Over 2 years earlier, I read one of my preferred email e-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 quickly started destroying Beehiiv Subscribe Forms.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time designer is tough. I’m frequently getting pitched various tools and solutions that do not appear to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional because I spent the last 6 months trying out various email and newsletter systems to assist build my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some terrific alternatives for creating e-newsletters. However I couldn’t find one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The problem with numerous existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me completely personalize my newsletter styles, makes it incredibly very easy to compose and send out emails, and provides me devices that help me assess metrics and get more subscribers.
I assume I have actually lastly found the right device.
However, I know beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact 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 simple to design, create, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the renowned e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist makers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I enjoy (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally opt for it as my newsletter platform of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I unintentionally came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve watched for a modern-day e-newsletter platform for quite a long time now. I have actually put things off hard when it concerned lastly releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up using beehiiv.
I make certain several e-newsletter makers respect prominent e-newsletters with numerous customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have terrific content, tons of clients, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even more customers.
So, I went on a hunt to find out just how these big newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they produce an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to respond to all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device actually recognize e-newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on maker development.
Due to the fact that, any type of creator knows, you require development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the right e-newsletter stack (that ranges) often suggests utilizing several various tools to assist achieve one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to establish referrals. It can get costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content maker that desires a platform that allows them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, startup, or content designer, you should seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely free to get going and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you actually wind up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely an excellent sign that individuals enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful platform used by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own web site and use the platform as your all-in-one option for sending e-mails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to get the word out.
beehiiv also provides you an internet site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own site already, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I use) to send your internet site clients directly to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage different marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack choice.
Just how to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement personalization, analytics, external embed kinds, and extra. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those trying to find a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Subscribe Forms
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally choose your brand name design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
When you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined info on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning creating,” “Messages,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Evaluate.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your main control center (screenshot above), Begin composing is where you create and release newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Audience is where you can view who your clients are (and damage them down right into sections), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and growth tutorials) and boosts to run advertisements, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your e-newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you create your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you wish to blog about, I advise just going to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later on– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and user-friendly user interface for composing.
As soon as you begin creating, you can maximize headings, add links, and style your web content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv provides you tons of choices for different types of content like video clips, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise regularly launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a whole lot more material features depending upon when you read this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
As soon as you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your email template and adjust some settings.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a description, add your logo design, turn on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify history shades, borders, spacing, font styles, photo styles, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever before single point you can maximize with your email template because it’s a lot. Just check out the platform totally free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of impressive features that make it an excellent posting platform for any type of newsletter developer.
Below are several of the vital features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it very simple to compose and send out e-mails. I pointed out above some of the important things you can do with your setups and email style so I’ll spare you some extra analysis.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the much better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) live on a site. Consider it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and a location where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan places your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom-made domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your e-newsletter straight from your beehiiv site or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a web site, and desire individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to make use of an embed form. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 different options– a full size, a taken care of size, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also a choice for attribution monitoring if you want to forward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– pretty cool.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the team is working on updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of issues I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is an option for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your list to onward your e-mails to close friends and colleagues and if they obtain other individuals to subscribe to your listing, you can reward them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually appear many newsletter business 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 newsletter– giving you one more avenue for expanding your email list.
However, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll look at all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs memberships
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Membership profits is definitely a monster of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be extremely financially rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter needs to use. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred costs newsletter that generates millions in profits a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among the important things I love regarding beehiiv is exactly how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Beehiiv Subscribe Forms.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on just how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you whatever you require to get going and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain name, surveys, 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 addition of concern support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather generous in my point of view.
As an example, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 per month. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 per month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for many individuals.
I’m not exactly sure exactly how the device business economics service this, but beehiiv is absolutely cheaper (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Below are several of the pros and cons I’ve personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Develop costs choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I haven’t seen one more newsletter platform that has actually been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But obviously, I do not want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are some of the cons I have actually discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my web site structure platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can review my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to learn more.
Right now, there actually is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow website aside from making use of an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to slow down my internet site a bit. Each time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last point to load on the page. It’s very recognizable when you get on a slow web connection. However I can navigate that.
The major gripe I have is that I can not utilize a regular Webflow type (which I enjoy using). There are means around this by utilizing a device like Zapier yet that would just include additional expenses that I don’t need. 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 much exceed the cons right here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually produce a much better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a wonderful service for any individual seeking to study the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform far outweighs numerous that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly economical of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is unusual. 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 each month.
Anyways, I don’t create evaluation articles frequently. I just do when I actually use the device myself and would advise it to a friend.
I wish you discovered some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.