How Starting A Personal YouTube Channel Changed My Whole Approach To Business Communication

When my wife and I decided to create our YouTube channel Suite Natured nearly two years ago, I never really expected it to change the way I thought about how I communicated with customers in my "day" job. But it did. Massively!

A few months after starting the channel, it got me thinking and looking at how my business, and I, were interacting (or not) with our customers to ensure we kept developing and strengthening our relationships. The way we were doing as a new YouTube channel.

Think of our new channel as a new business. Like any new business, we had "competitors", 100,000's of them on YouTube, all striving to get the audiences attention. So how could we stand out a bit more and grow our views and subscriber base in our sector?

To start with, we did a LOT of research, watched probably hundreds of hours of the other channels, looked how they presented and created their content. What worked, and what didn't? And then decided how we wanted to start, and what our USP would be. We did this before we did anything, brand name, style or filmed a single thing.

Here are the top 4 things I have learned and implemented over the last 18 months since starting the channel.

1. REGULAR Communication - On YouTube we put out a new video, every single Sunday (without fail) at 5pm (UK), we have a Live Stream on the 1st Sunday Every Month (at 5pm UK) and put out very regular content on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. We found that if someone knows when to expect your content, email, phone call (however you communicate) they are more likely to watch it, read it, or answer the phone.

Does your business consistently approach its customer communication or marketing with such regularity in this way? I know mine didn't. Do you think consistent regular communication would improve your relationships with your customers and generate new sales?

2. Consistent Branding - When we started the channel we made sure that all of the social media had suitenatured available (or their equivalent naming), we made sure we had the domain, and no conflicts when it came to IP. Only then did we move forward. Many new (or existing) companies, look to the social media /marketing side second, and often have variations of their own brand. My own company (at the time) had the same, a core name, but then did different things and communication under different brands or identities.

Does your business have brand continuity across everything or do you have differing identities for different parts of your business or different platforms?

3. Listen To Your Customers & Change - This sounds so obvious, but if you are creating content and no one is watching, reading or interacting with it, then who are you making it for?

When we first started the channel, we were desperate for content, and so if we didn't have any of our primary content available, we would review a local restaurant or hotel, but the reality was, very few people were interested in it. Not because it was bad, it really wasn't, but because our audience wasn't looking to us for that information.

So we changed, we stayed VERY focused to what our audience were telling us (often in the comments) they wanted us to show them.

Yet in business, if I look at what our social media, or videos were doing, it was all over the place, sure some content was on our core products or services, but a huge amount of it wasn't, and guess what. No-One was watching or engaging with it.

What is your businesses marketing, website, social media, or messaging like? Is it consistent, with the same tone of voice across the different platforms? Are your customers engaging with everything you do? Is it what your customers are seeking from you?

4. Planning Activities Months In Advance - When we got going with the channel, we were winging it, just going from week to week, deciding what to do at the last minute. Now we have our plan laid out for every cruise we go on.

We know what filming we need to do, photos we need to get, information we need to pick up and so on.

Then we have a plan laid out on which content we release in which order, we can be flexible and if something comes up then we can move it around, but we have everything we need for when we need it. And because of Point 3, we know it is the things that our subscribers and viewers are interested in seeing and engaging with.

The points above do not mean don't try new things, you absolutely should do, we do on a regular basis, but we don't affect our core, we make sure we deliver what we said we would, when we said we would, and we keep our tone of voice consistent and our content relevant to our audience. If something new we do lands, then we make sure to add it to the core, if it doesn't then we don't keep making it.

Does your company plan out it's customer engagement like this, months, or years in advance? Again I absolutely know mine didn't and as such the results we got when we didn't plan it in advance this way, were often very poor.

I hope some of these lessons help, and if you feel the urge to go view our Suite Natured channel, hit the subscribe button, and watch some of our content, then that would be great. You never know, you might fancy a cruise holiday after you watch it and one day we might share a cocktail or two onboard??