Over two years ago, I was reading among my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and instantaneously began destroying Best Newsletters on Beehiiv.
I wasn’t certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time designer is tough. I’m commonly getting pitched various devices and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional because I spent the last 6 months experimenting with various email and newsletter platforms to assist build my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some excellent options for writing newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me give a definite “yes”.
The issue with many existing e-newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter system that lets me totally customize my newsletter layouts, makes it very simple to compose and send e-mails, and offers me tools that aid me evaluate metrics and obtain more customers.
I think I have actually lastly found the appropriate tool.
However, 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 platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it easy to design, create, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous staff members at the famous e-newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help designers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally go with it as my newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter platform for fairly some time now. I’ve postponed hard when it concerned lastly launching my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make sure numerous e-newsletter developers look up to prominent newsletters with numerous customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have great material, tons of subscribers, and a smart referral program that allows them to get even much more customers.
So, I went on a quest to find out just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain more clients? How do they develop an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device actually understand newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the first marketing and growth workers at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter system. One that’s focused on maker growth.
Due to the fact that, any kind of creator knows, you need development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the best e-newsletter stack (that ranges) commonly implies making use of multiple various devices to help accomplish one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to set up references. It can get costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was complimentary to start utilizing, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content designer that desires a system that allows them to send out custom newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, start-up, or content creator, you ought to seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s entirely cost-free to get started and you just pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you in fact end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a good sign that people love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful system utilized by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one option for sending e-mails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing clients to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise gives you a site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own website already, you can likewise utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your web site subscribers directly to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to allow individuals to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to leverage various marketing channels to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack choice.
Exactly how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, give you accessibility to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, external embed forms, and more. It’s a really generous offering for those simply beginning (or for those looking for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding Best Newsletters on Beehiiv
After developing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your first e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your newsletter will live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise choose your brand design and colors to make sure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your major 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 where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Start creating,” “Messages,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Evaluate.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot over), Begin creating is where you produce and publish newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can see who your customers are (and damage them down right into sections), 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 advertisements, Design is where you develop your newsletter landing page and article template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of all of your admin things.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start creating, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you intend to write about, I advise just going to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking “Beginning composing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– concentrate on the material initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and user-friendly user interface for writing.
As soon as you begin writing, you can enhance headings, include web links, and design your material exactly how you like.
beehiiv gives you lots of alternatives for different sorts of web content like video clips, web links, images, and more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise constantly releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a great deal more material features depending on 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 make your email template and adjust some settings.
Here, you can update the name of your newsletter, give it a description, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to very first time clients, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify history colors, boundaries, spacing, fonts, image layouts, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever before single thing you can optimize with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Simply try the platform totally free and see it on your own!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of impressive features that make it a terrific publishing system for any e-newsletter designer.
Right here are several of the necessary features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it super very easy to create and send out emails. I stated over some of things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some extra analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely one of the better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) reside on an internet site. Think about it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your newsletter, and a location where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, give you a web site. Nonetheless, the free plan locations your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a personalized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your e-newsletter right from your beehiiv web site or via embed forms.
If you currently have a web site, and want individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to make use of an embed kind. This is what I utilize on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three various options– a full width, a taken care of width, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim embed.
You can discover the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also an alternative for attribution tracking if you wish to ahead UTM parameters for tracking functions– quite cool.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the group is working with updates for these, however I discussed a few concerns I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is an option for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your listing to ahead your emails to close friends and colleagues and if they get other people to subscribe to your checklist, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually appear several e-newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your subscribers into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you an additional opportunity for expanding your e-mail list.
However, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more premium plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this article.
Premium memberships
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription income is definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” problems of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying subscribers. This can be very profitable depending on what your e-newsletter has to provide. For example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among things I love about beehiiv is exactly how tidy and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count Best Newsletters on Beehiiv.
You get access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on how your e-newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that client matter go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan gives you everything you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the advertisement network, referral program, custom domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with addition of concern assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my viewpoint.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for several individuals.
I’m not exactly sure exactly how the device business economics work on this, yet beehiiv is definitely less expensive (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Certainly, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter system of option:
Easy to set up and begin sending out newsletters for free.
Tidy and modern client analytics.
Great deals of versatility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Develop costs alternatives to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I have not seen an additional newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
Yet obviously, I do not wish to be prejudiced so I’m going to state some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the disadvantages I’ve found while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my web site building system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to enter excessive detail why I like Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow review if you ‘d like to discover more.
Today, there actually is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow website other than using an iframe embed. I directly do not like using iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to decrease my internet site a bit. Each time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to pack on the page. It’s extremely noticeable when you’re on a sluggish web connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The major complaint I have is that I can not utilize a routine Webflow form (which I love using). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would just add additional expenses that I do not require. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far exceed the cons here. I’m also hopeful that Webflow will at some point create a much better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is a great option for anybody seeking to dive into the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far surpasses many that are presently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you actually have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly inexpensive for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t compose evaluation articles frequently. I just do when I really use the device myself and would certainly suggest it to a good friend.
I hope you found some clarity on whether beehiiv is a great platform for you.