Developing a newsletter shouldn’t seem like a second job. You’ve already got enough on your plate managing content, customers, maybe even a full-time job. I was reading one of my preferred e-mail e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the email and saw the beehiiv logo for the first time. I clicked on it and promptly started tearing up. Beehiiv YouTube Referral Program…
I wasn’t sure why I felt so emotional.
Being a full time developer is difficult. I’m often obtaining pitched various tools and solutions that don’t seem to be worth my time.
I presume I was psychological since I invested the last six months trying out different email and newsletter systems to aid construct my newsletter. And to be reasonable, there are some terrific choices for creating newsletters. However I couldn’t find one that made me offer a guaranteed “yes”.
The concern with several existing newsletter systems is that they don’t feel creator-centered. I want an e-newsletter platform that lets me fully personalize my e-newsletter designs, makes it very very easy to write and send emails, and gives me tools that assist me assess metrics and obtain more subscribers.
I believe I’ve lastly located the best device.
However, I understand beehiiv might not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s actually best for you.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A couple of months back, I accidentally came across beehiiv. The funny story is that I have actually watched for a modern-day newsletter platform for quite some time now. I have actually put things off hard when it concerned ultimately launching my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a couple of other indie platforms. After that, Substack. And ultimately, I ended up using beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of newsletter creators appreciate popular newsletters with millions of customers– I understand I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I admired a whole lot. They have excellent web content, tons of customers, and a smart referral program that enables them to get even more clients.
So, I went on a quest to figure out just how these big e-newsletters set up their logistics. What platform do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get more subscribers? How do they develop a newsletter design that stays on-brand?
When I found beehiiv for the very first time, it seemed to answer every one of my questions. I believed to myself, “damn the people that built this tool actually recognize e-newsletter production and growth.” I questioned who these designers of beehiiv were.
So I went to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and development staff members at Morning Brew– my mind blew up.
I understood this was going to be a various newsletter platform. One that’s focused on maker growth.
Because, any designer knows, you require growth to be able to make a living off of a newsletter. And discovering the appropriate e-newsletter stack (that ranges) usually implies using several various devices to assist accomplish one goal– one system for your e-newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to establish recommendations. It can get costly.
So when I found out beehiiv did all of these points in one system, and it was free to begin making use of, it was a piece of cake to give it a try.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one platform for e-newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter system that makes it simple to design, write, send, promote, generate income from, and track the ROI of your e-newsletter.
Developed by former staff members at the renowned e-newsletter business Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to help creators launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M subscribers.
In this post, I’m going to explain my individual experience with beehiiv, the things I enjoy (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I decided to ultimately choose it as my newsletter platform of option.
beehiiv vs Substack
You could be asking, “isn’t there currently a system for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, indeed there is. Substack is an excellent system made use of by hundreds of independent writers. With Substack you get your own web site and make use of the system as your all-in-one solution for sending emails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to growth. beehiiv permits you do to all things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, more design flexibilty, and a referral program to urge your existing subscribers to get the word out.
beehiiv likewise offers you a website comparable to Substack. But, if you have your own web site currently, you can likewise utilize beehiiv’s sign-up installs (that’s what I use) to send your website subscribers right to your beehiiv email list. On the same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Revue to enable individuals to sign up for your e-newsletter directly from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to leverage various marketing networks to obtain your newsletter out into the globe, making beehiiv a great Substack choice.
Exactly how to begin utilizing beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content developer that wants a platform that enables them to send customized e-newsletters with or without needing to have a website.
The most successful newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv aims at giving you those tools.
If you’re an independent writer, media business, start-up, or content creator, you need to seriously considering checking out beehiiv. It’s completely complimentary to get started and you only pay when you reach over 2,500 clients on your checklist.
If you in fact end up having to pay for beehiiv it’s most likely an excellent indicator that individuals like reviewing your things.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv uses 4 different pricing plans. You can check them out listed below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan offers you everything you require to start and expand your newsletter (as much as 2,500 subscribers).
The Scale plan ($ 34.40/month) offers you whatever in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom-made domain, polls, and access to premium memberships. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76.80/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with enhancement of priority support and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are rather generous in my point of view.
As an example, if you have 100,000 clients you will pay around $329 per month. Instead of some competitors, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would charge $679 per month for the exact same quantity– making beehiiv a wonderful Kit alternative for numerous individuals.
I’m uncertain just how the unit economics work with this, however beehiiv is most definitely more affordable (presently) than what it can be.
Enroll in a free plan
The primary step is to enroll in a free plan. You can do this by clicking on the “Start trial” button on beehiiv’s web site.
The free plan will permit you to have up to 2,500 subscribers, provide you accessibility to internet site hosting, a newsletter CMS, development personalization, analytics, exterior embed types, and more. It’s a very charitable offering for those simply starting out (or for those seeking a brand-new platform to move to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll experience an onboarding process that will ask things like, “is this your initial e-newsletter?”, “what various other systems have you made use of?”, “do you have any paying customers?”, and more.
You’ll after that develop a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive on a beehiiv subdomain. So if your newsletter is called “Baking Cakes,” your site link may be something like “baking-cakes. beehiiv.com”.
During the onboarding procedure, you’ll likewise choose your brand name colors and design to ensure your e-newsletter template looks right.
Navigating your control panel
Once you reach your main control panel, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have described info on the number of sign-ups you’re obtaining and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Begin writing”, “Articles”, “Audience”, “Expand”, “Generate income from”, “Style” and” Evaluate”. And at the really bottom you’ll see the setups option.
Dashboard is your major nerve center (screenshot over), Beginning composing is where you create and release newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter editions, Audience is where you can view who your subscribers are (and damage them down into segments), 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 e-newsletter with ads, Layout is where you design your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Examine is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can handle all of your admin stuff.
