Over two years earlier, I read one of my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and promptly began destroying Beehiiv Owner.
I had not been certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent designer is difficult. I’m frequently obtaining pitched different tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological since I invested the last six months checking out different e-mail and e-newsletter systems to aid develop my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful alternatives for composing e-newsletters. However I couldn’t discover one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The issue with many existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me completely customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it super simple to write and send out emails, and provides me devices that assist me evaluate metrics and obtain more customers.
I assume I’ve lastly located the appropriate device.
However, I recognize beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it simple to layout, write, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous staff members at the famous newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this article, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to lastly opt for it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve watched for a modern-day e-newsletter system for quite some time currently. I’ve hesitated hard when it concerned lastly launching my e-newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure many e-newsletter creators respect popular e-newsletters with numerous subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a whole lot. They have great web content, lots of clients, and a smart referral program that enables them to get even more clients.
So, I took place a search to figure out exactly how these large e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more customers? How do they develop a newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that constructed this tool really understand newsletter development 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 development employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on maker growth.
Since, any type of maker knows, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the best newsletter pile (that scales) commonly indicates using numerous various devices to help accomplish one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to set up references. It can get costly.
So when I learnt beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to begin making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content maker that wants a platform that permits them to send out customized newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or web content designer, you need to seriously considering trying beehiiv. It’s absolutely complimentary to get started and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you actually wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a great sign that individuals love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent system used by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you get your very own website and use the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending e-mails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv likewise gives you a site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your very own website currently, you can additionally use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your website subscribers right to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow people to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to leverage different marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack choice.
How to start making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Register for a free plan
The primary step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you access to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development modification, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and more. It’s a very charitable offering for those just starting out (or for those looking for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Owner
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your web site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also choose your brand colors and design to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
Once you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Start composing,” “Messages,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Examine.” And at the really lower you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your primary nerve center (screenshot over), Beginning composing is where you create and publish newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down into sections), 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, Style is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you want to discuss, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning composing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later on– focus on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and straightforward user interface for creating.
Once you start creating, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your content exactly how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of options for various sorts of content like video clips, web links, photos, and more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise frequently launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will be a whole lot a lot more content features relying on when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to design your email template and readjust some settings.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a summary, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit history colors, borders, spacing, font styles, picture layouts, and more. I’m not going to experience ever before single point you can enhance with your e-mail template since it’s a lot. Simply check out the platform absolutely free and see it on your own!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of incredible features that make it a wonderful publishing platform for any type of newsletter creator.
Right here are some of the necessary features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it incredibly simple to create and send out emails. I discussed above some of the things you can do with your setups and e-mail design so I’ll save you some added reading.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely one of the better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Internet site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you desire) reside on a website. Think of it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and an area where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, provide you an internet site. However, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a personalized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is very important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter right from your beehiiv internet site or via embed kinds.
If you already have a site, and want individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I utilize on this internet site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various alternatives– a complete size, a repaired size, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment monitoring if you wish to forward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– pretty cool.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the team is working with updates for these, but I mentioned a few worries I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing subscribers on your checklist to forward your emails to good friends and associates and if they get other people to register for your listing, you can reward them. These rewards can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually appear several e-newsletter firms give incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you one more method for expanding your email list.
Nonetheless, to obtain access 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 short article.
Premium registrations
They say all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription earnings is absolutely a monster of its own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” problems of your e-newsletter that are only sent to paying customers. This can be really rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter has to use. As an example, Trends.co is a popular costs e-newsletter that produces millions in profits a year just by having pay-only newsletter content.
Information analytics
One of the things I love regarding beehiiv is how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Beehiiv Owner.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan provides you every little thing you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with addition of top priority support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite charitable in my viewpoint.
For example, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 each month. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit option for numerous users.
I’m not exactly sure just how the device economics work with this, however beehiiv is absolutely cheaper (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Of course, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of selection:
Easy to set up and begin sending out e-newsletters absolutely free.
Tidy and modern client analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Produce premium options to monetize.
Polls.
To be honest, I have not seen another e-newsletter system that has actually been able to package all of these features together so well.
But naturally, I don’t want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to state some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the disadvantages I have actually discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom font styles.
I use Webflow as my internet site structure platform of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I like Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow evaluation if you would love to learn more.
Now, there really is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow website other than utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t such as making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to slow down my internet site a bit. Each time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s very visible when you get on a slow-moving net link. But I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can not use a routine Webflow form (which I enjoy using). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier however that would certainly just add added expenses that I don’t need. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the disadvantages here. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will at some point develop a much better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a fantastic option for any person seeking to study the globe of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter platform far exceeds lots of that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you really have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively affordable 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 subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not write evaluation posts usually. I just do when I actually use the tool myself and would suggest it to a pal.
I wish you discovered some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.