I’m in the middle of singing the Verdi Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony Chorus. It is, if nothing else, a very passionate piece. The singers beg for eternal rest for their loved ones and plead for salvation for themselves (salve me, libera me!) And in the opening night last night, the ensemble – symphony, conductor, soloists and chorus – tapped into the whole range of passion in the piece. The audience clearly felt it.
But passion alone is not sufficient for approaching this piece. From a choral perspective, you first have to do the hard work of preparing the fugues, the phrases, the diction, tuning, the vocal placement. Then when you add emotion, the results are spectacular.
If you sing with accuracy but without emotion or passion, it will be passable. If you have passion without accuracy, pitch, etc., it might be interesting or it might be a train wreck.
The same situation holds in marketing as well. The most interesting companies are those that are, at some level, passionate about their products or services. And the best marketing organizations manage to convey that passion – yes, even in the B2B technology space. When people can sense the passion in your business, they are more likely to become fans themselves.
Yet again, the presence of passion does not exempt you from good marketing practices. It does not excuse bad writing, or confusing websites. Nor does it give you a reason to ignoring your customer’s needs. You might be passionate about your feature set, but unless you can tie it to your customers’ needs, you will never gain advocates (or customers).
To fuel your marketing efforts, find those people who are passionate about what they’re doing in the organization. Give them a voice in your blog, and find ways to tap into that excitement in your well-planned, well-executed content marketing efforts.
Anne Janzer 