Over two years earlier, I was reading among my preferred e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and immediately started wrecking Beehiiv Outage.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent designer is difficult. I’m frequently getting pitched different tools and solutions that do not appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I spent the last six months checking out various e-mail and newsletter platforms to help build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great options for writing e-newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me give a definite “yes”.
The concern with many existing newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me completely personalize my newsletter designs, makes it very easy to write and send e-mails, and offers me devices that assist me examine metrics and obtain more clients.
I believe I have actually lastly found the appropriate tool.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually appropriate 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 simple to layout, compose, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by former staff members at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help makers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m going to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly opt for it as my newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter platform for fairly time now. I’ve put things off hard when it involved ultimately introducing my newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain many newsletter makers appreciate preferred newsletters with numerous clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a great deal. They have great web content, tons of subscribers, and a brilliant referral program that permits them to get back at more clients.
So, I went on a hunt to find out just how these large e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more customers? How do they create an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to respond to every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this tool actually comprehend newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the very first marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on creator growth.
Due to the fact that, any maker knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And finding the ideal e-newsletter pile (that ranges) typically implies utilizing several various tools to assist attain one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to establish referrals. It can get costly.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was totally free to start utilizing, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content designer that wants a platform that allows them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a web site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or web content designer, you should seriously considering checking out beehiiv. It’s completely free to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you really wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a great indication that individuals love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a wonderful system used by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own web site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing customers to obtain words out.
beehiiv additionally gives you a website similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your website customers straight to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to take advantage of various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack alternative.
How to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development customization, analytics, outside embed forms, and much more. It’s a really generous offering for those just beginning (or for those looking for a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Outage
After creating an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any type of paying clients?”, and extra.
You’ll then develop a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
When you reach your major control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will have described information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin writing,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Evaluate.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your main control center (screenshot over), Start creating is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Messages 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 newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you create your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start writing, with little to no friction. If you’re just beginning, and have a concept you intend to discuss, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and designing later– concentrate on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a clean and user-friendly user interface for composing.
Once you begin writing, you can optimize headings, include links, and design your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of alternatives for various types of content like videos, web links, photos, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is likewise constantly launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a whole lot much more content features depending on when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Below, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, add your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image styles, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary point you can enhance with your e-mail template since it’s a whole lot. Simply try out the system completely free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it a wonderful publishing system for any type of newsletter developer.
Here are a few of the crucial features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it very very easy to compose and send emails. I mentioned above several of the things you can do with your settings and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly among the better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a website. Consider it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and an area where individuals can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, give you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom domain to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining clients is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv internet site or via embed kinds.
If you already have a site, and want people to register for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to use an embed type. This is what I make use of on this internet site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various choices– a complete size, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an alternative for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to onward UTM criteria for tracking functions– quite cool.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make certain the group is working with updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of concerns I had in the advantages and disadvantages section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your list to onward your emails to buddies and associates and if they get other individuals to sign up for your checklist, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve appear lots of e-newsletter firms give rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– offering you one more opportunity for growing your e-mail list.
Nevertheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more premium plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this post.
Premium registrations
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration earnings is most definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re trying to find a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be extremely rewarding depending upon what your newsletter needs to provide. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that generates millions in profits a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is exactly how tidy and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter Beehiiv Outage.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye sight on exactly how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count rise is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to get started and grow your newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain, surveys, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 monthly for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit alternative for lots of individuals.
I’m not sure exactly how the system business economics service this, but beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of option:
Easy to establish and begin sending out newsletters free of cost.
Tidy and modern-day customer analytics.
Great deals of versatility with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Produce premium choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be honest, I haven’t seen another newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
However naturally, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I’ve discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made font styles.
I utilize Webflow as my website building system of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to enter way too much information why I like Webflow so much yet you can review my Webflow evaluation if you wish to learn more.
Now, there actually is nothing else way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t such as using iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to slow down my site a bit. Every time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to pack on the page. It’s really obvious when you’re on a slow web connection. But I can navigate that.
The main gripe I have is that I can not make use of a regular Webflow kind (which I enjoy utilizing). There are ways around this by using a device like Zapier yet that would certainly just include additional costs that I don’t need. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage however I believed I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the cons below. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will ultimately create a better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
On the whole, beehiiv is a great solution for any person aiming to dive into the globe of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system much outweighs many that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally relatively cheap for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I don’t compose review blog posts frequently. I only do when I actually make use of the device myself and would recommend it to a good friend.
I wish you discovered some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.