Over two years back, I read one of my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and immediately began destroying Dakota Robertson Beehiiv.
I wasn’t certain why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time creator is tough. I’m usually getting pitched different devices and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was emotional since I spent the last six months trying various email and newsletter platforms to aid build my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful alternatives for writing newsletters. However I could not locate one that made me offer a precise “yes”.
The issue with numerous existing e-newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me fully tailor my newsletter styles, makes it very simple to create and send out emails, and provides me tools that help me analyze metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I assume I’ve ultimately found the right device.
Yet, I know beehiiv may not be for everyone. 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 easy to style, compose, send out, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous staff members at the famous newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help developers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this short article, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to lastly choose it as my newsletter platform of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I have actually watched for a contemporary e-newsletter system for rather some time now. I’ve postponed hard when it concerned lastly launching my e-newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I wound up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain several e-newsletter makers admire prominent e-newsletters with countless clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have terrific material, tons of clients, and a smart referral program that allows them to get even a lot more customers.
So, I took place a quest to find out just how these huge newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain more customers? How do they create a newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to address every one of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this device actually comprehend newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these developers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on designer growth.
Since, any kind of maker understands, you require development to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the ideal newsletter stack (that ranges) typically implies utilizing numerous different tools to aid accomplish one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get expensive.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was totally free to start using, 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 permits them to send personalized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media company, start-up, or content creator, you must seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely free to start and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you really end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent indication that individuals like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is an excellent system utilized by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you get your own internet site and use the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while creating an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv also offers you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your very own website already, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your site clients straight to your beehiiv email checklist. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit people to register for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the versatility to leverage various marketing channels to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
Just how to begin utilizing beehiiv email marketing software program.
Register for a free plan
The initial step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, exterior embed types, and more. It’s a really generous offering for those just starting (or for those trying to find a brand-new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Dakota Robertson Beehiiv
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then create a name and link for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your web site URL could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll likewise select your brand design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
Once you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have detailed details on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning creating,” “Messages,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Style,” and” Assess.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the settings option.
Dashboard is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Start writing is where you create and release e-newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can watch who your clients are (and damage them down right into segments), Grow is where you have access 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 make your newsletter landing page and post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin things.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you want to discuss, I suggest just going to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning writing”.
You can tweak your template and styling later– concentrate on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and straightforward interface for writing.
Once you start creating, you can maximize headings, add links, and design your content just how you such as.
beehiiv offers you tons of alternatives for different sorts of material like videos, web links, pictures, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is also regularly launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a great deal more material features relying on when you read this.
Optimizing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to create your e-mail template and adjust some settings.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a summary, include your logo, switch on or off a welcome email to very first time subscribers, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image styles, and more. I’m not going to experience ever before solitary point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a lot. Just check out the platform for free and see it for yourself!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of incredible features that make it a fantastic posting platform for any newsletter creator.
Right here are some of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly easy to compose and send e-mails. I pointed out above a few of things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll spare you some added reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely one of the better e-mail editors I have actually ever written in.
Internet site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you desire) survive an internet site. Think of it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a place where individuals can register for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, give you a web site. However, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to add a customized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is essential. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or with embed kinds.
If you already have an internet site, and desire people to register for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed type. This is what I utilize on this web site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three different options– a full width, a repaired size, and a slim installed. I directly make use of the slim installed.
You can locate the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an option for attribution tracking if you intend to ahead UTM criteria for tracking objectives– quite cool.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make sure the group is working on updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of problems I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your checklist to ahead your e-mails to good friends and associates and if they get other individuals to sign up for your list, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve seem numerous e-newsletter business give incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– giving you an additional opportunity for growing your email list.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to a more premium plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this post.
Costs subscriptions
They say all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Registration income is definitely a monster of its very own. If you’re trying to find a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” issues of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be very profitable depending upon what your e-newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a popular costs newsletter that produces millions in earnings a year merely by having pay-only newsletter content.
Data analytics
Among things I love concerning beehiiv is exactly how tidy and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client count Dakota Robertson Beehiiv.
You get accessibility to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter go up is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you need to start and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you every little thing in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, customized domain name, polls, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you every little thing in the Grow plan with addition of priority assistance and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some rivals, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 each month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit choice for several users.
I’m unsure how the device business economics service this, however beehiiv is certainly less costly (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are some of the pros and cons I’ve personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to establish and begin sending newsletters absolutely free.
Tidy and modern client analytics.
Great deals of versatility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Develop premium choices to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be honest, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter system that has been able to package all of these features together so well.
But certainly, I do not wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the cons I’ve discovered while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding customized fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my web site building system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I love Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow evaluation if you ‘d like to learn more.
Today, there actually is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site aside from making use of an iframe embed. I directly do not like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to slow down my website a little bit. Whenever a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s extremely obvious when you’re on a sluggish net connection. But I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy utilizing). There are means around this by utilizing a device like Zapier however that would simply add additional prices that I don’t require. To be honest, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I thought I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the disadvantages here. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will ultimately create a much better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is a great remedy for any person looking to dive into the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system much surpasses lots of that are presently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you really have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather affordable for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I do not write testimonial posts usually. I just do when I in fact use the tool myself and would advise it to a pal.
I hope you located some clarity on whether beehiiv is a good system for you.