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Carriers in the trucking and transportation industry are getting a significant boost with the recent collaboration between TCS Blockchain and PayPal USD. This partnership aims to resolve longstanding cash flow issues that small transport businesses have faced for decades. By utilizing blockchain technology and digital assets, PayPal and TCS Blockchain seek to offer a more efficient way for trucking companies to settle freight invoices. Traditionally, small carriers often relied on factoring companies to manage their cash flow, which subjected them to pay terms stretching between 30 to 180 days. This process not only delayed payments but also typically resulted in substantial fees, effectively cutting into their profits by 30% or more. The new solution promises a modern alternative, potentially upending legacy payment structures in this essential industry. TCS Blockchain has already made waves by settling the world’s first freight invoice on-chain and has processed nearly 30 million TCS Tokens in B2B settlement. The implications of this for small businesses are notable, as TCS offers same-day funding in a much more cost-effective manner—up to 90% cheaper than conventional invoice factoring. May Zabaneh, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Crypto at PayPal, emphasized the transformational potential of this technology: “If we were designing B2B payments from scratch, we wouldn’t accept months-long settlement and layers of fees. We’d expect speed, transparency, and 24/7 availability.” This statement sets a clear expectation for business owners who are eager to break free from the constraints of traditional finance. The partnership will allow carriers to easily onboard with TCS and set up accounts that facilitate seamless settlements through the conversion of TCS Tokens into U.S. dollars. This simplified process, paired with the speed and transparency offered by blockchain technology, bodes well for increasing not only the cash flow for these businesses but also their operational efficiency. As Todd Ziegler, CEO of TCS Blockchain, stated, “TCS is on pace for over one billion in annual freight invoice flows in 2026.” This growth will be supported by the use of PayPal USD as the back-end settlement currency. The streamlined approach indicates a substantial win for truck drivers and freight brokerages, placing financial power back in the hands of those who need it most. The practical implications for small business owners are significant. Embracing digital asset settlements makes it easier to manage cash flow, allowing businesses to reinvest in growth without waiting for invoicing cycles to close. With improved speed, transparency, and decreased fees, financial operations can become far more predictable, aiding in overall business planning. However, small business owners should also be aware of potential challenges. Adopting new technology can come with a learning curve, and not everyone in the trucking sector may be familiar with blockchain or digital assets yet. While the benefits are significant, the initial adaptation period may require time and training. Ensuring that your staff is educated on how to use these new tools will be essential for a smooth transition. Ultimately, the collaboration between TCS Blockchain and PayPal USD stands to create a more favorable financial landscape for trucking and transportation businesses. By leveraging blockchain technology, these companies can expect enhanced cash flow management, lower costs, and greater overall transparency in their financial dealings. As the industry moves towards this innovative future, small business owners are encouraged to consider how these developments could affect their financial strategies. The landscape of freight payment is evolving, and those who adapt early may gain a substantial competitive advantage. For more detailed information, you can refer to the original press release here. Image via Google Gemini This article, "PayPal and TCS Blockchain Transform Trucking Payments with Digital Currency" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

It’s the Friday open thread! The comment section on this post is open for discussion with other readers on any work-related questions that you want to talk about (that includes school). If you want an answer from me, emailing me is still your best bet*, but this is a chance to take your questions to other readers. * If you submitted a question to me recently, please do not repost it here, as it may be in my queue to answer. The post open thread – March 13, 2026 appeared first on Ask a Manager. View the full article

The days of building campaigns around long lists of keywords are fading. Today, AI-powered Google campaigns and features like Performance Max (PMax) and AI Max are changing the rules. These keywordless campaigns lean on automation, audience signals, and machine learning to find new opportunities, often faster and at greater scale than humans can. At SMX Next, three PPC pros — Nikki Kuhlman, VP of search at Jumpfly; Brad Geddes, founder of Adalysis; and Christine Zirnheld, director of lead gen at Cypress North — explained where PMax and AI Max fit into your broader campaign strategy, where humans still make the difference, and how to strike the right balance between automation and control. AI Max for Search: Best practices and what not to do AI Max for Search is not a new campaign type. It’s a one-click opt-in setting within existing Search campaigns. Without requiring you to switch to broad match, it expands your keywords — similar to broad match or Dynamic Search Ads — using your landing pages and other site assets. It then personalizes the ad copy and landing page the searcher sees. The evolution from traditional setup In the old setup, you might have used a keyword like “skincare for dry sensitive skin” that sent users to a moisturizer page with generic ad copy because you couldn’t capture every variation. With Google’s current matching, a specific ad group no longer guarantees that keyword will trigger that ad group. AI Max for Search addresses this by generating ad copy based on the search query, making it more relevant and directing users to a landing page that better matches their needs. Success with blog content One area where AI Max for Search is seeing success beyond the norm is blog content. While DSA campaigns traditionally excluded blogs, AI Max for Search can now serve blogs as landing pages—and they’re converting. The key is that these blogs guide readers to specific products, not just general content. The generated headlines are compelling and longer than what traditional RSAs allow, creating a more engaging user experience. Best Practices for AI Max for Search Do: Use it on existing campaigns with history and data, not brand new campaigns Test it as a 50/50 experiment instead of an outright change Use it on brand campaigns with brand inclusion capabilities Apply it to campaigns not hitting budget that could use more volume Review landing pages and utilize URL exclusions (individual or rule-based) Use landing page inclusions at the ad group level Review search queries regularly and add negative search terms Enable both text customization and final URL expansion for maximum value Turn off AI Max at the ad group level when specific ad groups drive poor traffic Don’t: Use it on brand new campaigns without data Change all campaigns at once without testing Use it on brand campaigns without name recognition or brand inclusion ability Apply it to budget-constrained campaigns Turn off both URL expansion and text customization — if you’re not using both features, stick with broad match and smart bidding Assume it works universally — test on individual campaigns Your action plan Week 1: Pick a search campaign to test (brand with brand inclusion, with budget capability, needing more volume). Review landing page URLs and add inclusions or exclusions. Week 2: Review search queries and add negatives. Week 3: Continue optimization and turn off AI Max at the ad group level as needed. Experiment checklist: Ensure enough volume for a 50/50 experiment Give the experiment 6 weeks to 2 months Set up a custom experiment if you need to enable brand inclusion or update settings For one-click experiments, change confidence level to medium and turn off auto-apply Match type performance: What the data shows A comprehensive study analyzing over 16,000 campaigns revealed surprising insights about match type performance across different bidding strategies. Match type basics Exact match: Should match only when the search term has the same intent as your keyword. Misspellings and word order haven’t mattered for years — focus on user intent. Phrase match: The search intent should match your keyword, but could have additional information around it, whether modifiers, phone numbers, or websites. Broad match: Shows for anything related to the search intent. The key difference is that broad match uses additional signals that exact and phrase don’t, such as content on the landing page, other keywords in the ad group, and, most powerfully, previous search history for that user. Performance by bidding strategy Max Conversion strategies (Max Conversions, Max Conversion Value): Most campaigns using max bid strategies have under 30 conversions per month, giving machines limited data to work with. The findings: Exact match has the best click-through rates and conversion rates Broad match had the worst conversion rates but the best return on ad spend Broad match also had lower CPA than phrase match Phrase match performed worst overall Recommendation: Start with exact match, then skip phrase match entirely and layer in broad match if you have more budget to spend. Target Bid Strategies (Target CPA, Target ROAS): Most campaigns using these strategies have over 30 conversions per month, with many at 50 or 100+, giving machines substantially more data. The findings: Exact match is again the best match type Phrase match comes second Broad match is third Phrase match performs better with more data Recommendation: Start with exact match, layer in phrase match with more budget, then add broad match if additional budget is available. The phrase match puzzle Why does phrase match perform poorly with limited data but better with more data? Broad match uses additional signals, particularly previous search queries, to determine bids. When conversion data is limited (under 30 conversions monthly), broad match’s ability to leverage previous search history makes it much stronger than phrase match. However, with sufficient data (50–100+ conversions), Google can properly match phrase match keywords using machine-learning pattern matching. Brand vs. non-brand considerations When you combine brand and non-brand data, exact match becomes even more powerful, delivering significantly higher click-through rates, higher conversion rates, lower CPAs, and much higher return on ad spend. That’s why segmenting keywords by brand and non-brand is crucial when determining your match type strategy. Ecommerce exception For ecommerce companies, broad match (and sometimes phrase match) can produce higher average order values than exact match. When someone searches for a specific product, and you carry that exact item, conversion rates are high, but they’re usually buying a single product with a lower checkout value. When shoppers haven’t decided on a product, they tend to match broader keywords and build larger carts — resulting in lower conversion rates but higher order values. Performance Max for lead generation There’s a common misconception that Performance Max only works for ecommerce and is too difficult for lead generation. That couldn’t be further from the truth. The critical success factor The biggest mistake you can make—one you should avoid entirely—is optimizing campaigns for form submissions alone. If you treat every form submission as your campaign goal, you’ll end up with spammy submissions and frustrated sales teams. The solution: integrate your Google Ads account with your CRM and import bottom-of-funnel leads—sales-qualified leads (SQLs), marketing-qualified leads (MQLs), opportunities, or even customers if the sales cycle is short. When you tell Google Ads what you actually want and set it as your campaign goal, Performance Max can cast a wide net while still bringing in qualified prospects. Available controls for regulated industries Performance Max has significantly more controls now than at launch, making it viable for highly regulated industries: Brand exclusions: Exclude all brand traffic from Performance Max campaigns Campaign-level negative keywords: Exclude unwanted search terms directly Search term reports: See what’s triggering your ads and exclude accordingly Channel reporting: View spending and performance across different networks Page feeds: Control where you send traffic on your site Final URL expansion toggle: Turn it off completely if needed Text enhancement controls: Optional feature that can be disabled entirely Text guidelines: Specify words to avoid (e.g., “discount” or “directory”) Device control: The secret weapon for B2B One of the most underutilized levers for B2B and regulated industries is device control, introduced at the beginning of 2025. You can turn off any device from your Performance Max campaign. A B2B SaaS example demonstrates the impact: Before device segmentation in January, the account had 224 SQLs from desktop at an acceptable CPA, but 33 from mobile at $319 CPA (above goal). After creating separate mobile campaigns with more aggressive target CPAs, they achieved 190 desktop SQLs and 37 mobile SQLs in a shorter month, with mobile CPA dropping to $204 and overall Performance Max CPA declining from $238 to $204. Real Performance Max results for B2B SaaS Despite lower conversion rates from Performance Max compared to search campaigns (due to broader reach), the results speak for themselves. In September 2025, one B2B SaaS account achieved: Search Campaigns: 150 SQLs at $237 CPA Performance Max: 204 SQLs at $220 CPA Performance Max cast a wider net with cheaper CPCs, bringing in not just more leads but more sales-qualified leads at a lower cost. How they did it: Optimized for SQLs, not form submissions Set lower target CPAs in Performance Max than search (to control spend while casting wider net) Created separate campaigns for off-hours to control weekend spending Turned off final URL expansion and text enhancements (client preference) Implemented separate mobile and tablet campaigns with aggressive target CPAs AI Max for Search in lead generation AI Max for Search brings the power of Performance Max to the search network, where bottom-of-funnel intent is strongest. This is especially valuable for lead generation accounts that spend on other networks in Performance Max but don’t generate leads from them. Early results: Higher ed financial services A higher education financial client (loan products) showed promising early results: Approved applications (primary KPI): Standard Search: 86 approved applications at $660 CPA AI Max: 70 approved applications at $579 CPA AI Max brought in qualified leads cheaper despite the highly competitive keyword environment. Down-funnel performance Beyond the initial conversion action (soft credit check), AI Max showed superior performance throughout the funnel: 42% of AI Max form submissions resulted in soft pulls vs. 36% for standard search 9.9% of AI Max form submissions resulted in bookings vs. 5.58% for standard search AI Max isn’t just bringing more qualified prospects at the top—lead quality remains higher throughout the entire funnel. How they did it: Optimized for approved applications, not form submissions Set lower target CPAs in AI Max than standard search Used high-performing bottom-of-funnel keywords with broad match types Kept final URL expansion and text enhancements disabled (still worked well without them) Win with AI without losing control PPC success requires embracing AI-driven campaigns while maintaining strategic human oversight. Whether you use AI Max for Search, Performance Max for lead generation, or adjust match types based on bidding methods and data volume, the key is understanding how these tools work and applying best practices aligned with your business goals. The data is clear: exact match remains powerful across scenarios, but phrase and broad match perform differently depending on bidding strategy and data volume. For lead generation, the game changer is optimizing for true bottom-of-funnel conversions rather than form submissions, combined with strategic device controls and proper campaign segmentation. The future of PPC depends on knowing when — and how — to apply automation and control for maximum impact. View the full article

