Over two years ago, I was reading among my favorite 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 instantly started destroying Beehiiv Referral.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time creator is tough. I’m usually getting pitched different devices and services that don’t appear 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 platforms to help build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful options for writing newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me completely tailor my e-newsletter designs, makes it extremely easy to write and send out e-mails, and gives me devices that aid me analyze metrics and get even more customers.
I assume I have actually ultimately found the appropriate device.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really appropriate 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 out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the popular newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist makers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to ultimately select it as my newsletter system of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter platform for quite time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it involved lastly introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain several e-newsletter creators respect preferred e-newsletters with numerous clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I appreciated a lot. They have excellent material, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get back at a lot more clients.
So, I went on a quest to figure out how these big 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 more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer every one of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn the people that developed this device actually recognize e-newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on creator growth.
Because, any type of maker recognizes, you require development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the best e-newsletter stack (that ranges) commonly suggests making use of several various tools to help attain one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to establish references. It can get costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one platform, and it was free to start using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content developer that desires a platform that permits them to send personalized newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or content designer, you must seriously considering trying beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to get going and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you really wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that people enjoy reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent system made use of by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own web site and utilize the system as your all-in-one option for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally gives you a site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your own website already, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site subscribers straight to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit people to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage different marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack choice.
Exactly how to start utilizing beehiiv email marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you accessibility to website hosting, a newsletter CMS, advance modification, analytics, outside embed forms, and a lot more. It’s a really generous offering for those just starting out (or for those looking for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Referral
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise select your brand colors and design to make sure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
Once you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have described details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning composing,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Assess.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Start writing is where you create and publish newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your customers are (and damage them down into sections), 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 e-newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of every one of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start writing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you intend to cover, I recommend simply going to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning composing”.
You can modify your template and styling later– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward user interface for writing.
Once you begin creating, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your content how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for different sorts of material like video clips, web links, photos, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly launching item feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a great deal a lot more content features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to design your email template and readjust some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, give it a summary, add your logo design, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit history shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, photo layouts, and a lot more. I’m not going to go through ever single thing you can optimize with your email template because it’s a whole lot. Simply experiment with the platform totally free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it an excellent publishing platform for any kind of newsletter designer.
Below are several of the vital features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it very simple to create and send e-mails. I discussed over some of the things you can do with your settings and e-mail style so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely among the far better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive an internet site. Consider it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you an internet site. Nonetheless, the free plan places your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a custom-made domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is essential. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or through embed kinds.
If you currently have an internet site, and desire individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to make use of an embed form. This is what I use on this internet site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 various alternatives– a complete size, a fixed width, and a slim embed. I directly use the slim embed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an alternative for attribution tracking if you intend to ahead UTM parameters for tracking purposes– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I’m sure the team is working on updates for these, yet I stated a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your checklist to ahead your emails to friends and associates and if they get other people to subscribe to your listing, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve appear many e-newsletter companies provide rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
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.
Nevertheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs memberships
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription earnings is absolutely a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be really lucrative depending upon what your newsletter has to provide. For example, Trends.co is a prominent costs newsletter that produces millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
Among the important things I love about beehiiv is exactly how clean and simple the analytics are. You get real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count Beehiiv Referral.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye sight on just how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client matter go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan provides you whatever 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 ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit option for lots of individuals.
I’m unsure how the system economics service this, but beehiiv is certainly less costly (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Certainly, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Right here are a few of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
Easy to establish and begin sending e-newsletters for free.
Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Create premium options to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen one more e-newsletter platform that has had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
But naturally, I do not intend to be biased so I’m mosting likely to state some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the disadvantages I have actually discovered while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including customized font styles.
I utilize Webflow as my web site building system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter excessive information why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can read my Webflow testimonial if you want to discover more.
Today, there truly is no other means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from using an iframe embed. I directly don’t like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to reduce my website a little bit. Whenever a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s really visible when you get on a slow net link. Yet I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t use a regular Webflow kind (which I love making use of). There are ways around this by using a device like Zapier but that would certainly simply add added costs that I do not require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I believed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the cons here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will eventually develop a much better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is an excellent solution for any individual seeking to study the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system far surpasses numerous that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally rather inexpensive wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t compose evaluation messages often. I only do when I really use the tool myself and would certainly advise it to a pal.
I hope you located some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a great platform for you.