Over two years ago, I read among my favored e-mail e-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 instantly began wrecking What Does Beehiiv Do.
I had not been sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a permanent designer is difficult. I’m usually getting pitched different tools and services that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological due to the fact that I invested the last six months checking out different e-mail and newsletter platforms to help build my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific alternatives for writing e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t discover one that made me give a precise “yes”.
The problem with several existing newsletter systems is that they don’t really feel creator-centered. I desire an e-newsletter system that lets me completely tailor my newsletter styles, makes it extremely simple to create and send out emails, and offers me devices that help me evaluate metrics and get more customers.
I believe I’ve finally located the appropriate tool.
However, I know beehiiv might not be for everyone. 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 e-newsletter system that makes it very easy to style, create, send, promote, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous staff members at the renowned newsletter company Morning Brew, beehiiv aims to aid designers launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of development principles from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this short article, I’m mosting likely to describe my individual experience with beehiiv, things I enjoy (and hate) about it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly go with it as my newsletter platform of option.
My individual experience with beehiiv
A couple of months ago, I accidentally stumbled across beehiiv. The funny tale is that I have actually been on the lookout for a contemporary newsletter system for fairly some time now. I’ve postponed hard when it concerned ultimately releasing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And finally, I ended up utilizing beehiiv.
I make sure lots of e-newsletter creators appreciate prominent newsletters with millions of clients– I recognize I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a great deal. They have great material, lots of subscribers, and a clever referral program that permits them to get even extra clients.
So, I went on a hunt to determine just how these large newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they utilize? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they obtain even more subscribers? How do they produce an e-newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it appeared to answer every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this tool really understand e-newsletter development and development.” I questioned who these creators of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were several of the very first marketing and development employees at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I recognized this was going to be a various newsletter system. One that’s concentrated on developer development.
Since, any type of maker recognizes, you require growth to be able to earn a living off of a newsletter. And finding the ideal newsletter pile (that scales) often suggests using several various tools to aid attain one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to establish recommendations. It can obtain costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was complimentary to start using, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean material creator that desires a platform that enables them to send custom-made newsletters with or without needing to have an internet site.
One of the most effective newsletters have the right tools to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv targets at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or material designer, you must seriously thinking about checking out beehiiv. It’s totally free to begin and you just pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your list.
If you really wind up having to spend for beehiiv it’s most likely a good indication that individuals like reviewing your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, yes there is. Substack is a fantastic system used by hundreds of independent authors. With Substack you obtain your very own site and utilize the platform as your all-in-one remedy for sending out emails (while producing an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv permits you do to all the important things Substack can do, with the advantage of far better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to motivate your existing customers to get words out.
beehiiv additionally provides you a website comparable to Substack. Yet, if you have your very own internet site already, you can additionally make use of beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I make use of) to send your internet site subscribers straight to your beehiiv email listing. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to permit people to register for your e-newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the adaptability to leverage different marketing channels to obtain your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a fantastic Substack choice.
Just how to start utilizing beehiiv email 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 on the “Start trial” switch on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will enable you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, offer you access to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advance customization, analytics, outside embed kinds, and a lot more. It’s an extremely generous offering for those just starting out (or for those searching for a brand-new system to move to).
Onboarding What Does Beehiiv Do
After creating an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any paying clients?”, and much more.
You’ll then create a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will certainly survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site URL might be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll also pick your brand design and colors to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your dashboard
Once you reach your main control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and settings.
You will have outlined information on the number of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see options for “Beginning writing,” “Posts,” “Target market,” “Grow,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Assess.” And at the very lower you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your primary nerve center (screenshot above), Start writing is where you develop and release newsletters, Blog posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and damage them down right into sectors), Expand 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, Style is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can take care of all of your admin stuff.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to begin composing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply beginning, and have an idea you want to write about, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking on “Begin writing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later– focus on the web content first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and easy to use interface for writing.
Once you begin creating, you can maximize headings, include web links, and design your web content exactly how you such as.
beehiiv provides you tons of choices for different types of material like video clips, links, pictures, and a lot more.
The group at beehiiv is likewise regularly releasing product feature and updates so I make certain there will be a whole lot extra material features depending upon when you read this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your email template and readjust some settings.
Right here, you can update the name of your newsletter, offer it a description, include your logo, activate or off a welcome e-mail to first time subscribers, and extra.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit background colors, boundaries, spacing, font styles, picture styles, and a lot more. I’m not mosting likely to go through ever solitary point you can optimize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Simply try the system completely free and see it for yourself!
