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If you have Verizon, yesterday might have been a bit chaotic. The wireless carrier's coverage was down for large swaths of the country for much of the day, leading to confusion, frustration, and, for some, conspiracy theories. I saw some users on X post cryptic messages like "This is how it starts," and "These are the end times." It's good to know in times of service disruption, we can all keep a level head. But despite claims to the contrary, the world didn't end yesterday, and Verizon fixed the issue. The company issued a statement at 10:20 p.m. ET, confirming the outage had been resolved, and that Verizon would contact affected customers directly to issue account credits. While that doesn't necessarily make up for a full day of network downtime, at least Verizon users can get back online and make calls when not connected to wifi. But some customers out there aren't back to normal. In fact, they're still seeing the same "SOS" alert on their phones they saw yesterday. For these users, the outage is very much still happening, as they cannot access the internet or communicate with others without either going through satellite connectivity, or finding a wifi connection. When you need to be out and about, especially on the road, that isn't an option. How to get your Verizon phone out of SOS mode Luckily, there's a simple solution here, one that Verizon shared in its post about the outage's resolution: restart your phone. It doesn't matter if you already restarted your phone yesterday during the outage: In order to see results, you'll need to power off your phone and turn it back on after Verizon implemented its fix. Different smartphones have different restart methods, but here are some tips for the most popular models: Restarting an iPhone: Press and hold one of the volume buttons together with the side (power) button, until you see the power-off slider. Slide to power off, then wait for the screen to go totally black. After about 30 seconds, you can press and hold the side button to power it back on. Note: If your iPhone has a Home button, you can simply press and hold the side button to pull up the power-off slider. Restarting a Samsung Galaxy: Press and hold the volume down button and side button until you see power options appear. Here, choose "Restart," then tap "Restart" again. Restarting a Pixel: If you have a Pixel 6 or newer, press and hold the volume up button and side button for a few seconds, then tap "Restart" when it appears. If you have a Pixel 5 or older, simply hold the side button until the phone restarts. If your phone model isn't listed here, you can search the internet for specific instructions on how to restart it. Typically, though, the process involves holding both the side button and one of the volume buttons. View the full article

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today...View the full article

As search marketers, we tend to focus on what we can control: keywords, links, Core Web Vitals, indexed pages. We have dashboards for our dashboards. But not everything that shapes search behavior lives inside GSC, GA4, or your favorite rank tracker. One of the most influential forces sits just outside traditional SEO reporting: the social media halo effect. When a Reel takes off or a LinkedIn post hits the right nerve, it doesn’t just earn likes and comments. It creates curiosity about the brand, the product, or the person behind the post. And that curiosity almost always shows up in the same place: the search bar. The problem is that most SEO teams aren’t set up to capture that moment. We’re not tracking it, we’re not reporting on it, and we’re rarely aligned with social teams to act on it in real time. The result is a significant blind spot in how we measure and talk about intent and impact. The case for measuring the social-to-search connection Let’s start with something we don’t always say out loud: branded search is one of the clearest signals of demand and trust we have. Clients may prefer to focus on non-branded growth for various reasons, but people typically don’t search for brands they don’t recognize. They don’t add product names, founders, or taglines to a query unless something has already sparked interest. Branded search isn’t random. It is the byproduct of awareness, credibility, and relevance – things social is exceptionally good at creating. Despite that, branded performance tends to get treated like background noise. We keep an eye on it, monitor it passively, attribute it vaguely to “marketing,” and then move on to non-branded performance where we feel more in control. The invisibility problem Social is shaping search behavior in very real ways, but SEO reporting rarely tells that story. A viral post happens. Branded impressions spike. Organic traffic rises. And the SEO report says nothing meaningful about why. When SEOs ignore social, we miss a few important things: We miss early intent signals. Branded lifts often show up before demand turns into conversions. We miss attribution leverage. Social teams are asked to prove impact beyond engagement and SEO data can help connect those dots. We miss momentum. Social attention moves fast. If search isn’t ready to meet it with the right experience, that interest fades just as quickly. Measuring the social-to-search connection isn’t about claiming credit. It’s about seeing the full picture when lines are already blurred – and making better decisions because of it. Dig deeper: Social search and the future of brand engagement What the ‘halo effect’ actually looks like The halo effect isn’t theoretical. If you’ve been in SEO long enough, you’ve seen it. You just may not have labeled it. Here’s what it can look like in the wild. Scenario 1: A TikTok post goes viral and drives product searches A brand posts a TikTok demo that unexpectedly takes off. No link in bio traffic explosion. No immediate sales spike. But within days: “Brand + product name” searches climb. GSC impressions jump for branded terms. Google Trends shows a noticeable blip. People didn’t click. They remembered. And then they searched. Scenario 2: A founder’s LinkedIn post sparks searches for his name A CEO shares a candid post that resonates. Maybe it’s about leadership, burnout, or AI skepticism. Suddenly, you see searches for “Brand CEO name” and brand queries that include “interview,” “podcast,” or “thoughts”. That’s brand authority being built in public and validated in search. Scenario 3: An influencer mention (without links) leads to a surge in brand name searches An influencer organically references a brand on TikTok or Instagram Stories. No partnership, no product link, no UTMs. Nothing an SEO tool can easily grab. But branded impressions rise anyway. This is why branded keyword lifts are often the first measurable signal of rising interest. They’re the echo, not the shout. