Over 2 years ago, I read one of my favored email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked on it and immediately began destroying Beehiiv Segmentation.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so psychological.
Being a full time maker is difficult. I’m commonly getting pitched various devices and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last six months checking out various email and e-newsletter platforms to aid build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic options for writing newsletters. However I couldn’t find one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The issue with lots of existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me completely customize my newsletter styles, makes it very simple to write and send emails, and gives me tools that aid me analyze metrics and obtain even more clients.
I assume I’ve ultimately found the best tool.
Yet, I know beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it easy to style, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous employees at the popular newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid makers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this article, I’m going to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to finally choose it as my newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I have actually been on the lookout for a contemporary newsletter platform for rather time now. I have actually procrastinated hard when it came to ultimately introducing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up using beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of e-newsletter makers appreciate prominent e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a lot. They have excellent content, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get even much more clients.
So, I went on a quest to find out just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they develop a newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer all of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this tool truly understand newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the very first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I understood this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Because, any type of creator understands, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the appropriate e-newsletter pile (that scales) typically implies utilizing several various devices to assist attain one goal– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one platform to set up referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I discovered beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was complimentary to begin using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that wants a platform that allows them to send custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or content creator, you need to seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s absolutely cost-free to get going and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that people enjoy reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent system utilized by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your own site and use the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv also gives you a web site comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your own website already, you can also utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email list. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit people to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to leverage various marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
Exactly how to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Register for a free plan
The primary step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, give you access to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development modification, analytics, external embed kinds, and a lot more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those trying to find a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Segmentation
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also select your brand design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
Once you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have outlined info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin writing,” “Articles,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Examine.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Beginning composing is where you produce and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your clients are (and break them down into segments), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with ads, Layout is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and blog post template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle all of your admin things.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have a concept you want to discuss, I suggest simply going to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning composing”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use user interface for composing.
As soon as you start creating, you can enhance headings, include web links, and design your content exactly how you like.
beehiiv gives you tons of alternatives for different kinds of content like videos, links, pictures, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is also regularly releasing product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot more content features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to design your email template and adjust some settings.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a summary, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit history shades, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture layouts, and more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever before single thing you can maximize with your email template because it’s a lot. Just try out the platform completely free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a great publishing platform for any kind of newsletter developer.
Below are some of the crucial features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it very easy to write and send out emails. I discussed above some of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail style so I’ll save you some additional reading.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely among the better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a website. Consider it as a web site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a personalized domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is very important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your newsletter straight from your beehiiv internet site or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a website, and want people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to use an embed type. This is what I make use of on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 various choices– a complete size, a repaired width, and a slim embed. I personally make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an option for attribution monitoring if you wish to ahead UTM parameters for tracking functions– rather cool.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the team is working with updates for these, but I pointed out a few worries I had in the advantages and disadvantages area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your listing to ahead your e-mails to close friends and coworkers and if they get other individuals to sign up for your checklist, you can compensate them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve seem many newsletter firms give incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you another opportunity for growing your email checklist.
Nevertheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more exceptional plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs memberships
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Membership profits is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” problems of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying clients. This can be very profitable depending upon what your e-newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that produces millions in earnings a year simply by having pay-only newsletter content.
Information analytics
Among the things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is just how tidy and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter Beehiiv Segmentation.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter increase is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan offers you whatever you require to begin and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and access to costs memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather generous in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 monthly. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit alternative for numerous individuals.
I’m uncertain exactly how the system business economics service this, but beehiiv is certainly more affordable (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Right here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to set up and begin sending out e-newsletters for free.
Clean and modern customer analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Produce costs options to monetize.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I haven’t seen one more e-newsletter system that has actually been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But of course, I don’t intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to state some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the cons I have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom font styles.
I utilize Webflow as my site structure system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in too much detail why I like Webflow so much but you can read my Webflow review if you want to learn more.
Right now, there actually is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow website aside from making use of an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s since they tend to reduce my site a bit. Whenever a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s really recognizable when you’re on a slow net link. Yet I can get around that.
The primary complaint I have is that I can not use a routine Webflow form (which I like using). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier but that would certainly simply include additional expenses that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I thought I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the disadvantages below. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will ultimately create a better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a fantastic option for anyone aiming to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system far exceeds many that are currently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally relatively affordable wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your listing is unprecedented. If you were to have a 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 articles commonly. I only do when I in fact utilize the device myself and would certainly recommend it to a pal.
I hope you discovered some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a good platform for you.