter maker.
Here are a few of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it extremely easy to create and send out emails. I pointed out above a few of the important things you can do with your setups and email design so I’ll save you some extra reading.
Things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely among the much better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you want) survive on a web site. Consider it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, provide you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan places your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a personalized domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is necessary. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter straight from your beehiiv web site or through embed kinds.
If you already have a site, and want individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to make use of an embed kind. This is what I make use of on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 different options– a complete width, a taken care of width, and a slim installed. I directly utilize the slim installed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to forward UTM specifications for tracking functions– pretty cool.
However, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the group is working with updates for these, but I stated a couple of problems I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a service for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your checklist to ahead your emails to friends and colleagues and if they obtain other individuals to sign up for your list, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever form you desire. I’ve appear many e-newsletter business provide incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– offering you another opportunity for growing your email listing.
However, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this article.
Costs memberships
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Registration income is absolutely 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” problems of your e-newsletter that are only sent to paying customers. This can be really lucrative relying on what your newsletter has to offer. For example, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among the things I enjoy concerning beehiiv is how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter Beehiiv Footer.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on just how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that customer count go up is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you whatever you require to get going and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and accessibility to costs registrations. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you everything in the Grow plan with addition of priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly generous in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 each month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit choice for numerous users.
I’m not sure exactly how the system economics work with this, but beehiiv is absolutely more affordable (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are a few of the pros and cons I’ve personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
Easy to set up and start sending e-newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and modern client analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Create premium alternatives to monetize.
Surveys.
To be straightforward, I have not seen an additional newsletter system that has been able to package all of these features together so well.
But naturally, I don’t intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the cons I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom font styles.
I make use of Webflow as my website building system of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in way too much detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow review if you wish to learn more.
Right now, there actually is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site other than utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not like utilizing iframe’s because they tend to slow down my internet site a bit. Whenever a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to pack on the page. It’s really obvious when you get on a slow-moving internet link. Yet I can navigate that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a routine Webflow type (which I like using). There are methods around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would just include added prices that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage however I thought I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the disadvantages below. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will eventually develop a better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a great remedy for any person looking to dive into the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform far surpasses several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively cheap wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t write evaluation posts often. I only do when I actually make use of the tool myself and would recommend it to a pal.
I hope you discovered some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.