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How to track the social halo effect You don’t need a perfect attribution model to measure this. You need consistency, context, and a willingness to look outside the SEO bubble. 1. Establish a branded baseline Before you can identify a lift, you need to know what “normal” looks like. Start with: Google Search Console: Pull branded query impressions over the last 12–16 months. Google Trends: Compare brand interest over time to category terms or competitors. Next, segment your branded universe: Core brand name Product or service names Common misspellings Executive or founder names Campaign-specific terms or taglines This baseline is your control group. Document it. You’ll reference it constantly. 2. Watch for spikes around social moments Once you have your baseline, start watching for deviations. Track branded impressions weekly (or even daily during big campaigns). Flag any statistically meaningful lift, not just “good weeks.” Cross-reference dates with: Social launches. Viral posts. Influencer activations. PR hits amplified on social. Bonus: Pull in GA4 traffic from social platforms to add supporting evidence, even if it’s not the main driver. The goal isn’t perfect causation. It’s credible correlation. Dig deeper: Social search is Gen Z’s Google: Are you visible where it matters? 3. Layer in social listening and engagement data This is where SEO dashboards get smarter. Use tools like Brandwatch, Sprout Social, or native platform insights (TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram) to track: Brand mentions. Campaign/brand hashtags. Engagement. Sentiment shifts. Then do something we often overlook: annotate your SEO data. Add notes to Looker Studio, Google Search Console, or internal reports: “Viral TikTok on X date.” “Founder post exceeded average engagement by 400%.” “Influencer mention with over 1 million reach.” Context will help turn all this data into narrative. 4. Correlate branded search with on-site behavior Not all branded traffic is equal – and that’s a good thing. Consider site engagement, such as: Time on site. Pages per session. Conversion rate. Entry pages from branded queries. Often, socially influenced branded search users will spend more time exploring the site. They are more likely to visit your About page, a blog, or multiple product pages. And even if they don’t convert immediately, when they do, they will do so more confidently. Bonus: Review People Also Ask and query modifiers. Are users searching “reviews,” “pricing,” or “legit?” Those are trust questions social often triggers. What to do with all this data Reporting should not be the end goal. Once you can show the halo effect, you can actually use it. Prove the value of social to SEO (and vice versa) This data is catnip for stakeholders. It connects awareness to intent without over-promising attribution. Use it to: Defend social investment. Justify brand-focused SEO initiatives. Show how channels reinforce each other. Forecast content that wins in both channels If certain topics drive social engagement and branded search lifts, that’s a roadmap. Prioritize building content around: High-performing thought leadership themes. FAQs sparked by social comments. Product questions that surface post-virality. Build SEO support for social moments When launches or campaigns are coming: Optimize branded landing pages in advance. Align title tags and meta descriptions with social messaging. Ensure SERPs reflect the same value proposition users just saw on social. Nothing kills momentum faster than a mismatched search experience. Align brand messaging everywhere If social bios, search results, knowledge panels, and on-site messaging tell different stories, users notice. Consistency builds confidence. Confidence drives conversion. Dig deeper: Why 2026 is the year the SEO silo breaks and cross-channel execution starts Why the social-to-search connection will only grow As AI overviews, zero-click SERPs, and recommendation engines have become the new norm, brand familiarity matters more than ever. Search isn’t just returning information anymore. Whether the result comes from Google or a generative AI experience, it increasingly reflects what people already recognize, trust, or feel curious about. And more often than not, that perception is shaped long before a query is typed – on social. This isn’t about attribution gymnastics or debating which channel “gets credit.” It’s about alignment. The brands that win won’t treat social and search as separate lanes. They’ll build systems where discovery, curiosity, and intent flow naturally from one platform to the next. Dig deeper: Social and UGC: The trust engines powering search everywhere Trace the ripple SEOs can’t afford to stay siloed. The better we understand how people discover a brand before they search, the better we can show up when they do. So the next time branded search spikes, don’t just celebrate the traffic and move on. Look at the halo around it. Chances are, it started with a piece of social content or a very human moment that made someone want to know more. Trace the ripple. View the full article

To effectively boost your sales, it’s crucial to implement strategies that align with customer needs and market trends. By comprehending your customers, utilizing the sales funnel, and enhancing your online presence, you can create a more engaging experience. Offering diverse payment options and creating a referral program can additionally drive interest. Nonetheless, these methods are just the beginning. Discover how you can leverage product bundling and improve sales skills to further enhance your sales performance. Key Takeaways Understand your customers’ needs and preferences through surveys and online engagement to tailor your sales strategies effectively. Utilize the sales funnel model to identify weak points and nurture leads with targeted content during each stage of the buying process. Offer a variety of payment options to reduce cart abandonment and enhance customer satisfaction, catering to diverse consumer preferences. Implement promotions and referral programs to incentivize purchases and encourage existing customers to share your brand with their networks. Use product bundling strategies to increase perceived value and drive larger purchases by pairing popular items with slower-moving products. Understand Your Customers To effectively