How To Design Your Newsletter Inside beehiiv - A Full Guide

With thousands of newsletters sent out every day, it can feel tricky to create one that’s both unique and simple to produce. 

Thankfully, with the beehiiv email platform, you can create custom templates that can be used repeatedly, saving you time, while providing you with a host of features to make your newsletter stand out from the crowd.

Whether you’d like to use templates or design your own newsletter, this guide will teach you how you can get started creating one with beehiiv today. We’ll also explain how to customize your beehiiv website so you can have an eye-catching landing page for your email campaign.

Does beehiiv Have Newsletter Templates?

A key feature of the beehiiv platform that will make your emails much quicker to create is newsletter templates.

Newsletter templates allow you to create a design that you love that can be saved and reused for different campaigns.

This can be highly beneficial if you have a template that has worked well for your brand in the past, as you can then reuse and customize it to suit a new campaign. You’ll save yourself time in creating a whole new template, and your newsletters will be consistent with one another. Plus, you already know that the template you’ve chosen performs well.

How Do I Use Templates in beehiiv?

So how do you go about using a template in beehiiv? Here’s a quick, step-by-step guide.

1. Sign in to your beehiiv account and navigate to the Posts section.

2. In posts, click on the Dropdown arrow next to ‘Start Writing’.

3. Select Use template from the dropdown options.

4. Here, you’ll find your existing templates. If you’d like to make a new template, select New template.

5. Give your template a name and click on the small Plus icon within the content section of the newsletter. Here, you can choose which elements you’d like to include within your newsletter.

6. When you’ve finished designing your newsletter, you can use the Preview button to see how it will look on both mobile and desktop devices. This will help you fix any issues with how your email will be displayed on different screen sizes. 

7. When you’re happy with how your template looks, click the Save button.

8. Once saved, you can choose Use this template to prepare your newsletter for sending or decide to edit the template further by selecting Edit.

What Is the Best Way To Design a Newsletter?

There are many ways to design a newsletter. But what is the best way to ensure that your newsletter is as good as it can be? We’ve delved into these details for you below.

Clean and Simple Design

Keeping your newsletter design clean and simple will be more appealing to your subscribers, as it will be easy to navigate and won’t be too overwhelming.

Make sure to combine engaging content with plenty of space to ensure that your newsletter is easy to read while providing the information that you want your audience to know.

In terms of clear formatting, you’ll want to include a header, a section for the main body of your email, and a footer. For tips on how to format an email newsletter, check out the beehiiv blog.

Use Templates for Consistency and Time-Saving

Email templates are a great way to design a newsletter for three key reasons:

• Consistency - Keeping your newsletters consistent will make your brand look more professional, and it will help your subscribers learn what to expect when receiving an email from you.

• Time-Saving - Using email templates will save you time when sending email campaigns. Once you’ve created a template, you can use it again and again with minor tweaks for new campaigns.

• Performance - If an email campaign performed well, why change the template? You can edit it as much as you like, but it’s sensible to keep the structure of an email if you know it works well for your brand.

Many successful brands have used the beehiiv platform to improve their email marketing campaigns. Check out this case study of how Camber App grew its community and brand using beehiiv!

Keep Content Short and Sweet

While you’ll want to include lots of informative, engaging content within your emails, it’s important to keep this content short and sweet.

Reams of wordy textboxes in your email will be unappealing to the reader, which may lead to a high bounce rate on your emails. Break up your content with different elements such as images or videos and link out to your website if there’s more that you want your audience to know.

Use a Range of Elements

Make sure to use a range of elements within your email newsletter to keep your content fresh and interesting. 

There are many different elements you can use within the beehiiv platform to create an engaging newsletter. Here are some of our favorites:

• Bullet lists

• Images

• Code blocks

• Columns

• Headings

• Embed links 

• Referral Program

• Polls

• Recommendations

Include Call To Action (CTAs)

Last, but by no means least, are Call To Action (CTAs). It’s important to always include a prominent CTA within your email newsletters to direct your subscribers to where you want them to go.

Examples of good CTAs could be “Start A Free Trial” or “Buy Now”. Including CTAs such as these within your newsletters will provide your audience with direction and will increase the chances of them converting via your website or engaging with your brand further. 

Why listen to me? I have been working in the digital marketing space for nearly eight years, predominantly helping brands with their email marketing and online presence. I now specialize in creating great content surrounding email newsletters to help individuals and companies nail their email strategies.

Check out this video from the hiiv on our top 14 ways to improve your newsletter design:

How Do I Customize My beehiiv Website?

To customize your beehiiv website, follow the set of instructions below:

1. Login to your beehiiv account and select Settings.

2. Within the admin section of Settings, select Website.

3. From here, you can edit the general settings of your website, including the color palette and layout, plus different pages on your beehiiv website and sections such as the Navbar. For inspiration on the sort of landing pages that perform well in email marketing, take a look at our recent guide to landing pages for email marketing in 2023.

 Learn more about setting up a theme here:

How Do I Create a Newsletter Template?

To get started creating your custom newsletter template, sign up for free with beehiiv today. There are so many benefits of using beehiiv for your next newsletter template, and the great news is that you don’t have to be a developer to design your own custom template. 

While you can use code blocks and HTML snippets as you wish, our editor is designed in a user-friendly way with plenty of features that don’t require you to have a degree in coding. These include pre-made embed codes for inserting YouTube videos or links to your social media accounts, plus the ability to add sections and columns with no coding required.

Sign up for free with beehiiv today and get started with your latest newsletter template!