Over 2 years ago, I was reading one of my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked it and instantaneously started destroying Matt Mcgarry Podcast.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so psychological.
Being a full-time developer is tough. I’m frequently getting pitched different devices and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological because I invested the last six months trying out various email and e-newsletter systems to aid develop my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful options for composing newsletters. But I could not discover one that made me provide a guaranteed “yes”.
The concern with numerous existing newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me completely customize my e-newsletter styles, makes it very easy to write and send e-mails, and offers me devices that aid me evaluate metrics and get even more clients.
I think I’ve lastly found the right device.
Yet, I understand beehiiv may not be for everyone. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact ideal for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it very easy to style, create, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the popular e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to help creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this post, I’m mosting likely to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to finally select it as my newsletter platform of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I unintentionally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny story is that I’ve watched for a modern newsletter platform for rather a long time now. I’ve put things off hard when it involved lastly launching my e-newsletter.
First, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a couple of other indie systems. Then, Substack. And lastly, I wound up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter developers look up to popular newsletters with countless clients– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a lot. They have wonderful material, tons of customers, and a brilliant referral program that enables them to get even more clients.
So, I went on a hunt to find out exactly how these huge e-newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they produce a newsletter style that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to answer all of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this device really comprehend e-newsletter development and growth.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer development.
Because, any type of developer knows, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the right e-newsletter stack (that scales) commonly means utilizing numerous different tools to aid achieve one objective– one system for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one platform to establish referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I found out 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 web content developer that wants a platform that permits them to send custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, startup, or web content maker, you need to seriously thinking about experimenting with beehiiv. It’s absolutely complimentary to get started and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your listing.
If you really end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a great indication that individuals like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a fantastic platform used by countless independent writers. With Substack you obtain your very own site and utilize the system as your all-in-one service for sending out e-mails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing customers to get the word out.
beehiiv also provides you a website comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own website currently, you can also utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I make use of) to send your site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit people to subscribe to your newsletter directly from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to leverage different marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack alternative.
Exactly how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Sign up for a free plan
The initial step is to register for a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Begin trial” button on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you access to website hosting, a newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, exterior embed forms, and extra. It’s a really charitable offering for those just beginning (or for those trying to find a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Matt Mcgarry Podcast
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you used?”, “do you have any paying customers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your internet site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise select your brand name design and colors to see to it your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
Once you reach your primary control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have outlined information on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning writing,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Analyze.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the settings option.
Control panel is your primary control center (screenshot over), Begin writing is where you develop and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can view who your subscribers are (and break them down right into sections), Expand is where you have accessibility 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, Layout is where you make your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Evaluate is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle every one of your admin stuff.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you wish to write about, I advise just mosting likely to the “Compose” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later on– concentrate on the content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor supplies a tidy and easy to use interface for writing.
As soon as you start writing, you can maximize headings, add links, and style your material how you like.
beehiiv offers you lots of choices for various sorts of content like video clips, links, pictures, and more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise constantly releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a lot more content features relying on when you read this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
As soon as you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to make your e-mail template and readjust some settings.
Here, you can update the name of your newsletter, give it a summary, include your logo, turn on or off a welcome email to first time clients, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history shades, borders, spacing, font styles, image layouts, and a lot more. I’m not going to experience ever before solitary thing you can enhance with your email template since it’s a great deal. Simply try the platform absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Essential beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of impressive features that make it a great publishing platform for any kind of newsletter creator.
Here are some of the vital features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it super simple to write and send e-mails. I mentioned over some of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail style so I’ll spare you some extra reading.
Things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually contemporary and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly among the better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv newsletter, all of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive on a web site. Think of it as a site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, offer you a site. However, the free plan locations your web site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a custom-made domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining clients is necessary. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or through embed forms.
If you currently have a site, and want individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to utilize an embed form. This is what I make use of on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed types, you have 3 various options– a complete size, a taken care of width, and a slim installed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can find the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your setups.
There’s also an alternative for acknowledgment monitoring if you wish to ahead UTM parameters for tracking purposes– quite cool.
However, there are a few features I wish beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make sure the group is servicing updates for these, but I mentioned a couple of problems I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things regarding 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 subscribers on your list to ahead your e-mails to buddies and coworkers and if they get other people to register for your checklist, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually seem many newsletter firms give incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously turn your clients right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– giving you one more avenue for expanding your e-mail checklist.
Nonetheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to a more superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this short article.
Premium registrations
They say all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription profits is definitely 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 create “premium” problems of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying subscribers. This can be really lucrative depending on what your e-newsletter needs to use. For example, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among the things I like regarding beehiiv is just how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter Matt Mcgarry Podcast.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging into your dashboard and seeing that client matter rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you everything you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (up to 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and access to costs memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are quite generous in my point of view.
As an 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 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a terrific Kit choice for many users.
I’m unsure how the unit business economics deal with this, but beehiiv is absolutely less expensive (currently) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Here are a few of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while utilizing beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of selection:
Easy to establish and begin sending out e-newsletters free of cost.
Clean and modern-day customer analytics.
Lots of adaptability with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Develop premium choices to monetize.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I have not seen one more newsletter system that has had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
However of course, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to state some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Right here are some of the cons I have actually located while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made fonts.
I utilize Webflow as my website building platform of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to go in too much detail why I like Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow review if you would love to find out more.
Right now, there really is nothing else means I can incorporate 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 website a bit. Every time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to fill on the web page. It’s extremely recognizable when you’re on a slow web link. But I can navigate that.
The primary complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow type (which I enjoy using). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier but that would simply include added expenses that I don’t require. To be truthful, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I thought I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far exceed the disadvantages here. I’m likewise confident that Webflow will ultimately create a better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Verdict
In general, beehiiv is a fantastic solution for any individual aiming to study the world of e-mail marketing and e-newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter system much outweighs numerous that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you really have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also rather economical wherefore they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your list is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well right into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not compose review articles often. I just do when I actually use the device myself and would advise it to a friend.
I wish you located some quality on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent system for you.