improve your sales strategies, it’s vital to comprehend your customers, as this knowledge can greatly influence your success. Identifying their challenges, desires, fears, and concerns is fundamental for tailoring your marketing techniques to increase sales. Conducting surveys or working with consumer research firms can provide valuable insights into customer perspectives. This information helps you address their needs, nurturing trust and loyalty, which leads to repeat purchases. Engaging with customers through online platforms allows for real-time feedback, enhancing your connection with them. Utilizing this feedback not just highlights areas for improvement but additionally shows customers that their opinions matter, thereby strengthening relationships. In the end, these strategies to increase sales rely on a deep comprehension of your customer base. Use the Sales Funnel Model Using the sales funnel model helps you map your customer path from the moment they become aware of your product to when they make a purchase. This approach allows you to segment your audience based on their interests and buying behaviors, leading to more effective targeting in your marketing efforts. Mapping Customer Journey Mapping the customer path through the sales funnel model is essential for grasping how potential buyers progress from initial awareness to making a purchase decision. Comprehending this progression allows you to identify effective methods to increase sales. By analyzing each stage—awareness, consideration, and decision—you can pinpoint weak points and optimize them to improve conversion rates. For instance, nurturing leads with targeted content during the interest stage is one of the best ways to improve sales. Regularly tracking key metrics like lead conversion rates helps refine your strategies. In the end, this structured approach shows you how to increase sales in business by addressing specific customer needs and enhancing engagement throughout the funnel. Segmentation for Targeting Effective segmentation for targeting within the sales funnel model allows businesses to tailor their marketing strategies to meet the specific needs of potential buyers at each stage. By comprehending where customers are in the funnel, you can implement marketing ideas to increase sales effectively. Research shows that 70% of buyers prefer digital engagement, emphasizing the importance of online strategies. Funnel Stage Targeting Strategy Awareness Informative Content Marketing Consideration Personalized Offers & Demos Purchase Follow-up & Customer Support Regularly reviewing these strategies based on performance data can improve your approach, showing you how to increase company sales by optimizing for better conversions. Interact With Customers Online Engaging with customers online is crucial in today’s digital environment, where social media platforms provide immediate channels for interaction. By incorporating live chat support on your website, you can address customer inquiries swiftly, helping to prevent cart abandonment. Furthermore, building an online community encourages valuable feedback, allowing you to refine your products and services based on real customer insights. Social Media Engagement As social media continues to dominate the way brands interact with consumers, establishing a strong presence on these platforms is vital for your business. Engaging with customers can greatly improve your brand’s visibility; 70% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand after a positive social media experience. Responding to comments and messages cultivates trust and loyalty, with 78% of consumers noting that a brand’s responsiveness influences their purchasing decisions. Social media is preferred by 70% of consumers for brand interactions, making it imperative to capture leads effectively. Brands that actively engage can see a 25% increase in sales, as this interaction creates a sense of community, encouraging repeat business and customer loyalty over time. Live Chat Support Live chat support is becoming an essential tool for businesses looking to improve customer interaction and boost sales. This feature not just improves engagement but also directly impacts conversion rates. Here are some benefits you can expect: Increased Engagement: Implementing live chat can improve customer engagement by 40%, providing instant answers during the shopping process. Higher Conversion Rates: Businesses leveraging live chat have seen a 20% rise in sales conversions, as real-time support addresses customer concerns effectively. Reduced Cart Abandonment: Live chat can lower cart abandonment rates by up to 63%, offering timely assistance to hesitant customers. With 79% of consumers preferring live chat for quick responses, it’s clear that integrating this tool can greatly improve the customer experience and drive sales. Online Community Building Building an online community around your brand can greatly improve customer interaction and loyalty. Engaging with customers through social media platforms boosts your brand visibility, as 70% of buyers prefer digital engagement. Utilizing chat tools on your website allows for immediate responses to inquiries, enhancing the purchasing experience and potentially increasing conversion rates. By promoting direct communication, you can gain valuable insights into customer preferences and pain points. Regular online interactions strengthen brand loyalty and encourage word-of-mouth referrals, with 83% of consumers trusting recommendations from friends and family more than advertising. Furthermore, active participation in relevant forums and online groups helps you identify emerging trends and customer needs, allowing you to tailor your offerings effectively to meet market demands. Give a Variety of Payment Options Offering a variety of payment options is vital for modern businesses looking to improve customer experience and drive sales. When you provide multiple payment methods, you greatly reduce cart abandonment rates and elevate customer satisfaction. Consider these key points: Customer Preferences: 56% of consumers prefer businesses that offer various payment options, leading to increased loyalty. Mobile Solutions: With 79% of smartphone users making purchases via their devices, mobile-friendly payment options are imperative. Flexible Payments: Implementing options like buy now, pay later can boost average order values by 20-30%, encouraging larger purchases. Create a Referral Program Creating a referral program can considerably boost your sales by encouraging your existing customers to share your brand with their networks. By offering incentives