Over 2 years earlier, I read one of my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked it and immediately began tearing up Beehiiv Launch Plan.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so psychological.
Being a permanent maker is difficult. I’m frequently obtaining pitched different tools and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional because I invested the last six months trying various email and newsletter platforms to help construct my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some excellent alternatives for creating newsletters. However I couldn’t find one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The problem with many existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me totally personalize my e-newsletter styles, makes it extremely easy to write and send out e-mails, and gives me devices that help me evaluate metrics and get more customers.
I assume I’ve finally discovered the ideal tool.
But, I know beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it very easy to style, create, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous workers at the renowned newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid developers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of development 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 enjoy (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to ultimately opt for it as my e-newsletter platform of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I have actually been on the lookout for a contemporary newsletter platform for rather a long time currently. I’ve procrastinated hard when it came to ultimately introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain several e-newsletter makers respect preferred e-newsletters with countless subscribers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a great deal. They have fantastic material, lots of clients, and a smart referral program that allows them to get back at much more subscribers.
So, I took place a hunt to determine how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce a newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to respond to every one of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn the people that constructed this tool actually comprehend newsletter production and development.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the very first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator development.
Because, any type of developer knows, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the best newsletter pile (that ranges) commonly suggests using numerous different tools to assist attain one objective– one system for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to establish referrals. It can get costly.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to start using, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content designer that desires a platform that allows them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
One of the most successful newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or material developer, you should seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to begin and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you really end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly an excellent indicator that individuals enjoy reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is an excellent platform made use of by countless independent writers. With Substack you get your very own web site and use the platform as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while developing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally provides you a site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own web site currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your site clients straight to your beehiiv email listing. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to allow individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to take advantage of different marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you access to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, external embed kinds, and much more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those looking for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Launch Plan
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying clients?”, and extra.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also pick your brand design and colors to make sure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
When you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have described information on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning writing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Evaluate.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot above), Start composing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your customers are (and break them down right into segments), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with ads, Layout is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of all of your admin things.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I advise just mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Beginning creating”.
You can fine-tune your template and styling later– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and easy to use user interface for creating.
As soon as you start composing, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your content just how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of alternatives for different kinds of content like video clips, web links, images, and more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally constantly releasing item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot extra content features depending upon when you read this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your email template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome e-mail to very first time customers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit background colors, borders, spacing, fonts, picture formats, and much more. I’m not going to experience ever before single point you can optimize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a whole lot. Simply check out the system free of charge and see it on your own!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it a wonderful publishing platform for any newsletter developer.
Right here are several of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it super simple to compose and send out emails. I pointed out above some of the things you can do with your setups and email design so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely among the better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Web site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive on an internet site. Consider it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your newsletter, and an area where individuals can register for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, provide you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan places your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom domain name to eliminate 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 via embed kinds.
If you already have a web site, and want individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have three different alternatives– a complete width, a dealt with width, and a slim embed. I directly make use of the slim embed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for attribution tracking if you want to onward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– quite cool.
However, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make sure the group is servicing updates for these, however I discussed a couple of worries I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is an option for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your checklist to forward your e-mails to pals and associates and if they obtain other individuals to sign up for your listing, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually appear numerous e-newsletter business give benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– offering you one more avenue for expanding your email listing.
Nevertheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this post.
Premium memberships
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription earnings is definitely 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” problems of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying clients. This can be very financially rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to use. As an example, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
Among things I love regarding beehiiv is how tidy and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer count Beehiiv Launch Plan.
You get access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye sight on exactly how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan offers you everything you require to get going and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, customized domain name, polls, and accessibility to costs memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly charitable in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 monthly for the same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit alternative for several customers.
I’m uncertain just how the system economics service this, however beehiiv is absolutely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Of course, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Below are several of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to establish and begin sending e-newsletters free of cost.
Clean and modern-day customer analytics.
Lots of adaptability with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Produce premium choices to monetize.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter system that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
Yet naturally, I don’t wish to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages I have actually found while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made typefaces.
I use Webflow as my website building system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much detail why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow testimonial if you ‘d like to learn more.
Right now, there actually is nothing else method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site aside from using an iframe embed. I personally don’t like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to decrease my website a bit. Whenever a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s very visible when you’re on a slow-moving internet connection. But I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow form (which I love using). There are methods around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would just add added prices that I do not require. To be honest, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage but I believed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the cons right here. I’m also confident that Webflow will ultimately produce a much better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is a great option for any individual aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far outweighs numerous that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather economical for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I do not create testimonial blog posts commonly. I only do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would certainly recommend it to a good friend.
I wish you found some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a good platform for you.