Over two years earlier, I read one of my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and immediately began wrecking Beehiiv Newsletter XP.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so psychological.
Being a full time maker is difficult. I’m often getting pitched different tools and services that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional due to the fact that I invested the last six months trying out various email and newsletter systems to assist develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful options for creating e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a precise “yes”.
The problem with several existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me fully customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it super simple to compose and send out e-mails, and offers me tools that help me examine metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I think I have actually finally discovered the best device.
However, I understand beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it easy to design, compose, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous employees at the well-known newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help developers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this post, I’m going to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to lastly select it as my newsletter system of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve watched for a modern newsletter platform for fairly time now. I have actually postponed hard when it involved lastly introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous e-newsletter developers appreciate preferred e-newsletters with numerous customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a lot. They have excellent web content, tons of subscribers, and a smart referral program that enables them to get back at a lot more customers.
So, I went on a hunt to find out exactly how these big newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they produce a newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to respond to all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this tool really comprehend newsletter development and development.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the first marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I recognized this was going to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on designer growth.
Since, any type of creator understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right newsletter stack (that ranges) usually implies making use of numerous various tools to help achieve one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was cost-free to start using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content designer that wants a system that allows them to send out customized newsletters with or without needing to have a website.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or material designer, you should seriously considering experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely free to begin and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you actually wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent sign that individuals like reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a fantastic platform made use of by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own internet site and utilize the system as your all-in-one option for sending e-mails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing clients to get the word out.
beehiiv additionally gives you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own internet site currently, you can also make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site customers straight to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to utilize various marketing channels to get your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack option.
Just how to start utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement customization, analytics, outside embed types, and much more. It’s a very generous offering for those just starting out (or for those trying to find a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Newsletter XP
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then develop a name and link for your e-newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise pick your brand design and colors to make sure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning writing,” “Articles,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Assess.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot above), Beginning writing is where you develop and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can see who your customers are (and damage them down into segments), Expand 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 e-newsletter with ads, Design is where you design your newsletter landing page and post template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting, and have a concept you wish to blog about, I suggest just going to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin composing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and user-friendly user interface for creating.
When you begin creating, you can optimize headings, include web links, and design your content just how you like.
beehiiv gives you tons of options for various sorts of web content like videos, web links, pictures, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally constantly releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a great deal more content features depending on when you read this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and change some setups.
Here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo design, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time subscribers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify history colors, borders, spacing, font styles, picture formats, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary thing you can optimize with your e-mail template since it’s a great deal. Just try the platform for free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of amazing features that make it a fantastic posting platform for any newsletter developer.
Right here are several of the necessary features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it very easy to compose and send e-mails. I mentioned above some of the things you can do with your settings and e-mail style so I’ll spare you some added reading.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely among the better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive a website. Think about it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where individuals can register for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, including the totally free one, offer you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include 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. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a web site, and want individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three different alternatives– a complete width, a fixed size, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can find the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s also an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to onward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the team is servicing updates for these, but I stated a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a service for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your listing to forward your emails to good friends and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to sign up for your checklist, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you desire. I have actually seem many 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 e-newsletter– providing you another avenue for growing your email list.
Nevertheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more superior plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this article.
Premium memberships
They state all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration income is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” issues of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be really financially rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to supply. For example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
One of the important things I like concerning beehiiv is how tidy and basic the analytics are. You get real-time date on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Beehiiv Newsletter XP.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on exactly how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client matter rise is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you everything you need to start and expand your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain, polls, and access to costs registrations. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 each month. In contrast to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 monthly for the very same quantity– making beehiiv an excellent Kit option for lots of users.
I’m uncertain how the system economics work on this, however beehiiv is definitely more affordable (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Naturally, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are several of the pros and cons I’ve personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of selection:
Easy to establish and start sending newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Lots of adaptability with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Produce premium alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be honest, I have not seen one more e-newsletter system that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
However obviously, I don’t want to be biased so I’m going to mention some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are several of the disadvantages I have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding customized font styles.
I make use of Webflow as my website building platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in way too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow testimonial if you wish to discover more.
Today, there actually is no other means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I directly do not like using iframe’s because they often tend to slow down my website a little bit. Whenever a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you get on a sluggish net connection. However I can get around that.
The major complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a regular Webflow form (which I like using). There are methods around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly just add additional costs that I don’t require. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con yet I assumed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much outweigh the disadvantages here. I’m likewise hopeful that Webflow will at some point create a far better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Generally, beehiiv is a terrific service for anybody seeking to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform much exceeds many that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively low-cost for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your listing is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t write evaluation blog posts frequently. I just do when I really use the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a buddy.
I hope you found some clarity on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.