Over two years earlier, I was reading among my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and quickly started tearing up Beehiiv Integrations.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time designer is tough. I’m usually getting pitched different devices and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was psychological due to the fact that I spent the last six months checking out different e-mail and newsletter systems to help develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some great choices for writing newsletters. However I couldn’t discover one that made me provide a guaranteed “yes”.
The concern with several existing e-newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me completely customize my e-newsletter designs, makes it super simple to create and send emails, and provides me devices that assist me analyze metrics and get more customers.
I think I have actually lastly found the ideal device.
Yet, I understand beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it very easy to style, create, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the popular e-newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid developers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to lastly go with it as my e-newsletter platform of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern newsletter system for rather time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it came to lastly releasing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie systems. After that, Substack. And lastly, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of newsletter developers look up to prominent e-newsletters with millions of customers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have wonderful content, lots of subscribers, and a creative referral program that permits them to get even much more subscribers.
So, I went on a quest to identify just how these large newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to all of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this tool truly recognize newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I recognized this was going to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on creator growth.
Since, any type of designer knows, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the appropriate newsletter stack (that ranges) usually implies utilizing several different tools to assist attain one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, 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 web content maker that desires a system that allows them to send custom-made e-newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most successful newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or web content creator, you need to seriously taking into consideration checking out beehiiv. It’s absolutely complimentary to get started and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you in fact end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indicator that people like reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is an excellent system made use of by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your own internet site and use the system as your all-in-one option for sending out emails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a web site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your own website currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your web site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to enable individuals to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to utilize various marketing networks to get your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a terrific Substack option.
Just how to start using beehiiv email marketing software application.
Sign up for a free plan
The first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, exterior embed forms, and a lot more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting (or for those looking for a brand-new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Integrations
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand name colors and design to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
When you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have detailed details on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin writing,” “Messages,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Analyze.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your main nerve center (screenshot above), Beginning writing is where you produce and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can watch who your subscribers are (and break them down into segments), Expand 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 newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin writing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have a concept you intend to write about, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later on– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward interface for writing.
Once you start creating, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your material how you such as.
beehiiv gives you tons of alternatives for various types of material like video clips, links, pictures, and more.
The team at beehiiv is also constantly releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot a lot more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to develop your email template and adjust some settings.
Below, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome email to very first time customers, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history colors, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture formats, and more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever single thing you can optimize with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the system completely free and see it for yourself!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a great posting system for any e-newsletter maker.
Right here are some of the vital features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it very simple to write and send emails. I stated over some of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll save you some added reading.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely one of the far better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive on a website. Consider it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and an area where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, provide you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a personalized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is essential. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv website or with embed forms.
If you already have a website, and want people to register for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I use 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 three different options– a full width, a taken care of width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim installed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to ahead UTM parameters for tracking purposes– pretty neat.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the team is servicing updates for these, yet I stated a few issues I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your list to ahead your e-mails to buddies and colleagues and if they obtain other individuals to sign up for your list, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually seem numerous newsletter firms offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you one more method for growing your email list.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Registration earnings is definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent to paying customers. This can be extremely lucrative depending on what your e-newsletter needs to supply. For instance, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that produces millions in profits a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among things I love about beehiiv is exactly how clean and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer count Beehiiv Integrations.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter go up is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you whatever you require to get going and grow your newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom domain name, surveys, and access to costs registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly charitable in my viewpoint.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 monthly. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for several users.
I’m uncertain just how the system economics work with this, but beehiiv is definitely less costly (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are a few of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right 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 absolutely free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Create costs choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen an additional newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
But naturally, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m going to discuss some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the disadvantages I’ve found while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding personalized fonts.
I make use of Webflow as my internet site building platform of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I love Webflow a lot however you can review my Webflow testimonial if you wish to learn more.
Now, there actually is nothing else way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site besides utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not like making use of iframe’s since they have a tendency to reduce my site a bit. Each time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to pack on the web page. It’s very noticeable when you’re on a sluggish internet link. However I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can not utilize a routine Webflow kind (which I love using). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would just include added costs that I do not require. To be honest, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I thought I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much exceed the disadvantages here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will ultimately create a far better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
On the whole, beehiiv is a terrific solution for anybody seeking to study the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter platform far exceeds several that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly cheap of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t create review messages frequently. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would certainly advise it to a good friend.
I wish you located some clarity on whether beehiiv is a great platform for you.