for successful referrals, like discounts or credits, you not only motivate your customers but likewise improve their loyalty. Furthermore, ensuring the referral process is user-friendly and tracking its success can help you maximize the benefits of this strategy. Incentives for Sharing Referrals How can a well-designed referral program transform your customer base and boost sales? By introducing incentives for sharing referrals, you encourage your customers to spread the word about your business. Here are three effective strategies: Offer Discounts: Provide a discount for both the referrer and the referred customer, motivating them to participate in your program. Reward Points: Create a points system where customers earn rewards for successful referrals, which they can redeem for future purchases. Exclusive Access: Give referrers exclusive access to new products or services, making them feel valued and appreciated. Easy Referral Process An easy referral process can greatly improve the effectiveness of your referral program, making it more likely for customers to participate and share your business with others. To create a seamless experience, design a program that includes simple sharing options and clear instructions. This can encourage engagement and increase acquisition rates by up to 25%. Here’s a quick overview of key elements for your referral program: Element Description Purpose Incentives Discounts or credits for both Motivate participation Promotion Use email and social media Boost visibility Easy Process Simple sharing options Boost engagement and success Implementing these strategies can lead to higher conversion rates, making your referral program more effective. Track Referral Success To maximize the effectiveness of your referral program, tracking referral success is key. By monitoring the performance of your program, you can make informed adjustments that improve results. Here are three crucial tracking strategies: Monitor New Customers: Keep track of the number of new customers generated through referrals. This metric helps you gauge the program’s reach. Evaluate Conversion Rates: Analyze how many referred leads convert to actual sales. Higher conversion rates indicate effective referrals. Solicit Feedback: Regularly ask participants for their opinions on the referral process. This feedback can refine the program and boost engagement. Offer Discounts Offering discounts is a proven strategy that can considerably improve your sales performance. By incentivizing larger purchases, options like “buy one, get one free” or offering free gifts encourage customers to buy more than they planned. Periodic discounts and seasonal promotions can effectively boost sales during key times, creating urgency that leads to increased foot traffic and higher transaction volumes. Research shows that offering discounts can enhance sales conversion rates by around 30%, as customers perceive added value. Implementing time-sensitive discounts prompts immediate action, driving quick sales increases. Furthermore, well-planned discount strategies can nurture customer loyalty, as shoppers who receive exclusive deals are more inclined to return for future purchases, in the end benefiting your overall sales strategy. Bundle Products Bundling products is an effective sales strategy that improves customer value and increases purchase volume. By offering complementary items together, you can elevate the perceived value of purchases and encourage customers to buy more at once. Here are three benefits of bundling: Increased Sales Volume: Studies show bundling can lead to a 20-30% increase in sales compared to selling items separately. Inventory Management: Pair slower-moving items with popular products to clear out inventory effectively. Sense of Urgency: Bundled offers can create urgency and exclusivity, motivating customers to act quickly for perceived savings. Implementing a bundling strategy can’t only boost your sales but likewise improve overall customer satisfaction, making it a win-win for your business. Enhance Sales Skills Improving sales skills is vital for driving success in today’s competitive marketplace. Regular training can boost the time your sales team spends selling by 23%, markedly improving productivity. Incorporating role-playing during training allows you to prepare for real-life scenarios, sharpening your negotiation and closing techniques. Continuous education on both hard and soft skills guarantees your team adapts effectively to changing market conditions and customer needs. Moreover, coaching sessions centered on performance metrics can pinpoint specific weaknesses, enabling targeted improvement strategies that elevate outcomes. Engaging in peer learning and mentorship cultivates collaboration and knowledge sharing, resulting in a more skilled and effective sales force. Prioritizing these strategies will lead to improved sales performance and greater overall success. Utilize Customer Feedback Utilizing customer feedback is vital for businesses aiming to remain competitive and responsive to market demands. Gathering insights directly from consumers helps identify areas for improvement, augmenting your products and services. Here are three ways to effectively use customer feedback: Strengthen Loyalty: Regularly asking for feedback shows customers their opinions matter, which can increase their loyalty and lead to repeat purchases. Leverage Testimonials: Positive feedback can be showcased in your marketing materials, building trust and credibility with potential buyers. Address Concerns Quickly: Swiftly resolving negative feedback can improve relationships and prevent loss of sales, as 70% of customers reconsider brands after a negative experience if handled well. Incorporating these strategies can greatly improve your sales performance. Optimize Online Presence To succeed in today’s digital environment, optimizing your online presence is essential for attracting and retaining customers. A user-friendly website design greatly improves customer engagement, as 88% of users are unlikely to return after a poor experience. Implementing effective SEO strategies can increase your site’s visibility, potentially boosting organic search traffic by up to 14 times. High-quality, relevant content not only captivates visitors but can likewise lead to a six-fold increase in conversion rates. Regularly updating your site keeps content fresh, improving search rankings. To summarize, an optimized online presence can yield a 400% increase in lead generation and elevate overall sales performance. Strategy Impact User-Friendly Design Increases customer engagement Effective SEO