Over two years ago, I was reading among my preferred email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked it and quickly began tearing up Beehiiv Virtual Events.
I wasn’t certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time maker is tough. I’m usually obtaining pitched various devices and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I spent the last six months trying different email and e-newsletter platforms to assist develop my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic options for creating e-newsletters. Yet I could not locate one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The issue with several existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me totally personalize my newsletter layouts, makes it super simple to create and send out emails, and gives me devices that assist me assess metrics and get even more customers.
I assume I have actually ultimately discovered the appropriate tool.
Yet, I recognize beehiiv might not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually ideal 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 very easy to design, write, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Created by previous workers at the famous newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of development 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) about it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately opt for it as my newsletter system of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I have actually watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for rather some time now. I have actually hesitated hard when it pertained to ultimately launching my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter designers respect preferred newsletters with countless clients– I understand 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 clever referral program that allows them to get back at more customers.
So, I went on a quest to identify how these big newsletters established their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to respond to all of my concerns. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this tool truly comprehend e-newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on developer development.
Since, any kind of creator recognizes, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) frequently indicates using numerous different devices to help accomplish one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can get costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was free to start making use of, it was a no-brainer 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 custom newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, start-up, or content designer, you should seriously considering trying out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to get started and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you actually wind up having to pay for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent sign that individuals like reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a wonderful platform utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own internet site and make use of the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s devotion to development. beehiiv permits you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing clients to obtain words out.
beehiiv also gives you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your very own site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I use) to send your internet site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email checklist. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to enable individuals to subscribe to your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the adaptability to take advantage of various marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack choice.
How to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, external embed forms, and more. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those looking for a brand-new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Virtual Events
After creating an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet 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 could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also pick your brand name colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your main control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have detailed information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin composing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Evaluate.” And at the very lower you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your main control center (screenshot above), Beginning composing is where you produce and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can see who your clients are (and break them down right into sectors), 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 e-newsletter with ads, Design is where you develop your newsletter landing page and article template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of every one of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start creating, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting, and have a concept you want to write about, I suggest simply going to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning composing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use user interface for composing.
As soon as you start writing, you can maximize headings, include web links, and design your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of alternatives for various kinds of content like video clips, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is also continuously launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a lot extra content features relying on when you read this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
When you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to design your e-mail template and adjust some setups.
Here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, give it a description, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time customers, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, picture formats, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before single point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a whole lot. Simply try the system absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of incredible features that make it a fantastic posting system for any e-newsletter maker.
Right here are several of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly simple to create and send emails. I mentioned above several of the things you can do with your setups and email design so I’ll spare you some added reading.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely among the far better e-mail 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 web site. Think of it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, offer you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a custom-made domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is essential. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your e-newsletter straight from your beehiiv internet site or with embed types.
If you already have a web site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed type. This is what I utilize on this internet 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 various alternatives– a full size, a repaired size, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can locate the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an option for attribution monitoring if you wish to onward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– pretty neat.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make sure the team is servicing updates for these, but I discussed a couple of concerns 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 platform, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your listing to ahead your e-mails to good friends and colleagues and if they get other people to subscribe to your list, you can reward them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually seem lots of newsletter firms offer rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you an additional avenue for expanding your e-mail list.
Nonetheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to a much more premium plan. I’ll go over all the plans later on in this short article.
Premium memberships
They claim all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Subscription earnings is certainly a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” concerns of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be very rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter needs to supply. For example, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of the things I like about beehiiv is how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer matter Beehiiv Virtual Events.
You get accessibility 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 count rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (totally free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you need to get started and expand your newsletter (up to 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, customized domain, polls, and access to premium registrations. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with addition of top priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 per month for the very same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit option for several individuals.
I’m unsure just how the system business economics work with this, however beehiiv is absolutely less expensive (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are a few of the pros and cons I have actually personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of selection:
Easy to establish and begin sending e-newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and modern-day client analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Develop costs alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen one more e-newsletter platform that has actually been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But of course, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m going to point out some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are some of the disadvantages I’ve found while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized font styles.
I make use of Webflow as my web site structure system of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not going to enter excessive detail why I enjoy Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow review if you want to discover more.
Right now, there actually is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site aside from using an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to decrease my internet site a bit. Each time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s very obvious when you get on a sluggish net link. But I can navigate that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a routine Webflow kind (which I love making use of). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier however that would certainly simply include extra prices that I don’t need. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I believed I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much surpass the cons right here. I’m likewise hopeful that Webflow will eventually produce a better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a terrific remedy for any individual looking to dive into the globe of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system far surpasses numerous that are presently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly low-cost for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial messages typically. I just do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would advise it to a friend.
I hope you found some clearness on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.