Don't get stung. Here's how. By CPA Trendlines CPA Trendlines Academy Go PRO for members-only access to more Bradley Burnett. View the full article

Don't get stung. Here's how. By CPA Trendlines CPA Trendlines Academy Go PRO for members-only access to more Bradley Burnett. View the full article

Cambodia said Friday it has drafted its first law targeting online scam centers, after vowing to shut them down by the end of April. Cambodia is a major hub for scam operations, which extort money from victims online through bogus investment schemes and feigned romances. Victims around the world are estimated to have been cheated out of tens of billions of dollars annually. At the same time, thousands of people, especially from other Asian nations, have been recruited with false job offers and then forced to work in scam centers in conditions of near-slavery. “This law is the most important legal instrument for Cambodia in combating scams online, fighting money laundering and demonstrating that Cambodia is not a paradise or a safe haven for criminals,” Information Minister Neth Pheaktra said in a statement. The new legislation approved by the Cabinet sets five to 10 years in prison and a fine of 500 million to 1 billion riels ($125,000-250,000) for organizing or directing a technology fraud site. In case of human trafficking or violence, detention or confinement, the penalties rage from 10 to 20 years plus a fine of up to 2 billion riels ($500,000). In case of a death linked to a scam center, the offense is punishable by imprisonment from 15 to 30 years, or life. Workers have died when they tried to escape. The new legislation must be approved by Parliament. Senior Minister Chhay Sinarith, in charge of the Commission for Combating Online Scams, told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday that the government since July had targeted 250 locations believed to be carrying out online scams, and has shut down about 200. Since last July, the government has filed 79 cases involving 697 alleged scam ringleaders and their associates, according to Chhay Sinarith. Cambodia has repatriated almost 10,000 scam center workers from 23 countries, with fewer than 1,000 waiting to return home. Others who have escaped or been released from raided centers have returned on their own. Neth Pheaktra said that the government “has made strong efforts to combat this crime in order to protect Cambodia’s reputation and economy, which have previously been damaged by online scams, and the government does not receive any revenue from these activities.” Cambodia has launched previous crackdowns but without major effect on scam centers, and some experts are skeptical it can eliminate the criminal industry. “The real question is whether this effort targets the system that enables the industry, not just the buildings where scams happen,” said Jacob Sims, an expert on transnational crime and a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s Asia Center. “Past crackdowns in Cambodia have often left the financial and protection networks intact, allowing operations to quickly reconstitute.” —— Associated Press writer Grant Peck in Bangkok contributed to this report. —Sopheng Cheang, Associated Press View the full article

Ex-UK minister and former prince have both tried to downplay their friendships with convicted sex offenderView the full article

To improve sales performance, you need to implement effective strategies that cater to your customers’ needs. Start by comprehending what your audience wants, and use the sales funnel model to guide their path from awareness to purchase. Engaging with customers online and providing various payment options can greatly reduce cart abandonment. Furthermore, creating a referral program can amplify your reach. These foundational strategies are just the beginning; consider how bundling products or offering discounts can further impact your sales. Key Takeaways Understand customer needs through surveys and feedback to tailor sales strategies effectively. Utilize the sales funnel model to guide customers from awareness to purchase seamlessly. Enhance online engagement with real-time communication tools and social media interaction. Offer a variety of secure payment options to accommodate diverse customer preferences. Implement a referral program to leverage existing customers for new acquisitions and higher conversion rates. Understand Your Customers How well do you really know your customers? Comprehending their challenges, desires, fears, and concerns is vital for how to improve sales performance. Use surveys to gather insights into customer thoughts and preferences, tailoring your offerings to elevate satisfaction. Engaging with consumer research firms can provide deeper analyses that reveal customer perspectives not easily accessible through direct interactions. Moreover, utilize social media and your website to respond quickly to inquiries, thereby improving the overall customer experience. Remember, leveraging customer feedback identifies areas for improvement and shows customers that their opinions matter. This approach nurtures loyalty and trust, fundamental components for long-term success in sales. Prioritizing customer comprehension can greatly boost your sales performance. Use the Sales Funnel Model Utilizing the sales funnel model is essential for comprehending your customers’ path from initial awareness to final purchase. To effectively improve sales, you need to focus on each stage of the funnel: Awareness: Use content marketing and SEO to attract potential customers to your brand. Interest: Implement targeted email sequences to nurture leads, keeping them engaged and informed. Action: Streamline your checkout process to minimize cart abandonment, addressing common barriers. Interact With Customers Online Why is it vital to interact with customers online? Many consumers prefer researching online instead of making phone inquiries, so a strong online presence is significant. Utilizing social media and your website allows for real-time communication, letting you address questions and concerns swiftly. Implementing chat tools on your website can provide immediate responses, enhancing customer experience and increasing conversion rates. By regularly engaging with customers on social media, you can boost sales and nurture loyalty. Collaborating with marketing teams to respond to online comments builds community and trust, encouraging further engagement. Give a Variety of Payment Options Interacting with customers online sets the stage for a seamless shopping experience, but it’s equally important to contemplate how payment options can influence their purchasing decisions. Offering a variety of payment methods can dramatically improve your sales team performance by minimizing cart abandonment. Consider these strategies: Diverse Payment Methods: Include options like credit cards, digital wallets, and bank transfers to cater to different preferences. Mobile-Friendly Options: Guarantee your payment process is optimized for smartphones, as many customers shop on the go. Secure Payment Gateways: Implementing secure systems is vital; 85% of customers prioritize security when shopping online. Create a Referral Program Creating a referral program can greatly improve your customer acquisition strategy, especially since studies indicate that referred customers are 30% to 57% more likely to make a purchase than those acquired through other channels. To drive sales performance, consider offering double-sided rewards, like a 20% discount for both the referrer and the new customer. This approach not only incentivizes participation but also boosts the program’s effectiveness. Referral marketing can yield a conversion rate that’s 3 to 5 times higher than traditional methods, making it cost-effective. Furthermore, referred customers often have a higher lifetime value, spending 10% to 25% more over time. Promote your referral program through social media and email newsletters to maximize visibility and participation. Offer Discounts When you consider offering discounts, it’s crucial to understand the various types and the best timing for promotions. Different strategies, like percentage-off deals or limited-time offers, can attract attention and encourage purchases. Furthermore, aligning discounts with seasonal events or specific shopping trends can create urgency, prompting customers to take action sooner rather than later. Types of Discounts Discounts play a crucial role in improving sales and can take various forms to attract customers effectively. By implementing different types of discounts, you can discover new ways to boost sales performance. Here are three popular types: Buy One, Get One Free: This strategy encourages larger purchases and increases your average order value. Seasonal Promotions: Limited-time discounts create urgency, prompting customers to buy before the offer expires. Loyalty Discounts: Rewarding returning customers nurtures long-term relationships, boosting customer retention rates. Studies show that 84% of consumers are more likely to purchase when they see a discount. Timing for Promotions Have you ever wondered how timing impacts the effectiveness of your promotions? Timing for promotions is essential in executing successful strategies to improve sales. Offering discounts during key shopping seasons, like Black Friday or holidays, can greatly improve your sales. Research shows that retailers often experience a 20-30% boost during these periods. Furthermore, implementing limited-time discounts creates urgency, prompting quicker purchasing decisions; urgency can increase conversion rates by up to 25%. Promotions like “buy one, get one free” not only encourage larger purchases but likewise improve customer satisfaction, promoting repeat business. Finally, 68% of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand if they receive a discount, demonstrating the effectiveness of well-timed promotions in attracting customers. Bundle Products Bundling products can be a potent strategy for enhancing sales, as it not merely creates perceived value but furthermore simplifies the purchasing process for customers. By offering complementary items together, you can increase customer satisfaction and average order value. Here are three effective ways to implement bundling: Create attractive bundles: Pair best-sellers with slower-moving products to promote them effectively. Offer discounts: Price the bundle lower than the total cost of individual items to encourage bulk purchases. Simplify choices: Make the buying decision easier for customers by presenting bundles as convenient and cost-effective solutions. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Strategy to Increase Sales? To increase sales, focus on implementing a referral program, as referred customers often show higher purchase intent. Offering multiple payment options can minimize cart abandonment, which greatly affects conversion rates. Furthermore, gather customer feedback through surveys to tailor your marketing approach effectively. Analyzing and optimizing your sales funnel helps identify weak points that hinder conversions, whereas training your Salesforce team on product knowledge improves their ability to address customer concerns effectively. What Are the 3 C’s in Sales? The 3 C’s in sales are Company, Customer, and Competition. First, grasping your Company means recognizing its strengths and weaknesses. Next, the Customer aspect involves identifying buyer personas and their preferences, which helps tailor your approach. Finally, analyzing Competition lets you monitor rivals’ strategies and offerings, allowing you to spot opportunities for differentiation. Focusing on these elements helps you create effective sales strategies that resonate with your target audience and drive growth. What Are the 4 P’s of Sales Strategy? The 4 P’s of sales strategy are crucial for effectively reaching your target customers. First, Product involves the features and quality of your offering, ensuring it meets customer needs. Second, Price refers to the competitive pricing strategy that aligns with customer expectations. Third, Place focuses on distribution channels, making your product accessible. Finally, Promotion encompasses all marketing tactics, like advertising and sales promotions, used to inform and persuade potential customers about your product. What Is the Most Successful Sales Strategy? The most successful sales strategy involves comprehension of your customers’ needs and preferences. By prioritizing excellent customer service, you’ll attract loyal clients. Implementing a referral program can furthermore boost your sales, as referred customers often purchase more frequently. In addition, offering various payment options can help reduce shopping cart abandonment, which is a major issue. Finally, utilizing the sales funnel model allows you to identify weaknesses in the customer experience and improve conversion rates effectively. Conclusion By implementing these seven proven strategies, you can greatly improve your sales performance. Comprehending your customers’ needs, utilizing the sales funnel, and engaging with them online are essential steps. Furthermore, offering various payment options, creating a referral program, providing discounts, and bundling products can further drive sales. Staying focused on these strategies will not just improve conversion rates but also cultivate customer loyalty, ultimately leading to sustained business growth and success. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "7 Proven Strategies to Improve Sales" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

