Over 2 years earlier, I read among my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and quickly began destroying Jacob Hurd Beehiiv.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent creator is tough. I’m usually getting pitched various devices and services that do not appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last 6 months checking out various email and e-newsletter systems to help construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic options for composing e-newsletters. However I could not discover one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The issue with several existing newsletter systems is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully customize my newsletter designs, makes it incredibly easy to create and send emails, and provides me tools that assist me analyze metrics and get more customers.
I assume I’ve lastly found the ideal tool.
However, I understand 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 platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it easy to style, create, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by former workers at the well-known newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist creators launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally select it as my newsletter platform of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter system for quite a long time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it pertained to lastly launching my e-newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter developers look up to prominent e-newsletters with countless subscribers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have wonderful web content, lots of clients, and a clever referral program that permits them to get back at extra subscribers.
So, I took place a search to find out just how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce an e-newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to respond to all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device actually comprehend e-newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the very first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on designer development.
Due to the fact that, any developer recognizes, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And locating the appropriate e-newsletter stack (that ranges) typically implies making use of numerous different tools to help achieve one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to set up references. It can obtain pricey.
So when I found out beehiiv did all 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 custom e-newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, startup, or material maker, you ought to seriously considering trying out beehiiv. It’s completely free to get started and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you really end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that people enjoy reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a fantastic platform made use of by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your very own internet site and use the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv additionally provides you a site similar to Substack. However, if you have your very own site already, you can also utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I use) to send your internet site subscribers directly to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can integrate 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 various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack option.
Exactly how to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software application.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, give you accessibility to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advancement customization, analytics, exterior embed types, and a lot more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those simply starting (or for those seeking a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Jacob Hurd Beehiiv
After creating an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you used?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your web site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally choose your brand name design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your primary control panel, 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 alternatives for “Begin writing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Evaluate.” And at the really lower you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot above), Start creating is where you create and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter editions, Target market is where you can see who your clients are (and damage them down into sections), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you create your newsletter landing page and message template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of every one of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have a concept you intend to cover, I suggest simply going to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start composing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and straightforward user interface for composing.
Once you begin creating, you can optimize headings, include links, and design your web content just how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of alternatives for different sorts of content like video clips, web links, images, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is also frequently launching product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a great deal more content features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to make your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Below, you can update the name of your newsletter, give it a description, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify history colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image styles, and more. I’m not going to undergo ever before single thing you can enhance with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Just try the system totally free and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of incredible features that make it a fantastic publishing platform for any kind of e-newsletter developer.
Here are a few of the necessary features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it very very easy to compose and send e-mails. I mentioned above a few of the things you can do with your settings and email layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly among the far better e-mail editors I have actually ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) reside on a web site. Think about it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a website. Nevertheless, the free plan places your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a custom-made domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is essential. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter straight from your beehiiv website or through embed types.
If you currently have a website, and desire people to sign up for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this internet site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 different alternatives– a complete width, a taken care of width, and a slim embed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to forward UTM criteria for tracking objectives– rather cool.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make sure the team is servicing updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of problems I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing clients on your listing to onward your e-mails to close friends and coworkers and if they get other people to subscribe to your checklist, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever type you want. I’ve seem several e-newsletter companies provide benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you one more method for expanding your email checklist.
Nevertheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this post.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription revenue is most definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re trying to find a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” issues of your newsletter that are just sent to paying clients. This can be very rewarding depending upon what your newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that creates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among the important things I love concerning beehiiv is exactly how tidy and simple the analytics are. You get real-time date on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count Jacob Hurd Beehiiv.
You get access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that customer matter rise is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to start and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and access to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with addition of top priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 each month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 monthly for the very same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for lots of customers.
I’m not sure exactly how the device business economics deal with this, yet beehiiv is absolutely less costly (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Obviously, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Here are several of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to set up and start sending e-newsletters completely free.
Clean and modern client analytics.
Lots of flexibility with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Create premium choices to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be straightforward, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
But certainly, I don’t wish to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to discuss some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the disadvantages I have actually discovered while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my site building system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter too much information why I like Webflow so much but you can review my Webflow evaluation if you want to discover more.
Today, there truly is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not such as utilizing iframe’s since they often tend to reduce my site a little bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last point to pack on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you get on a slow-moving web connection. Yet I can get around that.
The primary complaint I have is that I can’t use a normal Webflow type (which I like making use of). There are means around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would certainly simply add added prices that I do not require. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I assumed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far outweigh the cons here. I’m also confident that Webflow will ultimately create a better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a terrific solution for anybody wanting to study the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter platform much outweighs many that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively cheap for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not write testimonial messages typically. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would certainly advise it to a buddy.
I wish you discovered some clearness on whether beehiiv is a great system for you.