Over two years back, I was reading among my favorite e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked it and promptly began wrecking Beehiiv Custom Pages.
I had not been sure why I really felt so psychological.
Being a full-time maker is difficult. I’m commonly getting pitched different devices and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I spent the last 6 months checking out various e-mail and e-newsletter platforms to aid construct my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic alternatives for composing newsletters. But I could not discover one that made me offer a precise “yes”.
The issue with many existing e-newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me fully tailor my newsletter designs, makes it super easy to write and send e-mails, and gives me tools that aid me analyze metrics and obtain more customers.
I assume I have actually finally discovered the best device.
Yet, I understand 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 system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it simple to layout, write, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the famous newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking lots of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this article, I’m going to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to finally go with it as my newsletter system of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I have actually watched for a modern-day e-newsletter platform for rather some time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it came to ultimately launching my newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie systems. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure several e-newsletter developers appreciate preferred newsletters with millions of customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I appreciated a whole lot. They have fantastic material, tons of clients, and a smart referral program that allows them to get back at much more clients.
So, I took place a hunt to find out exactly how these big e-newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they create an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer every one of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn the people that developed this device really comprehend e-newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I understood this was going to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator growth.
Since, any kind of creator understands, you require development to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And locating the ideal newsletter pile (that scales) commonly suggests using numerous various devices to assist attain one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to set up recommendations. It can obtain expensive.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was free to begin making use of, 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 enables them to send personalized newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media company, start-up, or material developer, you must seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to begin and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you in fact wind up having to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a great indication that individuals like reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a fantastic system utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your very own web site and use the system as your all-in-one option for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, more style flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also offers you an internet site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your own site already, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your site customers right to your beehiiv email listing. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to allow individuals to sign up for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to utilize various marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a great Substack alternative.
Exactly how to begin using beehiiv email marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you accessibility to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development modification, analytics, outside embed kinds, and much more. It’s a very charitable offering for those just starting out (or for those looking for a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Custom Pages
After developing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll also choose your brand colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your major control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined details on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start creating,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Evaluate.” And at the very lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot above), Start creating is where you develop and release e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your clients 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 ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and article 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 e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just beginning, and have a concept you intend to write about, I suggest just going to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking “Beginning writing”.
You can modify your template and styling later– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and easy to use user interface for composing.
As soon as you start composing, you can enhance headings, add web links, and style your web content exactly how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of choices for different sorts of material like videos, links, images, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise continuously launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a whole lot a lot more content features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to develop your email template and readjust some setups.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, give it a summary, add your logo, activate or off a welcome email to first time customers, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background colors, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, photo styles, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever solitary point you can maximize with your email template because it’s a great deal. Simply try out the platform absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of impressive features that make it a fantastic publishing platform for any e-newsletter maker.
Right here are some of the important features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting platform. It makes it super simple to compose and send out e-mails. I discussed over a few of the things you can do with your settings and email layout so I’ll save you some additional reading.
Things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely one of the much better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) reside on a web site. Think of it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where people can register for your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, including the cost-free one, provide you an internet site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a custom domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is very important. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter right from your beehiiv web site or with embed types.
If you already have a website, and want individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed type. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different options– a full size, a repaired width, and a slim embed. I directly utilize the slim embed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment monitoring if you want to ahead UTM criteria for tracking purposes– quite neat.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the group is working with updates for these, yet I mentioned a couple of concerns I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can motivate existing subscribers on your list to forward your e-mails to buddies and colleagues and if they get other people to register for your list, you can reward them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve appear lots of e-newsletter companies give incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– providing you an additional method for expanding your email checklist.
Nonetheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more premium plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this write-up.
Premium registrations
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription revenue is absolutely a beast of its very own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” problems of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be very rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to offer. For instance, Trends.co is a popular costs e-newsletter that generates millions in earnings a year simply by having pay-only newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among the things I love about beehiiv is just how clean and basic the analytics are. You get real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter Beehiiv Custom Pages.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to get going and grow your newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and access to costs memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you everything in the Grow plan with addition of priority support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my point of view.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit choice for many individuals.
I’m uncertain exactly how the device business economics deal with this, yet beehiiv is certainly less costly (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Certainly, with every system, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of selection:
Easy to set up and start sending e-newsletters free of cost.
Clean and modern-day client analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Produce premium options to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be honest, I haven’t seen one more newsletter system that has had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
Yet naturally, I do not wish to be biased so I’m going to discuss some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are some of the cons I have actually discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized typefaces.
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much detail why I like Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow review if you want to discover more.
Right now, there really is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site aside from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as using iframe’s since they have a tendency to reduce my internet site a bit. Every time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to fill on the web page. It’s very visible when you get on a slow-moving net link. However I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow form (which I love utilizing). There are ways around this by using a device like Zapier but that would simply add extra prices that I do not require. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the disadvantages here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is an excellent solution for any person seeking to dive into the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system far exceeds lots of that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather inexpensive for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t create review messages commonly. I just do when I actually make use of the tool myself and would advise it to a close friend.
I wish you found some quality on whether beehiiv is an excellent system for you.