President Donald The President is scrambling to replace the revenue the federal government lost when the Supreme Court struck down his biggest and boldest tariffs last month. If the effort succeeds, congressional Democrats warn in a study out Friday, the administration’s import taxes will cost American households an average of $2,512 in 2026, up 44% from $1,745 in tariff costs last year. And this at a time when U.S. consumers are already angry over the high cost of living and the war with Iran is pushing up energy prices. “Despite a Supreme Court ruling that much of The President’s tariff agenda is illegal, the The President administration refuses to provide relief for families,” said Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. “As American families continue to struggle with high costs, the President keeps choosing to institute new tariffs that will push prices even higher.” Calling the study “phony,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said “President The President will continue using tariffs to renegotiate broken trade deals, lower drug prices, and secure trillions in investments for the American people.” The President last year invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose double-digit tariffs on almost every country on Earth. But the Supreme Court ruled Feb. 20 that the law did not give the president the authority to levy tariffs. The government now must provide refunds — expected to come to around $175 billion — to the importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs now declared illegal. The administration has moved quickly to impose new tariffs, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that that new levies “will result in virtually unchanged tariff revenue in 2026.” The President has already announced a 10% tariff, invoking Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, and may raise it to 15%. But those levies can only last 150 days unless Congress agrees to extend them. And the Section 122 tariffs are also being challenged in court. A sturdier option is Section 301 of the same 1974 trade law, which authorizes the president to impose tariffs and other sanctions on countries engaged in “unjustifiable,” “unreasonable” or “discriminatory” trade practices. The President, accusing China of using unfair tactics to gain an advantage in high tech industries, used Section 301 to impose tariffs on Chinese imports in his first term, and they withstood legal challenges. On Wednesday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, announced a sweeping Section 301 investigation into whether 16 U.S. trading partners, including China and the European Union, are overproducing goods, flooding the world with their products and hurting American manufacturers. “The United States will no longer sacrifice its industrial base to other countries that may be exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us,” Greer said in a statement. The probe is widely expected to end in a new round of hefty tariffs. “The fact that they launched 301 investigations is not surprising,” said trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding and a former U.S. trade official. “We all knew that’s what they were going to pivot to. The challenge is that this is way more sprawling than anyone expected.” That is because so many countries were targeted and because the inquiry — whether countries have excess industrial capacity and are overproducing goods — “can be framed pretty broadly.” The administration is rolling out another Section 301 investigation into banning imported goods made by forced labor. Greer told reporters Wednesday that additional Section 301 investigations could cover issues such as digital services taxes, pharmaceutical drug pricing and ocean pollution. The administration is also expected to make more use of Section 232 of Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows the president to impose tariffs on goods deemed to be threats to national security after an investigation by the Commerce Department. The U.S. already has Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and auto parts and other products. The report from Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee finds that the new tariffs will increase the burden on American households this year. That is partly because the tariff revenue would be collected for the full year; The President needed time to impose tariffs in 2025 and occasionally suspended them. The Democrats also assume that American households will absorb 100% of the tariff cost. They cite a Congressional Budget Office report concluding that importers can pass along 70% of the tariff costs to consumers. But the tariffs also allow domestic producers to raise prices — because of less competition from imports and increased demand for their tariff-free products. Combined, passed-along costs from importers and higher prices from domestic companies effectively mean that consumers end up footing the entire U.S. tariff bill, according to CBO. The The President administration’s new tariff push comes as the war in Iran pushes up the price of gasoline and other commodities in the runup to November’s midterm elections. Voters are already disgruntled by high prices. “If the affordability and other political issues really start to become cumbersome, that certainly can impact all this,” Majerus said. “What the world’s going to look like two months from now is going to be very different from what it is now.” —Paul Wiseman, AP Economics Writer View the full article

A recent Harvard Business Review piece echoes the shift we’re sseeing in the SEO industry: at a macro level, LLMs and Google’s AI-powered SERP features, such as AI Overviews, aren’t just creating a zero-click environment, but also changing user journeys and behavior. They’re collapsing what used to be multi-touch customer journeys into a single synthesized answer. For a more visual and emphatic metaphor, the monolith of “Search” is crumbling. When that happens, brands lose many of the touchpoints they once owned, and your marketing strategy must change accordingly. HBR captures this moment well, arguing that marketing now has a new audience and that algorithms increasingly shape first impressions. That said, while the article points in the right direction on the broader trend, its tactical advice is generic and falls back on shallow tactics. Much of the guidance returns to familiar marketing playbook ideas that sound strategic and innovative but lack real operational depth. That gap matters for the longevity and sustainability of visibility. The narrative may be easy for you to understand and repeat at the executive level, but it glosses over the deeper structural changes you must actually make to adapt to the new search ecosystem. The problem with flock tactics The HBR article centers on schema, authorship signals, and branded concepts. These recommendations risk becoming what I call “flock tactics.” These ideas spread quickly because they’re easy to explain, but they offer little lasting competitive advantage once everyone adopts them. Schema Schema has been one of the most debated topics in LLM and AI optimization. Microsoft Bing confirmed it uses schema for its LLMs, but the relationship between Google’s models and third-party LLMs isn’t as straightforward. While it isn’t necessarily wrong to recommend schema as part of your overall search optimization activities (SEO and AI), positioning it as a table-stakes tactic ignores diminishing returns once competitors implement similar markup and it becomes standard. Another gap is the role of external knowledge systems, such as Wikidata or authoritative publishers. Much of the information LLMs rely on comes from those sources rather than a single company’s website. This is less linear to understand, explain, and demonstrate as a single line item on an activity tracker, but these are nuances you now have to deal with, whether you like it or not. What’s also missing is any exploration — or even a nod — to how models ingest and prioritize structured data compared with the many unstructured signals they rely on. Your customers search everywhere. Make sure your brand shows up. The SEO toolkit you know, plus the AI visibility data you need. Start Free Trial Get started with E-E-A-T — shallow authorship signals Attaching the names, credentials, and biographies of real experts follows familiar E-E-A-T logic and represents reasonable hygiene. The problem is that the treatment remains superficial. It risks pushing you to focus on cosmetic signals such as bios, headshots, and credential lists without strengthening the underlying expertise pipeline. There is a meaningful difference between placing an author bio on a page and cultivating a genuine expert entity whose work appears in conferences, third-party publications, standards committees, or academic collaborations. Only the latter produces signals that models are more likely to recognize and trust. Vanity concepts The article also suggests creating branded frameworks or concepts — for example, something like “The Acme Index” — to help models associate ideas with your company. In theory this sounds appealing, but in practice it’s extremely difficult to execute. Unless those ideas spread into the trusted datasets LLMs tend to prioritize, they rarely gain traction. You need those concepts and frameworks adopted and discussed by entities other than yourself, including academic journals, technical standards, widely used software ecosystems, and other prominent entities in your category. What often results instead is a proliferation of branded labels that remain largely invisible to the models they were meant to influence. The structural blind spots Beyond these tactical issues, the analysis overlooks deeper structural challenges. It treats AI primarily as an external platform shift. The implication is that you must simply adapt to it rather than actively shaping your own environment. Internalizing AI infrastructure HBR never seriously considers the possibility of building AI into your own infrastructure. You can deploy assistants, RAG systems, and domain-specific agents within your own products and customer experiences. These systems operate in logged-in, transactional contexts where first-party data and controlled interfaces still matter enormously. In those environments, traditional concerns such as site architecture, structured data, and product design remain deeply relevant, though they operate differently from public search optimization. It’s not just SEO The discussion also frames SEO primarily as a page-ranking problem tied to discovery. That perspective misses the broader shift toward entity-level knowledge management (things, not strings). Visibility within LLMs increasingly depends on how well you structure entities, taxonomies, and knowledge graphs, and on how those systems connect with external data sources. Most LLMs don’t process data at the petabyte scale Google uses to understand entity relationships. There is a strong correlation that when something ranks well on Google, third-party LLMs often correlate and “trust” Google’s guidance on which brands to show, for what, and when. HBR’s phrase “engineering recall” points directly to this deeper data engineering work, yet the implications aren’t expanded. LLM model heterogeneity Another major omission is the diversity of AI systems themselves. Different AI assistants and models rely on different training datasets, refresh cycles, retrieval mechanisms, and safety layers. That heterogeneity means you can’t assume a single optimization strategy will work across all AI surfaces. It also doesn’t explore the risk of broad-stroke approaches. If you try to increase visibility within AI models without accounting for safety filters, attribution errors, or hallucinations, you may gain visibility in ways that are inaccurate or reputationally damaging. See the complete picture of your search visibility. Track, optimize, and win in Google and AI search from one platform. Start Free Trial Get started with Surface-level tactics won’t build AI visibility HBR’s article works well as a high-level explanation of how AI is changing marketing. It helps you understand that traditional SEO alone is no longer enough and that you must consider how AI systems see and describe your brand. As a practical guide, however, the advice is thin. Most recommendations focus on surface-level tactics that many companies will quickly copy, reinforcing the echo chamber of flock tactics that are easy to sell and quantify, but risk narrowing your focus to short-term wins at the expense of longer-term strategy. The real challenge is deeper. You need clear entity definitions, structured knowledge systems, reliable data in trusted sources AI models use, testing across how different models represent you, and AI-powered experiences within your own products. “Winning” in the AI era will depend less on cosmetic SEO improvements and more on the harder structural work behind the scenes. 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ChatGPT retrieves far more webpages than it cites. A new AirOps analysis found that 85% of discovered sources never appear in the final answer. Why we care. If you want your content cited in AI-generated answers, discovery isn’t enough. Most retrieved pages never become visible to users. Key finding. In AI answers, retrieval doesn’t equal citation. Your page can rank and be retrieved yet still lose the citation to a source that better matches the prompt or supporting context. This shifts optimization toward earning selection inside the AI synthesis process—not just appearing in search results, per the report. By the numbers: 82,108 citations appeared in final responses. Only 15% of retrieved pages were cited. 85% of pages surfaced during research never appeared in answers. Citation rates also varied by query type: 18.3% for product discovery queries 16.9% for how-to queries 11.3% for validation searches Fan-out queries. ChatGPT often expands prompts with additional internal searches while generating an answer, creating what the report calls a “second citation surface.” Across the dataset: 89.6% of prompts triggered two or more follow-up searches. Fan-out searches expanded 15,000 prompts into 43,233 queries. 32.9% of cited pages appeared only in fan-out results—not the original prompt. 95% of fan-out queries had zero traditional search volume. Google ranking correlation. High Google rankings strongly correlated with citations: 55.8% of cited pages ranked in Google’s top 20. Pages ranking in Position 1 were cited 3.5 times more often than pages outside the top 20. About the data. AirOps analyzed 548,534 pages retrieved across 15,000 prompts to examine how ChatGPT expands queries and selects citations. The study. The Influence of Retrieval, Fan-out, and Google SERPs on ChatGPT Citations View the full article

