Developing a newsletter should not feel like a sideline. You’ve already obtained sufficient on your plate managing content, customers, perhaps even a full-time gig. I read among my favorite email e-newsletters when I scrolled to the bottom of the e-mail and saw the beehiiv logo for the very first time. I clicked on it and instantly began destroying. Bright Leads Media Beehiiv…
I wasn’t sure why I really felt so emotional.
Being a permanent maker is tough. I’m typically getting pitched different devices and solutions that do not seem to be worth my time.
I guess I was emotional due to the fact that I spent the last six months trying out various email and e-newsletter platforms to assist construct my e-newsletter. And to be fair, there are some wonderful options for writing e-newsletters. Yet I couldn’t locate one that made me provide a definite “yes”.
The problem with several existing newsletter systems is that they do not really feel creator-centered. I want a newsletter system that lets me completely customize my newsletter designs, makes it super very easy to create and send emails, and provides me devices that assist me evaluate metrics and obtain more clients.
I assume I have actually finally found the best device.
Yet, I know beehiiv may not be for every person. So let’s dive deep and see if it’s in fact ideal for you.
My personal experience with beehiiv
A few months earlier, I inadvertently came across beehiiv. The amusing tale is that I’ve been on the lookout for a modern-day e-newsletter system for rather a long time currently. I have actually procrastinated hard when it came to lastly launching my newsletter.
First, I tried Mailchimp. After that, a few various other indie platforms. Then, Substack. And finally, I wound up utilizing beehiiv.
I’m sure lots of newsletter creators respect popular e-newsletters with numerous subscribers– I know I do. The Morning Brew newsletter is one I admired a great deal. They have excellent content, lots of customers, and a clever referral program that enables them to get even extra subscribers.
So, I went on a quest to determine exactly how these large newsletters set up their logistics. What system do they make use of? How do they track the ROI of their newsletters? How do they get even more clients? How do they produce an e-newsletter layout that remains on-brand?
When I discovered beehiiv for the first time, it seemed to address every one of my questions. I thought to myself, “damn individuals that developed this device truly recognize newsletter production and development.” I examined who these makers of beehiiv were.
So I mosted likely to LinkedIn, and saw that the co-founders were a few of the very first marketing and growth staff members at Morning Brew– my mind exploded.
I understood this was mosting likely to be a different newsletter platform. One that’s concentrated on developer growth.
Because, any type of creator knows, you need development to be able to make a living off of an e-newsletter. And locating the ideal e-newsletter stack (that ranges) typically suggests using numerous different tools to assist attain one goal– one platform for your newsletter, one system to monetize, and one system to establish referrals. It can obtain expensive.
So when I figured out beehiiv did all of these things in one platform, and it was complimentary to begin making use of, it was a no-brainer to give it a try.
What is beehiiv?
beehiiv is an all-in-one system for newsletters. It’s a creator-friendly newsletter platform that makes it easy to design, write, send, advertise, monetize, and track the ROI of your newsletter.
Produced by previous staff members at the renowned e-newsletter firm Morning Brew, beehiiv intends to assist designers launch and monetize their own e-newsletter– taking great deals of growth concepts from taking Morning Brew to over 4M clients.
In this write-up, I’m going to explain my personal experience with beehiiv, things I like (and hate) concerning it, all of it’s features, and why I made a decision to ultimately opt for it as my newsletter platform of choice.
beehiiv vs Substack
You might be asking, “isn’t there already a platform for writers called Substack?”.
Yes, of course there is. Substack is a terrific platform made use of by countless independent authors. With Substack you get your very own internet site and use the platform as your all-in-one service for sending e-mails (while creating an archive of previous issues).
What sets beehiiv apart is it’s commitment to development. beehiiv allows you do to all the things Substack can do, with the advantage of better analytics, even more layout flexibilty, and a referral program to encourage your existing subscribers to obtain words out.
beehiiv also provides you a web site similar to Substack. Yet, if you have your own site already, you can also use beehiiv’s sign-up embeds (that’s what I utilize) to send your web site subscribers directly to your beehiiv email list. On the very same token, you can incorporate beehiiv with a device like Performance to permit people to sign up for your newsletter straight from Twitter.
This offers you the flexibility to take advantage of different marketing networks to get your e-newsletter out right into the world, making beehiiv a terrific Substack option.
Exactly how to begin using beehiiv e-mail marketing software program.
Who is beehiiv for?
beehiiv is for the lean content maker that wants a platform that enables them to send out custom-made e-newsletters with or without requiring to have a site.
One of the most successful newsletters have the right devices to develop and scale their e-newsletters. beehiiv focuses on giving you those devices.
