Over two years ago, I read one of my favored e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and promptly started destroying Beehiiv Welcome Sequence.
I had not been sure why I felt so psychological.
Being a full time creator is difficult. I’m often obtaining pitched different tools and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional because I spent the last 6 months experimenting with various email and e-newsletter systems to assist construct my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful alternatives for composing e-newsletters. But I could not find one that made me provide a certain “yes”.
The issue with several existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me fully customize my e-newsletter layouts, makes it incredibly easy to compose and send out emails, and gives me devices that aid me analyze metrics and get even more subscribers.
I assume I have actually lastly found the ideal device.
Yet, I know 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 system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it easy to design, compose, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by former workers at the renowned e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist creators launch and monetize their own newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to finally opt for it as my newsletter system of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary newsletter system for rather some time now. I have actually postponed hard when it involved lastly releasing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain numerous newsletter creators admire preferred newsletters with numerous customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a whole lot. They have great web content, lots of customers, and a creative referral program that allows them to get back at a lot more clients.
So, I took place a search to find out how these huge e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they create a newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to respond to all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that constructed this tool really recognize e-newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the very first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I knew this was going to be a different e-newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on designer growth.
Due to the fact that, any kind of designer knows, you require development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the appropriate e-newsletter pile (that ranges) usually implies making use of multiple different devices to aid accomplish one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to establish referrals. It can obtain costly.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was totally free 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 wants a platform that allows them to send custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a web site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media business, startup, or material designer, you need to seriously considering checking out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to get going and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you actually wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indication that people like reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a great system utilized by countless independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own web site and use the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv permits you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to obtain the word out.
beehiiv also offers you an internet site similar to Substack. However, if you have your own web site currently, you can likewise use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I use) to send your site subscribers directly to your beehiiv e-mail listing. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit people to subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to utilize different marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack option.
Exactly how to start making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Register for a free plan
The primary step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you accessibility to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, external embed types, and more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those looking for a new system to move to).
Onboarding Beehiiv Welcome Sequence
After producing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that produce a name and link for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll likewise select your brand name colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have detailed details on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Start writing,” “Articles,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Examine.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Beginning creating is where you produce and publish newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can watch who your subscribers are (and damage them down into segments), Grow 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 ads, Layout is where you develop your e-newsletter landing page and post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin stuff.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting out, and have a concept you want to cover, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking “Begin creating”.
You can fine-tune your template and styling later– focus on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and easy to use user interface for writing.
Once you start creating, you can maximize headings, add links, and design your content exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for various types of content like video clips, web links, images, and extra.
The team at beehiiv is likewise regularly launching product feature and updates so I make sure there will be a great deal more material features depending upon when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to create your email template and readjust some setups.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a summary, add your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify background shades, borders, spacing, font styles, image formats, and more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before single thing you can optimize with your email template since it’s a great deal. Just try out the platform free of cost and see it on your own!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of impressive features that make it a wonderful publishing platform for any kind of newsletter creator.
Right here are several of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it super simple to write and send emails. I pointed out above some of the things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely one of the much better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) live on an internet site. Consider it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and an area where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, offer you a website. Nevertheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a custom domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is important. After all, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or through embed kinds.
If you currently have an internet site, and desire people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to make use of an embed form. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 various options– a complete width, a fixed width, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim embed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise a choice for acknowledgment monitoring if you wish to ahead UTM specifications for tracking objectives– pretty cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make certain the team is dealing with updates for these, yet I stated a few concerns I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a solution for creating a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your listing to onward your emails to buddies and colleagues and if they obtain other people to sign up for your listing, you can reward them. These benefits can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually seem several e-newsletter companies provide incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you another avenue for expanding your e-mail checklist.
However, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more premium plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this post.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Membership profits is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent to paying clients. This can be extremely profitable relying on what your newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that produces millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among things I love concerning beehiiv is just how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on exactly how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client matter Beehiiv Welcome Sequence.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer count go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (totally free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you require to get started and expand your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you whatever in the Grow plan with addition of priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my point of view.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 per month. Instead of some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for many customers.
I’m uncertain exactly how the system business economics service this, yet beehiiv is absolutely less costly (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of the pros and cons I have actually personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
Easy to set up and start sending e-newsletters totally free.
Clean and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Develop premium choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be honest, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter system that has actually been able to package all of these features together so well.
Yet obviously, I do not intend to be prejudiced so I’m going to state some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the cons I’ve located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made font styles.
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 going to go in too much information why I love Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow testimonial if you wish to find out more.
Now, there really is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site besides utilizing an iframe embed. I directly do not such as using iframe’s since they tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Whenever a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s extremely visible when you’re on a sluggish internet connection. But I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy making use of). There are ways around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would simply include additional costs that I don’t need. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I thought I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the cons here. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will ultimately create a much better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
In general, beehiiv is a terrific solution for any individual seeking to dive into the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system much outweighs 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 also fairly inexpensive wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create testimonial messages typically. I only do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a buddy.
I wish you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.