One-Tank Templates for Business Blogging

As a member of the Columbia Club, I get to enjoy the club’s monthly magazine. In fact, one article from last month’s issue sparked a great idea that I want to pass along to business blog content writers.

The feature “One Tank Destinations” describes three interesting places to visit in Indiana, all of them close enough to downtown Indianapolis (Columbia Club is right on Monument Circle) so that you can get there and back on a single tank of gasoline.

Think about it – the Club’s providing interesting information to its members, adding value, yet not selling them anything. Of course, that’s one of the purposes of any blog presented by a business or professional practice – adding value to the relationship existing customers have with that business or practice, and demonstrating what a good idea in would be for prospects to get on board.

The “trick” is in the title.  It would’ve been ‘blah” at best to call that page “Three Places to Visit in Central Indiana”. The expression “one tank”, on the other hand is catchy and makes the reader “figure it out”. What’s more, One Tank becomes a template unifying the three different mini-feature stories, one about Bluespring Cavern, one about the Culbertson Mansion, the third about Scribner House.

Whenever you have several pieces of information to impart, consider ways to “unify” them under one umbrella or category. The Writing Center calls this “glueing our ideas together”.

Actually, every blog post will probably need some “glue” in the form of transitions. As The Writing Center explains, whether you’re joining single words, phrases, sentences, or even paragraphs, transitions tell readers how to organize their thoughts as they read.

“One-tank templates” are perfect for business blogging!