If you’re an independent writer, media company, startup, or content maker, you should seriously taking into consideration trying out beehiiv. It’s absolutely cost-free to start and you only pay when you get to over 2,500 subscribers on your listing.
If you really end up needing to spend for beehiiv it’s possibly a great indicator that individuals like reviewing your things.
beehiiv pricing plans
beehiiv supplies four different pricing plans. You can check them out below.
The (cost-free) Launch plan offers you everything you need to begin and grow your e-newsletter (as much as 2,500 clients).
The Scale plan ($ 34.40/month) gives you everything in the Launch plan with the addition the ad network, referral program, custom domain, surveys, and access to premium subscriptions. This is the plan I am on.
The Max plan ($ 76.80/month) offers you every little thing in the Grow plan with addition of priority assistance and eliminating the beehiiv branding.
Every one of these plans are fairly generous in my point of view.
For instance, if you have 100,000 customers you will certainly pay around $329 per month. In contrast to some rivals, like Kit (formerly ConvertKit), that would certainly charge $679 monthly for the same amount– making beehiiv a fantastic Kit option for numerous individuals.
I’m not exactly sure just how the device business economics service this, however beehiiv is definitely less costly (at the moment) than what it can be.
Enroll in a free plan
The initial step is to sign up for a free plan. You can do this by clicking the “Beginning trial” button on beehiiv’s website.
The free plan will allow you to have up to 2,500 clients, offer you accessibility to site hosting, an e-newsletter CMS, advancement customization, analytics, outside embed types, and more. It’s an extremely charitable offering for those simply beginning (or for those trying to find a new system to move to).
Onboarding
After developing an account, you’ll go through an onboarding procedure that will ask things like, “is this your very first newsletter?”, “what other systems have you utilized?”, “do you have any type of paying subscribers?”, and a lot more.
You’ll then produce a name and URL for your e-newsletter’s web site. On the free plan, your newsletter will survive 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 also pick your brand design and colors to see to it your newsletter template looks right.
Browsing your control panel
When you reach your main dashboard, you’ll see all of your analytics and setups.
You will certainly have detailed info on the amount of sign-ups you’re getting and from where.
In the sidebar, you’ll see alternatives for “Beginning creating”, “Articles”, “Audience”, “Grow”, “Monetize”, “Design” and” Evaluate”. And at the really lower you’ll see the settings choice.
Dashboard is your primary control center (screenshot above), Beginning composing is where you develop and publish newsletters, Messages is where you can see every one of your previous newsletter versions, Target market is where you can see who your subscribers are (and break them down into sectors), Expand is where you have accessibility to a referral program (and growth 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 develop your newsletter landing page and blog post template, Analyze is where you can see all your analytics, and Settings is where you can manage all of your admin stuff.
Creating your e-newsletter
beehiiv makes it very easy to start creating, with little to no friction. If you’re simply starting out, and have an idea you intend to discuss, I recommend simply mosting likely to the “Write” section in the navbar and clicking on “Begin composing”.
You can fine-tune your template and designing later– concentrate on the content initially.
As you can see, beehiiv’s editor offers a clean and straightforward user interface for composing.
When you begin writing, you can maximize headings, add web links, and design your content how you like.
beehiiv provides you tons of choices for different types of content like video clips, links, images, and more.
The team at beehiiv is additionally frequently releasing item feature and updates so I make sure there will be a lot a lot more content features depending on when you read this.
Maximizing your settings and templates
As soon as you have an e-newsletter that prepares to send out, it’s time to create your email template and change some setups.
Right here, you can upgrade the name of your newsletter, give it a description, add your logo, activate 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 layout.
You can edit history shades, boundaries, spacing, typefaces, photo layouts, and much more. I’m not going to go through ever before single point you can maximize with your e-mail template because it’s a whole lot. Just check out the platform for free and see it on your own!
Crucial beehiiv features
beehiiv has tons of amazing features that make it a great posting system for any kind of e-newsletter creator.
Below are several of the crucial features you can locate with beehiiv:.
Newsletter builder
At its core, beehiiv is a newsletter publishing system. It makes it very easy to create and send emails. I stated above several of things you can do with your setups and e-mail layout so I’ll save you some additional analysis.
The important things to note with beehiiv’s e-newsletter builder is that it has a really modern and minimalistic feeling. It’s definitely among the far better email editors I have actually ever written in.
Web site hosting
When you create a beehiiv e-newsletter, all of your newsletters (if you want) survive a web site. Consider it as an internet site for your e-newsletter that’s a home to every one of your previous concerns of your e-newsletter, and a place where people can register for your e-newsletter.
If you know with Substack, it’s pretty much comparable to that.
All plans, including the free one, give you a website. Nonetheless, the free plan areas your site on a beehiiv subdomain so if you wish to include a personalized domain to get rid of all the beehiiv branding you’ll require to upgrade to a paid plan.
