Over 2 years ago, I read one of my preferred email 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 quickly started wrecking Beehiiv Email Templates.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so psychological.
Being a full-time designer is difficult. I’m usually getting pitched various devices and services that do not appear to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological due to the fact that I spent the last 6 months trying out various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to help construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific options for writing e-newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The issue with many existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally customize my newsletter layouts, makes it very very easy to compose and send e-mails, and gives me tools that aid me assess metrics and obtain more clients.
I believe I’ve lastly discovered the best tool.
However, I understand beehiiv may not be for everyone. 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 e-newsletter system that makes it simple to style, compose, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous employees at the popular e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist makers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this write-up, I’m mosting likely to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to finally opt for it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I have actually watched for a modern e-newsletter platform for quite time currently. I have actually put things off hard when it came to ultimately introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain numerous e-newsletter designers appreciate preferred e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a lot. They have terrific material, lots of clients, and a creative referral program that enables them to get back at more subscribers.
So, I went on a quest to figure out exactly how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they create an e-newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to respond to every one of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that built this device really understand e-newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the first marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Since, any creator understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the right e-newsletter stack (that ranges) typically means utilizing numerous different devices to aid achieve one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get costly.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was totally free to start using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that desires a system that enables them to send customized e-newsletters with or without needing to have a website.
The most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media company, start-up, or content creator, you need to seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely cost-free to get going and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you actually wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a good indication that individuals enjoy reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent system used by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own site and make use of the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending emails (while creating an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also gives you a site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site already, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your internet site clients directly to your beehiiv email list. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit individuals to sign up for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to take advantage of various marketing channels to get your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a terrific Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, exterior embed forms, and extra. It’s a really charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those searching for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Email Templates
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your first e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and extra.
You’ll then produce a name and link for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand name colors and design to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed details on how many sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Start composing,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Analyze.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Begin creating is where you produce and release newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your subscribers are (and damage them down right into sectors), 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 ads, Layout is where you develop your newsletter landing page and message template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you want to blog about, I advise simply going to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking on “Start composing”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and user-friendly user interface for composing.
When you begin creating, you can maximize headings, add links, and design your content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of options for different types of content like video clips, web links, photos, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally continuously releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot much more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your email template and adjust some settings.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify history colors, boundaries, spacing, fonts, photo formats, and more. I’m not going to go through ever solitary thing you can optimize with your e-mail template since it’s a great deal. Just try out the system totally free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a terrific publishing system for any newsletter maker.
Below are some of the necessary features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it incredibly simple to compose and send emails. I pointed out over a few of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some additional analysis.
Things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely one of the better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) reside on a site. Consider it as a web site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a place where individuals can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, offer you a site. Nevertheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is essential. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your newsletter right from your beehiiv internet site or with embed types.
If you already have a website, and desire people to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed form. This is what I make use of on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different choices– a complete size, a taken care of size, and a slim installed. I personally utilize the slim embed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you want to onward UTM criteria for tracking objectives– pretty cool.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make certain the team is working on updates for these, yet I discussed a couple of worries I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a service for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your list to forward your e-mails to buddies and associates and if they get other individuals to register for your listing, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever type you want. I’ve seem lots of e-newsletter firms offer rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– providing you an additional avenue for growing your e-mail list.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to an extra exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this write-up.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription revenue is definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying clients. This can be really profitable depending upon what your newsletter has to offer. For example, Trends.co is a preferred premium newsletter that creates millions in income a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Information analytics
One of things I enjoy about beehiiv is how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer count Beehiiv Email Templates.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on just how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to get going and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain, polls, and access to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite charitable in my viewpoint.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for several users.
I’m not exactly sure just how the device economics work with this, yet beehiiv is definitely more affordable (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Here are several of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of option:
Easy to set up and begin sending e-newsletters totally free.
Clean and contemporary customer analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Develop premium options to monetize.
Surveys.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen another e-newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
But obviously, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m going to state some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the cons I’ve located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom fonts.
I make use of Webflow as my internet site structure platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in way too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow review if you ‘d like to find out more.
Now, there truly is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow website besides making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not like using iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to slow down my web site a bit. Whenever a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to pack on the page. It’s really noticeable when you get on a sluggish internet link. But I can get around that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not utilize a routine Webflow form (which I enjoy making use of). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier but that would simply add additional expenses that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I thought I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far outweigh the cons right here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point produce a better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a terrific solution for anybody seeking to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system far surpasses several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not compose review messages typically. I just do when I really use the device myself and would certainly advise it to a close friend.
I wish you discovered some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.