New third-party data shows local publishers lost national reach after Google's Discover core update. The post Google Discover Core Update Data: Local Publishers Lost Reach appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

But there’s a practical distinction worth drawing, and it changes how you apply the idea. Search intent is about optimizing content to match what the search results reward. Keyword intent is the same concept applied one step earlier. Think of…Read more ›View the full article

Nearly every part of the United States is getting walloped by wild weather or just about to be. Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill. This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash already hit much of the East. On Wednesday, Washington, D.C. residents walked around in shorts in record-breaking 86 degrees Fahrenheit (about 30 Celsius). On Thursday, it snowed. “All of the country, even if you’re not necessarily seeing extremes, are going to see generally changing from cold to warm, or warm to cold to warm,” said meteorologist Marc Chenard of the weather service’s Weather Prediction Center in Maryland. Former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Ryan Maue said he expects extreme weather in all 50 states. Triple-digit heat persists in Southwest A heat dome will form early next week and park over the Southwest, baking temperatures to triple digits that haven’t been seen this early in the year, Maue and Chenard said. Some forecasts see 98 (almost 37 Celsius) in Phoenix on Tuesday, followed by 103, 105 and two days of 107 (almost 42 C). In 137 years of record-keeping, Phoenix never hit 100 before March 26 and usually hit its first 100-degree day in early May, according to the weather service, which warned people: “Since we are not acclimated to this level of heat this early in the year, it will be more impactful than usual.” It has already started in Los Angeles with unusual 90-degree March weather that had people in shorts and tank tops seeking shade anywhere they could get it, even if it was as slender as a light post. Shane Dixon, 40, usually runs about 5 miles near his home in Culver City without much effort, he said, his face glistening with sweat and his T-shirt tucked into his shorts. But Thursday was hard because of the heat, and he had to cut it short. “The back of my neck was melting,” he said. But he preferred it to the cold and snow that will hit elsewhere. “I could go literally soak myself and walk out in the sun and I’ll make it home fine. If it was freezing cold I could not do this,” he said. Single-digit cold invades North Around the same time as the heat starts blasting Phoenix, the polar vortex — a system that usually keeps frigid air penned up near the North Pole — is forecast to send its chill deep into the Midwest and East, even bordering some of the Southeast, Maue said Minneapolis will hover around zero for a low, and Chicago will be in the single digits Tuesday. The next day “temperatures in the teens and 20s in the northeast and 20s in the Mid-Atlantic,” Maue said. Even Atlanta could drop to the 20s. One-two snowstorm punch Two storm systems in a row — one Friday, then another Sunday into Monday — will chug along the country’s northern tier and Great Lakes and between them could dump 3 to 4 feet of snow in places, Maue said. That bigger second storm system will see its barometric pressure drop so quickly and sharply — meaning it is intensifying and winds are strengthening — that it will qualify as a bomb cyclone, which is quite unusual to develop over land. Normally bomb cyclones get their energy from warm ocean waters, but this one will draw power from the polar vortex. Even Alaska and Hawaii aren’t quite right Maue said Hawaii is getting an atmospheric river that will have such persistent heavy rain that flooding will be a major issue. Oahu is under a flash flood warning. And Alaska is normally frigid now, but it will be about 30 degrees colder than usual, he said. It is “the time of year where we can see stuff like this,” Chenard said. “But this does seem even anomalous from what you would typically see. I mean, some of these areas will be setting records. Record-high temperatures for March and maybe multiple times.” In the past week or so, tornadoes have killed at least eight people in Oklahoma, Michiganand Indiana. The forecast for severe storms doesn’t look as big or widespread for the next week, but dangerous thunderstorms could pop up “anywhere from the Mississippi Valley toward the East Coast” on Sunday or Monday, Chenard said. The jet stream goes nuts Underlying this is a jet stream gone wild, Maue and Chenard said. The jet stream is the river of air that moves weather from west to east on a roller-coaster-like path. Usually the plunges are as mild as a kiddie roller coaster. But now that jet stream is going on near-vertical, scream-inducing drops following by straight-up ascents. “Which means you get a lot of extremes next to each other,” Maue said. Storm fronts coming from the Pacific hit that high pressure heat dome in the Southwest and are pushed north to climb that mountainous jet stream peak, “grab access to that cold air reservoir up there” and bring it back down south down the other side of the hill, he said. Numerous studies have connected unusual jet stream and polar vortex activity to shrinking Arctic sea ice and human-caused climate change. But there is hope. “The first day of spring is 20th (of March), and then after that we get recovery,” Maue said. Associated Press writer Dorany Pineda contributed. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org. —Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer View the full article