Subscribe forms
Getting clients is important. After all, that’s why you have an e-newsletter right?
With beehiiv, individuals can register for your newsletter directly from your beehiiv site or with embed kinds.
If you currently have a site, and desire individuals to register for your e-newsletter from your existing site, you’ll have to make use of 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 article if you scroll up).
With embed kinds, you have 3 different alternatives– a full width, a fixed size, and a slim embed. I personally utilize the slim embed.
You can discover the code snippet for these embeds in the “Subscribe Types” tab in your settings.
There’s additionally a choice for acknowledgment monitoring if you intend to forward UTM parameters for tracking objectives– quite neat.
Nevertheless, there are a couple of features I desire beehiiv had when it pertained to subscribe features. I make certain the team is working with updates for these, but I pointed out a couple of 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 system, is a solution for developing a referral program.
You can encourage existing customers on your listing to forward your emails to pals and colleagues and if they get other people to register for your listing, you can compensate them. These rewards can be in whatever form you desire. I’ve appear several newsletter business provide benefits in the form of merch and sticker labels.
This can seriously transform your clients into a word of mouth development engine for your newsletter– giving you an additional avenue for expanding your email list.
Nonetheless, to obtain access to the referral program feature, you’ll need to update to a much more superior plan. I’ll look at all the plans later in this write-up.
Costs subscriptions
They claim all you need to make a living online is 1,000 true fans. Registration income is certainly a beast of its own. If you’re looking for a platform to monetize your newsletter, this is it.
With beehiiv, you can produce “premium” concerns of your newsletter that are just sent out to paying customers. This can be really financially rewarding relying on what your e-newsletter has to use. As an example, Trends.co is a preferred premium e-newsletter that creates millions in earnings a year just by having pay-only e-newsletter material.
Information analytics
One of things I love about beehiiv is just how clean and basic the analytics are. You obtain real-time date on how your newsletter is doing, with open/click rates and client matter.
You obtain access to all the metrics you require to obtain a bird-eye view on exactly how your e-newsletter is really doing. Logging right into your dashboard and seeing that subscriber matter rise is certainly a dopamine booster.
beehiiv pros and cons
Obviously, with every system, it has its pros and cons. Below are some of the benefits and drawbacks I’ve directly experienced while making use of beehiiv:
Pros of using beehiiv
Here are several of the pros of using beehiiv as your newsletter platform of selection:
- Easy to set up and begin sending e-newsletters completely free
- Tidy and contemporary customer analytics
- Great deals of adaptability with email styles.
- Referral program feature
- Website hosting
- Produce costs alternatives to generate income from
- Surveys
To be honest, I have not seen an additional newsletter system that has had the ability to package all of these features with each other so well.
However naturally, I don’t want to be biased so I’m going to mention some disadvantages.
Disadvantages of using beehiiv
Here are some of the disadvantages I’ve located while utilizing beehiiv:.
- Limitations around integrating Webflow and Bright Leads Media Beehiiv
- Limitations around including customized fonts
I use Webflow as my internet site building platform of option (I finished from WordPress and Squarespace a very long time ago). I’m not going to enter excessive information why I like Webflow so much yet you can read my Webflow testimonial if you want to learn more.
Now, there actually is nothing else means I can integrate beehiiv with my Webflow site aside from making use of an iframe embed. I directly don’t like making use of iframe’s due to the fact that they often tend to reduce my web site a little bit. Each time a page on my site (with a beehiiv installed) loads, the sign-up embed is the last thing to pack on the web page. It’s extremely obvious when you get on a slow-moving web connection. But I can get around that.
The main complaint I have is that I can’t make use of a normal Webflow kind (which I enjoy using). There are means around this by using a device like Zapier however that would certainly just add added prices that I do not require. To be straightforward, this is more of a Webflow disadvantage over a beehiiv disadvantage yet I believed I would certainly discuss it.
Besides that, I still think the pros far exceed the disadvantages right here. I’m also enthusiastic that Webflow will eventually develop a better way to integrate with beehiiv.
Conclusion: Bright Leads Media Beehiiv
In general, beehiiv is an excellent remedy for anyone looking to study the world of email marketing and e-newsletters.
The capability of this e-newsletter system much exceeds several that are currently on the market. And with a charitable free plan, you really have nothing to shed for trying it.
The paid plans are also fairly economical for what they are. Paying just $329/month to have 100,000 customers on your list is uncommon. If you were to have an e-newsletter with 100k clients, and all of these features beehiiv has, it can cost you well into the thousands each month.
Anyways, I do not create review blog posts typically. I just do when I really utilize the device myself and would advise it to a buddy.
I hope you found some clarity on whether or not beehiiv is a great system for you.