Over 2 years earlier, I was reading among my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and instantly started destroying Beehiiv Pros and Cons.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a full time designer is tough. I’m commonly getting pitched different devices and services that do not appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional since I invested the last six months trying various email and newsletter systems to aid develop my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific choices for writing newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me offer a certain “yes”.
The problem with many existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my newsletter styles, makes it very very easy to create and send out e-mails, and offers me devices that assist me examine metrics and obtain more clients.
I assume I have actually finally discovered the ideal device.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually best 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 layout, compose, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous employees at the renowned newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help creators launch and monetize their own 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 things I love (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately choose it as my newsletter system of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day e-newsletter platform for rather a long time currently. I have actually procrastinated hard when it concerned ultimately introducing my newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure many e-newsletter makers appreciate preferred e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a whole lot. They have wonderful web content, lots of clients, and a brilliant referral program that enables them to get even more subscribers.
So, I took place a search to determine how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more customers? How do they develop an e-newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to answer all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device actually recognize e-newsletter production and development.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the initial marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on creator development.
Due to the fact that, any developer recognizes, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And locating the appropriate e-newsletter pile (that scales) usually implies making use of several different devices to assist accomplish one objective– one system for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can obtain pricey.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to begin making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material developer that desires a system that permits them to send out custom newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or content developer, you need to seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely complimentary to start and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you in fact wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely an excellent sign that individuals enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a terrific system used by countless independent authors. With Substack you obtain your own site and utilize the system as your all-in-one solution for sending out emails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv permits you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally offers you a web site similar to Substack. But, if you have your own web site already, you can also make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your internet site customers right to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to allow people to register for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the adaptability to leverage different marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack option.
How to start utilizing beehiiv email marketing software.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, provide you accessibility to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough personalization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply beginning (or for those trying to find a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Pros and Cons
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and more.
You’ll then develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also select your brand design and colors to make sure your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have outlined information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning writing,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Assess.” And at the really lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you produce and publish newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can view who your clients are (and break them down into sectors), 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 ads, Style is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage all of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have a concept you wish to write about, I advise just mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Start composing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– focus on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and easy to use interface for composing.
When you begin composing, you can maximize headings, include web links, and design your material just how you such as.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for different kinds of web content like videos, web links, pictures, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise constantly launching product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a great deal more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
Once you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and change some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a summary, add your logo, activate or off a welcome e-mail to very first time customers, and a lot 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 formats, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary point you can enhance with your e-mail template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the platform free of cost and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of amazing features that make it a terrific posting platform for any type of newsletter maker.
Below are some of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it very easy to create and send emails. I discussed over a few of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly among the better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Internet site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive a website. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, provide you an internet site. However, the free plan places your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a customized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or via embed forms.
If you already have a web site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to utilize an embed type. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have three different alternatives– a full width, a fixed width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise a choice for attribution tracking if you want to onward UTM parameters for tracking functions– rather neat.
However, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make certain the team is dealing with updates for these, however I pointed out a few concerns I had in the pros and cons section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is an option for creating a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your listing to onward your e-mails to friends and associates and if they obtain other people to register for your checklist, you can reward them. These rewards can be in whatever form you desire. I’ve appear several e-newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– giving you one more opportunity for growing your e-mail checklist.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more premium plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription revenue is absolutely a monster of its own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be really lucrative depending on what your newsletter has to offer. For example, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
Among the important things I like about beehiiv is exactly how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter Beehiiv Pros and Cons.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that customer count increase is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you every little thing you require to begin and expand your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain name, polls, 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 addition of priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 each month. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit choice for numerous customers.
I’m not exactly sure exactly how the device business economics service this, yet beehiiv is absolutely less expensive (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Naturally, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
Easy to establish and begin sending e-newsletters completely free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Produce costs choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen another e-newsletter platform that has actually been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
However of course, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I have actually located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made font styles.
I use Webflow as my web site structure system of option (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow testimonial if you ‘d like to find out more.
Now, there actually is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to slow down my web site a bit. Every time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s really recognizable when you’re on a slow-moving web link. But I can get around that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow type (which I love making use of). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would certainly just include extra costs that I don’t need. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I thought I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the disadvantages right here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will eventually create a much better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
In general, beehiiv is a great solution for any individual seeking to study the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter system far outweighs several that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather cheap wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not compose review articles typically. I just do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a good friend.
I hope you discovered some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.