Over two years earlier, I was reading among my preferred email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and instantly began wrecking Beehiiv Google Ads.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time creator is difficult. I’m usually obtaining pitched different tools and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological since I invested the last 6 months experimenting with various email and newsletter platforms to assist develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent alternatives for creating newsletters. However I couldn’t locate one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The problem with many existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it very simple to compose and send out emails, and provides me tools that aid me analyze metrics and obtain even more customers.
I think I have actually finally found the right tool.
But, I know beehiiv might 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 newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it easy to style, compose, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous staff members at the renowned e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this write-up, I’m mosting likely to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally select it as my newsletter platform of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for quite time currently. I have actually postponed hard when it concerned finally launching my newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain lots of newsletter developers appreciate popular e-newsletters with countless subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have great material, tons of subscribers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even extra subscribers.
So, I took place a quest to identify how these large e-newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce a newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to answer every one of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that developed this tool actually comprehend e-newsletter production and development.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the first marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my mind took off.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter system. One that’s focused on maker development.
Since, any kind of creator understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And locating the ideal e-newsletter stack (that scales) usually means making use of several different tools to assist achieve one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one platform to set up recommendations. It can obtain expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to start 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 system that allows them to send custom e-newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, startup, or content creator, you ought to seriously considering experimenting with beehiiv. It’s completely complimentary to get going and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your list.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a great indicator that individuals enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is an excellent platform utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own website and make use of the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv likewise gives you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your website clients directly to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to permit people to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to utilize various marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack option.
How to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you access to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, external embed forms, and much more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those just starting out (or for those seeking a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Google Ads
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying customers?”, and much more.
You’ll then develop a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have detailed details on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning writing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Assess.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot above), Start composing is where you produce and publish newsletters, Articles is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down right into segments), Expand is where you have access 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 newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just beginning, and have a concept you want to cover, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– concentrate on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and user-friendly user interface for writing.
When you start creating, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your content just how you like.
beehiiv gives you lots of options for various kinds of web content like videos, links, pictures, and more.
The group at beehiiv is also frequently launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will be a lot much more content features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to make your email template and adjust some setups.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, give it a summary, include your logo design, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time subscribers, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history shades, borders, spacing, fonts, photo styles, and more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before single point you can maximize with your email template because it’s a lot. Simply check out the platform completely free and see it on your own!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of remarkable features that make it an excellent publishing system for any kind of newsletter designer.
Below are several of the crucial features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it very very easy to compose and send out emails. I mentioned over several of the important things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some additional analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely one of the better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you desire) reside on a site. Consider it as a 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 subscribe to your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, give you a site. However, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a customized domain to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv internet site or through embed forms.
If you already have an internet site, and desire people to sign up for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to use an embed kind. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 different choices– a complete size, a dealt with size, and a slim embed. I directly utilize the slim installed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally a choice for attribution monitoring if you wish to forward UTM criteria for tracking purposes– rather cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make certain the group is dealing with updates for these, but I mentioned a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your listing to onward your e-mails to good friends and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to subscribe to your checklist, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve seem many e-newsletter companies offer benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– offering you one more avenue for expanding your email list.
Nevertheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a more superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs registrations
They state all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription earnings is most definitely a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying subscribers. This can be really lucrative depending on what your newsletter has to supply. For example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that generates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Information analytics
Among the things I love regarding beehiiv is exactly how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber matter Beehiiv Google Ads.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer matter go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan offers you whatever you need to get started and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain, surveys, and access to costs memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 each month. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 monthly for the same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for several individuals.
I’m not exactly sure how the unit business economics work on this, but beehiiv is most definitely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of the pros and cons 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 e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and start sending out newsletters free of charge.
Clean and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Create costs alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be truthful, I haven’t seen another newsletter system that has actually had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
But certainly, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m going to state some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are several of the cons I have actually located while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding personalized font styles.
I use Webflow as my internet site building platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I like Webflow a lot however you can review my Webflow evaluation if you wish to learn more.
Today, there really is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site besides making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not such as utilizing iframe’s since they often tend to slow down my web site a bit. Every time a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s extremely recognizable when you’re on a sluggish internet link. But I can navigate that.
The main gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow form (which I enjoy making use of). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would just include extra prices that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage however I thought I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far outweigh the cons right here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will ultimately create a better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a great service for any individual looking to dive into the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system much exceeds many that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally relatively low-cost of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t compose evaluation messages often. I only do when I in fact use the tool myself and would certainly recommend it to a close friend.
I wish you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great platform for you.