The content repurposing sins: What to avoid when repurposing your content

Content repurposing is a boon for brands that want to reach more people without investing much time, effort, and time. You can turn one piece of content (say a blog) into multiple content pieces (Reels, YouTube videos, graphics, social media content, podcast, and more). You reach more people, increase brand awareness, and create content without doing it all from scratch.

But, content repurposing can turn into a failure if you get stuck with common mistakes. You will keep repurposing content without any benefits. Don’t worry, though. Today, we will walk you through the six content repurposing mistakes you should avoid (and what to do instead).

Let’s go!

1. Picking any random content to repurpose

Most brands don’t have a proper strategy to decide which content deserves repurposing and which doesn’t. And so the majority of their repurposed content isn’t successful.

Here’s the solution:

a) Choose evergreen topics. These are content that stays relevant for readers over a long time. For example, “How to do customer research” is an evergreen topic. So, dig through your content archives and find such topics for repurposing.

b) Scan your Google Analytics to find the top-performing content (more traffic, leads, shares, and comments). These are content loved by your audience (else, why would it receive more views and engagement?). You can capitalize on this by repurposing them on different platforms and attracting more awareness.

Similarly, go through your YouTube (if you post videos) and social media analytics to find popular content and repurpose them.

2. Copy-pasting the same content on different platforms

Content Repurposing isn’t posting the same content you published on LinkedIn and posting it on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook as well. Doing so won’t fetch results because each platform’s audience prefers a unique format.

Instagram's users want videos over text. Similarly, Twitter users like threads and Facebook users consume visual content (videos and graphics). So, if you don’t tailor your content to each platform, the users won’t care. And if they don’t care, you’ll get zero ROI on your efforts.

The antidote to this is to tweak your content to meet each platform’s content requirements and audience expectations. That means repurposing your original content into Reels (for Instagram), threads (for Twitter), summary posts (for LinkedIn), and videos and graphics (for Facebook).

3. Not providing value

While you should fit your content to each platform’s format, you must also provide additional value. If you repackage the same content into a video, what’s the incentive for your users to watch it? It doesn’t make sense to consume the same content in different formats.

So, add additional information and context while repurposing. Have a 75%-25% strategy. For example, if you’re repurposing a blog into a video, ensure 75% of the video content is the same as the blog’s, but the rest 25% should provide new findings.

That’s what Brian Dean, founder of Backlinko, did. He repurposed this blog into a YouTube video. 75% of the content was the same as the blog, but the remaining 25% consisted of new examples, case studies, and insights. “Despite being 75%+ recycled content, that video has over 250,000+ views to date.”

4. Providing false information and data

As you’ll repurpose your old content, it may happen that certain information may have changed. It may also happen that you’ve changed your opinions about the same topic. But, if you continue posting the same, you’ll tarnish your brand credibility and trust.

So, when repurposing your content, fact-check previous information and research, and ensure yours are up-to-date. And if you gained a new perspective on the same topic, explain why you’ve changed your opinions.

5. Overlooking SEO

Many marketers neglect SEO practices while repurposing their content. They don’t target keywords and add internal links—and so miss the additional traffic that Google could have provided.

What to do instead?

a) Use the main keyword in every content you repurpose. For example, if you’re repurposing a blog with the target keyword “YouTube automation,” make sure you use this keyword in your Twitter thread, Instagram Reel, YouTube thumbnail, and video.

b) Link your main content on each platform. For example, you can repurpose a blog into a thread/LinkedIn post and ask your followers to check out the whole post by linking to it at the end.

c) Add images (and alt text to it) when repurposing the content on social platforms. So, whenever someone searches for an image on Google, it can send traffic to yours.

6. Repurposing the same topic

Of course, repeating your content emphasizes your view and ensures the audience gets familiar with it. But, if you overdo it—repurpose the same topic repeatedly—your audience will be bored and lose interest in it.

Have this irony rule: Repurpose content only when needed (maybe you can repurpose the same topic twice every six months), and check whether you’ve already done it before publishing.

Knowing what not to do is the first step to content repurposing success.

These were the don’ts of content repurposing you must remember. You’ll avoid the common failure traps and ensure increased ROI (reaching more audience, increased leads, and brand awareness) from your effort.