Over 2 years earlier, I was reading one of my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the very first time. I clicked on it and quickly began tearing up Newsletter Operator Course.
I had not been certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent creator is tough. I’m commonly getting pitched different tools and services that do not appear to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological since I invested the last six months trying various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to help develop my e-newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some great choices for creating e-newsletters. But I couldn’t locate one that made me offer a guaranteed “yes”.
The concern with many existing e-newsletter systems is that they do not feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me totally tailor my e-newsletter layouts, makes it super easy to compose and send out emails, and gives me devices that help me examine metrics and get more customers.
I assume I’ve lastly located the appropriate tool.
However, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s really best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it very easy to layout, compose, send out, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by previous workers at the well-known newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid developers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking great deals of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this post, I’m going to clarify my individual experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately opt for it as my e-newsletter platform of option.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day newsletter system for rather time now. I’ve put things off hard when it concerned ultimately launching my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up making use of beehiiv.
I make certain lots of e-newsletter developers respect prominent e-newsletters with numerous subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I respected a whole lot. They have great web content, tons of subscribers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get back at much more subscribers.
So, I went on a hunt to determine just how these huge newsletters established their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more clients? How do they develop a newsletter design that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to answer every one of my inquiries. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this tool actually understand newsletter production and growth.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were some of the initial marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was going to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on creator development.
Because, any creator recognizes, you need development to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the appropriate e-newsletter pile (that scales) often suggests making use of multiple various tools to aid achieve one objective– one platform for your e-newsletter, one system 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 free to begin utilizing, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material designer that wants a platform that allows them to send out custom-made e-newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most successful newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their newsletters. beehiiv focuses on providing you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, startup, or web content creator, you need to seriously taking into consideration experimenting with beehiiv. It’s entirely cost-free to begin and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you in fact end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely a good sign that people love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a fantastic platform utilized by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you get your very own website and utilize the platform as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What collections beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv enables you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the benefit of better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally gives you a site similar to Substack. But, if you have your own website already, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site customers right to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the exact same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit individuals to register for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the flexibility to leverage various marketing networks to get your newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a great Substack choice.
Exactly how to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software application.
Enroll in a free plan
The initial step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 customers, provide you access to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development customization, analytics, external embed forms, and a lot more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those simply starting out (or for those seeking a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Newsletter Operator Course
After developing an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you used?”, “do you have any type of paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your newsletter’s site. On the free plan, your newsletter will certainly survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll likewise choose your brand name design and colors to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
As soon as you reach your primary dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have described information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Begin writing,” “Posts,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Style,” and” Analyze.” And at the really bottom you’ll see the setups alternative.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Start writing is where you develop and publish e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can view who your clients are (and break them down into sections), 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 newsletter with advertisements, Design is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage all of your admin things.
Writing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to start writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have a concept you want to cover, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Write” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can modify your template and styling later on– focus on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and straightforward user interface for composing.
When you begin composing, you can maximize headings, include links, and design your content just how you such as.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for different types of material like video clips, web links, images, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is additionally frequently releasing item feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a great deal much more content features relying on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and adjust some settings.
Below, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo, turn on or off a welcome e-mail to first time customers, and more.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify background colors, borders, spacing, font styles, image layouts, and more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever solitary point you can enhance with your e-mail template since it’s a great deal. Just experiment with the platform completely free and see it on your own!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of fantastic features that make it a terrific posting platform for any kind of e-newsletter designer.
Right here are a few of the important features you can locate with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing platform. It makes it super simple to write and send out emails. I discussed above a few of the important things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some additional analysis.
The thing to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely among the far better email editors I’ve ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you create a beehiiv newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive on a website. Think about it as a website for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous issues of your newsletter, and an area where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, offer you a website. Nevertheless, the free plan places your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you want to include a custom-made domain to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter right from your beehiiv website or via embed kinds.
If you already have a website, and desire individuals to register for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to utilize an embed kind. This is what I make use of on this website (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have 3 various choices– a full size, a taken care of width, and a slim installed. I personally make use of the slim embed.
You can locate the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s likewise an option for attribution tracking if you intend to forward UTM specifications for tracking purposes– rather cool.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it involved subscribe features. I’m sure the team is working on updates for these, but I mentioned a few issues I had in the benefits and drawbacks section below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a remedy for creating a referral program.
You can encourage existing subscribers on your list to onward your e-mails to good friends and colleagues and if they get other people to register for your checklist, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you want. I’ve appear lots of e-newsletter firms offer incentives in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– offering you an additional avenue for growing your email listing.
However, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to a much more exceptional plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this short article.
Costs memberships
They say all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership earnings is certainly a beast of its very own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” concerns of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying clients. This can be really profitable depending on what your e-newsletter needs to provide. For instance, Trends.co is a prominent premium newsletter that generates millions in revenue a year just by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among things I like concerning beehiiv is how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time day on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and client matter Newsletter Operator Course.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is in fact doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that client matter increase is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers 4 various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan offers you whatever you need to get started and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you every little thing in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain, surveys, and accessibility to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are fairly charitable in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will certainly pay around $329 each month. As opposed to some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit option for lots of users.
I’m uncertain just how the device economics deal with this, yet beehiiv is certainly less expensive (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv pros and cons
Naturally, with every system, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are some of the pros and cons I have actually personally experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are some of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter system of choice:
Easy to set up and start sending out e-newsletters free of charge.
Clean and modern-day customer analytics.
Lots of flexibility with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Create premium options to monetize.
Surveys.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
However certainly, I don’t intend to be prejudiced so I’m mosting likely to point out some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are some of the disadvantages I’ve located while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made typefaces.
I utilize Webflow as my internet site structure system of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to go in excessive information why I love Webflow a lot however you can read my Webflow testimonial if you ‘d like to find out more.
Today, there actually is nothing else method I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site apart from using an iframe embed. I personally don’t like utilizing iframe’s because they tend to decrease my site a little bit. Each time a web page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s extremely obvious when you’re on a slow-moving internet connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can not utilize a regular Webflow type (which I enjoy making use of). There are methods around this by using a tool like Zapier but that would simply add additional costs that I do not require. To be truthful, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con but I thought I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much exceed the cons here. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will ultimately create a much better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
In general, beehiiv is a great service for anybody aiming to dive into the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this e-newsletter platform much surpasses numerous that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise rather inexpensive of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t create testimonial posts typically. I just do when I actually make use of the device myself and would certainly advise it to a good friend.
I hope you located some clearness on whether beehiiv is a good platform for you.