Cross selling can considerably improve your sales figures when executed correctly. By analyzing customer data, you can understand their needs and preferences better. Implementing targeted offers and automated messaging can help you provide timely recommendations. Furthermore, limiting your suggestions can simplify the decision-making process for your customers. To optimize your approach, consider how to engage customers after their initial purchase. There are several strategies that can further raise your sales efforts. Key Takeaways Utilize customer segmentation to tailor cross-sell offers based on demographics and purchasing behavior, enhancing relevance and engagement. Implement automated messaging triggers to send personalized recommendations, optimizing timing for maximum impact on customer decisions. Create urgency with time-sensitive discounts and scarcity tactics, encouraging quicker purchase decisions and increasing overall sales. Analyze purchase history to identify frequently sold together products, allowing for targeted cross-sell efforts that resonate with customer preferences. Measure success by tracking conversion rates and average order value, adjusting strategies based on performance metrics and customer feedback. Understand Customer Needs Through Data Analysis To effectively understand customer needs through data analysis, businesses must plunge deep into customer preferences and previous purchasing behavior. By analyzing these factors, you can identify upsell opportunities and craft customized cross-selling strategies. For instance, tracking buying patterns across various channels reveals which products customers often purchase together, allowing you to suggest complementary items effectively. Personalized recommendations, derived from this data, can greatly boost sales performance, as they account for 26% of total revenue in spite of only 7% of web visits. Additionally, utilizing real-time updates on customer interactions guarantees that your cross-selling suggestions remain relevant, enhancing engagement and conversion rates. Continuous data collection cultivates trust and improves customer relationships, which are vital for successful cross-selling initiatives. In turn, this approach not only maximizes your return on investment but likewise refines your software upsell tactics, guaranteeing that your strategies are both effective and responsive to evolving customer needs. Segment Your Customers for Targeted Offers Segmenting your customers is essential for delivering targeted offers that resonate with their specific needs. By analyzing demographics and purchasing behavior, you can categorize customers into groups with similar buying patterns, enhancing your grasp of their preferences. This segmentation helps you identify the difference between cross sell and upsell strategies. As upselling encourages customers to purchase a higher-end product, cross-selling involves suggesting complementary items. Using value-based segmentation allows for hyper-targeted messaging, maximizing return on investment and improving cost per conversion. Real-time updates on customer interactions further enable you to deliver relevant offers that align with their interests. For example, identifying products frequently sold together can lead to strategic recommendations that boost sales performance. By tailoring your cross-sell efforts, you can increase conversion likelihood by up to 25%, making your approach more effective and personalized. Utilize Automated Messaging for Timely Recommendations To effectively utilize automated messaging for timely recommendations, you should set up triggers that respond to specific customer actions, such as adding items to their cart. By personalizing follow-up messages, you can improve the shopping experience and suggest complementary products that align with their interests. Timing is essential; optimizing when you send these offers can greatly increase the likelihood of conversion and boost your cross-selling efforts. Set Up Triggers Setting up triggers for automated messaging can greatly improve your cross-selling efforts, especially when customized to customer interactions. Implementing these strategies guarantees you deliver timely recommendations based on customer behavior. Consider the following: Cart Actions: Trigger automated messages when customers add items to their cart, suggesting complementary products to enrich their shopping experience. Abandoned Carts: Send cart abandonment emails featuring additional product recommendations to re-engage customers and recover lost sales. Pop-Up Offers: Utilize well-timed pop-ups during key moments in the customer experience, providing targeted cross-sell opportunities that feel personalized. Personalize Follow-Up Messages Customizing follow-up messages is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of your cross-selling strategies, as it allows you to engage customers with personalized recommendations that resonate with their shopping behaviors. Automated follow-up messages can greatly boost customer engagement by presenting complementary products after they show intent to purchase. Implementing marketing automation based on customer actions, like adding items to their cart, guarantees timely and relevant suggestions, leading to higher conversion rates. For instance, sending cart abandonment emails with customized product recommendations can recover potential lost sales, yielding a 20% increase in sales, according to McKinsey. Furthermore, utilizing popups during the customer experience can effectively engage interested customers and promote additional products at pivotal decision-making moments. Optimize Timing for Offers Optimizing the timing of your offers can greatly improve the effectiveness of your cross-selling strategies. Utilizing automated messaging at key moments can engage customers and boost conversion rates. Here are three effective ways to optimize timing: Cart Abandonment Emails: Send personalized recommendations when customers leave items in their cart, recovering lost sales by tapping into their initial interest. Post-Purchase Follow-Ups: Immediately after a purchase, send automated messages suggesting complementary products, creating a natural flow for cross-selling. Targeted Pop-Ups: Use real-time updates to display pop-ups with customized suggestions during the shopping experience, capturing attention and encouraging additional purchases. Limit Suggestions to Enhance Clarity When customers browse your offerings, presenting too many product suggestions can lead to confusion and indecision. To improve clarity and boost your chances of conversion, limit your suggestions to three or four relevant items. Research shows that targeted recommendations during the checkout process can increase Average Order Value (AOV) by an average of 5.6%, with top offers converting at impressive rates of 28.3%. Instead of overwhelming customers with multiple options, focus on one or two well-chosen cross-sell options that align with their interests. Incorporate personalized recommendations on product pages and in cart drawers to engage customers effectively without cluttering their shopping experience. Furthermore, streamline messaging in post-purchase emails by including limited product recommendations, which can improve customer satisfaction and encourage repeat purchases. Create Use Cases to Demonstrate Product Value Limiting product suggestions improves clarity, but demonstrating use cases can take your cross-selling strategy a step further. By showcasing how products work together, you improve customer comprehension and appreciation, increasing the likelihood of additional purchases. Here are three effective approaches to create compelling use cases: Utilize Videos: Create short videos that illustrate the combined benefits of complementary items. This visual aid helps customers see how products can improve each other’s value. Highlight Real-Life Scenarios: Share examples of how your cross-sold products provide added value in everyday situations. This connection builds trust and encourages customers to think about purchasing more. Detail Product Synergy: Provide clear examples of how these products work together. This clarifies benefits and strengthens the case for why customers should buy them. Leverage Urgency With Limited-Time Promotions To boost your sales, consider implementing limited-time promotions that create a sense of urgency among customers. By using time-sensitive discounts and countdown timers, you can effectively prompt quicker purchasing decisions, capitalizing on the fear of missing out. Furthermore, employing scarcity tactics can improve these promotions, encouraging customers to buy more and take action before the offer expires. Time-Sensitive Discounts Utilizing time-sensitive discounts can greatly improve your sales strategy by creating a sense of urgency among customers. By leveraging FOMO (fear of missing out), you encourage quicker purchase decisions, ultimately boosting your revenue. Here are three effective approaches: Limited-Time Offers: Implement exclusive discounts on complementary products right after a purchase to entice customers to buy more. Seasonal Promotions: Use holiday sales or special events to drive urgency, often resulting in a significant increase in average order value. Flash Sales: Offer short-duration discounts that compel customers to act quickly, leading to higher conversion rates. When you incorporate these strategies, you can see sales increases of up to 30%, making time-sensitive discounts a potent tool in your cross-selling arsenal. Countdown Timers Effectiveness Countdown timers can greatly boost the effectiveness of limited-time promotions by instilling a sense of urgency that prompts customers to act swiftly. When you implement countdowns, you leverage the fear of missing out (FOMO), which can drive sales and improve engagement during promotional campaigns. Research indicates that combining limited-time offers with countdown timer messaging can increase conversion rates by as much as 30%. By placing countdown timers on product pages and during checkout, you heighten customer awareness of promotional deadlines, often leading to increased Average Order Value (AOV). This strategy effectively nudges customers toward quick purchasing decisions, making it crucial for any business looking to boost sales through effective cross-selling techniques. Scarcity Tactics Usage Scarcity tactics play an essential role in marketing strategies aimed at increasing sales through limited-time promotions. By creating a sense of urgency, you can drive customers to make quicker purchasing decisions. Here are three effective scarcity tactics you can implement: Countdown Timers: Use timers on your promotions to visually represent the limited time left, encouraging immediate action. Limited Stock Notifications: Display messages like “Only 5 left in stock” to improve perceived value and prompt quick purchases. Seasonal Offers: Capitalize on peak purchasing periods with exclusive, time-sensitive deals that tap into consumers’ desire for exclusivity. Engage Customers Post-Purchase for Future Opportunities Engaging customers after they’ve made a purchase is crucial for maximizing future sales opportunities. Implementing automated follow-up emails with personalized recommendations can greatly improve their experience. These customized messages help create loyalty, potentially boosting repeat sales. You can likewise utilize thank you pages to present exclusive, limited-time offers, achieving an average conversion rate of 1.7%. Additionally, consider one-click post-purchase upsells, which leverage saved payment information, yielding an impressive ROI of $686 for every $1 spent. This streamlines the buying process, making it easier for customers to say yes to further purchases. Finally, analyzing customer behavior post-purchase allows you to identify trends and preferences, enabling you to craft targeted marketing strategies. By focusing on these post-purchase engagement tactics, you can open doors for additional sales, ensuring customers feel valued while driving your business growth. Build Trust Before Presenting Additional Offers Before you suggest additional offers to your customers, it’s crucial to build genuine connections first. By taking the time to understand their needs and providing valuable insights, you establish a foundation of trust that makes them more open to your recommendations. When customers feel valued, they’re not just more likely to accept cross-sell suggestions; they likewise see them as beneficial rather than intrusive. Establish Genuine Connections Establishing genuine connections with customers is crucial for effective cross-selling, as trust plays a pivotal role in their willingness to evaluate additional offers. By focusing on building rapport, you can markedly improve your cross-selling efforts. Here are three key strategies: Engage in meaningful conversations: Ask open-ended questions to uncover customer needs and preferences, creating an opportunity for customized suggestions. Demonstrate genuine interest: Show that you care about their success, which builds credibility and encourages acceptance of your cross-sell proposals. Personalize interactions: Relate to customers on an individual level, as they’re more likely to trust recommendations from someone they feel connected to. These strategies cultivate a relationship that naturally leads to discussions about complementary products, making cross-selling more effective. Provide Valuable Insights Building trust with customers goes hand in hand with providing valuable insights before introducing additional offers. By genuinely showing interest in their success, you improve your credibility, making them more open to your suggestions. Engaging in post-sale conversations about their experiences can reveal new cross-sell opportunities and strengthen relationships. Here’s a quick look at effective strategies: Strategy Description Ask Open-Ended Questions Understand customer needs and preferences. Share Tangible Examples Show how complementary products increase value. Follow-Up Conversations Discuss product experiences to identify needs. Provide Helpful Resources Offer insights that can benefit their purchase. Demonstrate Genuine Interest Build rapport to develop trust and receptiveness. Showcase Tangible Benefits Over Features When showcasing cross-sold products, it’s crucial to focus on the tangible benefits these items provide instead of just listing their features. Highlighting these benefits can greatly improve customer awareness and increase the likelihood of additional purchases. Here are three key approaches: Visualize Value: Use real-life examples to demonstrate how complementary products work together, helping customers see their combined value. Emphasize Cost Savings: Frame cross-sold items regarding convenience or savings, which can enhance customer perceptions and make them more likely to buy. Leverage Testimonials: Share customer testimonials or case studies that highlight positive outcomes from using bundled products, building trust and credibility. Monitor and Adapt Strategies Based on Performance After highlighting the tangible benefits of cross-selling, it’s important to continuously monitor and adapt your strategies based on performance metrics. Tracking customer purchasing behavior is essential; it helps you identify which cross-selling strategies are successful. Implement A/B testing to see which approaches yield the highest conversion rates, allowing you to refine your tactics effectively. To illustrate this, consider the following table: Strategy Performance Metric Customer Segmentation Targeted Offers A/B Testing Results Conversion Rate Comparison Engagement Metrics Email Open Rates Feedback Analysis Customer Satisfaction Regularly analyze engagement metrics from follow-up messages and cart abandonment emails to improve the timing and content of your offers. Finally, utilize customer feedback and sales performance data to guarantee your cross-selling strategies align with customer needs and market trends, continuously evolving for peak results. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the 3 3 3 Rule in Sales? The 3 3 3 rule in sales is a structured approach that helps you prepare effectively for customer interactions. First, you identify three key benefits of your product that resonate with potential buyers. Then, anticipate three objections customers might have, allowing you to address concerns proactively. Finally, select three closing techniques to guide the conversation toward a sale. This method improves your focus, confidence, and ability to engage prospects successfully. What Is the 25% Rule of Thumb for Cross-Selling? The 25% Rule of Thumb for cross-selling suggests that at least 25% of your total sales should come from cross-selling efforts. This benchmark emphasizes the need to integrate cross-selling into your sales strategy, enhancing customer engagement and increasing average order value. How to Cross-Sell Effectively? To cross-sell effectively, start by analyzing customer preferences and behaviors. Offer three to four relevant product suggestions that complement their current purchase, ensuring you don’t overwhelm them. Use personalized recommendations to boost engagement, and consider automating follow-up messages to remind customers about additional products. Incorporate videos or examples to demonstrate how these items can elevate their experience. This approach can increase conversion rates and improve overall sales performance considerably. What Are the 5 P’s of Successful Selling? The 5 P’s of successful selling are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and People. First, you need to understand your product’s features and benefits. Then, set a competitive price that reflects its value. Next, choose the right channels for distribution to guarantee accessibility. Promotion involves marketing strategies that communicate product value effectively. Finally, keep in mind that building relationships with people, including customers and team members, is crucial for long-term success in sales. Conclusion Implementing effective cross-selling strategies can greatly improve your sales performance. By comprehending your customers’ needs through data analysis and segmenting them for targeted offers, you can provide personalized recommendations that resonate. Utilizing automated messaging and limiting suggestions simplifies their decision-making process. Engaging customers post-purchase builds trust and opens doors for future sales. Continuously monitoring and adapting your strategies based on performance guarantees that you stay relevant and effective, eventually driving increased revenue for your business. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Effective Cross Selling Strategies to Boost Sales" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Cross selling can considerably improve your sales figures when executed correctly. By analyzing customer data, you can understand their needs and preferences better. Implementing targeted offers and automated messaging can help you provide timely recommendations. Furthermore, limiting your suggestions can simplify the decision-making process for your customers. To optimize your approach, consider how to engage customers after their initial purchase. There are several strategies that can further raise your sales efforts. Key Takeaways Utilize customer segmentation to tailor cross-sell offers based on demographics and purchasing behavior, enhancing relevance and engagement. Implement automated messaging triggers to send personalized recommendations, optimizing timing for maximum impact on customer decisions. Create urgency with time-sensitive discounts and scarcity tactics, encouraging quicker purchase decisions and increasing overall sales. Analyze purchase history to identify frequently sold together products, allowing for targeted cross-sell efforts that resonate with customer preferences. Measure success by tracking conversion rates and average order value, adjusting strategies based on performance metrics and customer feedback. Understand Customer Needs Through Data Analysis To effectively understand customer needs through data analysis, businesses must plunge deep into customer preferences and previous purchasing behavior. By analyzing these factors, you can identify upsell opportunities and craft customized cross-selling strategies. For instance, tracking buying patterns across various channels reveals which products customers often purchase together, allowing you to suggest complementary items effectively. Personalized recommendations, derived from this data, can greatly boost sales performance, as they account for 26% of total revenue in spite of only 7% of web visits. Additionally, utilizing real-time updates on customer interactions guarantees that your cross-selling suggestions remain relevant, enhancing engagement and conversion rates. Continuous data collection cultivates trust and improves customer relationships, which are vital for successful cross-selling initiatives. In turn, this approach not only maximizes your return on investment but likewise refines your software upsell tactics, guaranteeing that your strategies are both effective and responsive to evolving customer needs. Segment Your Customers for Targeted Offers Segmenting your customers is essential for delivering targeted offers that resonate with their specific needs. By analyzing demographics and purchasing behavior, you can categorize customers into groups with similar buying patterns, enhancing your grasp of their preferences. This segmentation helps you identify the difference between cross sell and upsell strategies. As upselling encourages customers to purchase a higher-end product, cross-selling involves suggesting complementary items. Using value-based segmentation allows for hyper-targeted messaging, maximizing return on investment and improving cost per conversion. Real-time updates on customer interactions further enable you to deliver relevant offers that align with their interests. For example, identifying products frequently sold together can lead to strategic recommendations that boost sales performance. By tailoring your cross-sell efforts, you can increase conversion likelihood by up to 25%, making your approach more effective and personalized. Utilize Automated Messaging for Timely Recommendations To effectively utilize automated messaging for timely recommendations, you should set up triggers that respond to specific customer actions, such as adding items to their cart. By personalizing follow-up messages, you can improve the shopping experience and suggest complementary products that align with their interests. Timing is essential; optimizing when you send these offers can greatly increase the likelihood of conversion and boost your cross-selling efforts. Set Up Triggers Setting up triggers for automated messaging can greatly improve your cross-selling efforts, especially when customized to customer interactions. Implementing these strategies guarantees you deliver timely recommendations based on customer behavior. Consider the following: Cart Actions: Trigger automated messages when customers add items to their cart, suggesting complementary products to enrich their shopping experience. Abandoned Carts: Send cart abandonment emails featuring additional product recommendations to re-engage customers and recover lost sales. Pop-Up Offers: Utilize well-timed pop-ups during key moments in the customer experience, providing targeted cross-sell opportunities that feel personalized. Personalize Follow-Up Messages Customizing follow-up messages is essential for maximizing the effectiveness of your cross-selling strategies, as it allows you to engage customers with personalized recommendations that resonate with their shopping behaviors. Automated follow-up messages can greatly boost customer engagement by presenting complementary products after they show intent to purchase. Implementing marketing automation based on customer actions, like adding items to their cart, guarantees timely and relevant suggestions, leading to higher conversion rates. For instance, sending cart abandonment emails with customized product recommendations can recover potential lost sales, yielding a 20% increase in sales, according to McKinsey. Furthermore, utilizing popups during the customer experience can effectively engage interested customers and promote additional products at pivotal decision-making moments. Optimize Timing for Offers Optimizing the timing of your offers can greatly improve the effectiveness of your cross-selling strategies. Utilizing automated messaging at key moments can engage customers and boost conversion rates. Here are three effective ways to optimize timing: Cart Abandonment Emails: Send personalized recommendations when customers leave items in their cart, recovering lost sales by tapping into their initial interest. Post-Purchase Follow-Ups: Immediately after a purchase, send automated messages suggesting complementary products, creating a natural flow for cross-selling. Targeted Pop-Ups: Use real-time updates to display pop-ups with customized suggestions during the shopping experience, capturing attention and encouraging additional purchases. Limit Suggestions to Enhance Clarity When customers browse your offerings, presenting too many product suggestions can lead to confusion and indecision. To improve clarity and boost your chances of conversion, limit your suggestions to three or four relevant items. Research shows that targeted recommendations during the checkout process can increase Average Order Value (AOV) by an average of 5.6%, with top offers converting at impressive rates of 28.3%. Instead of overwhelming customers with multiple options, focus on one or two well-chosen cross-sell options that align with their interests. Incorporate personalized recommendations on product pages and in cart drawers to engage customers effectively without cluttering their shopping experience. Furthermore, streamline messaging in post-purchase emails by including limited product recommendations, which can improve customer satisfaction and encourage repeat purchases. Create Use Cases to Demonstrate Product Value Limiting product suggestions improves clarity, but demonstrating use cases can take your cross-selling strategy a step further. By showcasing how products work together, you improve customer comprehension and appreciation, increasing the likelihood of additional purchases. Here are three effective approaches to create compelling use cases: Utilize Videos: Create short videos that illustrate the combined benefits of complementary items. This visual aid helps customers see how products can improve each other’s value. Highlight Real-Life Scenarios: Share examples of how your cross-sold products provide added value in everyday situations. This connection builds trust and encourages customers to think about purchasing more. Detail Product Synergy: Provide clear examples of how these products work together. This clarifies benefits and strengthens the case for why customers should buy them. Leverage Urgency With Limited-Time Promotions To boost your sales, consider implementing limited-time promotions that create a sense of urgency among customers. By using time-sensitive discounts and countdown timers, you can effectively prompt quicker purchasing decisions, capitalizing on the fear of missing out. Furthermore, employing scarcity tactics can improve these promotions, encouraging customers to buy more and take action before the offer expires. Time-Sensitive Discounts Utilizing time-sensitive discounts can greatly improve your sales strategy by creating a sense of urgency among customers. By leveraging FOMO (fear of missing out), you encourage quicker purchase decisions, ultimately boosting your revenue. Here are three effective approaches: Limited-Time Offers: Implement exclusive discounts on complementary products right after a purchase to entice customers to buy more. Seasonal Promotions: Use holiday sales or special events to drive urgency, often resulting in a significant increase in average order value. Flash Sales: Offer short-duration discounts that compel customers to act quickly, leading to higher conversion rates. When you incorporate these strategies, you can see sales increases of up to 30%, making time-sensitive discounts a potent tool in your cross-selling arsenal. Countdown Timers Effectiveness Countdown timers can greatly boost the effectiveness of limited-time promotions by instilling a sense of urgency that prompts customers to act swiftly. When you implement countdowns, you leverage the fear of missing out (FOMO), which can drive sales and improve engagement during promotional campaigns. Research indicates that combining limited-time offers with countdown timer messaging can increase conversion rates by as much as 30%. By placing countdown timers on product pages and during checkout, you heighten customer awareness of promotional deadlines, often leading to increased Average Order Value (AOV). This strategy effectively nudges customers toward quick purchasing decisions, making it crucial for any business looking to boost sales through effective cross-selling techniques. Scarcity Tactics Usage Scarcity tactics play an essential role in marketing strategies aimed at increasing sales through limited-time promotions. By creating a sense of urgency, you can drive customers to make quicker purchasing decisions. Here are three effective scarcity tactics you can implement: Countdown Timers: Use timers on your promotions to visually represent the limited time left, encouraging immediate action. Limited Stock Notifications: Display messages like “Only 5 left in stock” to improve perceived value and prompt quick purchases. Seasonal Offers: Capitalize on peak purchasing periods with exclusive, time-sensitive deals that tap into consumers’ desire for exclusivity. Engage Customers Post-Purchase for Future Opportunities Engaging customers after they’ve made a purchase is crucial for maximizing future sales opportunities. Implementing automated follow-up emails with personalized recommendations can greatly improve their experience. These customized messages help create loyalty, potentially boosting repeat sales. You can likewise utilize thank you pages to present exclusive, limited-time offers, achieving an average conversion rate of 1.7%. Additionally, consider one-click post-purchase upsells, which leverage saved payment information, yielding an impressive ROI of $686 for every $1 spent. This streamlines the buying process, making it easier for customers to say yes to further purchases. Finally, analyzing customer behavior post-purchase allows you to identify trends and preferences, enabling you to craft targeted marketing strategies. By focusing on these post-purchase engagement tactics, you can open doors for additional sales, ensuring customers feel valued while driving your business growth. Build Trust Before Presenting Additional Offers Before you suggest additional offers to your customers, it’s crucial to build genuine connections first. By taking the time to understand their needs and providing valuable insights, you establish a foundation of trust that makes them more open to your recommendations. When customers feel valued, they’re not just more likely to accept cross-sell suggestions; they likewise see them as beneficial rather than intrusive. Establish Genuine Connections Establishing genuine connections with customers is crucial for effective cross-selling, as trust plays a pivotal role in their willingness to evaluate additional offers. By focusing on building rapport, you can markedly improve your cross-selling efforts. Here are three key strategies: Engage in meaningful conversations: Ask open-ended questions to uncover customer needs and preferences, creating an opportunity for customized suggestions. Demonstrate genuine interest: Show that you care about their success, which builds credibility and encourages acceptance of your cross-sell proposals. Personalize interactions: Relate to customers on an individual level, as they’re more likely to trust recommendations from someone they feel connected to. These strategies cultivate a relationship that naturally leads to discussions about complementary products, making cross-selling more effective. Provide Valuable Insights Building trust with customers goes hand in hand with providing valuable insights before introducing additional offers. By genuinely showing interest in their success, you improve your credibility, making them more open to your suggestions. Engaging in post-sale conversations about their experiences can reveal new cross-sell opportunities and strengthen relationships. Here’s a quick look at effective strategies: Strategy Description Ask Open-Ended Questions Understand customer needs and preferences. Share Tangible Examples Show how complementary products increase value. Follow-Up Conversations Discuss product experiences to identify needs. Provide Helpful Resources Offer insights that can benefit their purchase. Demonstrate Genuine Interest Build rapport to develop trust and receptiveness. Showcase Tangible Benefits Over Features When showcasing cross-sold products, it’s crucial to focus on the tangible benefits these items provide instead of just listing their features. Highlighting these benefits can greatly improve customer awareness and increase the likelihood of additional purchases. Here are three key approaches: Visualize Value: Use real-life examples to demonstrate how complementary products work together, helping customers see their combined value. Emphasize Cost Savings: Frame cross-sold items regarding convenience or savings, which can enhance customer perceptions and make them more likely to buy. Leverage Testimonials: Share customer testimonials or case studies that highlight positive outcomes from using bundled products, building trust and credibility. Monitor and Adapt Strategies Based on Performance After highlighting the tangible benefits of cross-selling, it’s important to continuously monitor and adapt your strategies based on performance metrics. Tracking customer purchasing behavior is essential; it helps you identify which cross-selling strategies are successful. Implement A/B testing to see which approaches yield the highest conversion rates, allowing you to refine your tactics effectively. To illustrate this, consider the following table: Strategy Performance Metric Customer Segmentation Targeted Offers A/B Testing Results Conversion Rate Comparison Engagement Metrics Email Open Rates Feedback Analysis Customer Satisfaction Regularly analyze engagement metrics from follow-up messages and cart abandonment emails to improve the timing and content of your offers. Finally, utilize customer feedback and sales performance data to guarantee your cross-selling strategies align with customer needs and market trends, continuously evolving for peak results. Frequently Asked Questions What Is the 3 3 3 Rule in Sales? The 3 3 3 rule in sales is a structured approach that helps you prepare effectively for customer interactions. First, you identify three key benefits of your product that resonate with potential buyers. Then, anticipate three objections customers might have, allowing you to address concerns proactively. Finally, select three closing techniques to guide the conversation toward a sale. This method improves your focus, confidence, and ability to engage prospects successfully. What Is the 25% Rule of Thumb for Cross-Selling? The 25% Rule of Thumb for cross-selling suggests that at least 25% of your total sales should come from cross-selling efforts. This benchmark emphasizes the need to integrate cross-selling into your sales strategy, enhancing customer engagement and increasing average order value. How to Cross-Sell Effectively? To cross-sell effectively, start by analyzing customer preferences and behaviors. Offer three to four relevant product suggestions that complement their current purchase, ensuring you don’t overwhelm them. Use personalized recommendations to boost engagement, and consider automating follow-up messages to remind customers about additional products. Incorporate videos or examples to demonstrate how these items can elevate their experience. This approach can increase conversion rates and improve overall sales performance considerably. What Are the 5 P’s of Successful Selling? The 5 P’s of successful selling are Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and People. First, you need to understand your product’s features and benefits. Then, set a competitive price that reflects its value. Next, choose the right channels for distribution to guarantee accessibility. Promotion involves marketing strategies that communicate product value effectively. Finally, keep in mind that building relationships with people, including customers and team members, is crucial for long-term success in sales. Conclusion Implementing effective cross-selling strategies can greatly improve your sales performance. By comprehending your customers’ needs through data analysis and segmenting them for targeted offers, you can provide personalized recommendations that resonate. Utilizing automated messaging and limiting suggestions simplifies their decision-making process. Engaging customers post-purchase builds trust and opens doors for future sales. Continuously monitoring and adapting your strategies based on performance guarantees that you stay relevant and effective, eventually driving increased revenue for your business. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Effective Cross Selling Strategies to Boost Sales" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Why traditional “utility SEO” content is losing value, and how marketers can create demand instead of chasing existing searches. The post Starting Or Steering The Wave appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

