Enneagram and Marketing: How Type Twos Strengthen Relationships

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“The Helper.” If you know an Enneagram Type Two, you know that their helpful spirit inspires everything they do. They will be the first to lend a hand, listen to your needs, and build a strong relationship with you.  I’m Green Apple’s Content Marketing Specialist, and I just happen to be the Type Two on our team! In this article, I’ll explain how the Type Twos on your marketing team use their helpful, sensitive souls to meet your customers’ needs. Read More: Enneagram and Marketing: How Type Ones Accelerate Your Strategy

Type Twos Are Detailed Listeners

If you are talking to me, I am listening to you. Type Twos tend to pick up on the energy of others because we want to identify their needs. Some might call this “people-pleasing,” and, to an extent, that’s what it is. However, we want to make sure that you are well taken care of and comfortable whenever you’re around us.  In a marketing context, that means that your Type Two is listening intently to coworkers and clients, trying their best to understand how they can improve the situation. You can be sure that they’re taking note of your tone, facial expressions, and what you say. Not in a creepy way, I promise! But rather, Type Twos want to gauge how you’re feeling and ensure that you feel heard and get what you need. 

Type Twos Thrive on Being Needed

A Type Two can often base their worth on how needed they feel. This motivation can drive them to seek out new ways to allow people to rely on them. You may find that the Type Twos in your life are the first ones offering to pick your dog up from daycare or bring a casserole when you’re sick. Because I want people around me to feel like they can rely on me, I often identify ways to be more helpful to coworkers and clients. Type Twos will often offer their time for whatever you need; this may look like volunteering to take a call or researching ways to boost business. However they can, a Type Two is actively looking for a way to support you. 

Type Twos Are Warm and Welcoming

As I mentioned, Type Twos want you to feel comfortable—above all else. I’m a Type Two with a Wing Three, so that makes me the “Hostess.” I’m always aware of what others might need around me, so I will try to offer whatever I can to make you feel welcome. Most often, that’s a hot cup of tea.  This trait is incredibly useful in marketing because when people are comfortable, that’s when they connect. That’s when you can really discover their “why,” their passion. People tend to become more vulnerable and show you a side of themselves that you may have not otherwise seen, which is perfect for finding the heart of a story to build engaging content

Type Twos Make Relationships the Most Important Thing in Their Lives

Our welcoming nature makes it easier for Type Twos to build and cultivate relationships. This is true both personally and professionally. When we’re connecting with clients and helping them connect with their audience, that’s when we’re at our peak. It’s indescribably rewarding when we make a new connection or begin building a unique bond, and doing that for our clients is the best part of the job. Above all, you can always be sure that you are a Type Two’s priority because your relationship with them is what matters most. 

Ready to Build Stronger Relationships with Your Customers?

Our team enjoys learning more about each other through Enneagram Types and Culture Index surveys to ensure that we communicate and work together effectively. In the end, this is all to improve our clients’ marketing strategies and use our small team to garner big results.  Are you looking to see what full-service marketing can do for your brand? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

How to Get Your New Hire Up to Speed with Company Culture

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We all need someone in our corner. Someone to go to bat for us, to vouch for our character and pure intentions. In the business world, you need an entire team of these people on your sideyour internal team.  You might be thinking, We already provide a livelihood for our employees—of course they’re on our side! Sure, money is an instrumental source of encouragement for employees; however, company culture has been proven to be the most significant influence on employee engagement and productivity.  Internal marketing is a brand-building strategy to embrace as your company strives to build brand awareness and strengthen employee trust. Remember: external marketing efforts are only as strong as the confidence and sincerity demonstrated by the employee pitching these services. Here are a few helpful ways to immerse new hires in your company culture to create a productive and cohesive work environment.

A Personalized Experience

The process of job searching, applying to a company, undergoing the interview process, and then accepting a new position, is a very personal experience resulting in life-altering effects in a person’s professional and personal life. Any given employee has different reasons for seeking a position at your company; it could be their dream job that they have used significant resources to finally reach; it could be a much-needed source of income after a time of unemployment; it might even be a complete career-pivot to a new industry in which they’ve been building confidence to take the leap. Whatever an individual’s reasons for accepting a position at your company are, it should be clear that they deserve a personalized onboarding experience, (i.e., not just a quick review of a one-size-fits-all Powerpoint to be reviewed alone in a meeting room). A new hire should be celebrated. They should be individually introduced to other team members, specifically noting who might be a direct resource to them throughout the training process.  Have a virtual team lunch, or maybe send a company-wide introductory email. Your new hire should leave their first day on the job feeling that they are part of something personal and special.

