Over 2 years back, I was reading one of my favorite email newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked on it and promptly began tearing up Beehiiv Testimonials.
I wasn’t certain why I really felt so psychological.
Being a permanent creator is difficult. I’m commonly obtaining pitched different tools and services that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological due to the fact that I spent the last 6 months trying out various email and newsletter platforms to aid construct my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some terrific alternatives for creating newsletters. But I could not discover one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The concern with several existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it incredibly simple to compose and send out emails, and provides me devices that help me evaluate metrics and get even more customers.
I think I’ve lastly discovered the right device.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really best 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 very easy to layout, write, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous workers at the popular e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid makers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately select it as my newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for fairly some time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it came to ultimately introducing my newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And finally, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure several e-newsletter creators look up to popular newsletters with countless customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a great deal. They have terrific content, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that enables them to get back at more clients.
So, I went on a search to find out how these huge 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 produce a newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this tool really comprehend e-newsletter creation and development.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was going to be a different newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer growth.
Due to the fact that, any kind of designer recognizes, you need development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the appropriate newsletter pile (that scales) often indicates making use of several different tools to help achieve one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to establish referrals. It can obtain pricey.
So when I figured out beehiiv did every one of these points in one system, and it was complimentary 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 content maker that desires a system that allows them to send out customized newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media business, startup, or material designer, you must seriously taking into consideration checking out beehiiv. It’s entirely complimentary to get going and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you actually wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent indicator that people enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a wonderful platform made use of by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your own web site and make use of the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise provides you a web site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your own internet site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site subscribers 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 register for your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to utilize different marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack alternative.
Just how to begin using beehiiv email marketing software program.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you access to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, exterior embed forms, and a lot more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those looking for a new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Testimonials
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and much more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site URL may 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.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined details on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin creating,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Examine.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter editions, Target market is where you can see who your subscribers are (and damage them down right into sectors), Grow is where you have accessibility 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 post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I advise just going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Start writing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later on– concentrate on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and straightforward user interface for creating.
As soon as you begin writing, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your content just how you like.
beehiiv gives you lots of options for various kinds of material like videos, links, images, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is additionally continuously launching product feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a lot much more material features relying on 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 design your email template and change some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time customers, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history shades, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, picture styles, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever before single thing you can optimize with your e-mail template since it’s a lot. Just try out the platform completely free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it an excellent posting system for any type of e-newsletter developer.
Below are some of the vital features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing platform. It makes it super easy to write and send e-mails. I stated over a few of things you can do with your setups and e-mail design so I’ll save you some additional reading.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly one of the much better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive a site. Consider it as a website 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 pretty much similar to that.
All plans, including the cost-free one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a custom domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv internet site or through embed types.
If you already have an internet site, and desire individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different options– a full size, a fixed width, and a slim installed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can find the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally an alternative for acknowledgment tracking if you want to forward UTM criteria for tracking functions– rather cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I’m sure the group is servicing updates for these, but I pointed out a few worries I had in the benefits and drawbacks area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a service for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your listing to forward your e-mails to buddies and coworkers and if they get other people to register for your checklist, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve seem numerous e-newsletter business give incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your subscribers into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– offering you another avenue for growing your e-mail checklist.
Nevertheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to an extra superior plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this short article.
Premium memberships
They say all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Subscription profits is absolutely a monster of its very own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” problems of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be really rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to use. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that produces millions in profits a year just by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
One of things I like regarding beehiiv is how clean and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter Beehiiv Testimonials.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer 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 (complimentary) Launch plan provides you whatever you require to start and expand your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, custom domain, polls, and accessibility to costs registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you every little thing in the Grow plan with addition of top priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather generous in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 each month. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the same amount– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for many individuals.
I’m uncertain how the system economics service this, but beehiiv is most definitely less expensive (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Right here are several of the pros and cons I have actually directly 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 establish and begin sending newsletters completely free.
Clean and modern subscriber analytics.
Lots of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Produce premium options to monetize.
Surveys.
To be honest, I haven’t seen one more newsletter system that has actually been able to package every one of these features together so well.
However obviously, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the disadvantages I’ve found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom font styles.
I make use of Webflow as my site structure platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in excessive information why I enjoy Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow testimonial if you wish to learn more.
Today, there truly is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site besides using an iframe embed. I personally don’t like making use of iframe’s because they tend to decrease my internet site a bit. Whenever a web page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s really visible when you get on a slow-moving web link. But I can get around that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would simply add added prices that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I believed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the disadvantages below. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will eventually produce a better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Overall, beehiiv is a terrific solution for any person aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter platform far surpasses several that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you actually have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly cheap of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your list is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I do not write testimonial blog posts typically. I just do when I really use the device myself and would certainly suggest it to a pal.
I wish you located some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.