Over two years ago, I was reading one of my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked on it and instantly began tearing up Beehiiv Benefits.
I had not been certain why I felt so psychological.
Being a full time designer is difficult. I’m often obtaining pitched various tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological since I spent the last 6 months checking out various e-mail and e-newsletter platforms to help build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful alternatives for composing e-newsletters. However I couldn’t find one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The problem with many existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me fully customize my newsletter styles, makes it super easy to write and send out e-mails, and gives me tools that aid me analyze metrics and get more customers.
I believe I’ve ultimately found the ideal tool.
However, I know beehiiv might 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 system that makes it simple to design, create, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the renowned newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid creators launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m going to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately select it as my e-newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I have actually watched for a contemporary e-newsletter platform for quite time currently. I’ve put things off hard when it involved ultimately releasing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I ended up using beehiiv.
I’m sure several e-newsletter designers respect prominent newsletters with countless customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have excellent material, tons of subscribers, and a smart referral program that enables them to get back at extra customers.
So, I went on a hunt to identify how these large e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to address all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this device truly recognize e-newsletter development and growth.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator development.
Due to the fact that, any type of designer recognizes, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And finding the right newsletter pile (that scales) typically means utilizing several various devices to aid attain one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to set up recommendations. It can get expensive.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these things in one system, and it was free to begin using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material designer that desires a system that permits them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media business, startup, or content designer, you ought to seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a great sign that individuals like reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a great system used by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your own site and utilize the system as your all-in-one service for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing clients to obtain words out.
beehiiv additionally offers you a web site comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your own site currently, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your web site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to allow people to sign up for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to leverage different marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a great Substack option.
How to begin making use of beehiiv email marketing software program.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you accessibility to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advance personalization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and extra. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those just beginning (or for those trying to find a brand-new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Benefits
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll also pick your brand name design and colors to make sure your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
When you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined information on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning writing,” “Articles,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Examine.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your primary nerve center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you produce and release newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down right 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 e-newsletter with ads, Style is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage every one of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting, and have a concept you wish to discuss, I advise just going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Begin composing”.
You can modify your template and designing later– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and easy to use interface for writing.
Once you begin composing, you can maximize headings, add links, and design your content how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for different types of material like video clips, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise constantly releasing item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot extra material features depending on when you read this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to make your e-mail template and change some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, give it a description, include your logo, turn on 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 design.
You can modify history shades, borders, spacing, fonts, picture layouts, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever solitary point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a great deal. Simply check out the system for free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of incredible features that make it a wonderful posting platform for any type of newsletter designer.
Right here are several of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it very simple to compose and send e-mails. I discussed over a few of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll spare you some added analysis.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely among the better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you desire) reside on an internet site. Think of it as a site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your newsletter, and a location 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. Nevertheless, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a customized domain to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining clients is very important. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv site or via embed types.
If you currently have an internet site, and desire individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to make use of an embed form. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 different alternatives– a complete width, a fixed width, and a slim embed. I directly utilize the slim installed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise an alternative for attribution tracking if you wish to onward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– rather neat.
However, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make sure the group is servicing updates for these, yet I pointed out a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a remedy for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your list to ahead your e-mails to good friends and associates and if they get other individuals to sign up for your list, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve seem several newsletter companies give benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your customers right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– giving you one more avenue for expanding your e-mail listing.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a more superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this short article.
Premium subscriptions
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription profits is most definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your newsletter that are only sent out to paying clients. This can be extremely profitable relying on what your e-newsletter needs to provide. As an example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among the important things I love about beehiiv is exactly how clean and easy the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber matter Beehiiv Benefits.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is really doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count increase is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan provides you whatever you require to get started and expand your e-newsletter (approximately 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, custom-made domain, surveys, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with addition of priority support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for lots of individuals.
I’m unsure how the unit business economics work with this, but beehiiv is certainly less costly (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the pros and cons I’ve personally experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters free of charge.
Tidy and contemporary client analytics.
Lots of flexibility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Create costs alternatives to monetize.
Polls.
To be honest, I haven’t seen an additional newsletter platform that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But of course, I don’t want to be biased so I’m going to mention some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the disadvantages I have actually found while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made typefaces.
I make use of Webflow as my web site structure system of option (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to enter excessive detail why I enjoy Webflow so much but you can read my Webflow testimonial if you ‘d like to learn more.
Now, there actually is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally don’t like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to reduce my website a bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s really recognizable when you’re on a slow-moving web connection. But I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not use a regular Webflow type (which I love making use of). There are methods around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would certainly just include extra expenses that I do not require. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage but I assumed I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far outweigh the cons below. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will ultimately produce a far better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Generally, beehiiv is a terrific solution for any individual aiming to study the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system much outweighs lots of that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather low-cost of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your listing is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not create evaluation blog posts typically. I only do when I really make use of the device myself and would certainly suggest it to a close friend.
I hope you found some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.