Over 2 years earlier, I was reading among my favored 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 quickly began wrecking Beehiiv Acceptable Use Policy.
I had not been certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full-time maker is tough. I’m usually getting pitched various tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional because I spent the last six months experimenting with different email and newsletter platforms to help build my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent choices for composing e-newsletters. But I could not discover one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The concern with many existing newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me completely customize my newsletter layouts, makes it extremely very easy to create and send e-mails, and offers me devices that help me examine metrics and get more customers.
I believe I have actually lastly discovered the ideal tool.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it very easy to design, compose, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by previous employees at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid developers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to lastly opt for it as my newsletter system of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually watched for a modern newsletter platform for rather some time now. I’ve put things off hard when it involved finally launching my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And finally, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain many newsletter designers respect popular newsletters with numerous clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have fantastic material, tons of clients, and a smart referral program that permits them to get back at extra clients.
So, I took place a search to figure out exactly how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more clients? How do they produce an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to answer all of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that developed this tool truly understand newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I understood this was going to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer development.
Since, any type of designer knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And locating the ideal e-newsletter stack (that scales) frequently suggests utilizing several different devices to aid achieve one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was complimentary to start using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content maker that wants a platform that permits them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most successful newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, startup, or content developer, you ought to seriously considering checking out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to begin and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent indication that people like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a terrific platform made use of by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your own site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv also gives you a web site similar to Substack. However, if you have your own internet site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your website customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to allow people to subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to leverage various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a terrific Substack alternative.
How to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software application.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you accessibility to site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advance customization, analytics, exterior embed types, and extra. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting (or for those seeking a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Acceptable Use Policy
After creating an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and extra.
You’ll then create a name and link for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your internet site link may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand colors and design to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
When you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will have described info on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start writing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Examine.” And at the really lower you’ll see the setups alternative.
Dashboard is your major nerve center (screenshot over), Beginning composing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Target market is where you can see who your clients are (and break them down right into segments), Grow is where you have accessibility 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 e-newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Analyze 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 start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you intend to cover, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and styling later on– focus on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a clean and user-friendly user interface for composing.
When you begin creating, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your material exactly how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of options for various types of material like videos, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise frequently launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot extra material features depending upon when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to make your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time subscribers, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify history colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, photo styles, and more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever solitary thing you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a whole lot. Simply try out the platform totally free and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of amazing features that make it a fantastic publishing system for any kind of e-newsletter maker.
Here are several of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it very simple to create and send e-mails. I discussed above a few of the important things you can do with your settings and email layout so I’ll spare you some extra analysis.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely among the better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive a website. Think of it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where people can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, provide you an internet site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a customized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is very important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or with embed kinds.
If you already have a website, and want individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to use 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 forms, you have three various alternatives– a full size, a taken care of size, and a slim embed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you want to ahead UTM specifications for tracking objectives– pretty cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make certain the group is dealing with updates for these, but I mentioned a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your checklist to ahead your emails to friends and coworkers and if they get other individuals to subscribe to your list, you can reward them. These benefits can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually seem several newsletter companies offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you an additional method for growing your email checklist.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more premium plan. I’ll look at all the plans later on in this short article.
Costs registrations
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership revenue is definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be very financially rewarding relying on what your newsletter needs to supply. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Information analytics
Among things I love about beehiiv is how clean and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Beehiiv Acceptable Use Policy.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that customer matter go up is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan provides you everything you require to begin and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and access to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are quite charitable in my point of view.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 per month. Instead of some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a terrific Kit alternative for lots of individuals.
I’m not exactly sure how the system economics deal with this, yet beehiiv is definitely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Of course, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Right here are a few of the pros and cons I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and start sending out e-newsletters free of cost.
Tidy and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Lots of adaptability with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Produce costs choices to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen another e-newsletter platform that has actually been able to package all of these features together so well.
Yet certainly, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m going to discuss some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are some of the cons I have actually located while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my internet site building system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long 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.
Today, there truly is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site other than using an iframe embed. I directly don’t such as utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to slow down my web site a little bit. Every single time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s really visible when you get on a slow net link. Yet I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a routine Webflow form (which I like utilizing). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier yet that would certainly just include additional expenses that I do not need. To be straightforward, 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 here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a far better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a great option for anybody aiming to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform much exceeds several that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you really have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather economical wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not create evaluation articles typically. I only do when I really utilize the device myself and would suggest it to a pal.
I wish you discovered some clearness on whether beehiiv is a great platform for you.