Scrapping Content: Why Not Every Post Makes the Cut
Every creative knows the feeling of starting a project that never sees the light of day. Sometimes you set out with a strong vision, only to realize halfway through that the idea isn’t as solid as you thought. Other times, life gets in the way, and the idea gets lost under a busy workload. Not every idea makes it to the finish line, and that’s okay; it’s just a fact of life. We all have a content graveyard full of projects that never got finished.
Scrapping content is merely a form of refinement. Sending something to the content graveyard doesn’t mean that the piece is a complete failure. When you scrap content, it means that you saw that the piece wasn’t necessary, and a piece can still be good even if it wasn’t necessary. Plenty of solid drafts never make it out to the public simply because they don’t support the bigger picture.
Anyone who plans content in bulk understands the struggle of scrapping content. As creators and marketers, we’re taught about the importance of consistency. Having a consistent creation and posting strategy is a major part of the job, so it’s natural to sit on a ton of different ideas for future content. Sometimes, that consistent cycle of creating and brainstorming yields posts that don’t always hit the desired mark. Personally, I filter my brainstorms to eliminate any random or unnecessary topics, but that doesn’t mean I catch every single idea that doesn’t fit my content pillars. Sometimes, I don’t realize it’s an unnecessary piece until halfway through creating it. I feel bad for deleting all of that hard work, but removing content that doesn’t serve your strategy frees you up to focus on ideas that actually move you forward. Scrapping is about intention, not perfectionism.
Before jumping into how scrapping content strengthens your strategy, let’s talk about why it matters in the first place.
Why Scrapping Helps Your Strategy
It takes one minute of scrolling on social media to realize that content saturation is real. Social media platforms are cluttered with the same, repetitive and uninspired posts. Imitation is the name of the game, especially in short-form video content, and it can get extremely tiring over time because everything starts to look and sound the same.
Audiences can tell when content is repetitive, inauthentic, and lacks substance. They can tell when you’ve just copied what someone else has done, and they can also tell when you’ve repeated your own content because the message doesn’t evolve; it simply reappears in new packaging. For marketers, putting out too much of the same thing can dilute your brand’s voice and confuse positioning if the content isn’t aligned with your brand’s core messaging or doesn’t have a clear takeaway.
That’s why carefully monitoring your content topics and scrapping ideas when necessary is so important. Scrapping ideas helps maintain focus on quality, alignment, and purpose. For example, I’ve had my fair share of scrapped content while working on my LinkedIn presence. Some ideas were scrapped the day before posting; the work itself was great, but it felt random and didn’t align with my overall goals for posting on LinkedIn. A polished piece with no strategic purpose isn’t any more valuable than an unfinished draft.
You see, I have a pet peeve with senselessly posting on LinkedIn just to be relevant. That’s how you get repetitive content that blends in with the crowd who is probably posting the same stuff you are. Instead, I focus on adding value, showcasing my skills, teaching others, and making them think about something in a different way. I’ve made a handful of carousels and blog posts that didn’t feel like they’d add value to someone’s LinkedIn feed, so I scrapped them.
Knowing what not to post is a skill that shows maturity as a marketer. It signals that you understand your goals, your audience, and the difference between content that fills space and content that actually contributes something new. I’ve heard you should post on LinkedIn once a week, but if that content is repetitive and bland, what’s the point? Consistent posting only works when the content actually has something to say. Quality over quantity is what builds credibility and trust over time.
The Creative Process Includes Failure
No matter what industry you’re in, every creative process involves trial and error. Many ideas start strong but lose momentum once you actually develop them. That’s not a bad thing; it’s merely part of the process. Scrapped ideas, instead, turn into content for you: creative warmups that are for your eyes only. These are still pieces you could include in your portfolio if you believe they’re good pieces that just didn’t align with your message for a particular product.
Scrapped ideas still have a vital role in your professional evolution; they refine your instincts and sharpen your judgment. Every piece of content is a learning experience, even if the piece is never seen by others. The drafts you don’t post teach you just as much as the ones you do.
Alignment with Strategy
When you build content around content pillars like I do, not every idea fits neatly or clearly into one of them, so it’s very easy to fall into redundancy if you aren’t careful. I’ve caught myself repeating the same concept with new wording several times, and that’s actually one of the main reasons why my content gets scrapped. I’m human, so I forget every topic I’ve ever covered. I come up with the same idea twice and don’t even realize it until I start working on it.
Again, good content creation isn’t about volume and quantity as much as it is about quality and direction. Your content should reinforce your pillars without repeating the same thing over and over, and a tighter focus keeps your strategy intentional rather than automatic.
Avoiding “Fluff” Content
I notice what I like to call “fluff” content more often than I’d like: content that doesn’t add real insight. It’s content that keeps your online presence alive, but it doesn’t do anything else. It fills space instead of delivering value. Sometimes, you have some really good-sounding ideas, but they don’t add real insight. These types of ideas quickly become “fluff” content.
A helpful way to think about it: fluff sounds nice, but it doesn’t teach, challenge, clarify, or deepen a conversation. Posting for the sake of posting can actually harm you. If you post the same thing over and over again, your followers will get bored, and you’ll inevitably start losing them. Attention isn’t guaranteed; you can earn it by showing up with purpose.
Just because your ideas are fluffy doesn’t mean you have to throw them away immediately. Instead of fully abandoning them, save your fluffy ideas by refining, reworking, or combining them into something more substantial. Sometimes, a weak draft becomes a great post once you find the right angle or pair it with a sharper insight. The best way to avoid fluff is to ask yourself, “Would I stop scrolling for this?” If you wouldn’t stop scrolling, that idea might need to be scrapped or reworked to add more value.
What Scrapping Teaches You
Scrapping ideas teaches creative discipline: knowing when to stop rather than forcing something that doesn’t fit. This part of the process helps you refine your messaging and better understand your audience. It also leads to stronger, more confident work later on and keeps your creative energy directed toward projects that matter. Lastly, scrapping content builds resilience and reduces creative burnout because you spend more time creating meaningful work rather than draining yourself polishing content that won’t resonate anyway.
All in all, scrapping content is an important part of the creation process. Instead of viewing it as wasted effort, view it as curation. The ideas you don’t post are always just as important to your professional development as the ones you do end up posting. Learning to edit yourself is also a core skill in both marketing and creativity. Remember, the goal isn’t to post everything to stay relevant online. Instead, you should always focus on posting valuable content that’s worth sharing. Your audience doesn’t need more from you; they need the right things from you.
Take some time to reflect:
When was the last time you scrapped an idea and why? Also, how do you decide what’s worth posting and what stays in the drafts?
