How to Pivot Channel Topics

In late 2022, I realised I had hit a wall with my channel. You may remember when I wrote about ​audience misalignment​, aye? I was experiencing a loop I couldn’t get out of.
I had about a dozen or so videos about a medical emergency I had experienced, and these videos were doing very well. Much much better than my sailing and adventure content.

In fact, on a monthly basis, the medical emergency videos were bringing in almost double the number of viewers. This was causing the algorithm to believe my videos were made for people interested in medical emergencies. When my new videos were pushed out to this audience, of course, they didn’t perform well in comparison to the medical emergency videos, which set off a “loop” in which every new video reinforced to the algorithm that my channel was about medical emergencies.

I couldn’t reach the adventure-seeking audience I desired.

The consultant had seen this loop before, and said I had two options. Set all medical emergency videos as “unlisted” or “private” until I built enough of a new audience that were watching more sailing content than medical emergency content. Then, I could unhide the medical emergency videos.

OR

Start from scratch.

Making The Decision.

I went back and forth about the decision. If I started from scratch, I would be able to separate myself from a past I truly wanted to forget. I had some serious trolls who were making snap judgments about the medical emergency and bullying me accordingly. I figured only my true followers would follow me over to a new channel.

But I also would lose my monetisation status and all the income I was generating from past content. I had put heaps of hard work into those videos.

I decided to start from scratch. And this time, I would be more intentional about attracting the audience I desired, which was younger and more female.

Pivot Slowly.

When I read about pivots, the first piece of advice I read is to pivot slowly. The visual image that comes to mind is interlocked hands. Hand 1 represents the topic you are pivoting from and hand 2 represents the topic to which you are pivoting.

When you pivot, it’s that cross over period where the fingers are interlocked where you have the biggest opportunity to carry over viewers from topic 1 to topic 2. You want to explain your why behind the transition and show how the topics aren’t actually so different after all. And you want to do all of this slowly. Not just one or two videos, but over the course of a season.

Repeat Yourself.

You’ll want to address the fact that you are moving or have moved over to a new topic over and over again. You can’t assume your audience is watching your every video. With that in mind, if you were to just say it once and then swap over to the new topic, someone might return to your channel weeks later, and have no idea why now you’re suddenly on land when before you were on water. Keep referencing the fact that you’ve made a transition, even once the transition is done.

Don’t Pivot Too Hard.

One of the most important parts of a pivot is to make sure you don’t pivot too hard. There is a very obvious link between sailing and camping: both are adventures and would be appealing to an adventurous viewer. However, if you pivot from being a sailing channel to knitting channel…. well, I’d bet that 99% of your audience is going to pack up and leave.

When to Start From Scratch

If you decide to pivot hard, then it might be time to consider starting from scratch. But this isn’t the only time you might want to consider starting from scratch.

If you are making consistent income from a channel that has an established brand, it’s worth considering leaving it to continue making you money. The minute you pivot, you are changing the words the channel is associated with and the SEO behind the channel. This will impact the overall performance of the channel and dilute the established brand. It will ultimately change where your channel shows up in “search”.

If your existing channel has a history of content that’s unrelated to the new topic, it may have accumulated a significant amount of irrelevant or low-quality views, which could affect its visibility in search results and recommendations. Starting a new channel allows you to build a clean slate and optimize for SEO from the beginning.

TIPS For the Actual Pivot

Once you have decided to pivot through your current channel or starting from scratch, here are some practical steps to ensure it goes smoothly:

• Transition Plan: Make a plan for how you will transition slowly. How will you introduce elements of the new topic gradually to gauge audience response? This could involve creating hybrid content that bridges your old and new topics.
• Engagement and Feedback: Communicate with your audience about the upcoming changes. Seek their feedback and input on the new direction. Engage with them through comments, polls, or community posts to involve them in the transition process.
• SEO and Branding: If you’re making the pivot on your current channel, update your channel metadata, including titles, descriptions, and tags, to reflect the new topic. Align your branding and visual identity with the new content direction to maintain consistency across your channel.
• Collaboration and Networking: Collaborate with creators in the new niche to expand your reach and credibility within the community. Networking with influencers and experts can also provide valuable insights and opportunities for growth.
• Analytics and Iteration: Remember you are essentially learning your audience preferences from scratch, so this is the time to monitor your channel analytics to track the performance of the new content. Identify what’s working well and what needs improvement. Use this data to iterate and refine your content strategy over time.
• Patience and Adaptability: Understand that pivoting channel topics is a long-term process that may take time to yield results. Be patient and adaptable, willing to adjust your approach based on audience feedback and market dynamics.

Need extra help with your pivot? Consider joining the ​Adventure Creator Course​ where participants are already starting to see huge results!