Over two years ago, I was reading one of my favored email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked it and instantly started destroying Oilman Jim Beehiiv.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full-time maker is difficult. I’m commonly getting pitched different devices and services that do not seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional because I invested the last six months experimenting with different email and newsletter platforms to assist develop my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some great alternatives for creating e-newsletters. But I could not find one that made me give a certain “yes”.
The issue with lots of existing newsletter platforms is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me totally personalize my e-newsletter styles, makes it super easy to create and send emails, and gives me devices that aid me analyze metrics and get even more customers.
I think I’ve lastly discovered the best device.
However, I know beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact best for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to design, create, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by former staff members at the popular newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist designers launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this article, I’m mosting likely to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to ultimately choose it as my e-newsletter platform of selection.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve watched for a contemporary e-newsletter platform for quite some time now. I’ve put things off hard when it concerned lastly releasing my e-newsletter.
Initially, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And lastly, I ended up using beehiiv.
I make sure numerous e-newsletter creators respect preferred e-newsletters with countless customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I looked up to a lot. They have terrific content, lots of subscribers, and a clever referral program that enables them to get back at more subscribers.
So, I took place a hunt to determine just how these big e-newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more customers? How do they produce a newsletter layout that stays on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to respond to every one of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn the people that developed this tool truly comprehend e-newsletter production and development.” I examined who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were a few of the initial marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my brain exploded.
I knew this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on developer development.
Since, any maker understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the appropriate e-newsletter stack (that ranges) usually suggests utilizing numerous different devices to assist accomplish one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to set up recommendations. It can get costly.
So when I discovered beehiiv did all of these points in one platform, and it was free to start making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content creator that wants a system that permits them to send out personalized newsletters with or without requiring to have a website.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media company, startup, or content developer, you need to seriously considering trying out beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to get started and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 customers on your list.
If you really end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that people like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a wonderful system used by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you get your own internet site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one service for sending e-mails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of much better analytics, even more style flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv also gives you an internet site similar to Substack. However, if you have your very own website currently, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your website subscribers straight to your beehiiv e-mail checklist. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to enable individuals to subscribe to your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to utilize various marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack choice.
Just how to start making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software application.
Enroll in a free plan
The very first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” switch on beehiiv’s internet site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 customers, offer you access to web site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, breakthrough modification, analytics, exterior embed kinds, and much more. It’s a very generous offering for those simply starting out (or for those searching for a new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding Oilman Jim Beehiiv
After producing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and much more.
You’ll after that create a name and link for your newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will survive a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your website link could be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding procedure, you’ll additionally select your brand name design and colors to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have described information on the amount of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Begin writing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Generate income from,” “Design,” and” Analyze.” And at the very bottom you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Begin creating is where you produce and publish newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Target market is where you can watch who your customers are (and break them down into sections), Expand is where you have access to a referral program (and development tutorials) and boosts to run ads, Monetize is where you can access the beehiiv ad network and monetize your newsletter with ads, Design is where you make your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can handle every one of your admin stuff.
Writing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you wish to discuss, I suggest just mosting likely to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking on “Beginning creating”.
You can tweak your template and styling later on– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a tidy and easy to use user interface for composing.
As soon as you begin composing, you can optimize headings, add links, and design your web content how you like.
beehiiv provides you lots of options for various sorts of content like videos, links, pictures, and much more.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly releasing item feature and updates so I make certain there will certainly be a great deal more material features depending on when you’re reading this.
Optimizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to make your email template and readjust some setups.
Below, you can update the name of your newsletter, give it a description, include your logo, activate or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history shades, boundaries, spacing, font styles, image formats, and more. I’m not going to go through ever solitary point you can enhance with your e-mail template due to the fact that it’s a whole lot. Just check out the platform totally free and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of amazing features that make it a great posting platform for any type of newsletter developer.
Below are some of the necessary features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting platform. It makes it very very easy to create and send e-mails. I discussed above a few of things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some extra analysis.
Things to note with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has an actually modern and minimalistic feel. It’s definitely among the much better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) reside on a web site. Consider it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s virtually similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the cost-free one, offer you a web site. Nevertheless, the free plan locations your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a custom-made domain name to eliminate all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to update to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is very important. Besides, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your e-newsletter straight from your beehiiv internet site or via embed types.
If you already have a website, and desire individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to use an embed type. This is what I use on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this post if you scroll up).
With embed forms, you have three various choices– a complete width, a fixed size, and a slim installed. I directly use the slim installed.
You can find the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s likewise an alternative for acknowledgment tracking if you intend to onward UTM criteria for tracking objectives– quite cool.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the group is working on updates for these, however I pointed out a couple of issues I had in the benefits and drawbacks section listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter platform, is a solution for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing subscribers on your checklist to onward your e-mails to pals and colleagues and if they get other individuals to register for your checklist, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever form you desire. I have actually seem lots of newsletter business give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you one more method for growing your e-mail listing.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll have to update to an extra superior plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later in this article.
Costs registrations
They claim all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 real fans. Registration revenue is certainly a monster of its own. If you’re searching for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “costs” concerns of your newsletter that are only sent to paying customers. This can be really profitable depending on what your e-newsletter needs to supply. For example, Trends.co is a prominent premium newsletter that creates millions in profits a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
Among the important things I enjoy concerning beehiiv is how clean and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and customer count Oilman Jim Beehiiv.
You obtain accessibility to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on how your e-newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber count go up is definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four various pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (complimentary) Launch plan provides you every little thing you need to start and expand your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, personalized domain name, polls, and accessibility to premium memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you everything in the Grow plan with addition of priority assistance and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite charitable in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 monthly. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (previously ConvertKit), that would charge $679 each month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit choice for lots of users.
I’m uncertain how the unit business economics work with this, but beehiiv is definitely less expensive (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Obviously, with every platform, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of option:
Easy to establish and begin sending newsletters absolutely free.
Clean and modern-day subscriber analytics.
Lots of flexibility with email layouts.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Develop premium options to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I haven’t seen one more newsletter platform that has actually had the ability to package every one of these features with each other so well.
Yet naturally, I don’t wish to be biased so I’m mosting likely to discuss some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are a few of the disadvantages I have actually found while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding custom font styles.
I use Webflow as my website structure system of selection (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much information why I love Webflow a lot yet you can review my Webflow review if you want to find out more.
Right now, there truly is no other means I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow website other than using an iframe embed. I personally don’t such as utilizing iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to slow down my site a bit. Every time a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) loads, the sign-up installed is the last thing to load on the page. It’s really noticeable when you’re on a slow internet link. Yet I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t utilize a normal Webflow kind (which I love making use of). There are methods around this by using a device like Zapier yet that would certainly just include extra expenses that I do not need. To be sincere, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con however I believed I would certainly state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much outweigh the disadvantages right here. I’m additionally enthusiastic that Webflow will at some point create a better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict
Overall, beehiiv is a wonderful solution for anybody looking to dive into the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this newsletter system much outweighs lots of that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are additionally fairly inexpensive of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your listing 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 each month.
Anyways, I don’t write evaluation messages commonly. I only do when I really use the tool myself and would suggest it to a friend.
I wish you located some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.