Over 2 years back, I read one of my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked it and instantaneously began wrecking Beehiiv Vs Webflow.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full-time designer is difficult. I’m often getting pitched various tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional because I invested the last 6 months checking out various e-mail and newsletter platforms to aid construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some great options for creating e-newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The issue with several existing e-newsletter platforms is that they do not feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me completely tailor my e-newsletter layouts, makes it very easy to write and send emails, and provides me tools that aid me examine metrics and get more subscribers.
I think I have actually ultimately discovered the right device.
However, I recognize beehiiv may 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 platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it easy to layout, create, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the famous e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to lastly opt for it as my newsletter platform of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for fairly a long time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it pertained to ultimately launching my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I’m sure several newsletter makers admire prominent e-newsletters with millions of subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a whole lot. They have fantastic content, lots of subscribers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get back at extra customers.
So, I took place a search to find out how these large newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to respond to all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that built this tool truly recognize e-newsletter creation and development.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the very first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on designer development.
Since, any type of creator understands, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And finding the best newsletter pile (that ranges) commonly suggests utilizing numerous different devices to assist attain one goal– one system for your e-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 cost-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 developer that wants a system that enables them to send customized newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or content developer, you ought to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s absolutely cost-free to get going and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you actually wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s probably a great indication that individuals like reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent platform utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your very own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one service for sending e-mails (while creating an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise provides you a web site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own internet site already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your web site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to allow individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to utilize different marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack choice.
Just how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Enroll in a free plan
The initial step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement personalization, analytics, outside embed types, and extra. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting (or for those looking for a new platform to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Vs Webflow
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll then create a name and link for your e-newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand name colors and design to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have detailed info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin composing,” “Messages,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Examine.” And at the really lower you’ll see the setups alternative.
Dashboard is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Start writing is where you develop and publish newsletters, Articles is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Audience is where you can watch who your customers are (and damage them down right into segments), Expand is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and development 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 develop your newsletter landing page and message template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of all of your admin things.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply beginning, and have a concept you want to cover, I advise simply mosting likely to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking “Start writing”.
You can fine-tune your template and styling later– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a clean and user-friendly interface for creating.
As soon as you begin writing, you can optimize headings, add web links, and style your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of options for various types of material like videos, web links, photos, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is also frequently launching product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a whole lot a lot more material features depending upon when you read this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to make your email template and readjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, give it a description, include your logo, activate or off a welcome e-mail to very first time customers, and much more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background colors, borders, spacing, fonts, image formats, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary thing you can maximize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Simply try out the system for free and see it on your own!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it an excellent publishing platform for any newsletter designer.
Below are several of the necessary features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting platform. It makes it very very easy to create and send out emails. I discussed over a few of things you can do with your setups and e-mail style so I’ll save you some added reading.
Things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely one of the much better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive on a website. Consider it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a place where individuals can sign up for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, provide you an internet site. Nonetheless, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a custom domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is necessary. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv internet site or through embed forms.
If you currently have a site, and want individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various choices– a full width, a taken care of width, and a slim embed. I personally make use of the slim installed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to forward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– rather cool.
However, 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 pointed out a couple of worries I had in the pros and cons area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a remedy for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your list to ahead your emails to pals and associates and if they obtain other individuals to subscribe to your checklist, you can award them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I’ve seem many e-newsletter business provide rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– giving you an additional opportunity for growing your e-mail list.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more exceptional plan. I’ll review all the plans later in this short article.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription revenue is certainly a monster of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” problems of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be very financially rewarding depending on what your e-newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a prominent premium newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among things I love concerning beehiiv is just 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 client matter Beehiiv Vs Webflow.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to get a bird-eye sight on how your newsletter is really doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter go up is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan offers you whatever you require to start and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain, surveys, and access to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 each month. Instead of some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit choice for several customers.
I’m not exactly sure how the system business economics work on this, however beehiiv is certainly more affordable (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Naturally, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve 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 set up and begin sending out e-newsletters totally free.
Tidy and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Develop costs options to monetize.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I have not seen one more newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
Yet certainly, I don’t intend to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the disadvantages I’ve discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom typefaces.
I use Webflow as my website structure system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter excessive detail why I love Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow review if you wish to find out more.
Now, there actually is no other means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow web site apart from using an iframe embed. I directly do not such as utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to decrease my website a little bit. Every single time a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last point to load on the web page. It’s extremely noticeable when you’re on a slow-moving net link. However I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a routine Webflow type (which I like making use of). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier however that would certainly just include added costs that I do not need. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con yet I believed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the cons here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point produce a far better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a wonderful remedy for anyone aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system much surpasses several that are presently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally rather low-cost of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unheard of. 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 do not compose testimonial messages usually. I just do when I really utilize the tool myself and would advise it to a buddy.
I wish you discovered some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.