Today we're going to talk about
How to pivot the YouTube channel?
So we are going to discuss and to know three things today :
1. Why is there a need to pivot?
2. When should I know that it's time to pivot?
3. and how should I do it?
So let's dive into why there is a need to pivot in the first place.
Why is there a need to pivot?
Ans. I think creators really can boil this down to two main issues and the first one is a prolonged dip in performance and I use the term prolonged importantly because this is not something you don't pivot after having one bad video or two underperforming videos.
The thought here is that if you observe over time that your views are dropping off that it seems like the relevance of the content you're creating or the audience response to it is starting to drop off then you may consider pivoting.
I mean you know an example of this would be let's say you do an analysis of a popular tv show and that tv show ends its run and goes off the air. You may want to consider pivoting to either a new show or a new area to engage with. This could also be the result of your audience aging out. You could be creating content for a specific age group or specific demographic and over time that audience grows up and no longer is interested in that content.
So you may consider pivoting to something that better matches their interests. So that's the first one.
2. When should I know that it's time to pivot?
2nd one is a loss of passion or burnout. You know this can really be related to a number of factors. It could be that you yourself are aging out of the content you're creating. You're no longer interested in creating those sorts of videos that you did in the past or you may just have a changing life situation. You know, you may no longer be able to create content on the kind of day-by-day basis. You used to or you may not find that sort of content is as easy to
build on a sustainable long-term basis and so if that's the case you may want to pivot into something that better matches your interests or is more sustainable for your production situation and your creation situation.
So these reasons to pivot totally make sense. How do we know when it's the right time to pivot
sure this is you know a difficult question because you're really trying to pinpoint a specific time but the short answer is that you really want to pivot before you need to you if we think about a bell curve most creators think oh like on the downward trend of my performance that's when I should be pivoting the reality is you kind of want to be thinking about what your next step is all the way from like the rise to like the peak of performance so that you can kind of make that decision at will versus making it based on okay alarm bells are singing and with that in mind I want to give you some tools that you can look at that can kind of help you.
Really one in one when this timing is and the big one is there's a lot of information available in youtube analytics that I think can be really helpful here particularly demographic information. So information that looks at you knows the age gender geography also the watch time from subs information that can all indicate to you where things are trending in terms of you know the audience member that is watching your video. You may see a shift in gender you may see a shift in an age group. You could also see that more subscribers or fewer subscribers are watching your content than were previously and that's a good indicator of directionally where your content is going and maybe it's time to make a change to match that shift
in addition, we have a lot of really good search information available via the youtube search functionality and analytics but also via google trends and so you can look at the search terms that are being used to direct viewers to your channel via google trends you can also look at different queries that are associated with your channel name or the shows that you're putting out or the series that you're creating and that can all also be a good indicator of you know. What your audience is interested in if things have changed from when your channel first launched we also recommend looking at the content itself so you can look at you know
top video performance and analytics you can also look at our recently launched audience interest card which showcases the videos that your viewers are watching off of your channel and both of those are good indicators of kind of where your audience is trending the topics they're interested in and particularly with the audience interest card
if you see a particular type of content represented and being watched by the audience of your channel that can be a good indicator of what kind of content they're interested in and how you can fulfill that expectation and that interest on your own channel by pivoting towards it. I believe actually there's a number of new metrics we plan to launch in the future right indeed. so in addition to all of those things. We also want to make it a little bit easier to understand when it's the right time to pivot.
so we have been launching some reports that zoom out a bit we call these the monthly reports and they'll show you your monthly
performance looking at the past 12 months. so that can also give you an idea of that curve. we also want to start thinking to start introducing new metrics such as new viewers and returning viewers to your channel and this can give you a really good idea at which type of videos are good at attracting new viewers that you need to grow as well as retaining viewers that you need to create a sustainable audience. So stay tuned for those also I think my
my colleagues are talked about a new card on analytics, the top themes cards that can really
help you understand which themes of your channel are performing best and you should continue doing and which ones are maybe our time to fight phase-out. So stay tuned to all the for all those things in analytics awesome so we know when it's time to pivot.
3. How should I do it?
Now how do we go about actually doing this? The most important thing when you choose actually pivot is to set a goal uh the real question here is like why are you undertaking this pivot is it to regain your passion do you kind of want to jump-start growth on your channel are you looking to increase your revenue so really important to hone in on that goal first and then there's a couple question you also want to ask yourself
Which is this pivot going to take place on your channel?
or are you going to start a new channel for it?
You know and that can differ depending on whether or not you're creating something that's completely different from the content you put out in your existing channel or if you're kind of you to know building off of a successful format may be that you've already created and so that that can also determine whether you're going to launch a new channel or just kind of pivot the content of your main channel. You also want to think about if you're responding to audience signals or your own desire that that also comes into play here and once you've done that it's really important to understand two things that you'll come into contact with as you move forward and the first one is that this is gonna be a long-term play you're not gonna pivot your content over the course of one or two weeks.
But really thinking long term in terms of like three to six months as you roll this content out you're gonna want to give yourself that time to build an audience to see what their response is to the content and be flexible based on those signals and as part of that, I think it's also important to understand that you know there's gonna be some change in viewers you're going to bring in new viewers and you may lose some of your older viewers who are interested in the content. You were primarily known for during your prior time on the platform and so kind of understanding those two things and accepting them you can then move forward with your pivot and as you do there are a couple best practices. that I'd recommend:
the first one is giving yourself time to plan. So don't launch a pivot don't think this is going to happen over time and really think through the fine details and build something that's sustainable for you in the long term if you're launching a second channel.
I would also recommend launching with more than one video so that you're showcasing a commitment to this new type of content and also giving viewers who are going to direct to come over giving them content to engage with beyond just a single video with that in mind I think it's also important to have a communications plan so being able to tell your audience exactly what's happening to give them the context. What they can expect whether on your main channel or on this new channel is really important so that they don't feel like they're in the dark and they know whether, they want to kind of subscribe to this new channel or come over and engage with this content and that can come in many forms it can be, you know a youtube story it can be a standalone video.
It can be a community post. My personal preference is actually throwing a one to two-minute explainer into the content of a standard upload. So if you think about you know your post every Monday putting out your normal video and at the beginning or end of the video just having kind of an interlude where you talk to your audience and explain everything I just walked through and that way you're not pushing this content onto its own kind of standalone place. But you're really integrating into the feeling of the channel and it feels kind of less abrupt and more organic like an organic growth of the channel wow that is really great information kyle thank you so much and I think now if creator insider wants to pivot.
The comments below and we'll be answering those comments. Thank you so much and in the meantime keep it real.
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