Boosts visibility by up to 14 times High-Quality Content Six-fold increase in conversion rates Regular Updates Improves search rankings Overall Optimization 400% increase in lead generation Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Strategy to Increase Sales? To effectively increase sales, you should consider implementing a referral program, as satisfied customers often recommend your business to others. Offering multiple payment options can cater to diverse preferences, reducing cart abandonment. Regularly gathering customer feedback helps you identify pain points and tailor your offerings. Moreover, discounts and limited-time offers create urgency, encouraging quicker purchases. Analyzing the sales funnel allows you to pinpoint weaknesses, optimizing conversion rates at each stage. What Are the 3 C’s in Sales? The 3 C’s in sales are Company, Customer, and Competition. First, you assess your Company’s strengths and weaknesses, which shape your sales strategies. Next, comprehending your Customer’s needs and preferences is crucial for crafting effective sales pitches. Finally, analyzing your Competition helps you identify market opportunities and differentiate your offerings. What Is the 3 2 1 Sales Strategy? The 3 2 1 Sales Strategy is a method intended to improve your sales approach. It involves identifying three key benefits of your product that resonate with potential customers. Next, you address two common objections they might have, preparing you for their concerns. Finally, you create one clear call to action that encourages them to make a purchase. This strategy helps streamline communication, making it easier for customers to understand the value and commit. What Is the Most Successful Sales Strategy? The most successful sales strategy revolves around comprehending customer needs and preferences. You can gather this information through surveys and direct engagement, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. Utilizing the sales funnel model helps you identify key customer progression stages, enabling targeted approaches that increase conversion rates. Offering diverse payment options reduces cart abandonment and boosts sales. Finally, implementing a referral program leverages existing customers’ networks, encouraging repeat purchases and growing your audience effectively. Conclusion Implementing these ten proven strategies can considerably improve your sales performance. By comprehending your customers, optimizing your online presence, and utilizing effective marketing techniques, you create a solid foundation for growth. Offering diverse payment options and creating referral programs can further engage your audience. Furthermore, continuous training and leveraging customer feedback guarantee your approach remains relevant. Consistently analyzing key metrics allows for adjustments that drive sales and improve customer satisfaction, eventually leading to long-term success in your business. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Proven Strategies to Increase Sales" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

To effectively boost your sales, it’s crucial to implement strategies that align with customer needs and market trends. By comprehending your customers, utilizing the sales funnel, and enhancing your online presence, you can create a more engaging experience. Offering diverse payment options and creating a referral program can additionally drive interest. Nonetheless, these methods are just the beginning. Discover how you can leverage product bundling and improve sales skills to further enhance your sales performance. Key Takeaways Understand your customers’ needs and preferences through surveys and online engagement to tailor your sales strategies effectively. Utilize the sales funnel model to identify weak points and nurture leads with targeted content during each stage of the buying process. Offer a variety of payment options to reduce cart abandonment and enhance customer satisfaction, catering to diverse consumer preferences. Implement promotions and referral programs to incentivize purchases and encourage existing customers to share your brand with their networks. Use product bundling strategies to increase perceived value and drive larger purchases by pairing popular items with slower-moving products. Understand Your Customers To effectively improve your sales strategies, it’s vital to comprehend your customers, as this knowledge can greatly influence your success. Identifying their challenges, desires, fears, and concerns is fundamental for tailoring your marketing techniques to increase sales. Conducting surveys or working with consumer research firms can provide valuable insights into customer perspectives. This information helps you address their needs, nurturing trust and loyalty, which leads to repeat purchases. Engaging with customers through online platforms allows for real-time feedback, enhancing your connection with them. Utilizing this feedback not just highlights areas for improvement but additionally shows customers that their opinions matter, thereby strengthening relationships. In the end, these strategies to increase sales rely on a deep comprehension of your customer base. Use the Sales Funnel Model Using the sales funnel model helps you map your customer path from the moment they become aware of your product to when they make a purchase. This approach allows you to segment your audience based on their interests and buying behaviors, leading to more effective targeting in your marketing efforts. Mapping Customer Journey Mapping the customer path through the sales funnel model is essential for grasping how potential buyers progress from initial awareness to making a purchase decision. Comprehending this progression allows you to identify effective methods to increase sales. By analyzing each stage—awareness, consideration, and decision—you can pinpoint weak points and optimize them to improve conversion rates. For instance, nurturing leads with targeted content during the interest stage is one of the best ways to improve sales. Regularly tracking key metrics like lead conversion rates helps refine your strategies. In the end, this structured approach shows you how to increase sales in business by addressing specific customer needs and enhancing engagement throughout the funnel. Segmentation for Targeting Effective segmentation for targeting within the sales funnel model allows businesses to tailor their marketing strategies to meet the specific needs of potential buyers at each stage. By comprehending where customers are in the funnel, you can implement marketing ideas to increase sales