Composing your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it simple to start creating, with little to no friction. If you’re just starting out, and have an idea you intend to blog about, I suggest just going to the “Compose” section in the navbar and clicking “Start creating”.
You can modify your template and designing later– focus on the web content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor uses a tidy and easy to use user interface for writing.
As soon as you begin creating, you can enhance headings, add links, and style your material just how you such as.
beehiiv offers you tons of alternatives for various sorts of material like videos, web links, photos, and a lot more.
The team at beehiiv is also continuously launching product feature and updates so I’m sure there will be a great deal a lot more material features depending on when you’re reading this.
Maximizing your setups and templates
Once you have a newsletter that prepares to send, it’s time to make your e-mail template and readjust some setups.
Below, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, provide it a description, include your logo design, activate or off a welcome e-mail to very first time clients, and much more.
Next, you can head over to the “Email Template” tab to make your style.
You can edit history colors, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, picture layouts, and more. I’m not going to undergo ever single thing you can maximize with your email template due to the fact that it’s a whole lot. Just try the platform free of cost and see it for yourself!
Important beehiiv features
beehiiv has lots of remarkable features that make it a great posting system for any kind of e-newsletter developer.
Here are some of the vital features you can find with beehiiv:.
E-newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is an e-newsletter publishing system. It makes it extremely easy to create and send out emails. I mentioned above a few of the important things you can do with your settings and e-mail layout so I’ll spare you some additional reading.
The important things to keep in mind with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a truly modern-day and minimalistic feel. It’s certainly one of the much better e-mail editors I’ve ever before written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, every one of your e-newsletters (if you want) survive a website. Think about it as a web site for your newsletter that’s a home to all of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you recognize with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, consisting of the free one, provide you a website. However, the free plan locations your website on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to add a customized domain name to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Obtaining clients is important. Besides, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, people can sign up for your e-newsletter directly from your beehiiv website or through embed kinds.
If you already have a web site, and desire people to sign up for your e-newsletter from your existing website, you’ll need to utilize an embed form. This is what I use on this website (you can see the sign-up installed on the right hand column of this blog post if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have three various choices– a full width, a repaired size, and a slim installed. I personally use the slim embed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s also an option for attribution tracking if you intend to onward UTM criteria for tracking functions– rather neat.
However, there are a couple of features I wish beehiiv had when it concerned subscribe features. I make certain the group is servicing updates for these, however I stated a few issues I had in the advantages and disadvantages area listed below.
Referral program
Among the amazing things concerning beehiiv, that I have yet to see in any other e-newsletter system, is a remedy for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing subscribers on your listing to forward your e-mails to pals and colleagues and if they get other individuals to sign up for your listing, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever form you want. I have actually appear several e-newsletter business provide benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your customers into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– providing you one more method for expanding your e-mail listing.
Nevertheless, to obtain accessibility to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to a much more premium plan. I’ll look at all the plans later on in this write-up.
Premium memberships
They say all you need to earn a living online is 1,000 real followers. Membership revenue is certainly a beast of its very own. If you’re searching for a platform to monetize your e-newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can develop “premium” issues of your e-newsletter that are just sent to paying customers. This can be really financially rewarding depending upon what your newsletter needs to provide. For example, Trends.co is a popular costs e-newsletter that generates millions in profits a year merely by having pay-only newsletter web content.
Information analytics
Among the important things I enjoy concerning beehiiv is exactly how tidy and easy the analytics are. You get real-time date on exactly how your e-newsletter is doing, with open/click prices and customer matter.
You get access to all the metrics you need to obtain a bird-eye view on how your newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your control panel and seeing that customer matter go up is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv benefits and drawbacks
Certainly, with every platform, it has its pros and cons. Below are some of the benefits and drawbacks 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 establish and begin sending e-newsletters totally free
- Clean and modern client analytics
- Lots of flexibility with e-mail styles.
- Referral program feature
- Internet site hosting
- Develop costs options to generate income from
- Surveys
To be honest, I have not seen one more newsletter system that has actually been able to package every one of these features together so well.
But of course, I do not want to be biased so I’m mosting likely to point out some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Below are some of the cons I have actually found while using beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and Beehiiv YouTube Referral Program
- Limitations around adding custom fonts
I utilize Webflow as my web site structure system of choice (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a long time ago). I’m not mosting likely to enter way too much information why I like Webflow so much but you can review my Webflow review if you would love to learn more.
Today, there truly is no other way I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site besides using an iframe embed. I directly don’t like using iframe’s because they tend to reduce my internet site a little bit. Each time a web page on my site (with a beehiiv embed) tons, the sign-up installed is the last thing to pack on the page. It’s very noticeable when you get on a slow-moving net connection. However I can navigate that.
The primary gripe I have is that I can’t utilize a routine Webflow form (which I enjoy making use of). There are methods around this by utilizing a tool like Zapier however that would just include added expenses that I don’t require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow con over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I thought I would discuss it.
Besides that, I still believe the pros far exceed the cons below. I’m additionally confident that Webflow will ultimately develop a far better method to integrate with beehiiv.
Verdict: Beehiiv YouTube Referral Program
Overall, beehiiv is a great service for anyone seeking to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this newsletter system much exceeds many that are presently on the market. And with a generous free plan, you truly have absolutely nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are likewise relatively affordable of what they are. Paying only $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is unprecedented. If you were to have a newsletter with 100k customers, and all of these features beehiiv has, it could cost you well into the thousands per month.
Anyways, I don’t create testimonial blog posts frequently. I only do when I in fact utilize the tool myself and would certainly advise it to a good friend.
I hope you found some clearness on whether or not beehiiv is a good system for you.