Over two years back, I read one of my favored email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and promptly started wrecking Beehiiv Inbox.
I had not been certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent designer is tough. I’m frequently getting pitched various tools and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional due to the fact that I invested the last six months experimenting with different email and e-newsletter systems to aid construct my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great options for creating e-newsletters. However I could not discover one that made me give a definite “yes”.
The problem with several existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally personalize my e-newsletter styles, makes it super very easy to compose and send out e-mails, and offers me devices that assist me analyze metrics and get more customers.
I think I have actually ultimately found the best tool.
Yet, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it easy to layout, write, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by former employees at the popular newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist designers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately select it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter platform for fairly time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it came to ultimately releasing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of newsletter designers appreciate popular newsletters with numerous subscribers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a whole lot. They have fantastic content, lots of customers, and a smart referral program that enables them to get back at much more customers.
So, I took place a hunt to identify exactly how these large newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more clients? How do they develop an e-newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to address every one of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn the people that constructed this tool really recognize e-newsletter creation and development.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Due to the fact that, any type of maker knows, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the right e-newsletter pile (that scales) often means making use of several various devices to aid accomplish one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to establish recommendations. It can obtain expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was totally 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 content designer that desires a system that enables them to send out customized e-newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most successful newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, startup, or web content maker, you ought to seriously considering experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely complimentary to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a good indication that individuals enjoy reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a terrific system utilized by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your own site and utilize the system as your all-in-one option for sending e-mails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also offers you a web site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your very own site already, you can also make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I make use of) to send your site subscribers right to your beehiiv email list. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the adaptability to leverage various marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack choice.
Just how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Sign up for a free plan
The primary step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you accessibility to site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, external embed kinds, and much more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply starting (or for those searching for a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Inbox
After developing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying subscribers?”, and much more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally select your brand name design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your main control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have described information on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning writing,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Evaluate.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot over), Beginning composing is where you create and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your customers are (and break 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 advertisements, Layout is where you create your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin stuff.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting, and have an idea you intend to cover, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– focus on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and easy to use interface for composing.
As soon as you start writing, you can optimize headings, add web links, and style your material just how you like.
beehiiv gives you tons of choices for various kinds of web content like video clips, web links, pictures, and more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally frequently releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a great deal more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to make your email template and adjust some settings.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, give it a summary, add your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to first time clients, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background shades, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, photo styles, and a lot more. I’m not going to go through ever single point you can optimize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Simply check out the system free of charge and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a great publishing system for any kind of newsletter maker.
Below are several of the important features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it very easy to compose and send emails. I stated above several of things you can do with your settings and email layout so I’ll spare you some added analysis.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely one of the better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a site. Think about it as a site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and an area where people can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a custom domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv site or through embed kinds.
If you already have an internet site, and desire individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to use an embed type. This is what I make use of on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 various options– a full size, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I directly utilize the slim embed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s also an option for attribution monitoring if you want to onward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– rather neat.
However, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the team is working with updates for these, however I pointed out a few issues I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your listing to ahead your e-mails to good friends and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to sign up for your listing, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever form you want. I’ve seem several newsletter business offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– giving you one more opportunity for expanding your email list.
Nonetheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this short article.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Membership profits is definitely a monster of its own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” issues of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be really financially rewarding depending upon what your newsletter needs to offer. As an example, Trends.co is a prominent costs newsletter that generates millions in earnings a year merely by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Information analytics
One of things I like 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 count Beehiiv Inbox.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on just how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan provides you every little thing you need to get going and grow your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 per month for the very same quantity– making beehiiv an excellent Kit option for numerous users.
I’m uncertain how the unit economics work with this, however beehiiv is most definitely less costly (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve personally experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to establish and start sending newsletters totally free.
Clean and modern-day client analytics.
Lots of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Produce premium alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I have not seen an additional newsletter platform that has had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
Yet obviously, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the cons I have actually discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made fonts.
I make use of Webflow as my site structure system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to enter too much information why I love Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow review if you want to find out more.
Today, there actually is no other means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site other than making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not such as utilizing iframe’s because they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Every time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you’re on a slow net link. Yet I can get around that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a normal Webflow form (which I enjoy using). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier however that would simply include added expenses that I do not need. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the cons below. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will eventually develop a much better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is a great solution for any individual looking to study the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far exceeds several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively economical of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist 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 right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I do not create review articles frequently. I just do when I in fact utilize the device myself and would recommend it to a close friend.
I hope you discovered some clarity on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.