Over two years ago, I was reading among 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 it and instantaneously began tearing up Beehiiv Free Plan.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent developer is difficult. I’m frequently obtaining pitched different tools and services that do not appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional since I invested the last six months trying various email and e-newsletter platforms to help construct my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic options for creating newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me give a definite “yes”.
The concern with lots of existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me fully customize my e-newsletter designs, makes it incredibly simple to compose and send out e-mails, and provides me devices that aid me analyze metrics and obtain more clients.
I believe I have actually finally found the right tool.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact right 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 easy to design, compose, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by former staff members at the well-known e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help developers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly select it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day e-newsletter platform for quite some time now. I’ve put things off hard when it concerned ultimately launching my e-newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I wound up using beehiiv.
I’m sure many e-newsletter developers respect prominent e-newsletters with numerous clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have great web content, tons of subscribers, and a brilliant referral program that permits them to get even more customers.
So, I took place a hunt to identify how these big newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more customers? How do they produce an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this tool really understand e-newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the initial marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I recognized this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer development.
Because, any maker understands, you require growth to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And finding the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) usually indicates utilizing several different devices to assist achieve one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to establish references. It can obtain expensive.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these things in one system, and it was totally free to start using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material designer that wants a platform that permits them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or web content maker, you need to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s entirely free to get going and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you really wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a great sign that individuals love reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a terrific platform used by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you get your very own site and use the system as your all-in-one option for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv likewise offers you an internet site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own web site currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow people to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This gives you the flexibility to utilize various marketing channels to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack option.
Exactly how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advance personalization, analytics, outside embed types, and extra. It’s a really charitable offering for those just beginning (or for those seeking a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Free Plan
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and extra.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise choose your brand design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have described information on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Start writing,” “Articles,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Examine.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the setups choice.
Dashboard is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Beginning composing is where you produce and publish e-newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can see who your subscribers are (and break them down into sections), Grow is where you have accessibility 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 ads, Style is where you design your 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.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you want to discuss, I advise just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– focus on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and straightforward interface for creating.
When you begin writing, you can optimize headings, include web links, and design your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of alternatives for various types of web content like videos, web links, images, and more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise constantly releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot extra material features depending on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to design your e-mail template and adjust some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to very first time clients, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit background shades, borders, spacing, fonts, photo styles, and extra. I’m not going to experience ever single point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a great deal. Simply try the system for free and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it a terrific publishing system for any kind of e-newsletter developer.
Below are a few of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly simple to compose and send out e-mails. I pointed out above several of the things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll spare you some added analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly one of the better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) live on a website. Think about it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a location where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, including the cost-free one, offer you a site. However, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a customized domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is very important. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or with embed kinds.
If you already have a web site, and desire people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this internet site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 different options– a complete width, a repaired width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you want to forward UTM parameters for tracking purposes– rather neat.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make certain the group is servicing updates for these, yet I pointed out a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your list to onward your e-mails to close friends and coworkers and if they get other individuals to register for your listing, you can reward them. These benefits can be in whatever type you want. I have actually seem lots of newsletter business give incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you one more avenue for growing your email listing.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to an extra superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this post.
Premium memberships
They say all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership revenue is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be very profitable depending upon what your newsletter has to offer. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Information analytics
Among the things I love concerning beehiiv is exactly how clean and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter Beehiiv Free Plan.
You get access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that customer count rise is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you whatever you require to begin and grow your newsletter (up to 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, customized domain, surveys, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you whatever in the Grow plan with addition of concern support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for numerous individuals.
I’m uncertain just how the system economics deal with this, however beehiiv is definitely more affordable (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Of course, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Right here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
Easy to set up and start sending out newsletters for free.
Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Produce costs alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be sincere, I have not seen another newsletter platform that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
But of course, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m going to mention some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the disadvantages I’ve found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my site building platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I like Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow review if you wish to learn more.
Right now, there really is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I directly do not like utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to reduce my internet site a little bit. Whenever a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to pack on the page. It’s really visible when you get on a slow internet connection. However I can get around that.
The major gripe I have is that I can not make use of a routine Webflow kind (which I enjoy making use of). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would simply include added costs that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I thought I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far surpass the disadvantages below. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will eventually develop a better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
On the whole, beehiiv is an excellent remedy for anybody aiming to study the globe of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter platform much surpasses numerous that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather low-cost of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your listing 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 posts usually. I only do when I really use the device myself and would certainly recommend it to a friend.
I wish you discovered some quality on whether beehiiv is an excellent system for you.