Over 2 years back, I was reading among my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked on it and promptly started tearing up Beehiiv OpenSea.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a full time developer is difficult. I’m commonly getting pitched different tools and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I invested the last six months trying various email and e-newsletter systems to help develop my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some fantastic choices for writing newsletters. Yet I could not discover one that made me offer a guaranteed “yes”.
The concern with many existing newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my e-newsletter layouts, makes it very very easy to compose and send e-mails, and offers me tools that help me assess metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I believe I have actually finally found the right tool.
But, I know beehiiv might not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it easy to design, create, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by previous employees at the renowned e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to finally select it as my e-newsletter system of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a contemporary e-newsletter system for rather a long time currently. I’ve procrastinated hard when it involved finally introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain lots of newsletter creators respect prominent newsletters with numerous customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have excellent web content, lots of clients, and a smart referral program that enables them to get even a lot more clients.
So, I went on a search to determine how these big newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they produce an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to answer every one of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that constructed this tool truly understand newsletter development and growth.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Due to the fact that, any type of creator understands, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the ideal e-newsletter pile (that ranges) often suggests utilizing multiple various tools to assist achieve one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to set up referrals. It can obtain costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these things in one system, 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 web content developer that wants a platform that enables them to send customized e-newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
The most successful newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or material designer, you ought to seriously thinking about trying beehiiv. It’s totally complimentary to get going and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your list.
If you really end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indication that people like reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a fantastic platform utilized by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your own website and utilize the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv likewise gives you a web site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your very own website currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site customers right to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to take advantage of various marketing channels to get your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack choice.
Exactly how to start using beehiiv email marketing software application.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development modification, analytics, external embed kinds, and much more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting out (or for those seeking a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv OpenSea
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your web site link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll likewise select your brand design and colors to make sure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your major control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have described info on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start composing,” “Messages,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Assess.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Dashboard is your primary control center (screenshot over), Beginning composing is where you produce and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Target market is where you can view who your customers are (and break them down into sectors), Expand is where you have access to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you intend to blog about, I suggest just going to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward interface for creating.
As soon as you start creating, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv gives you tons of options for different kinds of content like video clips, links, photos, and extra.
The team at beehiiv is also continuously launching item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a lot a lot more content features depending on when you read this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your email template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit history shades, borders, spacing, font styles, picture layouts, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever single thing you can optimize with your email template since it’s a whole lot. Simply check out the system free of cost and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of incredible features that make it an excellent publishing platform for any type of e-newsletter developer.
Here are several of the important features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it super simple to write and send out e-mails. I stated over some of things you can do with your setups and e-mail design so I’ll spare you some added reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely among the much better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) survive a site. Think about it as a site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, provide you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a custom domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or through embed types.
If you already have a web site, and want people to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I use on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have three different alternatives– a full width, a dealt with width, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can find the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise a choice for attribution monitoring if you wish to onward UTM criteria for tracking purposes– pretty neat.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the group is dealing with updates for these, but I pointed out a couple of worries I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a remedy for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing clients on your list to forward your emails to pals and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to register for your listing, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve seem lots of e-newsletter business give incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you another avenue for growing your email listing.
Nonetheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a more superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this article.
Costs memberships
They state all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Membership income is absolutely a beast of its very own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” issues of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be really financially rewarding depending on what your newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that generates millions in profits a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Information analytics
One of the important things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is just how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter Beehiiv OpenSea.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you need to begin and expand your newsletter (approximately 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the ad 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 addition of top priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 each month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for lots of users.
I’m unsure how the system economics service this, however beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Certainly, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to establish and begin sending newsletters free of cost.
Tidy and modern customer analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Create premium options to generate income from.
Polls.
To be sincere, I haven’t seen an additional newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
But naturally, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to mention some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the disadvantages I’ve discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom font styles.
I make use of Webflow as my website building system of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive detail why I love Webflow a lot yet you can read my Webflow evaluation if you would love to find out more.
Now, there really is no other method I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from using an iframe embed. I personally do not such as utilizing iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to decrease my site a little bit. Every single time a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s really recognizable when you’re on a slow-moving net link. However I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can not use a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy making use of). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would simply include additional prices that I don’t need. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con yet I thought I would state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much surpass the disadvantages here. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will ultimately develop a much better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a terrific service for anyone looking to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter platform far outweighs many that are presently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively economical for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not write review messages usually. I only do when I actually use the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a buddy.
I hope you found some quality on whether beehiiv is a great system for you.