Social media has become the core of many online entrepreneurs' marketing strategies, and the 'link-in-bio' tool is essential for any social media marketer. TikTok, Instagram, and other popular social media platforms are visual mediums, and to get around the limitations on providing links in posts and apps, influencers have turned to platforms such as Beacons.ai to provide links in their bios, directing followers to their store pages or other third-party platforms.
But what sets Beacons.ai apart from other link-in-bio platforms such as Linktree and Stan Store? Read on to find out.
What is Beacons.ai?
Beacons.ai is a link-in-bio service that offers clean, customizable pages for influencers, with an AI-enhanced twist. Rather than having to painstakingly add links or content to your page, the platform will auto-generate it for you. Of course, you can customize the page yourself if you don't like the content it generates, but for most people, taking advantage of the auto-generation tools will save a lot of time.
Getting Started With Beacons.ai
Creators can get started with Beacons.ai in just a few minutes. Creating an account is free, and you have the option of using your email address and a password to log in or using one-click authentication via your Google account or other similar OAuth providers.
Once you've created an account, you'll be asked to choose your username. If possible, pick something that matches (or at least is similar) to the names you use on social media. You'll then be asked to connect your social accounts, so you can get updated analytics. The platform supports the most popular social media services:
When you link an account, Beacons.ai will pull data from it such as the number of followers you have, how often you post, and the engagement rate on your posts. It will use that information to create a media pack that you can share with brands so they can decide whether they'd like to work with you on marketing campaigns. These reports are generated based on public data, and Beacons.ai will provide better information for brands if your profile is public. If you have your profile locked down to followers only, the report can show only limited metrics.
Customizing Beacons.ai
After linking your social pages, Beacons.ai will generate a simple link-in-bio page for you, including your profile picture, a background image, and an AI-generated tagline based on the details you provided in your social profiles. You can change the template, edit the text and add new links to the bio if you wish.
Once you've got that bio up and running, you're free to explore the platform's other options. Beacons.ai is a flexible platform offering several services, including:
- A simple website generator
- Email marketing features
- A store feature for your link-in-bio page
- The previously mentioned media kits
- A referral program
Selling Digital Products With Beacons.ai
The store feature enables you to sell products via your link in bio page. To get started, navigate to the Store tab and choose your product type from the My Products section. Beacons.ai supports courses, digital products, memberships and appointments. It can also import products from Shopify, Etsy, Gumroad, Stan Store and a variety of other ecommerce platforms.
After choosing your product type, you'll be taken to the product page, where you can customize the listing. The right-hand column of the editor page includes a checklist of things for you to customize. Each item in the list will show a green check once it's been edited.
You can edit the product header, title, description and pricing by clicking on those things in the WYSIWYG editor, or by clicking on each item in the list. If you've chosen a digital product, one of the items in the checklist will be to upload the product files or provide a URL for them. You can add up to 6 files or links to a product listing.
Once you've set up the product page, you can also customize the checkout, success screen and email receipt, then publish your product.
Note that while your followers will be able to see your listings as soon as you publish them, they won't be able to purchase until you've set up payment options in your account settings. Beacons.ai works with PayPal and Stripe, and you'll be charged payment processing fees by those platforms, on top of Beacons.ai's own transaction fees. This can be substantial for those on the lower membership tiers.
How Much Does Beacons.ai Cost?
Beacons.ai offers a free tier, which provides access to the core features of the site, including a link-in-bio, access to the website creator and the ability to sell a limited number of products via your bio store. Users on the free tier can only use the beacons.ai domain for their link-in-bio and media kit pages.
To unlock the account limitations, you'll need to upgrade to one of the premium plans.
The Creator Plus plan costs $10/month, and gives creators access to:
- Custom domains
- The ability to add unlimited products to their store
- A buy-now-pay-later feature
- Reduced transaction fees
- 500 marketing emails
- Unlimited use of AI generation tools
Creator Pro costs $30/month and offers everything in the Creator Plus plan, and:
- No transaction fees
- Unlimited marketing emails
- Unlimited memberships
- More frequent updates to the media kit
Finally, the top tier plan, VIP, costs $50 a month and offers:
- Unlimited courses
- A dedicated support team
- NFC card
- White-glove onboarding service
The prices listed above are based on month-to-month memberships. There's a discount for creators who pay for a year in advance.
Can You Really Make Money With Advertisers Through Beacons.ai?
One of the most interesting features of Beacons.ai is its brand deals and sponsorship feature, which is based on the media kit. Beacons.ai will automatically generate a media kit based on metrics it gathers from your linked social media accounts, and summarize those metrics so advertisers can decide whether they'd like to work with you.
Creators can use the AI Brand Outreach Tool to create pitches to send to brands and use the platform's Pricing Calculator to work out how much to charge based on your reach and engagement. Beacons.ai even provides an invoicing system, and approved influencers can use the 'Early Pay' feature to receive payment for sponsored posts instantly instead of having to wait for the brand they're working with to process their invoices.
