Over two years earlier, I was reading among my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked on it and instantaneously began destroying Boost Your Podcast with Beehiiv.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full time developer is tough. I’m frequently getting pitched different tools and services that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional since I spent the last six months trying out different e-mail and e-newsletter systems to assist build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific choices for writing newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The problem with many existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter platform that lets me fully personalize my e-newsletter styles, makes it very very easy to write and send out e-mails, and offers me tools that assist me evaluate metrics and get more clients.
I believe I have actually lastly located the best device.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it easy to layout, compose, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by former staff members at the well-known newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to assist creators launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I chose to ultimately choose it as my e-newsletter platform of selection.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter system for quite time currently. I have actually put things off hard when it came to ultimately releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a couple of various other indie systems. After that, Substack. And lastly, I ended up using beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter makers respect prominent newsletters with countless subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I looked up to a great deal. They have fantastic content, lots of customers, and a smart referral program that enables them to get even much more subscribers.
So, I went on a search to find out exactly how these big newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more clients? How do they produce a newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to address all of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that constructed this device actually comprehend newsletter creation and growth.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer growth.
Because, any type of maker understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right e-newsletter stack (that ranges) typically indicates making use of numerous different devices to aid accomplish one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to establish recommendations. It can obtain expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was totally free to start utilizing, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content creator that wants a platform that enables them to send out custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or web content designer, you should seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s completely free to start and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you actually end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably a great indication that individuals enjoy reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent system used by thousands of independent writers. With Substack you get your own internet site and make use of the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending out e-mails (while producing an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to get the word out.
beehiiv additionally offers you a site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your own internet site currently, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your site customers directly to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to enable individuals to register for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the versatility to take advantage of various marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack alternative.
Exactly how to start using beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you accessibility to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and a lot more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those simply beginning (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Boost Your Podcast with Beehiiv
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying clients?”, and more.
You’ll then create a name and link for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally choose your brand colors and design to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have detailed information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning writing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Analyze.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Begin writing is where you create and publish e-newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your clients are (and damage them down right into segments), Expand is where you have access 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, Layout is where you develop your e-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 stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start writing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting, and have a concept you intend to blog about, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking on “Start creating”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a clean and easy to use user interface for creating.
Once you begin writing, you can enhance headings, include web links, and design your content exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you lots of alternatives for different sorts of web content like video clips, web links, photos, and more.
The group at beehiiv is also continuously launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will be a lot a lot more content features depending on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
As soon as you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to make your email template and readjust some settings.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit history colors, borders, spacing, font styles, picture layouts, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to undergo ever before single thing you can enhance with your email template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Just check out the platform free of cost and see it on your own!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of impressive features that make it a terrific posting system for any type of newsletter creator.
Right here are a few of the necessary features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it very simple to create and send emails. I mentioned above some of things you can do with your settings and email style so I’ll spare you some additional analysis.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly one of the far better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) survive on an internet site. Think of it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a location where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a site. Nevertheless, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a personalized domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or through embed forms.
If you currently have an internet site, and desire people to register for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to utilize an embed type. This is what I make use of on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 different options– a full width, a dealt with width, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim installed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to ahead UTM parameters for tracking purposes– quite cool.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the group is working with updates for these, but I discussed a few worries I had in the pros and cons area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter platform, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can motivate existing clients on your list to onward your e-mails to friends and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to subscribe to your list, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever type you desire. I have actually appear numerous newsletter companies give benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– offering you an additional method for expanding your email list.
Nevertheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more superior plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this write-up.
Costs memberships
They claim all you require to make a living online is 1,000 real fans. Registration earnings 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 develop “premium” problems of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be extremely profitable depending on what your e-newsletter needs to provide. For example, Trends.co is a prominent premium e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter web content.
Data analytics
One of the important things I like about beehiiv is exactly how clean and simple the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client matter Boost Your Podcast with Beehiiv.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on exactly how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (totally free) Launch plan offers you every little thing you need to get started and expand your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and accessibility to premium registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my viewpoint.
For example, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would bill $679 each month for the same quantity– making beehiiv an excellent Kit option for lots of individuals.
I’m unsure exactly how the unit business economics deal with this, yet beehiiv is certainly more affordable (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Naturally, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Below are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually personally experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and begin sending newsletters totally free.
Tidy and contemporary client analytics.
Lots of versatility with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Create costs alternatives to generate income from.
Polls.
To be truthful, I haven’t seen another newsletter platform that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
But certainly, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m going to mention some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the disadvantages I’ve located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including personalized typefaces.
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure platform of option (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can read my Webflow evaluation if you want to find out more.
Right now, there truly is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site apart from utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t such as using iframe’s because they have a tendency to reduce my internet site a little bit. Every time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to fill on the web page. It’s really noticeable when you get on a slow-moving net connection. Yet I can get around that.
The major complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow kind (which I like utilizing). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier yet that would just add added costs that I don’t need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I thought I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much outweigh the cons right here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will eventually create a much better way to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
On the whole, beehiiv is a fantastic service for anyone aiming to dive into the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter platform much exceeds numerous 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 relatively inexpensive for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is unusual. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t compose review messages frequently. I only do when I really use the tool myself and would recommend it to a good friend.
I hope you located some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a good platform for you.