Over 2 years ago, I was reading one of my favored email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked on it and promptly began wrecking Beehiiv Ashley’s Inner Circle.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent creator is difficult. I’m commonly obtaining pitched different tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological since I invested the last 6 months experimenting with different email and e-newsletter platforms to assist build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great options for writing newsletters. Yet I couldn’t find one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me completely tailor my newsletter styles, makes it incredibly easy to compose and send e-mails, and offers me devices that help me examine metrics and obtain more clients.
I assume I have actually finally located the appropriate device.
However, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it very easy to design, write, send out, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous employees at the renowned e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help creators launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this write-up, I’m mosting likely to discuss my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately choose it as my newsletter system of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary e-newsletter platform for quite time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it concerned lastly launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And lastly, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of e-newsletter makers respect preferred e-newsletters with countless customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have wonderful content, tons of subscribers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even much more subscribers.
So, I took place a search to determine exactly how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they develop an e-newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to answer every one of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that built this device really comprehend newsletter production and development.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the very first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator growth.
Since, any developer understands, you need development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right newsletter pile (that ranges) typically implies using multiple various devices to aid attain one goal– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to establish recommendations. It can obtain costly.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to start utilizing, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material developer that desires a platform that allows them to send custom newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most successful newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or material developer, you ought to seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to begin and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you really wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a good indicator that people enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a terrific platform utilized by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own website and use the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to obtain words out.
beehiiv also gives you a website similar to Substack. However, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can also make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site customers right to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to allow people to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage various marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack alternative.
Just how to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The initial step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you access to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, exterior embed forms, and a lot more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting out (or for those seeking a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Ashley’s Inner Circle
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise pick your brand colors and design to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
As soon as you reach your main control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have described details on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Start writing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Analyze.” And at the very lower you’ll see the settings option.
Dashboard is your primary control center (screenshot above), Begin creating is where you develop and publish newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your clients 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 design your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you want to cover, I advise just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start creating”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and user-friendly user interface for writing.
As soon as you start creating, you can optimize headings, include links, and style your content just how you like.
beehiiv offers you lots of choices for different kinds of web content like video clips, web links, pictures, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is likewise frequently releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a lot much more content features depending on when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your email template and adjust some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, give it a summary, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time customers, and more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify background colors, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, photo layouts, and much more. I’m not going to go through ever single point you can enhance with your email template because it’s a whole lot. Just try the platform free of charge and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it a fantastic posting platform for any type of newsletter developer.
Right here are a few of the crucial features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it extremely very easy to create and send out emails. I stated above some of the things you can do with your setups and e-mail style so I’ll save you some added reading.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely one of the far better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) live on an internet site. Think of it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, provide you an internet site. However, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a personalized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter straight from your beehiiv web site or via embed kinds.
If you currently have a website, and want individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three various options– a complete size, a taken care of size, and a slim embed. I personally use the slim embed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you want to ahead UTM parameters for tracking objectives– rather cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the group is servicing updates for these, however I mentioned a couple of worries I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your checklist to ahead your emails to friends and colleagues and if they obtain other people to register for your listing, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually seem lots of e-newsletter firms provide rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you one more avenue for expanding your e-mail listing.
Nevertheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to an extra exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this short article.
Costs memberships
They claim all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription profits is absolutely a beast of its own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be really lucrative depending on what your newsletter has to offer. For instance, Trends.co is a prominent costs newsletter that creates millions in income a year simply by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among the important things I like regarding beehiiv is exactly how clean and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count Beehiiv Ashley’s Inner Circle.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is really doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client matter go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (totally free) Launch plan gives you whatever you require to get started and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain name, polls, and accessibility to costs registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather generous in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 per month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for several users.
I’m uncertain just how the system economics service this, yet beehiiv is definitely cheaper (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters totally free.
Clean and contemporary client analytics.
Lots of adaptability with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Develop premium options to generate income from.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I have not seen one more newsletter platform that has actually been able to package all of these features together so well.
Yet obviously, I do not want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding customized fonts.
I use Webflow as my internet site building system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in way too much detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to learn more.
Now, there really is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site apart from using an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to decrease my site a bit. Every single time a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s very visible when you get on a sluggish internet connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow kind (which I love using). There are methods around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier however that would just add additional expenses that I do not need. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the disadvantages right here. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will eventually create a far better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Generally, beehiiv is a fantastic option for anybody looking to dive into the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform much surpasses numerous that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t create review posts commonly. I only do when I actually use the tool myself and would certainly recommend it to a good friend.
I hope you discovered some quality on whether beehiiv is a good system for you.