effectively. Research shows that 70% of buyers prefer digital engagement, emphasizing the importance of online strategies. Funnel Stage Targeting Strategy Awareness Informative Content Marketing Consideration Personalized Offers & Demos Purchase Follow-up & Customer Support Regularly reviewing these strategies based on performance data can improve your approach, showing you how to increase company sales by optimizing for better conversions. Interact With Customers Online Engaging with customers online is crucial in today’s digital environment, where social media platforms provide immediate channels for interaction. By incorporating live chat support on your website, you can address customer inquiries swiftly, helping to prevent cart abandonment. Furthermore, building an online community encourages valuable feedback, allowing you to refine your products and services based on real customer insights. Social Media Engagement As social media continues to dominate the way brands interact with consumers, establishing a strong presence on these platforms is vital for your business. Engaging with customers can greatly improve your brand’s visibility; 70% of consumers are more likely to recommend a brand after a positive social media experience. Responding to comments and messages cultivates trust and loyalty, with 78% of consumers noting that a brand’s responsiveness influences their purchasing decisions. Social media is preferred by 70% of consumers for brand interactions, making it imperative to capture leads effectively. Brands that actively engage can see a 25% increase in sales, as this interaction creates a sense of community, encouraging repeat business and customer loyalty over time. Live Chat Support Live chat support is becoming an essential tool for businesses looking to improve customer interaction and boost sales. This feature not just improves engagement but also directly impacts conversion rates. Here are some benefits you can expect: Increased Engagement: Implementing live chat can improve customer engagement by 40%, providing instant answers during the shopping process. Higher Conversion Rates: Businesses leveraging live chat have seen a 20% rise in sales conversions, as real-time support addresses customer concerns effectively. Reduced Cart Abandonment: Live chat can lower cart abandonment rates by up to 63%, offering timely assistance to hesitant customers. With 79% of consumers preferring live chat for quick responses, it’s clear that integrating this tool can greatly improve the customer experience and drive sales. Online Community Building Building an online community around your brand can greatly improve customer interaction and loyalty. Engaging with customers through social media platforms boosts your brand visibility, as 70% of buyers prefer digital engagement. Utilizing chat tools on your website allows for immediate responses to inquiries, enhancing the purchasing experience and potentially increasing conversion rates. By promoting direct communication, you can gain valuable insights into customer preferences and pain points. Regular online interactions strengthen brand loyalty and encourage word-of-mouth referrals, with 83% of consumers trusting recommendations from friends and family more than advertising. Furthermore, active participation in relevant forums and online groups helps you identify emerging trends and customer needs, allowing you to tailor your offerings effectively to meet market demands. Give a Variety of Payment Options Offering a variety of payment options is vital for modern businesses looking to improve customer experience and drive sales. When you provide multiple payment methods, you greatly reduce cart abandonment rates and elevate customer satisfaction. Consider these key points: Customer Preferences: 56% of consumers prefer businesses that offer various payment options, leading to increased loyalty. Mobile Solutions: With 79% of smartphone users making purchases via their devices, mobile-friendly payment options are imperative. Flexible Payments: Implementing options like buy now, pay later can boost average order values by 20-30%, encouraging larger purchases. Create a Referral Program Creating a referral program can considerably boost your sales by encouraging your existing customers to share your brand with their networks. By offering incentives for successful referrals, like discounts or credits, you not only motivate your customers but likewise improve their loyalty. Furthermore, ensuring the referral process is user-friendly and tracking its success can help you maximize the benefits of this strategy. Incentives for Sharing Referrals How can a well-designed referral program transform your customer base and boost sales? By introducing incentives for sharing referrals, you encourage your customers to spread the word about your business. Here are three effective strategies: Offer Discounts: Provide a discount for both the referrer and the referred customer, motivating them to participate in your program. Reward Points: Create a points system where customers earn rewards for successful referrals, which they can redeem for future purchases. Exclusive Access: Give referrers exclusive access to new products or services, making them feel valued and appreciated. Easy Referral Process An easy referral process can greatly improve the effectiveness of your referral program, making it more likely for customers to participate and share your business with others. To create a seamless experience, design a program that includes simple sharing options and clear instructions. This can encourage engagement and increase acquisition rates by up to 25%. Here’s a quick overview of key elements for your referral program: Element Description Purpose Incentives Discounts or credits for both Motivate participation Promotion Use email and social media Boost visibility Easy Process Simple sharing options Boost engagement and success Implementing these strategies can lead to higher conversion rates, making your referral program more effective. Track Referral Success To maximize the effectiveness of your referral program, tracking referral success is key. By monitoring the performance of your program, you can make informed adjustments that improve results. Here are three crucial tracking strategies: Monitor New Customers: Keep track of the number of new customers generated through referrals. This metric helps you gauge the program’s reach. Evaluate Conversion Rates: Analyze how many referred leads convert to actual sales. Higher conversion rates indicate effective referrals. Solicit Feedback: Regularly ask participants for their opinions