Setting up and using beehiiv recommendations

beehiiv recommendations offer a great way to cross-promote with other newsletters and collaborate with fellow creators to grow your communities. By recommending other newsletters and being recommended in return, you unlock new opportunities for collaboration and communication.

We’ll start with some quick tips to get you started, followed by a video tutorial that explains recommendations and how to use them. Finally, we’ll provide detailed instructions on how to create a recommendation and add it to your post.

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Quick tips to get you started 

• • Recommendations differ from Boosts in that they are free, while Boosts are paid recommendations. With Boosts, you have the opportunity for paid subscriber acquisition or monetization.
    
    
  • Recommendations are not the same as referrals. Recommendations allow you to recommend and be recommended by other newsletters, while referrals offer an organic way to market to engaged audiences by providing rewards to your subscribers. 
    
    
  • While Recommendations are not the same as Boosts, any Boosts that you are running will appear at the top of your Recommendations page or in your Recommendations Widget.
    
    
  • A Recommendations page is an available option that you can include in your Signup Flow.
    
    
  • Recommendations are currently a manual process, as there is no in-app communication between publications. If you'd like another publication to recommend you, you'll need to reach out to them directly. We suggest networking with newsletters that have a similar subscriber size and non-competing audiences.
    
    
  • If your publication requires subscriber approval, you can still recommend other publications, and they can still recommend you. When others recommend your publication, a note will indicate that subscriber approval is required.
    
    
  • To be recommended by other publications, you need to complete the following steps: 
    • Be verified on Stripe. Refer to this article to learn how to become verified using Stripe. 
    • Send at least one post. Check out this article for a platform walkthrough to help you get started with your first post. 
    • Add a logo, name, and description of your publication. For instructions on adding your logo to your publication, please read this article. 
    • Add publication tags to your publication. You can do this by going to Settings > General Info > Publication Tags dropdown menu. 
    • Publication is not private. Please read this article for details on how to make your publication private.
      
      
  • You can create segments based on acquisition sources, including recommendations. 
    
    
  • If a subscriber was acquired through recommendations, you can find that information on their subscriber profile dashboard. 

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Watch and Learn: Recommendations

 

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How to create a recommendation

1. From the left panel Dashboard, click Grow > Recommendations.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Click Add recommendation.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Search for the name of the publication.
   
   
   
   
   
   Or, you can search by typing # followed by a topic. These topics are based on the tags you selected when setting up your publication.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Share a reason why you are recommending it.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click Add recommendation.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Once added, you’ll be redirected to your recommendations dashboard, where your recommendations will be displayed. To Edit, Make inactive, or Remove a recommendation, click the 3 dots menu.
   
   
   

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How to add a new recommendation to your post

1. Open a new post draft or select to edit one of your saved posts or templates.
   
   
2. The Post Builder will open on the Compose page. Access the post editor by typing /. From the Premium options, select Recommendation. 
   
   
   
   
   
3. If you have existing recommendations, they will be listed under the search bar. To add a new recommendation, click Add a recommendation and follow the steps above. Otherwise, select the recommendation you wish to include in your post.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. The selected recommendation will auto-populate in your post.
   
   
   

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