If you have an Asus router on your home network, it may have been targeted by a sophisticated form of malware capable of adding devices to a botnet and using them for criminal activity. Researchers at Lumen's Black Lotus Labs identified this threat—dubbed KadNap—in August 2025 and estimate that more than 14,000 devices have been infected. How KadNap compromises home networksAs Ars Technica reports, KadNap exploits unpatched vulnerabilities in connected devices, most of which are Asus routers. Infected devices are added to a proxy network that can hide malicious traffic. In this case, they are carrying traffic for service called Doppelganger, which allows users to browse anonymously and engage in brute-force attacks and targeted exploitation. KadNap is particularly difficult to detect because its protocol conceals the IP addresses of hackers' command-and-control (C2) servers, allowing it to evade traditional monitoring. The design also makes it highly scalable and resistant to takedown. An estimated 60% of affected devices are located in the U.S. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Russia account for another 5% each, with the remainder spread across numerous other countries around the world. Check your router for malicious activityIf you think your router may be infected with KadNap, compare the IP address and file hash in your device log with those on Black Lotus Labs' indicators of compromise (IOCs). You'll need to do a factory reset, as rebooting will run a shell script, not remove the malware. You could also run IP Check, a tool from threat monitoring firm Greynoise that can help determine if your router is potentially being used for malicious purposes (the KadNap botnet or otherwise). If your IP is flagged as suspicious, you'll be able to see recent scanning activity to investigate further. When it comes to network security, prevention is good protection. Update your network name and administrative password from your router's defaults (which are easy to discover). Consider disabling remote access controls, which prevents threat actors from changing settings without your knowledge, and log out of your admin account when it's not in use. Finally, keep your router's firmware up to date to ensure vulnerabilities are patched quickly. View the full article

