Over 2 years earlier, I was reading among 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 started tearing up Beehiiv Valuation.
I had not been sure why I felt so psychological.
Being a full-time creator is tough. I’m frequently obtaining pitched different tools and solutions that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional since I invested the last 6 months trying out different e-mail and e-newsletter platforms to help construct my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some excellent choices for creating e-newsletters. However I could not discover one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The problem with numerous existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my e-newsletter layouts, makes it very easy to write and send out emails, and provides me tools that help me assess metrics and get more customers.
I assume I have actually finally discovered the appropriate device.
But, I understand beehiiv might not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it easy to style, write, send out, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous workers at the renowned newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist makers launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this write-up, I’m going to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, things I love (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to finally select it as my newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern newsletter system for fairly a long time now. I’ve put things off hard when it pertained to ultimately launching my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I ended up using beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter developers look up to prominent e-newsletters with millions of clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have great web content, tons of customers, and a brilliant referral program that permits them to get even much more clients.
So, I took place a search to find out just how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more customers? How do they create an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this tool truly understand newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on designer growth.
Since, any kind of maker knows, you require growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the best newsletter stack (that ranges) frequently indicates making use of numerous various tools to aid attain one objective– one system for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to establish referrals. It can get pricey.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one system, and it was complimentary to start 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 developer that wants a platform that permits them to send custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media business, start-up, or content designer, you need to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to get going and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you really end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that individuals like reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a great platform made use of by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your very own internet site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one service for sending e-mails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally provides you a web site similar to Substack. However, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can likewise make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email checklist. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to enable individuals to register for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage various marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack option.
How to begin making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you accessibility to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, outside embed forms, and extra. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those seeking a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Valuation
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and more.
You’ll after that develop a name and link for your e-newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have detailed information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning creating,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Examine.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your primary control center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can see who your subscribers are (and break them down into sections), Grow is where you have accessibility 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 newsletter with ads, Style is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of all of your admin stuff.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you want to write about, I advise just going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Beginning writing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– focus on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use user interface for composing.
Once you begin composing, you can maximize headings, add web links, and style your content just how you such as.
beehiiv gives you tons of choices for various sorts of web content like videos, links, pictures, and much more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise frequently releasing item feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a lot a lot more material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your email template and change some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your e-newsletter, give it a description, add your logo design, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to first time subscribers, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image formats, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever before solitary point you can maximize with your e-mail template due to the fact that it’s a great deal. Simply try out the system absolutely free and see it on your own!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a fantastic publishing platform for any kind of e-newsletter designer.
Right here are some of the important features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it super simple to compose and send out e-mails. I mentioned over a few of the things you can do with your setups and email style so I’ll save you some additional reading.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely one of the better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) live on a site. Think of it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your e-newsletter, and an area where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, provide you a website. However, the free plan places your web site 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
Obtaining customers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or via embed forms.
If you currently have a web site, and want individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to make use of an embed type. This is what I use on this web site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 different alternatives– a full width, a fixed width, and a slim installed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s also an alternative for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to forward UTM criteria for tracking purposes– rather cool.
However, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make certain the group is servicing updates for these, yet I stated a couple of issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages section listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can encourage existing clients on your checklist to ahead your e-mails to friends and coworkers and if they get other individuals to sign up for your listing, you can compensate them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve appear several newsletter business offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you one more method for expanding your e-mail listing.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this write-up.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription income is most definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re trying to find a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying customers. This can be extremely lucrative depending upon what your newsletter has to supply. For instance, Trends.co is a prominent costs newsletter that generates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is just how tidy and simple the analytics are. You get real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client count Beehiiv Valuation.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that customer matter go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (free) Launch plan provides you every little thing you require to get going and grow your newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, polls, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you everything in the Grow plan with addition of priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my viewpoint.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 monthly. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 monthly for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit option for several individuals.
I’m uncertain how the unit economics deal with this, but beehiiv is absolutely less expensive (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Obviously, with every system, 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
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and start sending out e-newsletters free of charge.
Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Develop costs options to monetize.
Polls.
To be sincere, I have not seen one more newsletter platform that has been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
However certainly, I do not wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the cons I have actually discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my website structure platform of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in excessive detail why I love Webflow so much however you can review my Webflow evaluation if you would love to learn more.
Now, there actually is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site aside from making use of an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as using iframe’s since they often tend to reduce my internet site a bit. Every single time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s extremely visible when you’re on a slow net connection. But I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow type (which I enjoy using). There are ways around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly just add extra costs that I do not require. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far surpass the disadvantages below. I’m additionally enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point produce a much better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
On the whole, beehiiv is a fantastic remedy for anyone wanting to dive into the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system much outweighs lots of that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively affordable of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your listing is unusual. 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 monthly.
Anyways, I do not create testimonial messages commonly. I only do when I really utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a close friend.
I wish you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.