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 on it and instantaneously started tearing up What Is The Story Behind Beehiiv.
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a full time creator is tough. I’m commonly obtaining pitched various tools and services that don’t appear to be worth my time.
I think I was psychological since I invested the last six months trying out different e-mail and newsletter systems to help construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific options for writing e-newsletters. Yet I could not find one that made me provide a guaranteed “yes”.
The problem with numerous existing newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I desire a newsletter platform that lets me fully customize my newsletter layouts, makes it incredibly simple to compose and send emails, and offers me devices that help me assess metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I believe I have actually finally found the appropriate tool.
But, I recognize beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact appropriate for you.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it simple to style, write, send, advertise, generate income from, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Created by previous employees at the renowned e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to aid creators launch and monetize their very own newsletter– taking lots of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this post, I’m going to discuss my personal experience with beehiiv, the important things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I determined to lastly choose it as my e-newsletter platform of choice.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The amusing story is that I’ve been on the lookout for a contemporary e-newsletter system for rather some time now. I’ve hesitated hard when it came to finally introducing my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. Then, a few other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up using beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of newsletter developers admire prominent newsletters with countless subscribers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I appreciated a great deal. They have terrific web content, lots of customers, and a brilliant referral program that allows them to get even a lot more clients.
So, I took place a quest to figure out just how these big e-newsletters established their logistics. What system do they use? How do they track the ROI of their e-newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they create an e-newsletter style that stays on-brand?
When I uncovered beehiiv for the first time, it appeared to address all of my concerns. I believed to myself, “damn individuals that built this tool really recognize newsletter production and development.” I questioned who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the founders were several of the first marketing and growth employees at Morning Brew– my brain blew up.
I recognized this was mosting likely to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on creator growth.
Because, any kind of developer understands, you need growth to be able to earn a living off of an e-newsletter. And discovering the ideal newsletter stack (that ranges) commonly indicates utilizing multiple different tools to aid attain one objective– one system for your e-newsletter, one platform to generate income from, and one system to establish references. It can obtain costly.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was cost-free to begin making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean web content designer that desires a system that allows them to send customized newsletters with or without needing to have a site.
The most effective e-newsletters have the right devices to construct and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at offering you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media firm, start-up, or content developer, you need to seriously considering experimenting with beehiiv. It’s totally cost-free to start and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 customers on your checklist.
If you in fact wind up needing to pay for beehiiv it’s probably an excellent indicator that people love reading your stuff.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is a wonderful system made use of by thousands of independent authors. With Substack you get your own web site and use the system as your all-in-one service for sending out e-mails (while creating an archive of previous concerns).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv allows you do to all things Substack can do, with the benefit of far better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing clients to get words out.
beehiiv additionally gives you a web site comparable to Substack. However, if you have your very own site already, you can additionally utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I utilize) to send your website subscribers right to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can integrate beehiiv with a tool like Performance to permit individuals to sign up for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This gives you the adaptability to take advantage of various marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv an excellent Substack choice.
Just how to start making use of beehiiv email marketing software program.
Enroll in a free plan
The first step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s site.
The free plan will certainly allow you to have up to 2,500 customers, give you access to site hosting, a newsletter CMS, advancement modification, analytics, exterior embed forms, and extra. It’s a really generous offering for those just starting (or for those seeking a brand-new platform to migrate to).
Onboarding What Is The Story Behind Beehiiv
After creating an account, you’ll undergo an onboarding process that will ask points like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other platforms have you utilized?”, “do you have any kind of paying subscribers?”, and more.
You’ll then produce a name and link for your e-newsletter’s website. On the free plan, your e-newsletter will reside on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your e-newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site URL may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
Throughout the onboarding process, you’ll likewise pick your brand colors and design to make certain your e-newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your dashboard
As soon as you reach your main control panel, you’ll see every one of your analytics and setups.
You will have outlined info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see choices for “Start creating,” “Messages,” “Audience,” “Expand,” “Monetize,” “Layout,” and” Examine.” And at the really lower you’ll see the setups option.
Control panel is your main nerve center (screenshot over), Start creating is where you develop and release e-newsletters, Posts is where you can see all of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can watch who your subscribers are (and break them down into segments), Expand is where you have accessibility 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 e-newsletter with advertisements, Layout is where you design your e-newsletter landing page and article template, Assess is where you can see all your analytics, and Setups is where you can manage all of your admin things.
Creating your newsletter
beehiiv makes it easy to begin writing, with little to no rubbing. If you’re simply starting, and have an idea you want to write about, I recommend just mosting likely to the “Create” area in the navbar and clicking “Beginning writing”.
You can tweak your template and designing later on– concentrate on the material first.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor provides a clean and easy to use interface for writing.
As soon as you start composing, you can optimize headings, add links, and style your web content exactly how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of alternatives for various types of web content like videos, web links, pictures, and more.
The group at beehiiv is also frequently launching item feature and updates so I make sure there will certainly be a great deal more material features relying on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to develop your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, add your logo, switch on or off a welcome e-mail to very first time subscribers, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your design.
