Module 2 — Lesson 9

Subscribe pages, and upgrade pages, and custom pages, oh my!

I don’t know about you… but I’m HYPED about this feature.

Why?

Because your landing page is your first impression with potential subscribers.

And beehiiv lets you create beautifully customized websites that are head-to-head with the world’s top newsletters, all without ever needing to write a single line of code (or use a third-party tool).

That’s HUGE!!!

So… ready to dig in? Let’s go!

(Head over to Settings → Website → Pages)

Landing Pages

When you click the “Customize Landing Page” button — you’ll be sent to our good ol’ friend the design lab. From there, you have an abundance of options to optimize your landing page to convert visitors into subscribers.

Here’s a quick tutorial to help you get started:

Feeling a lil overwhelmed?

Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Here are 5 best practices to design a killer landing page:

1) Nail your headline

There are hundreds of different ways to write your headline — I’m going to focus on two.

1/ Explain the value you provide

An important point that I’ll probably repeat multiple times throughout this lesson…

Most people use their newsletter name as the headline. But remember, people don’t care what your newsletter is named — they care about what value you can provide for them.

Here’s a great example of putting your newsletter name in the Overline instead of the headline:

2/ Use your newsletter name

Sometimes simple is best. If you can’t think of a great headline to use — you can always use your newsletter name as the headline and save the “what’s in it for them” for the Description.

(I know I just contradicted myself, but there are many ways to climb a tree).

2) Description

Your description is where you get specific.

1. Introduce your newsletter

2. Explain who it’s for

3. And how it helps them

3) Visual Image

Now’s your chance to show off your newsletter in all its glory.

Where do most newsletters go wrong?

They add a generic photo that tells your visitors nothing about your newsletter.

(As cute as Sadie the puppy is, we gotta stay on brand 🥲)

Instead, give a visual sneak peek of your newsletter in action.

4) Include social proof

Your social proof establishes your credibility as someone they should listen to. Nobody wants to read a newsletter from a novice (unless you position yourself the right way… more on this in a future lesson).

There are two simple ways to include social proof on your landing page:

1/ In the Underline

It’s as simple as saying:

If you don’t have a large newsletter (yet), then you can either include the companies your readers work at:

But if you’re starting from zero — simply don’t include an underline until you have social proof.

2/ In the testimonials section

Beehiiv allows you to add a testimonial section exclusively dedicated to showcasing happy readers.

Examples:

You can add, edit, re-arrange, and customize the aesthetic of how these testimonials are displayed on your website.

5) Call to action button (CTA)

Your CTA should make it easy to take action.

Most CTA buttons simply say “Subscribe”.

Here are three more CTA’s you can try out:

1/ Highlight the benefit

Your future subscribers are constantly asking themselves, “What’s in it for me?”

Instead of calling them to action “Subscribe now”, call them to value:

• Get free marketing tips

• Receive free growth guides

2/ Handle objections

Add a few words to handle your subscribers’ biggest objection:

• Join for $0

• Try for free

• Become smarter in under 5 minutes

3/ Use social proof

• Join 10,000+ founders

The point is this: Writing a killer landing page isn’t about knowing all the marketing tricks and tactics. It’s about understanding your target audience and empathizing with their fears, pains, dreams, and desires.

5 best practices to design a killer landing page:

1/ Explain the value you provide (headline)

2/ Be specific about who you serve and how (description)

3/ Give a sneak peek of your newsletter (image)

4/ Make it believable (social proof)

5/ Make it easy to take action (CTA)

When you combine all 5 of these tips?

You get an absolute masterpiece…

Oops… wrong picture.

Sorry, I couldn’t help myself 😬

Ah, here we go. A masterpiece:

Upgrade Pages

Remember I showed you what a fully customized upgrade page looked like in the new subscriber flow? If not, here’s a quick reminder:

Before we start, you’ll need two things:

1. Be on the scale plan

2. Have a premium newsletter

If you don’t have those two things, still stick around… this is useful knowledge for the future.

Here’s exactly how to create your sleek upgrade page:

First, hit the “Customize Upgrade Page” button and head on back to our bestie the design lab.

Then, watch this quick 4-minute video giving you the rundown:

What’s that, you say? You want more best practices? Fine, if you insist…

Here’re 5 upgrade page best practices:

1) Use the decoy effect

What’s the decoy effect?

Let me give you an example:

Let’s say you go into a Starbucks craving coffee. You look up at their menu and see 3 options…

Small: $2

Medium: $6.50

Large: $7

Which would you choose?

In the example above, the medium ($6.50) acts as a decoy to push more people toward the large cup of coffee.

Does that make sense? Awesome.

So how can you employ the decoy effect to increase your conversions?

It’s simple, include a third decoy pricing tier:

2) Solve painful problems

There’s this idea in copywriting about vitamins vs. painkillers.

