Over 2 years back, I was reading among my favored e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and immediately started destroying Beehiiv Terms and Conditions.
I had not been certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time designer is tough. I’m commonly obtaining pitched various tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological since I invested the last six months experimenting with different email and e-newsletter systems to aid build my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful alternatives for creating e-newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The issue with numerous existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me completely personalize my newsletter styles, makes it extremely very easy to write and send emails, and provides me devices that help me evaluate metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I believe I’ve ultimately located the appropriate device.
Yet, I understand beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it very easy to style, create, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous workers at the renowned newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist makers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to lastly choose it as my e-newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a contemporary e-newsletter system for fairly a long time currently. I’ve postponed hard when it involved finally releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure several newsletter makers appreciate preferred newsletters with countless subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a whole lot. They have wonderful web content, lots of subscribers, and a smart referral program that enables them to get even much more clients.
So, I took place a quest to determine exactly how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more customers? How do they create an e-newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to answer all of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this device really recognize e-newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I recognized this was going to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer growth.
Since, any designer recognizes, you require development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the ideal e-newsletter pile (that scales) usually indicates making use of several different devices to assist achieve one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to set up references. It can obtain pricey.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was cost-free to start 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 permits them to send out customized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or material maker, you need to seriously considering checking out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to start and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you really wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly an excellent indicator that individuals like reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is an excellent platform made use of by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your very own internet site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one option for sending out e-mails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own web site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your site clients straight to your beehiiv email list. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable people to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to utilize different marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv an excellent Substack alternative.
How to begin making use of beehiiv email marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you accessibility to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those just starting (or for those trying to find a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Terms and Conditions
After producing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll additionally select your brand name design and colors to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will have detailed info on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin writing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Analyze.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and damage them down right into segments), Expand 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 e-newsletter with ads, Layout is where you make your newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can modify your template and styling later– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a clean and straightforward interface for writing.
As soon as you start creating, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your content just how you like.
beehiiv gives you lots of choices for different kinds of web content like video clips, web links, photos, and more.
The team at beehiiv is also frequently launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot much more content features depending on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time clients, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify background colors, boundaries, spacing, fonts, photo layouts, and more. I’m not going to undergo ever before solitary thing you can optimize with your e-mail template since it’s a whole lot. Just experiment with the platform absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it an excellent posting platform for any type of newsletter designer.
Here are some of the crucial features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it very very easy to create and send out e-mails. I mentioned over several of the important things you can do with your setups and e-mail style so I’ll save you some added analysis.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely one of the far better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive on an internet site. Think about 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 an area where individuals can subscribe to your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the complimentary one, give you a web site. However, the free plan areas 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 need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your e-newsletter straight from your beehiiv website or with embed types.
If you already have an internet site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed kind. This is what I use on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 different alternatives– a complete size, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I directly utilize the slim embed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also an alternative for attribution monitoring if you want to ahead UTM specifications for tracking functions– quite neat.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the group is working on updates for these, yet I stated a few worries I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a service for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your list to ahead your emails to friends and coworkers and if they get other individuals to subscribe to your checklist, you can award them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve seem many e-newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– offering you one more method for growing your email listing.
Nevertheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more exceptional plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration income is most definitely a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “premium” problems of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be extremely profitable relying on what your e-newsletter needs to supply. For instance, Trends.co is a prominent premium e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
One of the things I love regarding beehiiv is how clean and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Beehiiv Terms and Conditions.
You get access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that customer matter rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan offers you whatever you need to begin and expand your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and access to premium registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. In contrast to some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the same quantity– making beehiiv a great Kit option for lots of individuals.
I’m unsure exactly how the system business economics service this, but beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Obviously, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters totally free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Create costs choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen one more newsletter system that has had the ability to package all of these features with each other so well.
Yet of course, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m going to discuss some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are several of the cons I’ve located while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized typefaces.
I utilize Webflow as my web site structure platform 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 a lot however you can review my Webflow review if you ‘d like to find out more.
Today, there actually is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site aside from using an iframe embed. I directly do not such as using iframe’s since they have a tendency to decrease my internet site a bit. Each time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s extremely visible when you’re on a sluggish net connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a routine Webflow form (which I enjoy utilizing). There are methods around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier however that would simply include extra costs that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I assumed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far exceed the disadvantages right here. I’m also confident that Webflow will at some point develop a better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Generally, beehiiv is a terrific remedy for any person wanting to dive into the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter platform far outweighs numerous that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise fairly economical for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial blog posts often. I just do when I really make use of the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a close friend.
I hope you found some clearness on whether beehiiv is a good platform for you.