Over two years ago, I read one of my favored email 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 instantaneously started wrecking Shaan Puri Beehiiv.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so psychological.
Being a full time designer is difficult. I’m commonly getting pitched different tools and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was emotional due to the fact that I invested the last 6 months trying various email and newsletter systems to assist construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful alternatives for creating e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t discover one that made me offer a definite “yes”.
The issue with several existing e-newsletter platforms is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter platform that lets me completely tailor my newsletter designs, makes it super very easy to create and send emails, and provides me tools that aid me examine metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I assume I have actually lastly discovered the best device.
Yet, I understand beehiiv may not be for everybody. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter system that makes it very easy to style, compose, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by former employees at the famous newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid creators launch and monetize their very own e-newsletter– taking lots of growth principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to clarify my personal experience with beehiiv, the things I like (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to ultimately opt for it as my newsletter system of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months earlier, I inadvertently stumbled across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a contemporary newsletter system for rather some time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it involved ultimately releasing my newsletter.
Initially, I attempted Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure numerous newsletter designers admire preferred e-newsletters with numerous customers– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a great deal. They have fantastic content, lots of customers, and a brilliant referral program that permits them to get even extra customers.
So, I went on a quest to determine how these big newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain more subscribers? How do they produce an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to address every one of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that built this device really comprehend e-newsletter production and growth.” I examined who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the very first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various e-newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on maker growth.
Due to the fact that, any maker knows, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And finding the ideal newsletter pile (that ranges) often suggests using numerous different tools to aid attain one goal– one system for your newsletter, one platform to monetize, and one platform to set up recommendations. It can obtain pricey.
So when I found out beehiiv did every one of these points in one platform, and it was totally free to begin utilizing, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material designer that desires a platform that permits them to send out custom e-newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
One of the most successful e-newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv targets at giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media business, startup, or web content developer, you need to seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s completely cost-free to get started and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 clients on your list.
If you really wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s possibly a good indicator that people enjoy reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there currently a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a fantastic system made use of by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you get your own web site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one service for sending emails (while developing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv permits you do to all the things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise offers you an internet site similar to Substack. However, if you have your own website already, you can also utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I use) to send your website clients straight to your beehiiv email checklist. On the same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a device like Performance to allow people to subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to take advantage of various marketing channels to get your e-newsletter out right into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack choice.
Exactly how to begin making use of beehiiv e-mail marketing software.
Sign up for a free plan
The very first step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you access to internet site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement personalization, analytics, external embed forms, and more. It’s a really charitable offering for those just beginning (or for those trying to find a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Shaan Puri Beehiiv
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask points like, “is this your very first e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you made use of?”, “do you have any type of paying clients?”, and extra.
You’ll then develop a name and link for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly live on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your website URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand design and colors to make certain your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
As soon as you reach your main control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have described information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Beginning composing,” “Articles,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Generate income from,” “Layout,” and” Assess.” And at the extremely bottom you’ll see the settings option.
Control panel is your main nerve center (screenshot above), Begin composing is where you develop and release newsletters, Articles is where you can see all of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your clients are (and damage 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, Design is where you make your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin things.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start composing, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting, and have an idea you wish to blog about, I advise just going to the “Create” section in the navbar and clicking “Beginning creating”.
You can modify your template and styling later– concentrate on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and straightforward user interface for writing.
When you begin creating, you can enhance headings, include links, and design your material just how you like.
beehiiv offers you tons of choices for different kinds of web content like video clips, web links, images, and extra.
The team at beehiiv is also continuously releasing product feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a lot much more material features relying on when you read this.
Enhancing your setups and templates
When you have a newsletter that’s ready to send, it’s time to develop your email template and readjust some setups.
Right here, you can update the name of your e-newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo design, switch on or off a welcome email to first time subscribers, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can modify background colors, borders, spacing, typefaces, photo styles, and extra. I’m not going to go through ever single thing you can enhance with your email template since it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the platform totally free and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of outstanding features that make it a terrific publishing system for any type of newsletter creator.
Here are a few of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it super simple to create and send out e-mails. I mentioned over several of the important things you can do with your setups and email layout so I’ll save you some added reading.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feeling. It’s certainly one of the much better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you desire) reside on an internet site. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a place where individuals can sign up for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s practically similar to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, offer you a web site. However, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a custom-made domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting subscribers is very important. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can sign up for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or via embed kinds.
If you already have a site, and desire individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing website, you’ll have to use an embed form. This is what I use on this site (you can see the sign-up embed on the right hand column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 various choices– a complete size, a fixed width, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim embed.
You can locate the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your setups.
There’s additionally an option for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to ahead UTM specifications for tracking objectives– rather neat.
Nevertheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the group is dealing with updates for these, however I mentioned a couple of problems 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 newsletter system, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing subscribers on your checklist to onward your emails to pals and colleagues and if they get other people to sign up for your listing, you can award them. These benefits can be in whatever type you desire. I’ve appear lots of newsletter companies provide incentives in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients right into a word of mouth development engine for your e-newsletter– offering you an additional avenue for growing your email list.
Nevertheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to an extra premium plan. I’ll go over all the plans later in this post.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription income is absolutely a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “costs” problems of your e-newsletter that are only sent out to paying subscribers. This can be extremely profitable depending on what your e-newsletter has to use. For example, Trends.co is a preferred costs e-newsletter that generates millions in earnings a year merely by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
Among things I love about beehiiv is how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You get real-time date on how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter Shaan Puri Beehiiv.
You get access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that subscriber count go up is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv offers four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you everything you need to get started and expand your newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, personalized domain name, surveys, and accessibility to premium registrations. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you whatever in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my opinion.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 per month. As opposed to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 per month for the exact same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit alternative for lots of customers.
I’m not sure exactly how the system economics work with this, yet beehiiv is most definitely less costly (presently) than what it can be.
beehiiv advantages and disadvantages
Of course, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Here are several of the pros and cons I have actually directly 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 begin sending out e-newsletters completely free.
Clean and modern subscriber analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with e-mail layouts.
Referral program feature.
Internet site hosting.
Create costs choices to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen an additional newsletter system that has actually had the ability to package all of these features together so well.
But of course, I do not want to be prejudiced so I’m going to discuss some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I have actually found while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including custom-made font styles.
I utilize Webflow as my site structure system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not going to go in excessive information why I like Webflow a lot but you can read my Webflow testimonial if you wish to find out more.
Today, there actually is nothing else way I can incorporate beehiiv with my Webflow web site besides utilizing an iframe embed. I personally do not like using iframe’s due to the fact that they tend to slow down my web site a little bit. Whenever a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last point to fill on the page. It’s very noticeable when you get on a slow web link. But I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow form (which I love using). There are ways around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier but that would simply add additional prices that I do not need. To be honest, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I assumed I would certainly mention it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much surpass the cons below. 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 person seeking to study the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system much exceeds 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 likewise fairly cheap wherefore they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your checklist is unusual. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well right into the thousands monthly.
Anyways, I do not write review blog posts often. I only do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a buddy.
I wish you located some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.