Let's face it: A lot of B2B content doesn't miss the mark as much as land in a different time zone.

Copycat content, endless skyscraper strategies, and SEO mania are all reducing the quality of B2B content marketing. It's no wonder a lot of the content is labeled "boring."

Some practitioners think that better and more creative writing is the solution. However, that approach fundamentally misunderstands content writing's purpose. Content has to have utility—an objective—unlike creative writing, which does not need a reason to exist (like all forms of art).

Instead of trying to "write better" or commission snappier writing, focus on the following areas when evaluating your content. Your audience will reward you for it.

Is your content well-organized?

Here's a mistake that many new content writers and companies make when adopting content marketing for the first time: They focus on their language instead of their content's structure.

Your prospects (content consumers) want to get something out of your content, which is why plain language and exemplary structure deliver better results. Get to the point and give information in the most helpful way possible.

So how should you organize your content for maximum impact?

1. Begin with your reader's intent

Which audience question/issue/problem are you solving with this piece? What is your value proposition? If you can distill that into a couple of sentences, you're on the right track.

For instance, you want to write a blog about annual recurring revenue (ARR). Your audience is a CXO/founder persona. Your value prop might be "We want to deliver business-oriented conclusions and insights regarding ARR and its implications on company valuation."

Compare that with this SEO-oriented value offering: "We want to rank as high as possible so more people will find us. We'll cover everything there is to know about ARR, including someone's thoughts about it back in 2010, including a lengthy definition of it in an H2 heading."

The former value prop gives you a high-level picture of what to talk about and how to organize your content. The latter points to a mishmash of subtopics that might rank well but they are organized poorly for a human reader.

2. Select subtopics to address

Once your value prop is in place, you'll have a simpler time selecting which subtopics to address.

For instance, our CXO persona doesn't need a lengthy definition of what ARR is. The persona will, however, need benchmarks, industry insights, and the venture capitalist's view of ARR as a valuation tool.

3. MECE it

Once you have a list of subtopics, it's time to organize the flow using the Mutually-Exclusive-Collectively-Exhaustive (MECE) framework.

Here's a simple illustration of how MECE works.

A few things to note about MECE as it relates to content creation:

• Deliver insight first, explanation and data after.
• Write directly. Minimize fluff.
• Connect each subtopic back to your value prop.
• Take as much time as you need to address the subject from all angles.

Following that process helps you establish a flow, boosting the value your prospect receives. The greater the value, the "better" your content.

Is your content distribution-worthy?

You don't have a distribution problem; you have a content-quality headache. Good content is highly distributable. Or, in plain English, it's something you wouldn't be embarrassed to send to a prospect and say, "Hey, here's something you'll find useful."

Let's say I want to help my prospects figure out more ways to make money. Here's what Google returns:

From top to bottom: 25, 10, 7, 40, 32, and 25 ways to make money. The skyscraper approach would have us writing 57 ways to make money online. But why would anyone want to read that? We're not adding anything to the conversation. Clearly, the idea isn't distribution-worthy.

What if we wrote about screwing up the most popular ways of making money? We'd list the popular ways separately and then say, "Here are the things you can do to make sure they don't work for you."

Our content angle flips the question and gives prospects everything that hinders success. There's far greater value in that than in producing another generic listicle. The unique angle also gives us a great way to introduce and distribute our content.

"What about SEO?" you might ask. Who cares? If your prospects find your piece useful, Google will eventually figure out you're bringing something unique to the table and it will reward you.