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In last month’s blog we looked at some of the interesting (at least to me!) data contained in the Content Marketing Institute’s recent B2B Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report. This is an extensive report that’s chocked-full of valuable data, so I spent some more time this week combing through it.

Two statistics from the report really jumped out at me. The first one is the fact that the average business today is spending a quarter of its marketing budget on content marketing. That’s amazing when you think about it because a decade ago, “content marketing” didn’t even exist as a formal marketing discipline.

The other stat that grabbed my attention was this: The main success factor cited by businesses with successful content marketing programs is high-quality and efficient content creation. In other words, they’re producing great content, and they’re doing so in a way that doesn’t tax their financial or human resources.

Defining High-Quality Content

I guess it’s logical that high-quality content is critical to a successful content marketing program. But let’s stop for a minute and answer an important question: What exactly isquality content?

To me, quality content checks each one of these boxes:

• It’s well-written. I’m constantly amazed at how much poorly written content there is on the web today. For some reason, there appear to be different writing standards for print vs. online publishing. Crappy content you’d never dream of seeing in print is all over the Internet.

• It’s relevant. For example, most of what I write is for business and financial services clients. I have to know and understand these industries intimately, as well as a number of niches within them, in order to write content that’s relevant and useful to readers.

• It’s timely. The best content has a shelf life and expiration date. That’s not to say there’s no place for evergreen content, but the more timely a piece of content is, the more likely it is to draw eyeballs.

Creating High-Quality Content

So how can you go about creating high-quality content in a more efficient way? Here are 5 tips to get you started:

1. Sharpen your writing chops. There are no two ways around it: If you want to create higher quality content, you have to improve your writing. And there are no shortcuts to becoming a better writer: It takes lots and lots of practice.

Start by studying good writing. Which publications and websites do you think are especially well-written? You might also invest in some professional training, such as taking a writing course online or at your local community college. Most importantly, you should make regular writing a part of your routine, even if it’s just a few minutes a day.

2. Keep an idea file. Great content starts with great topic ideas. And you’re going to need a lot of ideas if you want to feed an ongoing content marketing program for more than just a few months.

Start a new file (either paper or electronic) for storing topic ideas as they come to you. For example, whenever I see articles in The Wall Street Journal or some of the industry niche publications I read that I think would be good topics for my clients, I print them out and put them in a manila folder.

This is old school, I know. But having paper copies makes it easier for me to keep my ideas organized and easily accessible.

3. Follow current developments in your industry. As noted above, quality content is tightly targeted to your industry niche. So you need to stay on top of what’s happening in your industry in order to create content that your audience finds useful and relevant.

To do so, you should be reading industry publications and websites regularly and subscribing to industry-focused e-newsletters and podcasts. Also attend industry trade shows and conferences whenever you can and take advantage of opportunities to pursue continuing education opportunities in your industry.

4. Learn the fine art of repurposing. Keeping a content marketing program humming along smoothly requires a steady stream of fresh content. One way to keep the content pipeline full is to repurpose content you previously created.

For example, I once combined a series of articles on cash flow management into a more comprehensive whitepaper on the topic. You can also take the opposite approach by breaking up a whitepaper into a series of articles and blog posts to be sent out in your e-newsletter and posted on your website and to social media.

5. “Have a take … do not suck.” Sports talk radio host Jim Rome used to say this to callers. What he meant was that callers should have their own unique thoughts and perspective on an issue and not just parrot what they heard other people, especially so-called “experts,” say.

The same thing applies to your content. It’s easy to just rehash research or curate content from a Google query, but the best content brings something more by adding your own unique observations to the topic. This also helps position you and your business as a thought leader in your industry.

Keep These Tips Handy

If yours is among the 91% of B2B organizations that has a content marketing program in place, you need to do everything you can to boost the quality of your content. These 5 tips are a good starting point — keep them handy so you can refer back to them easily while you’re creating new content.