Incorporating Storytelling in your Company Culture

Write down your company’s origin story and share it often. Your employees need to know why leadership is passionate about the work they do, why the quality of their work matters, and why the primary motivating factor of the success of the business is not just monetary. The heart of most every business is the well-being and happiness of the customertheir satisfaction and confidence after conducting business with your company.  Engaging with and improving the lives of other people should always be the foundation of your company’s vision and mission statements. These statements, along with the company origin story, should be regularly referenced within employee onboarding, employee reviews, company-wide email, and social apps.

Employee Trust = Employee Engagement

It’s a no-brainer that the more an employee feels seen and valued, the more engaged they become with the company goals, often becoming brand ambassadors as they speak about the job they enjoy at the company that supports them within their daily interactions.  So, how do you establish this beneficial symbiosis between employee and company? Communication! Specifically, creating multiple two-way channels of management-employee communication is key.  New hires should be able to immediately identify the multiple channels of communication to leadership that are available to them. These channels could take many different forms including:
  • Regular quarterly reviews in which feedback is encouraged
  • Weekly check-ins, especially during the first 6 months of employment
  • Encouraging communication via social apps such as Basecamp or Slack
No matter the mode of communication in place, feedback should always be encouraged during the employee onboarding process. This is a fool-proof way to immediately establish trust with new employees. Internal marketing might initially sound like an extra step or a redundant effort, but we assure you that creating a company culture in which employees feel valued and proud is worth the time and effort. Not only will internal marketing efforts improve productivity rates, but employee retention and satisfaction rates will be organically shared on employee social media and daily interactions. Are you looking to make an internal marketing plan for your business? Contact Green Apple Strategy today to schedule a consultation.

3 Ways Marketing Can Enhance Your Company Culture

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Corporate culture has arguably always been important. But as many business leaders are beginning to recognize, it is actually becoming more important as the modern workplace continues to evolve.

  • 88% of employees believe a distinct workplace culture is important to business success. (Source: Deloitte).
  • Employees’ overall ratings of their company’s qualities are 20% higher at companies with strong cultures. (Source: CultureIQ).
  • 90% of employees at winning company cultures are confident in their company’s leadership team. (Source: CultureIQ)

And while culture has become an increasingly important factor for employees, it is also on the top of mind for business leaders as well.

  • Companies with strong cultures saw a 4x increase in revenue growth. (Source: Forbes)
  • Being named a Best Place to Work is associated with a .75% stock jump. (Source: Glassdoor)
  • 82% of business leaders believe that culture is a potential competitive advantage. (Source: Deloitte)

Everyone in your organization makes hundreds of decisions that affect the business every day. Culture determines the quality of those decisions.

So, what does this have to do with marketing?

3 Ways Marketing Can Enhance Your Company Culture

While marketing might not be responsible for many of the factors that impact culture —  it can have a direct impact on creating certain aspects and taking your current culture to the next level.

Because of the unique place it sits within your organization, here are three ways marketing can enhance your company culture:

  • Supporting and re-casting vision. Leadership is responsible for casting the vision, but it’s not something that should happen once. Companies with positive cultures are constantly reminding employees of the vision employees are working together to achieve. Marketing can support this effort by using your expertise to help identify which messages will stick with your audience, your employees, and developing creative ways of keeping that vision in front of employees.
  • Learning and development: Continual learning and personal development are two big factors in employee satisfaction. Because marketing is often at the forefront of changes in the industry or updates to a product, you can play a valuable role in keeping employees educated on the latest trends worth noting.
  • Connection and collaboration: Marketing can help people stay connected — especially as more and more employees start working remotely. Whether it’s something incredibly simple like managing an internal employee Facebook group to share updates or putting together a more formal employee engagement plan, your marketing team can lead out in enhancing communication and collaboration between employees.