Gone are the days when marketers can think in five- or 10-year plans. These days, it’s about tomorrow, not the next 16 months, because culture and what captures consumers’ attention is changing faster than ever. Today, it’s Love Island and Traitors reality TV star Rob Rausch posing shirtless on a giant billboard in Times Square for MAC Cosmetics. And tomorrow, it’s Punch the Monkey holding on to his plush doll. (And if you know what we’re talking about, congrats, you are chronically online and in tune with the culture. If you don’t, you’ve got some work to do, but that’s why we’re here.) The state of brand building in 2026 looks vastly different than what any veteran—or new—marketer remembers from even two years ago. Consumers have pulled back on purchases, with retail sales falling 0.2% in January, according to Commerce Department statistics. More consumers have mixed feelings about the economy than overall negativity, says global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. in its February research report. But consumers are still buying, whether it’s “little treat culture” or bigger luxury products at both retail shops and the grocery store. It’s how we convince them as brands to keep buying with us that’s changing. And thus, the state of brand marketing in 2026 is born—it’s fast, it’s weird, and honestly, at times, it makes no sense. But for those of you in the room making decisions on how to engage consumers, it could be the time of your life, as long as you keep your finger on the pulse and move quickly and intently with these principles in mind. KPIs are cringe: Instead, understand the data, but don’t rely on it To be a responsible marketer, you need to understand any data a campaign or activation provides. But besides that, execute without key performance indicators, or KPIs, in mind. (To us, this term is cringe in 2026.) It’s about gut calls, vibes, and how anything is going to make someone feel in order for them to buy with their heart, not their heads. Vibe marketing is resonating with consumers—we know, because some of us started that trend. At the organic infant formula company Bobbie, we led the first breastfeeding billboard in Times Square with cookbook author Molly Baz; we also empowered mothers to parent with confidence by naming artist Cardi B chief confidence officer. At Poppi, our Super Bowl campaign with Charli XCX and Rachel Sennott was all vibes—it did not take itself too seriously, which is exactly how the company operates—leaning into top-of-funnel marketing moments for our highly captive audience of women and Gen Zers. All of this changes depending on your marketing budgets, of course. But reaching people doesn’t always take a multimillion-dollar campaign. It’s surprising and delighting your community with moments that were once exclusive to media and influencers; it’s engaging with your comments sections and turning those into campaign moments, or simply a touchpoint to send someone merch “just because.” Leaning into your community and who your consumers already are will help you develop the best messaging for your brand: What’s the story you want people to tell your brand when they’re talking to their friends, family, and neighbors? Say something, do something Culture isn’t the only thing that’s rapidly evolving. With escalating geopolitical and domestic issues, consumers are looking for their favorite brands to weigh in and stand by their values. It’s important to stress that not every brand has to take a stance if it’s not in its DNA, and that’s okay. However, many companies have always been purpose-driven. But it’s no longer enough to have a random web page with a vague statement. Consumers want to see companies put their money where their mouth is by donating or partaking in some sort of advocacy work. It doesn’t always mean launching a new product or campaign with the hopes that someone purchases your product. At Bobbie, we just released our Paint the Hill Green docuseries, which shows our efforts to bring the Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act back to Congress. Our work—along with countless others—has resulted in the bill being reintroduced to Congress under this administration for the first time. We didn’t just sign a petition or pledge to do something. We put in the time and work and brought our community along with us. For SolComms, our communications agency has advised countless brands on when they should enter a political conversation. We assess the risk and a brand’s right to win within a certain issue, and then we execute. For example, with August, the sustainable period care company, we helped them work to fight the tampon tax by refunding customers who’ve paid a sales tax on menstrual products. And for Blueland, the sustainable cleaning product brand, we assisted in introducing a bill in the New York City Council to ban the distribution and sale of plastic detergent pods and sheets in NYC. Both efforts were actionable and on-brand, and resonated strongly with their respective target audiences. Stay true to your customers Whether it’s social media, email, or even direct mail, consumers are being sold to at every single possible moment. And they’re over it. They’ll let a brand know if they don’t believe in their product and post on social media to tell people—where it can quickly take off and turn into a nightmare that no one saw coming. Instead of working on crisis communications, brands should stay true to who they are and what their products are about. Continue to make sure your products have the best quality. If you’re marketing to a certain generation, stay the course, and they’ll most likely stay with you. Drunk Elephant has become another example of this in practice. The company enjoyed an uptick in sales and awareness from Gen Alpha tweens who would stock up on the brand’s $79 serums and $66 moisturizers. The pivot to relying on this generation meant leaving behind older consumers. Tweens are fickle consumers, however, as they’re quick to chase whatever the latest trend might be. And soon Drunk Elephant was not at the top of their list. The company’s sales dropped 65% year over year in the first quarter of 2025. In January, Drunk Elephant announced a new brand direction along with a “Please Enjoy Responsibly” campaign. At Poppi, we thought we had to gain more audience, so we signed a bunch of creators and influencers, and expanded our reach into sports because we wanted to reach more men. We didn’t see any positive results from these initiatives, so we pivoted and found that talking to our female customers is how we’d get to men. It’s easy to get obsessed with other audiences and not your core audiences, in order to chase the shiny new generation. But the smarter strategy is to go deeper into your core audience. It’s easier than ever to get distracted by the hundreds of signals we think we should be following—whether it’s AI, community building, LinkedIn posts, flashy out-of-home advertisements, activations at every single major music festival, and the list goes on and on. But the brands that are capturing a consumer’s attention—and dollars—are the ones thinking about them, and only them, and what they want. Those are the brands receiving $2 billion exits, major retail exposure, and organic love from consumers; those are the companies we’ll still be writing about 20 years from now, and that will eventually become the rare, coveted 100-year-legacy brand. View the full article

