Over 2 years ago, I read one of my preferred email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and immediately began destroying Beehiiv Landing Page Builder.
I had not been certain why I felt so psychological.
Being a full-time creator is tough. I’m typically getting pitched various tools and services that do not appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional because I spent the last six months experimenting with various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to aid develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent choices for composing newsletters. However I could not find one that made me offer a certain “yes”.
The issue with lots of existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me fully tailor my newsletter styles, makes it incredibly easy to write and send emails, and gives me devices that aid me examine metrics and obtain more clients.
I think I have actually finally located the right tool.
However, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it easy to style, compose, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by former staff members at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help makers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m going to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to lastly opt for it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I have actually watched for a modern e-newsletter system for quite a long time currently. I’ve hesitated hard when it involved lastly introducing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up making use of beehiiv.
I make sure several e-newsletter creators respect popular newsletters with countless clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have terrific material, lots of clients, and a clever referral program that enables them to get even a lot more customers.
So, I went on a hunt to find out how these large newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more subscribers? How do they create an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to address all of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that developed this tool really comprehend newsletter creation and growth.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on maker growth.
Because, any kind of maker knows, you need growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right newsletter stack (that ranges) frequently suggests making use of multiple different tools to aid achieve one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one platform to establish referrals. It can get costly.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was 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 out custom-made newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
One of the most successful newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or content designer, you need to seriously taking into consideration checking out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you really end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a great indication that individuals enjoy reading 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 a great system utilized by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one service for sending emails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing clients to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also gives you a web site comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your own internet site currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your site subscribers directly to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to allow people to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to utilize various marketing networks to get your newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack option.
Just how to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Register for a free plan
The very first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you access to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, external embed types, and a lot more. It’s a really charitable offering for those simply starting out (or for those searching for a new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Landing Page Builder
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and more.
You’ll then produce a name and link for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise pick your brand name colors and design to ensure your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined information on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning composing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Assess.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your main control center (screenshot over), Start writing is where you create and release e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can watch who your clients are (and break them down into sectors), Grow 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, Layout is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of every one of your admin stuff.
Composing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you want to write about, I suggest just going to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later on– concentrate on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and straightforward interface for composing.
When you begin writing, you can maximize headings, add links, and style your content just how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for various sorts of content like video clips, web links, pictures, and more.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a great deal extra material features relying on when you read this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, give it a summary, add your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to very first time customers, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit history colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, picture styles, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before solitary point you can optimize with your e-mail template since it’s a whole lot. Just try out the platform absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of impressive features that make it a wonderful publishing system for any e-newsletter developer.
Here are a few of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly simple to create and send e-mails. I discussed over some of things you can do with your settings and email style so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
Things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly among the far better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive on a site. Consider it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and an area where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, provide you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or with embed types.
If you currently have an internet site, and want individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to make use of an embed kind. This is what I use on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different choices– a complete size, a repaired width, and a slim embed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you want to forward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– quite cool.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the group is dealing with updates for these, yet I stated a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a solution for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your list to forward your emails to close friends and coworkers and if they get other people to subscribe to your list, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually seem several e-newsletter business give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you one more opportunity for growing your email checklist.
Nonetheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more premium plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription income is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” issues of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be really lucrative relying on what your newsletter needs to provide. For example, Trends.co is a popular premium e-newsletter that produces millions in income a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of the things I like regarding beehiiv is exactly how tidy and basic the analytics are. You get real-time day on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer matter Beehiiv Landing Page Builder.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that client count go up is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to begin and grow your newsletter (up to 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain name, surveys, and access to costs registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly charitable in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit option for numerous individuals.
I’m not exactly sure how the unit business economics work with this, however beehiiv is absolutely less expensive (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Right here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to establish and start sending out e-newsletters absolutely free.
Tidy and modern-day client analytics.
Great deals of versatility with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Produce premium alternatives to monetize.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I have not seen another e-newsletter platform that has actually been able to package every one of these features with each other so well.
However obviously, I don’t intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the disadvantages I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom font styles.
I use Webflow as my internet site building system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive detail why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow evaluation if you want to discover more.
Right now, there truly is nothing else method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from making use of an iframe embed. I personally do not like making use of iframe’s since they tend to slow down my web site a little bit. Each time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up installed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s very noticeable when you’re on a slow-moving internet connection. Yet I can get around that.
The main gripe I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow kind (which I love using). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier however that would just include extra costs that I do not require. To be sincere, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much exceed the disadvantages right here. I’m additionally enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a far better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a fantastic option for anyone aiming to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system far outweighs numerous that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly affordable of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial posts frequently. I just do when I actually make use of the tool myself and would certainly advise it to a good friend.
I wish you discovered some clarity on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.