on the referral process. This feedback can refine the program and boost engagement. Offer Discounts Offering discounts is a proven strategy that can considerably improve your sales performance. By incentivizing larger purchases, options like “buy one, get one free” or offering free gifts encourage customers to buy more than they planned. Periodic discounts and seasonal promotions can effectively boost sales during key times, creating urgency that leads to increased foot traffic and higher transaction volumes. Research shows that offering discounts can enhance sales conversion rates by around 30%, as customers perceive added value. Implementing time-sensitive discounts prompts immediate action, driving quick sales increases. Furthermore, well-planned discount strategies can nurture customer loyalty, as shoppers who receive exclusive deals are more inclined to return for future purchases, in the end benefiting your overall sales strategy. Bundle Products Bundling products is an effective sales strategy that improves customer value and increases purchase volume. By offering complementary items together, you can elevate the perceived value of purchases and encourage customers to buy more at once. Here are three benefits of bundling: Increased Sales Volume: Studies show bundling can lead to a 20-30% increase in sales compared to selling items separately. Inventory Management: Pair slower-moving items with popular products to clear out inventory effectively. Sense of Urgency: Bundled offers can create urgency and exclusivity, motivating customers to act quickly for perceived savings. Implementing a bundling strategy can’t only boost your sales but likewise improve overall customer satisfaction, making it a win-win for your business. Enhance Sales Skills Improving sales skills is vital for driving success in today’s competitive marketplace. Regular training can boost the time your sales team spends selling by 23%, markedly improving productivity. Incorporating role-playing during training allows you to prepare for real-life scenarios, sharpening your negotiation and closing techniques. Continuous education on both hard and soft skills guarantees your team adapts effectively to changing market conditions and customer needs. Moreover, coaching sessions centered on performance metrics can pinpoint specific weaknesses, enabling targeted improvement strategies that elevate outcomes. Engaging in peer learning and mentorship cultivates collaboration and knowledge sharing, resulting in a more skilled and effective sales force. Prioritizing these strategies will lead to improved sales performance and greater overall success. Utilize Customer Feedback Utilizing customer feedback is vital for businesses aiming to remain competitive and responsive to market demands. Gathering insights directly from consumers helps identify areas for improvement, augmenting your products and services. Here are three ways to effectively use customer feedback: Strengthen Loyalty: Regularly asking for feedback shows customers their opinions matter, which can increase their loyalty and lead to repeat purchases. Leverage Testimonials: Positive feedback can be showcased in your marketing materials, building trust and credibility with potential buyers. Address Concerns Quickly: Swiftly resolving negative feedback can improve relationships and prevent loss of sales, as 70% of customers reconsider brands after a negative experience if handled well. Incorporating these strategies can greatly improve your sales performance. Optimize Online Presence To succeed in today’s digital environment, optimizing your online presence is essential for attracting and retaining customers. A user-friendly website design greatly improves customer engagement, as 88% of users are unlikely to return after a poor experience. Implementing effective SEO strategies can increase your site’s visibility, potentially boosting organic search traffic by up to 14 times. High-quality, relevant content not only captivates visitors but can likewise lead to a six-fold increase in conversion rates. Regularly updating your site keeps content fresh, improving search rankings. To summarize, an optimized online presence can yield a 400% increase in lead generation and elevate overall sales performance. Strategy Impact User-Friendly Design Increases customer engagement Effective SEO Boosts visibility by up to 14 times High-Quality Content Six-fold increase in conversion rates Regular Updates Improves search rankings Overall Optimization 400% increase in lead generation Frequently Asked Questions What Is the Best Strategy to Increase Sales? To effectively increase sales, you should consider implementing a referral program, as satisfied customers often recommend your business to others. Offering multiple payment options can cater to diverse preferences, reducing cart abandonment. Regularly gathering customer feedback helps you identify pain points and tailor your offerings. Moreover, discounts and limited-time offers create urgency, encouraging quicker purchases. Analyzing the sales funnel allows you to pinpoint weaknesses, optimizing conversion rates at each stage. What Are the 3 C’s in Sales? The 3 C’s in sales are Company, Customer, and Competition. First, you assess your Company’s strengths and weaknesses, which shape your sales strategies. Next, comprehending your Customer’s needs and preferences is crucial for crafting effective sales pitches. Finally, analyzing your Competition helps you identify market opportunities and differentiate your offerings. What Is the 3 2 1 Sales Strategy? The 3 2 1 Sales Strategy is a method intended to improve your sales approach. It involves identifying three key benefits of your product that resonate with potential customers. Next, you address two common objections they might have, preparing you for their concerns. Finally, you create one clear call to action that encourages them to make a purchase. This strategy helps streamline communication, making it easier for customers to understand the value and commit. What Is the Most Successful Sales Strategy? The most successful sales strategy revolves around comprehending customer needs and preferences. You can gather this information through surveys and direct engagement, enhancing satisfaction and loyalty. Utilizing the sales funnel model helps you identify key customer progression stages, enabling targeted approaches that increase conversion rates. Offering diverse payment options reduces cart abandonment and boosts sales. Finally, implementing a referral program leverages existing customers’ networks, encouraging repeat purchases and growing your audience