Over 2 years ago, I read one of my preferred email e-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 quickly began tearing up Half Baked Beehiiv.
I wasn’t certain why I really felt so psychological.
Being a full time developer is difficult. I’m frequently getting pitched various devices and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological since I spent the last six months trying various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to help build my newsletter. And to be fair, there are some fantastic choices for writing newsletters. But I could not locate one that made me give a guaranteed “yes”.
The problem with many existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully tailor my newsletter designs, makes it extremely very easy to compose and send emails, and gives me tools that aid me assess metrics and obtain even more customers.
I believe I’ve ultimately located the appropriate tool.
But, I understand beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it easy to design, compose, send out, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by former staff members at the famous e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid creators launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this post, I’m going to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I love (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to ultimately opt for it as my newsletter platform of choice.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern newsletter platform for quite some time currently. I’ve hesitated hard when it pertained to ultimately releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie systems. Then, Substack. And finally, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I’m sure several e-newsletter creators admire popular e-newsletters with numerous customers– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a lot. They have great web content, lots of subscribers, and a creative referral program that allows them to get even more subscribers.
So, I went on a search to identify exactly how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more clients? How do they develop an e-newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to answer all of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device truly comprehend newsletter development and growth.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the initial marketing and development workers at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer development.
Because, any maker recognizes, you need growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the ideal e-newsletter pile (that scales) commonly suggests making use of several different tools to assist accomplish one goal– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to set up referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to begin making use of, 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 system that permits them to send out custom newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, start-up, or web content maker, you should seriously considering trying out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to start and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you really end up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a great sign that individuals like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a great system made use of by countless independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own website and make use of the platform as your all-in-one solution for sending e-mails (while creating an archive of previous concerns).
What collections 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 style flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv likewise gives you a website comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own website already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site customers straight to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit individuals to subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to take advantage of different marketing channels to obtain your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack choice.
Exactly how to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Register for a free plan
The first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly enable you to have up to 2,500 clients, provide you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement customization, analytics, external embed types, and much more. It’s a very charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those looking for a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Half Baked Beehiiv
After creating an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then produce a name and link for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your internet site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll also pick your brand name colors and design to ensure your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your major control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have described info on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin creating,” “Messages,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Evaluate.” And at the extremely lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Dashboard is your major control center (screenshot over), Begin composing is where you develop and release newsletters, Articles is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your clients are (and damage them down into sections), Grow 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, Design is where you design your newsletter landing page and post template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle all of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you intend to cover, I recommend simply going to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking “Start creating”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and straightforward user interface for composing.
As soon as you start creating, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your material just how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of alternatives for various sorts of material like video clips, web links, images, and much more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally continuously launching product feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a lot a lot more content features relying on when you’re reading this.
Enhancing your settings and templates
Once you have an e-newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to create your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo, activate or off a welcome email to first time customers, and a lot more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify history shades, borders, spacing, font styles, image styles, and extra. I’m not going to experience ever before solitary point you can maximize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a whole lot. Just try the system completely free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of impressive features that make it a great posting system for any e-newsletter designer.
Here are some of the essential features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing platform. It makes it very simple to compose and send e-mails. I stated above several of things you can do with your settings and email style so I’ll save you some added analysis.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly among the better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) reside on a site. Consider it as a web site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your e-newsletter, and an area where individuals can register for your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, give you a website. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter straight from your beehiiv internet site or through embed types.
If you currently have a site, and want people to register for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed type. This is what I use on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have three various choices– a full width, a dealt with size, and a slim embed. I personally use the slim embed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s also an alternative for attribution tracking if you intend to ahead UTM specifications for tracking purposes– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make sure the team is servicing updates for these, but I pointed out a few concerns I had in the advantages and disadvantages section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is an option for creating a referral program.
You can urge existing clients on your listing to forward your e-mails to pals and associates and if they get other people to register for your list, you can award them. These incentives can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually seem several newsletter companies offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– giving you an additional method for growing your email checklist.
However, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration revenue is most definitely a beast of its own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” issues of your newsletter that are only sent out to paying customers. This can be very financially rewarding depending on what your e-newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that creates millions in earnings a year merely by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of the things I love regarding beehiiv is how clean and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client count Half Baked Beehiiv.
You obtain access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client count rise is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you whatever you need to begin and expand your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, customized domain, surveys, and access to costs registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you every little thing in the Grow plan with addition of top priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly generous in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 monthly for the very same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit choice for several individuals.
I’m unsure how the device business economics work with this, however beehiiv is definitely more affordable (at the moment) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are several of the advantages and disadvantages I’ve directly 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 selection:
Easy to establish and begin sending out e-newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Lots of flexibility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Produce premium alternatives to monetize.
Polls.
To be honest, I haven’t seen another newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
However certainly, I don’t want to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the cons I have actually located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding personalized fonts.
I make use of Webflow as my site structure platform of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter too much detail why I love Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow evaluation if you wish to learn more.
Now, there actually is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site other than using an iframe embed. I personally don’t like utilizing iframe’s due to the fact that they have a tendency to decrease my internet site a little bit. Every time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last point to fill on the web page. It’s really noticeable when you’re on a slow-moving web connection. But I can get around that.
The main gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow type (which I enjoy making use of). There are methods around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier however that would just include extra prices that I do not require. To be honest, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I assumed I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the disadvantages below. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will at some point create a much better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
In general, beehiiv is an excellent remedy for anyone wanting to study the world of e-mail marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter platform far exceeds several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a generous free plan, you really have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively inexpensive for what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your checklist is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t write testimonial articles typically. I only do when I really utilize the tool myself and would certainly recommend it to a friend.
I hope you located some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a great platform for you.