Over two years ago, I was reading one of my favored e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and instantly began wrecking Lindy Newsletter Beehiiv.
I had not been sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a permanent developer is difficult. I’m frequently getting pitched different devices and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was psychological since I invested the last 6 months trying out different e-mail and newsletter platforms to assist develop my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some excellent options for creating newsletters. Yet I could not discover one that made me provide a guaranteed “yes”.
The problem with lots of existing e-newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me fully tailor my e-newsletter designs, makes it extremely simple to create and send emails, and provides me tools that assist me examine metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I assume I have actually lastly found the ideal device.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really right for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it easy to layout, create, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by former employees at the famous e-newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends 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 write-up, I’m going to describe my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I love (and hate) regarding it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to finally opt for it as my newsletter system of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I mistakenly stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern e-newsletter system for quite time currently. I have actually hesitated hard when it concerned lastly introducing my newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And finally, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous newsletter developers appreciate prominent newsletters with millions of clients– I know I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I appreciated a great deal. They have great material, lots of subscribers, and a creative referral program that enables them to get back at a lot more subscribers.
So, I took place a hunt to determine just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to respond to all of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this tool truly comprehend e-newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were some of the very first marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer development.
Because, any type of creator recognizes, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the ideal newsletter pile (that ranges) frequently means utilizing several various devices to assist achieve one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one platform to set up references. It can obtain costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did every one of these things in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that wants a platform that allows them to send out customized e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a web site.
One of the most effective e-newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent author, media firm, start-up, or web content designer, you ought to seriously considering checking out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to begin and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your listing.
If you actually end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a great sign that individuals love reviewing your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a fantastic platform utilized by countless independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own internet site and use the system as your all-in-one option for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous concerns).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of much better analytics, even more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv also gives you an internet site similar to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can additionally use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your site customers directly to your beehiiv email listing. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable individuals to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to take advantage of various marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a wonderful Substack option.
How to begin using beehiiv email marketing software program.
Register for a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, give you access to web site hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough customization, analytics, external embed types, and more. It’s a very charitable offering for those simply starting (or for those seeking a brand-new system to move to).
Onboarding Lindy Newsletter Beehiiv
After producing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any kind of paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise choose your brand design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
As soon as you reach your major dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will certainly have outlined information on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin writing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Analyze.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the settings choice.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot above), Beginning creating is where you produce and release e-newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Audience is where you can watch who your clients are (and break them down into sectors), Grow is where you have access to a referral program (and growth 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 make your newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of every one of your admin things.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you want to discuss, I advise simply going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Begin writing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later on– focus on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a clean and user-friendly user interface for creating.
When you begin writing, you can optimize headings, add links, and style your content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv gives you lots of choices for different types of content like video clips, links, images, and much more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally regularly releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a lot a lot more content features depending upon when you read 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 setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, provide it a summary, include your logo, turn on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background shades, borders, spacing, font styles, picture layouts, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever before single point you can enhance with your email template since it’s a lot. Simply try the platform for free and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of amazing features that make it a fantastic publishing system for any newsletter developer.
Right here are some of the essential features you can discover with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing platform. It makes it super very easy to write and send emails. I mentioned above some of the important things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some additional reading.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely among the much better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you want) survive on an internet site. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a place where individuals can register for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the totally free one, offer you a web site. However, the free plan places your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a customized domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is important. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your newsletter right from your beehiiv website or with embed forms.
If you currently have a website, and want individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to make use of an embed type. 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 blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various alternatives– a full width, a fixed width, and a slim installed. I personally utilize the slim installed.
You can locate the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s also a choice for attribution tracking if you wish to onward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– pretty neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I make sure the team is working with updates for these, but I stated a few worries I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a service for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your listing to forward your emails to close friends and associates and if they get other people to sign up for your listing, you can reward them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve appear several e-newsletter firms provide rewards in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– giving you another opportunity for expanding your email checklist.
Nevertheless, to get accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to an extra exceptional plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription income is most definitely a monster of its own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “premium” problems of your newsletter that are only sent to paying subscribers. This can be really rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter needs to provide. As an example, Trends.co is a prominent premium e-newsletter that creates millions in profits a year simply by having pay-only e-newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is exactly how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time day on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and subscriber count Lindy Newsletter Beehiiv.
You get access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on exactly how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count increase is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you whatever you require to get started and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and accessibility to premium registrations. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you everything in the Grow plan with addition of top priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 per month for the same amount– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit option for numerous individuals.
I’m not exactly sure how the system business economics work with this, however beehiiv is most definitely cheaper (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
Easy to set up and begin sending e-newsletters totally free.
Tidy and contemporary client analytics.
Great deals of flexibility with e-mail styles.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Create costs choices to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be truthful, I have not seen an additional e-newsletter platform that has had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
Yet obviously, I don’t 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 have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom fonts.
I make use of Webflow as my site building system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive detail why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can review my Webflow testimonial if you want to find out more.
Right now, there really is no other way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site other than utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not like utilizing iframe’s since they have a tendency to slow down my website a bit. Every single time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up installed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s very noticeable when you’re on a sluggish internet connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow form (which I enjoy utilizing). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier however that would just add additional expenses that I don’t require. To be sincere, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage however I assumed I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much outweigh the cons here. I’m also confident that Webflow will eventually create a better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Generally, beehiiv is a wonderful remedy for anybody looking to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system far outweighs many that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively affordable wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your checklist is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I don’t create testimonial articles frequently. I just do when I in fact utilize the device myself and would certainly recommend it to a close friend.
I hope you discovered some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.