You can edit background shades, boundaries, spacing, fonts, picture formats, and extra. I’m not mosting likely to experience ever single point you can optimize with your e-mail template due to the fact that it’s a lot. Simply experiment with the platform absolutely free and see it for yourself!
Necessary beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of remarkable features that make it a terrific posting system for any kind of e-newsletter designer.
Here are a few of the important features you can find with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it super very easy to compose and send e-mails. I pointed out over a few of the important things you can do with your setups and e-mail design so I’ll spare you some extra analysis.
Things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s absolutely one of the better email editors I have actually ever before written in.
Internet site hosting
When you produce a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your newsletters (if you desire) live on a site. Think of it as a website for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your newsletter, and a location where people can sign up for your newsletter.
If you’re familiar with Substack, it’s basically similar to that.
All plans, including the complimentary one, offer you an internet site. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your internet site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you intend to include a personalized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting customers is essential. Nevertheless, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv web site or via embed kinds.
If you currently have an internet site, and want people to subscribe to your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll need to use an embed form. This is what I utilize on this site (you can see the sign-up installed on the right-hand man column of this article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three different alternatives– a complete width, a taken care of width, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim embed.
You can locate the code bit for these embeds in the “Subscribe Kinds” tab in your settings.
There’s also a choice for attribution tracking if you wish to ahead UTM parameters for tracking purposes– rather neat.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of features I want beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I’m sure the team is dealing with updates for these, but I pointed out a few issues I had in the pros and cons area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things about beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other newsletter system, is an option for producing a referral program.
You can urge existing customers on your listing to ahead your emails to buddies and colleagues and if they get other individuals to subscribe to your list, you can compensate them. These benefits can be in whatever kind you want. I have actually appear lots of e-newsletter companies provide benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously turn your subscribers right into a word of mouth growth engine for your newsletter– providing you an additional method for growing your email listing.
However, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to upgrade to a much more superior plan. I’ll discuss all the plans later on in this short article.
Costs subscriptions
They state all you require to earn a living online is 1,000 true fans. Subscription profits is definitely a beast of its very own. If you’re seeking a system to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “costs” problems of your e-newsletter that are just sent out to paying clients. This can be really rewarding depending on what your newsletter needs to offer. For example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that generates millions in earnings a year simply by having pay-only newsletter material.
Data analytics
One of things I like regarding beehiiv is just how tidy and easy the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on just how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and subscriber count What Is The Story Behind Beehiiv.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to get a bird-eye sight on just how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging into your control panel and seeing that client matter rise is most definitely a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four various pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan gives you every little thing you need to get going and grow your e-newsletter (approximately 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 49/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the enhancement the advertisement network, referral program, custom-made domain, surveys, and accessibility to costs memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 109/month) provides you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of concern support and getting rid of the beehiiv branding.
All of these plans are quite charitable in my viewpoint.
For instance, if you have 100,000 subscribers you will pay around $329 per month. In contrast to some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly bill $679 each month for the very same amount– making beehiiv a great Kit choice for several individuals.
I’m not exactly sure exactly how the unit economics work on this, yet beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (right now) than what it can be.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Naturally, with every system, it has its benefits and drawbacks. Below are some of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Below are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your e-newsletter platform of option:
Easy to establish and begin sending newsletters free of charge.
Clean and modern client analytics.
Great deals of adaptability with email styles.
Referral program feature.
Web site hosting.
Produce premium choices to generate income from.
Polls.
To be straightforward, I haven’t seen one more e-newsletter system that has been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But of course, I don’t wish to be prejudiced so I’m going to point out some cons.
Cons of using beehiiv
Here are several of the cons I’ve discovered while using beehiiv:.
Limitations around integrating Webflow and beehiiv.
Limitations around including customized fonts.
I use Webflow as my website structure system of selection (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter too much information why I enjoy Webflow so much however you can read my Webflow testimonial if you want to discover more.
Now, there really is nothing else way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow website aside from utilizing an iframe embed. I personally don’t like making use of iframe’s since they often tend to decrease my web site a little bit. Whenever a web page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) tons, the sign-up embed is the last thing to pack on the web page. It’s very visible when you get on a slow net connection. But I can navigate that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t use a routine Webflow kind (which I love making use of). There are ways around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier yet that would certainly simply add added costs that I do not need. To be straightforward, this is even more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage but I thought I would mention it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros much exceed the disadvantages right here. I’m also confident that Webflow will at some point develop a far better means to integrate with beehiiv.
Final Thought
On the whole, beehiiv is a wonderful remedy for anybody aiming to study the world of email marketing and newsletters.
The performance of this e-newsletter system far exceeds several that are currently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly cheap for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unheard of. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it might cost you well right into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t create evaluation blog posts usually. I just do when I actually utilize the tool myself and would suggest it to a pal.
I hope you found some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is an excellent system for you.