Vital beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of incredible features that make it a fantastic posting system for any kind of e-newsletter designer.
Here are a few of the essential features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter posting system. It makes it extremely easy to write and send out e-mails. I mentioned above some of the things you can do with your settings and e-mail design so I’ll save you some extra reading.
The thing to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly contemporary and minimalistic feeling. It’s absolutely one of the far better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Website hosting
When you develop a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) reside on a site. Think about it as an internet site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where individuals can register for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s virtually comparable to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to add a custom domain name to remove all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining subscribers is very important. Nevertheless, that’s why you have a newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can subscribe to your newsletter straight from your beehiiv web site or via embed types.
If you currently have a website, and want individuals to subscribe to your newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to make use of an embed form. This is what I utilize on this site (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 different alternatives– a full width, a taken care of size, and a slim embed. I directly utilize the slim embed.
You can locate the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Forms” tab in your settings.
There’s also a choice for acknowledgment tracking if you wish to forward UTM criteria for tracking functions– quite neat.
However, there are a few features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the team is servicing updates for these, however I mentioned a couple of issues I had in the benefits and drawbacks area listed below.
Referral program
One of the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is an option for developing a referral program.
You can motivate existing customers on your list to onward your e-mails to close friends and colleagues and if they get other people to subscribe to your checklist, you can compensate them. These incentives can be in whatever form you want. I have actually seem lots of e-newsletter firms offer benefits in the form of merch and stickers.
This can seriously transform your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your e-newsletter– providing you an additional method for expanding your e-mail listing.
Nonetheless, to get access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this article.
Premium subscriptions
They state all you require to make a living online is 1,000 true followers. Registration income is absolutely a monster of its own. If you’re looking for a system to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can create “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are only sent to paying clients. This can be extremely rewarding depending upon what your newsletter needs to provide. As an example, Trends.co is a prominent premium e-newsletter that generates millions in income a year simply by having pay-only newsletter content.
Data analytics
One of the important things I enjoy regarding beehiiv is how clean and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on just how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client count What Does Beehiiv Do.
You get access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on just how your newsletter is actually doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber matter go up is absolutely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan offers you every little thing you require to get going and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) provides you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, personalized domain, polls, and access to costs subscriptions. This is the plan I get on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of top priority support and removing the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are quite generous in my opinion.
For example, if you have 100,000 clients you will certainly pay around $329 monthly. Rather than some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would bill $679 per month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit alternative for lots of users.
I’m unsure just how the unit economics work with this, yet beehiiv is absolutely more affordable (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Of course, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Right here are several of the benefits and drawbacks I have actually directly experienced while using beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Right here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of choice:
Easy to set up and begin sending e-newsletters absolutely free.
Tidy and modern subscriber analytics.
Lots of flexibility with email designs.
Referral program feature.
Site hosting.
Produce costs choices to generate income from.
Surveys.
To be sincere, I have not seen one more newsletter system that has actually been able to package all of these features with each other so well.
However of course, I don’t wish to be prejudiced so I’m going to point out some disadvantages.
Cons of using beehiiv
Below are a few of the disadvantages I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around adding personalized fonts.
I use Webflow as my website structure platform of choice (I graduated from WordPress and Squarespace a long period of time ago). I’m not going to go in too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow evaluation if you would love to find out more.
Now, there truly is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow internet site besides using an iframe embed. I personally do not like using iframe’s because they tend to decrease my website a little bit. Whenever a page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) lots, the sign-up embed is the last thing to load on the web page. It’s extremely visible when you get on a slow internet connection. However I can get around that.
The major gripe I have is that I can not make use of a regular Webflow type (which I love utilizing). There are ways around this by using a device like Zapier yet that would simply include additional costs that I do not require. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv con however I believed I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much exceed the disadvantages right here. I’m likewise enthusiastic that Webflow will ultimately create a much better method to incorporate with beehiiv.
Conclusion
Overall, beehiiv is a wonderful service for anyone seeking to study the globe of email marketing and newsletters.
The functionality of this newsletter system far exceeds lots of that are presently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you truly have nothing to lose for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly low-cost for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 subscribers on your listing is uncommon. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k subscribers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t compose testimonial blog posts usually. I just do when I in fact make use of the tool myself and would recommend it to a good friend.
I wish you discovered some quality on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.