Vitamins prevent future problems… they’re a nice-to-have.

Painkillers solve current problems… they’re a need-to-have.

With a paid subscription — your goal isn’t to gate some of your content or even your best content.

Your goal is to solve your subscribers’ deepest, unsolved problems.

The more painful the problem, the less price sensitive the customer.

The less price sensitive the customer, the more $$$ you can charge.

3) Be human

LIMITED TIME ONLY!!!

HURRY! 50% OFF NOW!!!

CART CLOSES IN 10 SECONDS!!!!!!

How do you feel after reading that? A little stressed, right?

That is the last position you want to put your subscribers in.

1. You seem desperate

2. You may get them to buy… but will they stay?

The truth is the sale happens long before your subscribers get to the subscribe page. If you consistently overdeliver value with your free newsletter, they won’t need special discounts or fake urgency threats to buy.

It’s simple:

1. Create great content

2. Invite them to upgrade

Bottom line: Be human.

4) Apply the anchoring effect

The Anchoring effect is a cognitive bias that causes us to rely heavily on the first piece of information we are given. A famous example is when Steve Jobs kept the $999 price up on the screen and then smashed it to $499. The crowd went wild (even though $499 was the price Jobs intended the whole time).

So how can you apply this to your upgrade page?

Add an annual option next to your monthly subscription.

5) Leverage the LISH (Length Implies Strength Heuristic)

First of all, what in the world is a heuristic?

A heuristic is our brain’s way of creating mental shortcuts for making decisions. It takes a lot of effort to power the personal supercomputers sitting between our ears — so our brains developed this ability to avoid thinking deeply about things (because you know… think hard make head hurt).

Enter: Length Implies Strength Heuristic or LISH. Put simply, the more social proof and testimonials you include, the more likely your subscribers will think there’s something to it.

(Lot words make head hurt)

AKA create a wall of love:

Custom Pages

If you’ve been running your newsletter for a while, you know how difficult it can be to juggle your own website, your newsletter platform, your social media, and everything else that comes with running your newsletter.

The truth is it ain’t a stroll in the park.

But, with beehiiv, rather than separating your newsletter platform from your website, you get it all in one easy-to-access place. I know I say this a lot but… that’s HUGE!!

So here’s what I propose:

1. You watch this tutorial video to learn how to set a custom page up

2. I show you 7 cool ways I’ve seen the top newsletters in the world use this cool feature

Deal? Sweet.

Alright, now to hold up my end of the bargain.

7 ways to use beehiiv’s custom pages:

1) Create an About page

Your About page is one of the most important pages on your website. I always like to tell people: “Your readers come for your content but stay for their connection with you.”

Your about page is prime real estate to share:

• Your backstory

• Why you started your newsletter

• What you’re up to now

• Your favorite newsletter editions

(Don’t forget to include pictures 😄)

If you have a team running your newsletter, you can introduce your team too.

2) Promote your own product

You can create a dedicated page to promote your own products and offers. What does this unlock? Well, it pretty much eradicates the need to create a separate landing page with Carrd or Gumroad. With beehiiv, you can create your own sales pages within your beehiiv website. 🤯

3) Link to your portfolio

If you’re a freelancer, you can also link to your portfolio. Your newsletter subscribers could potentially become some of your best clients.

(Another reason why writing your own newsletter on beehiiv is so cool… your newsletter itself is proof of your skill as a writer).

4) Invite brands to advertise with you

I hope I don’t sound too repetitive — but custom pages give you millions of options for monetizing your newsletter.

Okay… maybe not millions. But you get the point.

Some key statistics you should include in your “Advertise With Us” page:

Key statistics:

• Subscribers:

• Open rate:

• Click rate:

But more on this later in the monetization module.

5) Assign multiple pages to a single window

If you write a blog about multiple topics, you can create tags to categorize your beehiiv website for easier navigation.

Who needs a blog website when you have the beehiiv website?

#gamechanger

6) Link to your social media accounts

These last two aren’t revolutionary, but they’re still really impressive. When you link to your social media accounts you create a growth flywheel.

More social reach → More newsletter subscribers → More social reach → More newsletter subscribers.

The flywheel keeps getting larger and larger without much additional work.

7) Link to your other publications

If you run multiple newsletters, you can create your own ecosystem too. Nuff said.

So… what should you take away from this lesson?

1. beehiiv’s changing the newsletter game

2. You have a lot to implement now :)

Additional Resources

For those looking to take advantage of these new features, we have aggregated a bunch of helpful resources to make your web pages shine ✨.

• Cool Backgrounds (background tool)

• Superdesigner (background tool)

• MagicPattern (background tool)

• MockUPhone (phone screen mockups)

• BgGenerator (background tool)

• Fotor (background tool)

P.S. In the very next lesson, I’ll show you how to publish your custom pages. What are you waiting for? Check it out!

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