To take advantage of these features you will need a large following. While small accounts can land sponsorship deals if they're operating in an unusual niche, most mainstream brands want to work with accounts with at least a couple of thousand followers, and to generate a regular income you'll need tens of thousands of followers, if not more.
What are the Pros and Cons of Beacons.ai?
If you're looking for a link-in-bio service that lets you sell products easily, Beacons.ai has a lot to offer:
- A free tier with lots of features
- Easy integration with a variety of platforms
- Sell courses, digital downloads and coaching calls
- AI-assisted page generation
- Build your own basic web pages from templates
- Email marketing features
However, the service does have some limitations:
- High transaction fees on some of the lower-tier plans
- Limited customization options
- Using a custom domain costs extra after the first year
So what are users saying about Beacons.ai? Well, there are only 9 Beacons.ai reviews on Trust Pilot and they are overwhelming negative, leading the service to have a 2.3 out of 5-start rating.
While the one 5-star review states that the platform is worth using and customer service is 'great', the 1-star reviews report issues with payments, customer support, and 'buggy features'. However, given that this is such a small pool of reviews, it is difficult to tell whether there are many users experiencing these issues or just the few who have share their experiences on Trust Pilot.
Beacons.ai Alternatives
Beacons.ai is an impressive platform. The AI generation tools can save creators a lot of time and be a useful source of inspiration. If you're a social media marketer that wants to sell digital products, courses or coaching calls via your TikTok or Instagram profile, and you also want to be able to collect mailing list signups, Beacons.ai makes it easy to do all of those things.
However, the platform's pricing and strict account tier limitations may be off-putting for some creators. Fortunately, there are lots of other platforms to choose from.
Whop
Whop is an all-in-one platform for creators and entrepreneurs, and while it is not a dedicated link-in-bio tools, you can easily integrate your Whop hub link into your social media bio.
With Whop you can create your own hub in less than 10 minutes, customized to your liking as you add the Whop apps best suited to your brand. For example, as a fitness creator you might integrate the Files app to sell workout regimes and ebooks, the chat app for your community, and the video app to host live sessions. As a beauty influencer, you may choose to integrate the course app for beauty courses, the Giveaways app to host sponsored giveaways, and the Calendar app for bookings. With Whop you can sell tiered memberships, subscriptions, and one-off product payments. There is so much that you can do with Whop, and once your audience clicks your Whop link they find everything they need in one place.
Linktree
Linktree is one of the most well-known link-in-bio platforms. It's incredibly easy to use, and has a free forever tier, as well as affordable pricing for those who want to remove Linktree's branding. Compared to Beacons.ai, Linktree is a bare-bones service. It allows creators to build a page full of links and has some limited features for integrating products from Shopify and other services into the page, but those features aren't as versatile as Beacons.ai. If you're a smaller creator who simply wants to share some third-party links with your followers, Linktree could be an affordable and accessible way of getting started.
Stan Store
Out of the established link-in-bio services, Stan Store is perhaps the most similar to Beacons.ai. It provides similar features, including the ability to sell digital downloads and other products. Stan Store even has its own course creator. The biggest strength of Stan Store is how easy it is to use. The store builder is intuitive, and the course creator lets you build a professional-looking course using only your mobile phone.
Unfortunately, this polish and ease of use come with a hefty price tag. There's no free tier on the platform, and the email marketing features are gated behind the Creator Pro plan, which is the platform's most expensive offering.
Building a Community With Whop, the Most Versatile Beacons.ai Alternative
As mentioned, while Whop.com isn't a link-in-bio service, it is the best option for creators looking to monetize their social media followers. So, let's explore what makes Whop so great.
Whop is an all-in-one social commerce platform with powerful community features. Creators can build a 'hub' that serves as both a way to share products and communicate with their followers. Hubs can be free to access, or gated behind a membership fee, and the products (or community pages) within each hub can be restricted to subscribers, or available to anyone. This flexible setup is ideal for influencers who want to create a sense of exclusivity among their followers. Rather than using a link-in-bio page, which could leave your followers overwhelmed by all the links they see, share a link to your Whop hub.
The community features of the hub will help keep people engaged with your brand and bring them back regularly to see what you have posted, and to talk to other members of the hub (if you integrate the Chat or Forums app).
Whop is free to join and there are no monthly fees. The platform makes its money by taking a 3% commission on each sale. The combination of low monthly fees and low commissions make Whop a great option for social media influencers and online entrepreneurs large and small.
Sell From Your Social Media Profiles Today
Whether you're a small influencer or an established brand, link-in-bio pages are a great way to market products to your social media followers. Beacons.ai does a good job of combining an easy-to-use page creator with some handy metrics tools to help you reach out to brands and agencies about sponsorship deals. However, if you're looking to sell a variety of digital products online or want to proactively engage with your followers, the platform's features may be too limited.
Stan Store and Linktree are interesting alternatives, catering to different audiences. Stan Store aims to be a one-stop-shop, while Linktree is a more focused and no-frills offering.
Whop.com is a versatile service that offers an interesting twist on the link-in-bio page in the form of a community hub. If you're curious about Whop's hubs, why not sign up today to create your own for free?
