Over 2 years ago, I was reading one of my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and instantly started tearing up How Does Beehiiv Work.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time maker is difficult. I’m typically obtaining pitched various tools and services that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional due to the fact that I spent the last six months trying different email and e-newsletter platforms to aid build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic options for creating newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a guaranteed “yes”.
The issue with several existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully tailor my e-newsletter layouts, makes it incredibly very easy to compose and send emails, and offers me tools that help me assess metrics and get more clients.
I think I’ve lastly located the best tool.
But, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it very easy to design, compose, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous employees at the popular e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help developers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking lots of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m going to clarify my individual 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 platform of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for fairly time currently. I have actually procrastinated hard when it pertained to finally introducing my newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I wound up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain lots of newsletter designers look up to preferred newsletters with countless subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a great deal. They have fantastic web content, lots of customers, and a brilliant referral program that permits them to get even more subscribers.
So, I took place a search to find out how these big newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they create a newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to respond to all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device truly comprehend e-newsletter development and development.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the very first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I recognized this was going to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s focused on creator development.
Since, any developer knows, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the appropriate newsletter stack (that ranges) usually indicates using numerous different devices to help attain one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can obtain pricey.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to begin making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material maker that desires a system that allows them to send custom-made newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or web content creator, you must seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to start and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you actually end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a good indication that people love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is an excellent platform made use of by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your own website already, you can additionally use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your internet site clients directly to your beehiiv email listing. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable people to register for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to take advantage of different marketing channels to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack option.
How to begin utilizing beehiiv email marketing software application.
Register for a free plan
The very first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you accessibility to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, exterior embed types, and a lot more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding How Does Beehiiv Work
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand name design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
Once you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will have outlined information on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start composing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Evaluate.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the setups alternative.
Dashboard is your primary control center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you develop and release newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your customers are (and damage them down into sectors), 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 newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you intend to write about, I recommend just going to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking “Start writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and straightforward user interface for creating.
When you begin creating, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your material just how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for various types of content like videos, web links, images, and a lot more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise frequently releasing item feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a lot a lot more material features depending on when you read this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your email template and adjust some settings.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a summary, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to very first time clients, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image layouts, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever single thing you can enhance with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the platform free of cost and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it an excellent posting platform for any type of newsletter creator.
Here are several of the crucial features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly very easy to write and send out emails. I pointed out over some of the important things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
Things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely one of the much better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) live on a web site. Think about it as a site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and an area where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, offer you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan places your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a personalized domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is essential. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your newsletter right from your beehiiv website or with embed types.
If you already have an internet site, and want people to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to make use of an embed kind. 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 types, you have three various choices– a complete size, a repaired width, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim embed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally an option for attribution monitoring if you wish to onward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make sure the team is working with updates for these, however I pointed out a few problems I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a remedy for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing clients on your checklist to onward your emails to close friends and colleagues and if they obtain other people to subscribe to your list, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I have actually seem numerous newsletter companies provide benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you another opportunity for growing your e-mail checklist.
Nevertheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They say all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription profits is absolutely a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying subscribers. This can be very lucrative depending upon what your newsletter needs to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that produces millions in profits a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
One of things I enjoy about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time date on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count How Does Beehiiv Work.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on exactly how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan provides you whatever you require to get going and expand your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain name, polls, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my viewpoint.
As an example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit choice for numerous individuals.
I’m not exactly sure just how the unit economics work on this, yet beehiiv is absolutely less expensive (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Obviously, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Right here are a few of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of option:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters free of charge.
Clean and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Create premium choices to generate income from.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter platform that has had the ability to package all of these features with each other so well.
However of course, I don’t want to be biased so I’m going to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I’ve discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made fonts.
I use Webflow as my website structure system of option (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not going to enter way too much information why I enjoy Webflow a lot however you can read my Webflow review if you want to find out more.
Right now, there actually is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow website other than utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t like utilizing iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to reduce my site a bit. Every single time a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last point to load on the page. It’s very noticeable when you get on a slow-moving web connection. However I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier however that would just include extra expenses that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I assumed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much exceed the disadvantages here. I’m likewise hopeful that Webflow will eventually create a better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
On the whole, beehiiv is a fantastic solution for anyone looking to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter platform much exceeds many that are presently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly low-cost wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is unprecedented. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not compose testimonial posts usually. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a close friend.
I wish you located some clarity on whether beehiiv is an excellent system for you.