Over two years ago, I was reading among my preferred email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked it and instantaneously began wrecking Beehiiv N8N.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so psychological.
Being a full time maker is tough. I’m typically obtaining pitched different devices and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last 6 months experimenting with different email and newsletter platforms to aid construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent alternatives for writing newsletters. However I couldn’t locate one that made me offer a precise “yes”.
The issue with lots of existing newsletter systems is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me completely customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it super easy to compose and send out e-mails, and provides me tools that aid me analyze metrics and obtain even more clients.
I assume I’ve ultimately found the ideal tool.
However, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it very easy to design, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous staff members at the popular e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid designers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately opt for it as my newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter system for quite some time currently. I have actually hesitated hard when it involved lastly releasing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I wound up using beehiiv.
I make sure lots of e-newsletter creators appreciate prominent newsletters with millions of clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I appreciated a whole lot. They have terrific web content, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that allows them to get back at more subscribers.
So, I went on a hunt to find out just how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What platform 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 a newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to answer all of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device actually recognize e-newsletter development and growth.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I knew this was going to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on developer growth.
Because, any kind of maker recognizes, you require growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the best newsletter stack (that ranges) usually suggests using multiple various devices to aid achieve one objective– one system for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to set up referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was cost-free to begin utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that desires a system that permits them to send personalized newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, startup, or material developer, you must seriously thinking about trying beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to begin and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you actually end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indicator that people like reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful system utilized by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own website and utilize the platform as your all-in-one option for sending out e-mails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv also provides you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own site already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your website clients directly to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to allow individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to utilize different marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack choice.
Just how to start making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you accessibility to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and much more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those just starting (or for those seeking a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv N8N
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your first e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally choose your brand design and colors to ensure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
When you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have outlined information on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning writing,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Assess.” And at the really lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you create and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can watch who your customers are (and break them down right into sectors), Grow is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with ads, Style is where you make your newsletter landing page and article template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of all of your admin things.
Composing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you intend to write about, I advise simply going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Start composing”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use user interface for writing.
Once you begin writing, you can enhance headings, add links, and design your material how you such as.
beehiiv gives you tons of alternatives for different sorts of web content like videos, links, images, and extra.
The team at beehiiv is also frequently releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a whole lot much more content features relying on when you read this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to create your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to first time customers, and more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify history colors, borders, spacing, font styles, photo layouts, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever single point you can optimize with your email template because it’s a great deal. Just check out the system totally free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of remarkable features that make it a great posting system for any newsletter creator.
Right here are a few of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it super simple to write and send e-mails. I stated over some of things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some added reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely one of the much better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) reside on a web site. Consider it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your newsletter, and an area where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the complimentary one, offer you an internet site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a customized domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is necessary. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv site or via embed forms.
If you already have a website, and want individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed type. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various options– a full width, a taken care of width, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can locate the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an option for attribution monitoring if you intend to ahead UTM specifications for tracking purposes– pretty cool.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make certain the group is dealing with updates for these, however I discussed a few issues I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is an option for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your checklist to forward your emails to buddies and coworkers and if they get other individuals to register for your listing, you can reward them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I have actually seem several newsletter business offer benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your subscribers right into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you another method for growing your email list.
However, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this write-up.
Premium registrations
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription earnings is absolutely a beast of its own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” problems of your newsletter that are only sent out to paying customers. This can be very financially rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a prominent premium e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
One of the things I love about beehiiv is just how clean and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber matter Beehiiv N8N.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that customer matter rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan provides you everything you require to begin and expand your newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain, surveys, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 each month. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit choice for lots of customers.
I’m uncertain just how the system business economics service this, yet beehiiv is most definitely cheaper (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are several of the pros and cons I’ve directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of selection:
Easy to set up and begin sending out e-newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Lots of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Create premium alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be sincere, I have not seen an additional newsletter platform that has been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
But of course, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are several of the cons I have actually located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made typefaces.
I use Webflow as my site building platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to enter way too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to discover more.
Today, there really is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site aside from using an iframe embed. I directly don’t such as making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Each time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s extremely visible when you get on a slow-moving web connection. But I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can not make use of a routine Webflow type (which I like utilizing). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly simply include additional costs that I do not need. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I thought I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far exceed the cons right here. I’m likewise hopeful that Webflow will eventually produce a much better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Generally, beehiiv is a terrific remedy for anybody seeking to dive into the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system much exceeds lots of that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly affordable wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your listing is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial posts commonly. I just do when I actually make use of the tool myself and would recommend it to a buddy.
I wish you found some clarity on whether beehiiv is a great platform for you.