Over 2 years earlier, I read one of my favorite email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked it and instantaneously began wrecking Beehiiv Salary.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so psychological.
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 psychological since I invested the last 6 months experimenting with various email and e-newsletter platforms to assist build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some terrific choices for composing e-newsletters. However I could not find one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The issue with many existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter system that lets me completely personalize my newsletter layouts, makes it incredibly simple to write and send out e-mails, and gives me tools that aid me evaluate metrics and get even more clients.
I assume I have actually finally discovered the ideal device.
However, I recognize beehiiv might not be for everyone. 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 e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to layout, write, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous staff members at the popular newsletter firm 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 article, I’m going to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to finally opt for it as my newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter platform for rather a long time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it came to ultimately launching my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I’m sure several e-newsletter creators appreciate preferred e-newsletters with millions of clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a lot. They have fantastic web content, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that enables them to get back at much more customers.
So, I went on a quest to find out exactly how these large newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more customers? How do they create a newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device really recognize e-newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the very first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter system. One that’s focused on designer development.
Due to the fact that, any kind of designer knows, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) usually indicates using several different devices to assist accomplish one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to set up recommendations. It can get pricey.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was free to start making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material maker that wants a platform that allows them to send out custom-made e-newsletters with or without needing to have a website.
The most effective newsletters have the right devices to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or web content designer, you ought to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to begin and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your list.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indicator that individuals enjoy reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is an excellent system utilized by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your own internet site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out e-mails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv additionally provides you a web site comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your own internet site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site subscribers right to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit people to subscribe to your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the adaptability to utilize various marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack choice.
Exactly 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 the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you access to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advance modification, analytics, outside embed kinds, and much more. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting (or for those trying to find a new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Salary
After producing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and extra.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also choose your brand design and colors to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have detailed info on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin writing,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Analyze.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your main control center (screenshot above), Begin composing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can watch who your clients are (and damage them down right into sections), Grow 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 newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and message template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of all of your admin stuff.
Composing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I advise simply going to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Start creating”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and straightforward interface for creating.
When you begin writing, you can maximize headings, add links, and style your content how you like.
beehiiv gives you tons of alternatives for different types of content like video clips, links, pictures, and extra.
The team at beehiiv is likewise frequently launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a great deal a lot more material features depending upon when you read this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your email template and change some settings.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo, activate or off a welcome email to first time customers, and more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify history colors, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, image layouts, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before single point you can optimize with your email template since it’s a whole lot. Simply experiment with the platform totally free and see it on your own!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of amazing features that make it an excellent publishing platform for any type of newsletter developer.
Here are some of the necessary features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting platform. It makes it super simple to write and send e-mails. I mentioned over several of the important things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some added analysis.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) reside on a web site. Think of it as a site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a place where people can register for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the complimentary one, provide you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a personalized domain to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is very important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter straight from your beehiiv web site or via embed kinds.
If you already have a site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 different alternatives– a full size, a fixed width, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can find the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to ahead UTM specifications for tracking purposes– quite cool.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the group is working with updates for these, however I pointed out a few issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your listing to forward your e-mails to pals and colleagues and if they get other people to register for your checklist, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you desire. I’ve seem several newsletter firms offer benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you one more avenue for growing your email listing.
Nevertheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a much more superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this article.
Premium subscriptions
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership earnings is definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are just sent to paying subscribers. This can be very profitable relying on what your newsletter has to offer. For instance, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only newsletter material.
Information analytics
Among things I enjoy about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and basic the analytics are. You get real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count Beehiiv Salary.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that client count go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan gives you whatever you require to get started and grow your newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, custom domain, surveys, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 each month. Rather than some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 each month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit option for many individuals.
I’m not exactly sure how the unit business economics work on this, but beehiiv is most definitely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of selection:
Easy to establish and begin sending e-newsletters free of charge.
Clean and modern-day customer analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Produce costs alternatives to monetize.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen another newsletter system that has actually been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
However naturally, I do not wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the disadvantages I’ve discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom typefaces.
I use Webflow as my web site structure platform of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to enter excessive detail why I like Webflow a lot yet you can read my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to find out more.
Today, there truly is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site aside from using an iframe embed. I directly do not such as using iframe’s since they often tend to decrease my internet site a bit. Whenever a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you get on a sluggish net connection. However I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can not utilize a routine Webflow type (which I love using). There are ways around this by using a device like Zapier however that would simply include added expenses that I do not require. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I believed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the disadvantages right here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point create a much better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is a terrific service for anyone aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system much exceeds numerous that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather affordable of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not compose evaluation blog posts commonly. I just do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a friend.
I hope you located some clearness on whether beehiiv is a good system for you.