My new favorite creator on TikTok is Apple. Yes, that Apple. On March 4, Apple launched its newest product, the head-turningly affordable $599 MacBook Neo. That same day, the company also deleted all of the content that once populated its TikTok page and started over. Its new videos—on view there are now 15—run the gamut from a clip inspired by Steve Jobs’s original introduction of the 1984 Macintosh to a cutesy animation of the Mac finder icon giggling and blushing. The videos have consistently debuted in batches of three, each corresponding to one of the brand colors associated with the Neo. This TikTok refresh is a clear play to cater to the audience that Apple knows is most interested in the Neo: Gen Z. The new laptop model, powered by the same architecture inside your iPhone, is targeting a younger user base with its unprecedentedly low price point and aesthetic color options, which tap into Gen Z’s long-demonstrated obsession with retro-tech. So far, the new TikTok strategy seems to be working. Based on a Wayback Machine capture from February 28, Apple was sitting at 7 million followers and 21.9 million likes before the change; figures that have now jumped to 7.8 million and 31.6 million, respectively. Apple also recently debuted a secondary Instagram account called @helloapple, which will be dedicated to news, product marketing, and customer stories. This account has a decidedly more corporate feel than the brand’s TikTok, but demonstrates the company’s broader desire to expand its presence on socials. Apple’s new TikTok page works because it takes an amalgamation of trending aesthetics and blends them with Apple’s high design point of view, turning every silly video into a loopable work of art. Why Apple’s new TikTok is genius Plenty of brands have experimented with how to best capture Gen Z on TikTok, and Apple’s team has evidently taken notes out of multiple playbooks. The company is experimenting with everything from brain rot content to y2k nostalgia, ASMR, goofy branded songs, and creepy edits. Ordinarily, such a wide range of aesthetics might make a brand seem cringeworthy and pandering. For Apple, though, the meticulous creative execution of the launch ties everything together. Take, for example, one 14-second clip of a woman opening and swatching a pink blush, referencing the “Blush”-hued Neo. The concept is simple, but every detail of the video has been optimized to tap into Gen Z’s love for y2k aesthetics—from the model’s striped top and the pink shag rug to the custom blush container, featuring Apple’s logo, that appears to be an allusion to the colorful plastic shell of the ‘90s iMac G3 computer. This mash-up of nostalgiacore with a direct reference to a recognizable Apple product of the era makes the video feel authentic, not forced. The post’s engagement reflects that: as of this writing, it’s notched more than 64 million views and nearly 35,000 comments, most of which are begging for Apple to bring back some of its beloved colorful hardware. In a similar vein, other clips cleverly pair Apple’s signature sonic design with eye-catching visuals, like a 3-second video of the sun rising to the Mac startup chime, or a juicy mash-up of citrus fruits choreographed to an edit of various notification sounds. The account is also testing some videos that brush into brain-rot territory, a social trend we’ve described as a form of digital marketing that “embraces head-turning, often nonsensical choices, like fried visuals, abrasive design, and unsettling storylines.” These include clips like a slightly unnerving compilation of people with their hands dyed blue (presumably as a reference to the “Indigo” Neo), a custom brand song dedicated to Apple’s fingerprint recognition software, and a silly clip of a lemon facetiming a lime (mimicking the colors of the Neo’s default background screen). While other brands like Duolingo, Nutter Butter, and Brita have taken similar brain-rot strategies to the extreme on their accounts, Apple’s twist on brain-rot demonstrates that it understands what makes this content resonate—a combination of irreverence and unexpectedness—yet also knows to keep its approach restrained and aesthetically pleasing, giving it a distinctly Apple feel. It’s Steve Jobs-meets-brain-rot, in the best way possible. View the full article

I was walking down the street with my partner in London’s Camden neighborhood on Wednesday night when we saw an ad that said, “This app was designed to keep you hooked.” A finger could be seen tapping Instagram’s app icon above a claim reading, “45% of teens say they spend too much time on social media.” In theory, this was all straightforward messaging, but the ad’s final note in the corner threw us: “From Meta,” logo and all. We turned to each other in confusion, trying to make sense of it. The ad looked so professionally designed that we wondered, could Meta Platforms, a company that has repeatedly denied responsibility for its users’ mental health, be advertising it? No. In short, Instagram and Facebook’s parent company has done nothing of the sort. Instead, the ad is from Just Treatment, a U.K.-based health justice group started in 2017. The organization’s latest campaign is Mad Youth Organise, a push to improve accessible, quality mental health care for young people. The “ad” we saw was one of eight that activists have plastered guerrilla-style across London, Just Treatment told Fast Company. A similar design to the one we saw features a photo of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg smiling. “If you feel worse, it’s working,” it says. Other ads are plastered with statements such as “Our anxiety is exploited by Meta” and “We’re more lonely with Meta.” Each includes a statistic to back up these claims. The campaign launched Wednesday and included a group of young people blocking Meta’s London office with another ad that bluntly stated: “The youth mental health crisis, sponsored by Meta.” The individuals involved in the protest believe social media has “pushed them into mental health crisis,” according to Mad Youth Organise. Young activists who’ve lived with adverse mental health have run and designed the entire campaign, Just Treatment says. Alongside Meta, Mad Youth Organise has also targeted TikTok. One sign reads, “Eating disorders start on TikTok,” while another says, “Misery starts on TikTok.” Both also cite a statistic claiming 46% of teens feel social media makes them have a worse body image. Fast Company has reached out to Meta and TikTok for comment. We will update this post if we hear back. What does the Mad Youth Organise campaign want? Mad Youth Organise is pushing for a “Big Tech Tax,” a 4% tax on tech companies earning over £500 million ($663 million) globally. The money raised would be put toward funding youth mental health services. It’s also insisting that Big Tech’s social media monopoly be severed, among other demands. How bad is social media for young people? It’s no secret that social media has been shown to cause adverse effects. A high-profile social media trial in the U.S. held closing arguments on Thursday: TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and Snap have been accused of knowingly designing products that are both addictive and harmful to young people’s mental health. These social media companies have all taken the same approach to these accusations: Deny. Deny. Deny. TikTok and Snap previously settled with the plaintiff, identified only by her initials KGM. She claims that early social media use made her addicted to technology and exacerbated her depression and suicidal thoughts. However, this is the first of a consolidated group of cases for over 1,600 plaintiffs, including families and school districts. Research has consistently found evidence of social media’s harm to young people’s mental health. A 2025 survey from Pew Research found that 48% of U.S. teens aged 13 to 17 believe social media sites have a mostly negative effect on their age group. This figure is a significant jump from the 32% who felt the same in a 2022 survey. Participants also listed social media as the most negative influence on teen mental health (22%), higher than bullying (17%), pressure and expectations (16%) and school (5%). Young Minds, a U.K.-based charity for young people’s mental health, reports that 34% of young people feel trapped on social media sites. Meanwhile, 22% report receiving distressing content on social media at least weekly. View the full article

Revised figures show GDP rose at a 0.7% rate in fourth quarter, down from earlier reading of 1.4%View the full article

Towers in Dubai International Financial Centre suffer damage but most drones and missiles are interceptedView the full article

Tehran has done ‘more with less’ as it hit major targets around the Gulf, but its firing has begun to waneView the full article

We may earn a commission from links on this page. Deal pricing and availability subject to change after time of publication. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ (128GB) is currently $499.99 (down from $649.99) on Amazon, and price trackers confirm this is the lowest price it has ever reached. According to PCMag’s “excellent” review, the Tab S10 FE+ works well as a general-purpose tablet for both entertainment and productivity, making it one of the best tablets you can buy in 2026. Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE+ 13.1” 128GB WiFi Android Tablet $499.99 at Amazon $649.99 Save $150.00 Get Deal Get Deal $499.99 at Amazon $649.99 Save $150.00 Samsung gives the tablet an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance, something you still don’t see on every tablet. It runs Android 15 with Samsung’s One UI interface and comes with the S Pen stylus included, which is useful if you like taking handwritten notes, marking up documents, or sketching. Storage caps at 128GB, but there’s a microSD slot that supports cards up to 2TB, so you can expand it later if your tablet ends up holding a lot of downloads, files, or videos. Its 13.1-inch display has a resolution of 2,880 by 1,800 pixels and supports refresh rates up to 90Hz, so scrolling through apps, reading, and watching videos all look smooth and sharp. The tablet itself stays fairly slim for its size at 0.24 inches thick and weighs about 1.46 pounds. It feels balanced whether you hold it in portrait for reading or landscape for movies. Inside, the tablet runs on Samsung’s Exynos 1580 processor with 8GB of RAM, which keeps everyday tasks running smoothly. Apps open quickly, and Samsung’s software helps you use the large screen more effectively. Tools like the Edge Panel and multi-window mode make it easy to keep two or three apps open at once, while Samsung’s DeX mode can turn the tablet into a more desktop-like workspace if you connect a keyboard or external display. The battery reportedly lasts around eight hours, which is enough for a day of streaming, browsing, or light work. The tablet’s speakers sound loud and clear with Dolby Atmos support, and the cameras—a 13MP rear and 12MP front—are decent for video calls or quick photos. The main omission compared with Samsung’s flagship tablets is Galaxy AI, though you still get tools like Circle to Search, Object Eraser, and Best Face for basic editing and everyday convenience. Our Best Editor-Vetted Tech Deals Right Now Apple AirPods 4 Active Noise Cancelling Wireless Earbuds — $119.99 (List Price $179.00) Samsung Galaxy S26 512GB + $100 Amazon Gift Card (Black) — $1,099.99 (List Price $1,099.99) Google Pixel 10a 128GB 6.3" Unlocked Smartphone + $100 Gift Card — $599.00 (List Price $599.00) Apple iPad 11" 128GB A16 WiFi Tablet (Blue, 2025) — $299.00 (List Price $349.00) Apple Watch Series 11 (GPS, 42mm, S/M Black Sport Band) — $299.00 (List Price $399.00) Amazon Fire TV Soundbar — $99.99 (List Price $119.99) Deals are selected by our commerce team View the full article