Over two years ago, I read among my favored email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and instantaneously began wrecking Beehiiv Vs Brevo.
I had not been certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time maker is difficult. I’m typically obtaining pitched various devices and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional because I spent the last six months trying various email and newsletter systems to assist construct my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some great alternatives for writing newsletters. But I could not locate one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The issue with numerous existing newsletter platforms is that they do not feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me fully personalize my newsletter layouts, makes it super simple to create and send emails, and provides me tools that help me analyze metrics and get more customers.
I assume I have actually finally located the right device.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it simple to design, create, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by previous employees at the popular newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally opt for it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter platform for quite a long time now. I have actually hesitated hard when it involved ultimately launching my newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make sure several newsletter creators admire prominent newsletters with millions of clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have fantastic content, lots of subscribers, and a creative referral program that enables them to get back at more clients.
So, I went on a hunt to find out just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more clients? How do they develop a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to all of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn the people that developed this tool truly comprehend e-newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my mind took off.
I knew this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s focused on creator growth.
Due to the fact that, any type of creator knows, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the best newsletter stack (that scales) commonly implies utilizing several different devices to assist attain one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to set up recommendations. It can get pricey.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was complimentary to begin using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material creator that wants a system that enables them to send out customized newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
The most successful newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, start-up, or content maker, you should seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to begin and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you actually wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a great sign that people love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a fantastic system made use of by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own web site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending emails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a site comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own web site currently, you can likewise utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your site subscribers directly to your beehiiv email checklist. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit people to subscribe to your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to utilize different marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack option.
How to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you access to site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advance personalization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and a lot more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those simply beginning (or for those looking for a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Vs Brevo
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your first e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and much more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise pick your brand name design and colors to make sure your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
Once you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have described info on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning creating,” “Articles,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Analyze.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you produce and release e-newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can see who your subscribers are (and damage them down into sections), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run ads, 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 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.
Composing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have a concept you wish to discuss, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward interface for composing.
As soon as you begin composing, you can maximize headings, include web links, and style your web content exactly how you like.
beehiiv gives you tons of alternatives for different kinds of web content like videos, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly releasing item feature and updates so I make certain there will be a great deal more content features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome email to very first time customers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit background shades, borders, spacing, typefaces, image formats, and a lot more. I’m not going to undergo ever before solitary point you can optimize with your email template since it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the system free of cost and see it on your own!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of incredible features that make it a fantastic posting system for any e-newsletter designer.
Below are a few of the necessary features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it very easy to write and send emails. I stated over a few of the things you can do with your settings and email style so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly among the far better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) reside on a web site. Think of it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, give you a web site. However, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a custom domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is very important. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or via embed forms.
If you already have an internet site, and desire people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to make use of an embed kind. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different alternatives– a complete size, a fixed width, and a slim embed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can locate the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s also an option for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to onward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– pretty cool.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make sure the group is working on updates for these, however I mentioned a couple of concerns I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is an option for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your listing to ahead your emails to close friends and coworkers and if they obtain other people to register for your list, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever form you want. I have actually seem lots of newsletter business provide benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you an additional avenue for expanding your email listing.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to an extra superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this post.
Costs memberships
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription profits is definitely a beast of its own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” issues of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be really rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to offer. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that produces millions in income a year just by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among the things I like about beehiiv is how tidy and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Beehiiv Vs Brevo.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on just how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that client matter rise is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan provides you everything you require to get started and grow your newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 each month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 per month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for numerous individuals.
I’m not sure how the unit economics work on this, yet beehiiv is most definitely less expensive (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Certainly, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Right here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of selection:
Easy to set up and start sending out e-newsletters absolutely free.
Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of flexibility with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Produce premium options to monetize.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I haven’t seen one more newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
But naturally, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to mention some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages I have actually discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom font styles.
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in too much detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot however you can read my Webflow evaluation if you want to find out more.
Now, there actually is no other method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site other than making use of an iframe embed. I directly don’t such as making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to decrease my internet site a little bit. Every time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to pack on the page. It’s extremely obvious when you get on a slow-moving internet connection. Yet I can get around that.
The main gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow type (which I love making use of). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly just include extra expenses that I do not require. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far outweigh the cons below. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will at some point produce a far better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Overall, beehiiv is a fantastic solution for any person looking to dive into the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter platform much surpasses many that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather low-cost of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unheard of. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t write review messages commonly. I only do when I really make use of the device myself and would certainly recommend it to a friend.
I hope you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.