Over two years ago, I was reading one of my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and promptly began destroying Is Beehiiv Legit.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a permanent maker is difficult. I’m typically getting pitched different devices and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I invested the last 6 months trying various email and newsletter systems to assist build my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful alternatives for writing e-newsletters. But I couldn’t find one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The issue with many existing e-newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my newsletter designs, makes it extremely simple to write and send out e-mails, and provides me devices that help me analyze metrics and get more customers.
I assume I have actually ultimately found the best device.
However, I recognize beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to layout, write, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by former employees at the renowned e-newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help developers 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 mosting likely to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly opt for it as my newsletter platform of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A few months ago, I mistakenly came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I have actually been on the lookout for a modern-day e-newsletter system for fairly time now. I have actually postponed hard when it concerned lastly launching my newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a couple of various other indie systems. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain many e-newsletter makers look up to prominent e-newsletters with countless subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have fantastic web content, lots of subscribers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even more customers.
So, I took place a hunt to figure out how these large newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they obtain even more customers? How do they produce an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer every one of my inquiries. I thought to myself, “damn the people that built this device really recognize newsletter development and development.” I examined 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 development workers at Morning Brew– my mind took off.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a different e-newsletter platform. One that’s focused on maker growth.
Because, any type of creator knows, you need growth to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the best e-newsletter stack (that scales) usually indicates making use of multiple different devices to aid attain one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to establish references. It can get pricey.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin 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 permits them to send custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at providing you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, start-up, or material maker, you ought to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s entirely free to get going and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your checklist.
If you in fact end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good sign that individuals like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is an excellent platform utilized by countless independent writers. With Substack you obtain your own web site and make use of the system as your all-in-one remedy for sending emails (while creating an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to get the word out.
beehiiv also provides you a web site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own site already, you can also utilize beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I make use of) to send your site customers right to your beehiiv e-mail list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow people to register for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to leverage different marketing networks to obtain your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack option.
Exactly how to begin making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will certainly permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you accessibility to website hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and extra. It’s a really charitable offering for those just starting (or for those searching for a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding Is Beehiiv Legit
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll also select your brand colors and design to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your major control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have outlined information on how many sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning creating,” “Blog posts,” “Audience,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Assess.” And at the really lower you’ll see the settings alternative.
Control panel is your major control center (screenshot above), Beginning writing is where you develop and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous e-newsletter editions, Audience is where you can watch who your subscribers are (and break them down right into segments), Expand 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 newsletter with advertisements, Style is where you create your e-newsletter landing page and post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can take care of every one of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start creating, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting, and have a concept you want to write about, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Begin composing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– focus on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and straightforward interface for creating.
When you begin composing, you can enhance headings, add web links, and style your web content exactly how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of alternatives for various sorts of content like videos, links, pictures, and more.
The team at beehiiv is likewise continuously releasing product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a great deal extra content features depending on when you read this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to design your email template and adjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, add your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and a lot more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your layout.
You can edit background colors, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, photo formats, and much more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before solitary point you can enhance with your email template since it’s a whole lot. Simply experiment with the system completely free and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it a great publishing platform for any type of newsletter creator.
Right here are some of the crucial features you can discover with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting platform. It makes it super easy to compose and send out e-mails. I discussed above a few of the important things you can do with your settings and email design so I’ll save you some extra reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s most definitely among the far better email editors I’ve ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you develop a beehiiv newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) live on an internet site. Consider it as a web site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, provide you an internet site. Nevertheless, the free plan areas your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a customized domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is necessary. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from your beehiiv web site or with embed kinds.
If you already have an internet site, and desire people to register for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I make use of on this internet site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right-hand man column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various options– a full size, a taken care of size, and a slim installed. I directly utilize the slim installed.
You can find the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally an alternative for acknowledgment tracking if you want to onward UTM criteria for tracking purposes– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I desire beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make sure the group is servicing updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of concerns I had in the benefits and drawbacks area below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your list to forward your emails to friends and associates and if they get other individuals to register for your list, you can reward them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you desire. I have actually seem several newsletter companies give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you one more opportunity for expanding your e-mail checklist.
However, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this short article.
Premium memberships
They say all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Membership profits is definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” concerns of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying customers. This can be very rewarding relying on what your newsletter needs to provide. For instance, Trends.co is a popular premium e-newsletter that creates millions in revenue a year just by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
One of things I enjoy concerning beehiiv is just how clean and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count Is Beehiiv Legit.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye view on how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that customer count rise is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv provides four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan provides you every little thing you require to start and grow your newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and accessibility to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with addition of top priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 monthly for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for several users.
I’m not sure exactly how the system economics work with this, yet beehiiv is most definitely less costly (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every system, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Right here are some of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of option:
Easy to set up and start sending out e-newsletters free of cost.
Clean and contemporary customer analytics.
Lots of versatility with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Develop costs choices to monetize.
Surveys.
To be straightforward, I have not seen one more newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
Yet of course, I do not intend to be biased so I’m mosting likely to mention some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the disadvantages I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom-made fonts.
I make use of Webflow as my web site building platform of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in too much detail why I love Webflow so much but you can review my Webflow evaluation if you want to discover more.
Right now, there actually is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site aside from utilizing an iframe embed. I directly don’t like utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to reduce my internet site a bit. Every single time a page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last thing to pack on the web page. It’s extremely visible when you’re on a sluggish net link. Yet I can get around that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t make use of a regular Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are ways around this by utilizing a device like Zapier however that would certainly simply include additional prices that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage but I thought I would state it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far surpass the disadvantages right here. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will eventually develop a better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
Overall, beehiiv is a terrific solution for anybody aiming to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far exceeds many that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather affordable for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your listing is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not create testimonial articles often. I only do when I in fact use the tool myself and would certainly suggest it to a buddy.
I hope you discovered some clearness on whether beehiiv is a great platform for you.