Over 2 years ago, I read one of my favorite e-mail newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo design for the first time. I clicked on it and immediately started wrecking Top Newsletters on Beehiiv.
I had not been certain why I felt so emotional.
Being a full time developer is tough. I’m frequently obtaining pitched various 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 six months checking out various e-mail and e-newsletter systems to help develop my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some wonderful alternatives for writing e-newsletters. Yet I could not find one that made me give a guaranteed “yes”.
The problem with lots of existing newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me fully customize my newsletter layouts, makes it extremely simple to compose and send out e-mails, and offers me tools that assist me examine metrics and obtain even more subscribers.
I believe I have actually ultimately located the right device.
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 platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly e-newsletter platform that makes it simple to style, write, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Developed by previous staff members at the famous e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of development concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M customers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to explain my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I love (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to finally choose it as my newsletter system of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months back, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a contemporary e-newsletter platform for fairly some time now. I’ve procrastinated hard when it concerned lastly releasing my e-newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a couple of various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And lastly, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I make certain numerous newsletter creators look up to popular e-newsletters with countless customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew e-newsletter is one I respected a lot. They have fantastic content, lots of clients, and a brilliant referral program that enables them to get back at more subscribers.
So, I went on a search to figure out how these huge e-newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get even more subscribers? How do they develop an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to respond to all of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that built this device truly understand newsletter development and growth.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the initial marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain took off.
I understood this was going to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on maker development.
Since, any kind of developer recognizes, you require development to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the best newsletter stack (that scales) frequently implies making use of several various devices to help attain one objective– one platform for your newsletter, one system to generate income from, and one platform to set up references. It can obtain costly.
So when I learnt beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was cost-free to begin making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material creator that desires a system that allows them to send out custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have an internet site.
The most effective newsletters have the right tools to build and scale their newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those devices.
If you’re an independent author, media company, startup, or web content creator, you need to seriously taking into consideration trying beehiiv. It’s entirely free to get going and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you in fact end up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indicator that people love reading your things.
beehiiv vs Substack
You may be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for authors called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a terrific platform made use of by countless independent writers. With Substack you get your own site and utilize the system as your all-in-one service for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous problems).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s dedication to development. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a site comparable to Substack. But, if you have your very own internet site currently, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your internet site clients directly to your beehiiv email listing. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a tool like Revue to permit people to sign up for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This provides you the adaptability to take advantage of various marketing networks to get your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a terrific Substack option.
Just how to start utilizing beehiiv email marketing software.
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 internet site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, give you access to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advancement customization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and extra. It’s a very charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those seeking a new system to migrate to).
Onboarding Top Newsletters on Beehiiv
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your initial newsletter?”, “what other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and extra.
You’ll after that produce a name and URL for your newsletter’s internet site. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Cooking Cakes,” your web site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding process, you’ll additionally select your brand colors and design to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
When you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see every one of your analytics and settings.
You will have described information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning composing,” “Blog posts,” “Target market,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Design,” and” Assess.” And at the very lower you’ll see the setups choice.
Control panel is your major nerve center (screenshot above), Begin writing is where you develop and release newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous e-newsletter versions, Audience is where you can see who your clients are (and damage them down into sectors), Grow is where you have access 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 ads, Style is where you create your newsletter landing page and article template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage every one of your admin stuff.
Composing your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you wish to write about, I suggest simply mosting likely to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Start writing”.
You can modify your template and designing later– concentrate on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a tidy and easy to use interface for writing.
Once you begin composing, you can optimize headings, add web links, and design your web content how you such as.
beehiiv offers you lots of alternatives for different types of material like video clips, links, pictures, and extra.
The group at beehiiv is also constantly launching item feature and updates so I’m sure there will certainly be a great deal a lot more content features relying on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
As soon as you have a newsletter that’s ready to send out, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome email to very first time customers, and extra.
Next off, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can modify background colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, picture layouts, and more. I’m not going to experience ever before single point you can maximize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Simply try out the platform for free and see it on your own!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of fantastic features that make it an excellent publishing platform for any kind of e-newsletter designer.
Here are several of the necessary features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter posting system. It makes it incredibly easy to write and send emails. I stated over some of the things you can do with your setups and email design so I’ll spare you some extra reading.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s most definitely one of the better e-mail editors I’ve ever written in.
Website hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a web site. Think about it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous problems of your newsletter, and a place where individuals can subscribe to your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s basically comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, give you a site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a custom domain to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining customers is necessary. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can subscribe to your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or via embed types.
If you already have a website, and desire individuals to sign up for your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to utilize an embed type. This is what I make use of on this internet 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 three various alternatives– a complete width, a fixed size, and a slim embed. I directly make use of the slim embed.
You can discover the code fragment for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you want to forward UTM criteria for tracking purposes– quite neat.
Nonetheless, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it came to subscribe features. I make sure the group is dealing with updates for these, however I discussed a few concerns I had in the benefits and drawbacks area below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning 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 clients on your list to ahead your emails to close friends and coworkers and if they obtain other individuals to register for your listing, you can award them. These rewards can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually appear numerous newsletter firms give rewards in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– giving you an additional avenue for expanding your e-mail list.
Nonetheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a more premium plan. I’ll review all the plans later on in this write-up.
Premium subscriptions
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Subscription income is most definitely a beast of its own. If you’re seeking a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” issues of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be really financially rewarding relying on what your newsletter has to supply. As an example, Trends.co is a popular premium newsletter that produces millions in revenue a year simply by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Data analytics
Among the things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is how tidy and straightforward the analytics are. You obtain real-time day on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count Top Newsletters on Beehiiv.
You get access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that subscriber matter rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (free) Launch plan gives you whatever you require to get going and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 customers).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) gives you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the ad network, referral program, customized domain, polls, and access to costs memberships. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) gives you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather charitable in my opinion.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will pay around $329 per month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the same amount– making beehiiv an excellent Kit alternative for several individuals.
I’m not exactly sure how the device business 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 platform, it has its advantages and disadvantages. Below are several of the pros and cons I have actually directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are a few of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of selection:
Easy to set up and start sending out newsletters free of cost.
Tidy and contemporary subscriber analytics.
Lots of flexibility with e-mail designs.
Referral program feature.
Website hosting.
Create costs choices to monetize.
Polls.
To be truthful, I haven’t seen an additional e-newsletter system that has had the ability to package every one of these features together so well.
But certainly, I do not want to be biased so I’m going to discuss some cons.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I have actually discovered while making use of beehiiv:.
Limitations around incorporating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including customized fonts.
I use Webflow as my internet site structure system of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not going to go in excessive detail why I love Webflow a lot but you can review my Webflow review if you wish to discover more.
Now, there actually is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site besides using an iframe embed. I personally do not such as making use of iframe’s since they have a tendency to reduce my website a bit. Every single time a page on my website (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up installed is the last thing to fill on the page. It’s extremely obvious when you’re on a slow net connection. Yet I can navigate that.
The major gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a regular Webflow form (which I enjoy utilizing). There are ways around this by using a device like Zapier but that would simply include extra expenses that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv con yet I assumed I would state it.
Besides that, I still think the pros much surpass the cons here. I’m additionally hopeful that Webflow will eventually create a much better means to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is an excellent option for any individual wanting to study the globe of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system much surpasses several that are currently on the marketplace. And with a charitable free plan, you actually have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also relatively affordable of what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 clients on your listing is unusual. 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 each month.
Anyways, I do not write evaluation articles often. I just do when I actually use the device myself and would suggest it to a pal.
I hope you discovered some clarity on whether beehiiv is an excellent platform for you.