Over 2 years earlier, I read among my favored email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and instantaneously began tearing up Make Money with Beehiiv.
I had not been certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a permanent maker is difficult. I’m usually getting pitched various tools and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional because I invested the last six months experimenting with different email and e-newsletter platforms to help develop my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some excellent alternatives for creating e-newsletters. Yet I could not discover one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The issue with several existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it very very easy to compose and send emails, and offers me devices that help me assess metrics and obtain more clients.
I think I have actually ultimately found the ideal tool.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it very easy to style, write, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous staff members at the renowned newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help makers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to finally go with it as my e-newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for quite some time now. I have actually postponed hard when it concerned finally releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie systems. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make sure numerous e-newsletter makers appreciate popular newsletters with numerous customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have great web content, tons of clients, and a creative referral program that permits them to get even extra customers.
So, I took place a search to figure out exactly how these large newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more customers? How do they develop a newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to answer all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this tool really understand newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the very first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer development.
Due to the fact that, any kind of designer knows, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) usually suggests utilizing several various tools to assist accomplish one goal– one system for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can obtain costly.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was complimentary to start utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material designer that wants a system that permits them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
The most successful e-newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or content creator, you should seriously taking into consideration checking out beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to get started and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you actually wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a great indication that people like reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a terrific platform made use of by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to obtain words out.
beehiiv also provides you a website similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own web site already, you can likewise make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site clients directly to your beehiiv email checklist. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit individuals to register for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to take advantage of different marketing channels to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Enroll in a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you accessibility to website hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, external embed types, and extra. It’s a really generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those trying to find a new system to move to).
Onboarding Make Money with Beehiiv
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then produce a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll also choose your brand design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have detailed information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin creating,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Assess.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot above), Begin creating is where you produce and release newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can see who your customers are (and break them down right into sectors), Grow 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 e-newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Assess 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 newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just beginning, and have a concept you intend to write about, I recommend just going to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Start creating”.
You can tweak your template and designing later on– focus on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and easy to use interface for composing.
As soon as you start writing, you can enhance headings, add web links, and style your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for different kinds of content like videos, web links, images, and much more.
The group at beehiiv is also regularly launching item feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a great deal much more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to design your email template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo design, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to first time customers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background colors, borders, spacing, font styles, image formats, and a lot more. I’m not going to experience ever before solitary thing you can optimize with your email template because it’s a whole lot. Just check out the platform free of charge and see it for yourself!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of impressive features that make it a fantastic publishing platform for any type of newsletter designer.
Below are several of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it super very easy to write and send e-mails. I stated above some of things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some added reading.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely among the better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) survive on a web site. Think about it as a web site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can register for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, including the free one, provide you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a custom domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or through embed forms.
If you already have a web site, and want people to register for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed type. This is what I make use of on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 different choices– a full size, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim embed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s also an option for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to forward UTM criteria for tracking functions– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I’m sure the group is servicing updates for these, but I discussed a few problems I had in the pros and cons area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your listing to ahead your emails to friends and coworkers and if they obtain other people to register for your checklist, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever form you desire. I’ve appear many e-newsletter companies offer 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 avenue for expanding your e-mail list.
Nevertheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to an extra superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this post.
Costs registrations
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription income is certainly a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” problems of your newsletter that are only sent out to paying clients. This can be really financially rewarding depending upon what your e-newsletter has to offer. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium e-newsletter that produces millions in earnings a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among the things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is exactly how tidy and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer count Make Money with Beehiiv.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that client count go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you whatever you need to get going and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom domain name, surveys, and accessibility to costs registrations. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with addition of concern support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly charitable in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 per month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit choice for many individuals.
I’m unsure how the unit economics work on this, yet beehiiv is definitely cheaper (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Naturally, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the pros and cons I have actually personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters free of cost.
Tidy and modern customer analytics.
Lots of flexibility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Produce costs options to monetize.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter system that has actually had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
Yet obviously, I don’t intend to be biased so I’m mosting likely to mention some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are some of the cons I’ve located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including customized typefaces.
I use Webflow as my website building platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I love Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow review if you wish to discover more.
Now, there really is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not like making use of iframe’s because they have a tendency to decrease my web site a little bit. Whenever a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s very recognizable when you’re on a slow-moving web connection. But I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can not make use of a normal Webflow form (which I love utilizing). There are means around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would certainly just include extra prices that I do not require. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con but I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the cons right here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will eventually develop a much better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a terrific option for anybody looking to study the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter system far exceeds numerous that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly inexpensive wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unheard of. 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 each month.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial blog posts typically. I just do when I really make use of the device myself and would certainly recommend it to a good friend.
I hope you found some clarity on whether beehiiv is a good platform for you.