effectively. Conclusion Implementing these ten proven strategies can considerably improve your sales performance. By comprehending your customers, optimizing your online presence, and utilizing effective marketing techniques, you create a solid foundation for growth. Offering diverse payment options and creating referral programs can further engage your audience. Furthermore, continuous training and leveraging customer feedback guarantee your approach remains relevant. Consistently analyzing key metrics allows for adjustments that drive sales and improve customer satisfaction, eventually leading to long-term success in your business. Image via Google Gemini and ArtSmart This article, "10 Proven Strategies to Increase Sales" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Duane Forrester explains why SEO still has a core, but no longer fits into a single lane as discovery multiplies across systems and interfaces. The post SEO Is No Longer A Single Discipline appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Two data breaches, multiple class action lawsuits, and a removal from the Apple App Store later, the popular and controversial dating safety app Tea for Women is back and launching a new website version of its services today. Billed as a “Yelp for men,” Tea was created in 2023 but was relatively unknown until July 2025, when it quickly became a viral sensation and shot to the top of App Store downloads—at one point outranking ChatGPT on the Apple App Store. Similar to “Are We Dating the Same Guy?” Facebook groups, Tea offered women what they thought was a secure forum to obtain information and advice on men they had matched with on dating apps. Women using the platform wanted to ensure that romantic prospects were safe to meet in person and to root out abusers, predators, and cheaters, which Tea allowed them to do through built-in background checks, a sex offender map, and reverse image searches. Users could also vote on whether a man’s behavior was desirable or shady by selecting red or green flag icons under someone’s post, offering the creator a sort of pulse check that they might otherwise have had to wait for until their next girls’ night out. But after landing on the public’s radar, the app quickly faced backlash and sparked debates about gender divides in dating and men’s right to privacy in a digital-first era. Back-to-back data breaches ensued: Hackers gained access to 72,000 images, including users’ government IDs and selfies, and over 1 million messages, then posted them to 4chan, an anonymous forum primarily used by men and historically a home to incel culture and hate speech. Legal fallout and App Store ban At least 10 potential class action lawsuits followed, alleging that Tea had been negligent in its data practices. At the time of the hack, Tea’s privacy policy asserted that users’ selfies were deleted once their profiles had been verified. Images leaked in the breach, however, dated back to 2023, contradicting the app’s own privacy policy. (As of August 11, 2025, Tea’s privacy policy has been updated to state that it retains user data for “as long as [a user’s] account is active as needed to provide [a user] the Services, or where we have an ongoing legitimate business need.”) In October, the app was removed from Apple’s App Store for failing to meet standards around privacy, content moderation, and user experience. On the Google Play Store, where Tea is still available for download, a notable number of negative reviews complain of glitchiness, trouble staying logged in, and a lack of free features. Some reviewers also reported that they were denied the ability to use the app after submitting a selfie to prove their gender identity—Tea is a women-only platform—alleging that they were rejected for not appearing feminine enough. New Tea aims to right past wrongs The launch of Tea 2.0, the new website version of the app, aims to remedy these safety issues and expand access to the platform, according to Jessica Dees, the platform’s head of trust and safety. “Launching our web experience is a strategic move toward platform resilience, allowing us to establish a scalable hub that isn’t dependent on a single distribution channel,” Dees wrote in an email to Fast Company. She added that Tea has brought on experts in the trust and safety field to address community safety specifically. “This transition provides us with technical flexibility as we implement more robust moderation workflows,” Dees wrote. “This isn’t a choice between a new site and better moderation. It’s about building a long-lasting experience that gives women access to safety, wherever they are.” How will the new Tea be different? The website will offer users the ability to crowdsource information on a potential date like it did before. The extra safety features, which cost $14.99 a month, will continue to be available on the mobile version of Tea (still only available to Android users) and will be incorporated into the website in the future, Dees says. Additionally, Android users can access new features including a virtual “speakeasy” where users can vote on polls, engage with topic-specific forums, and post anonymous audio messages, as well as an AI-powered dating coach that can analyze and suggest responses to messages with dating app matches. Dees wrote that Tea is taking concerns about privacy seriously, both from women who may have been impacted by the past data breaches or fear being part of one in the future, as well as men who have voiced anger and concern over posts about them that were not independently verified and may have included false or even defamatory assertions. “Tea helps women review patterns and potential red flags rather than relying on isolated claims,” Dees wrote. “By enabling women to exchange real-world insight in a moderated environment, [Tea] helps create earlier awareness, reduce risk, and support safer decision-making, which can be life-saving in a dating landscape where many forms of harm escalate precisely because warning signs are missed or shared too late.” Tea now offers non-users a method to request content removal through its website. The platform is also partnering with a third-party identity verification service to eliminate any friction for women who had issues gaining access to Tea by submitting a selfie, which was previously required during the account creation process. Dees did not provide specific examples of what information users will be required to submit. “Users are given a range of options regarding the information they provide when creating an account, and the information they choose to provide is evaluated using a variety of techniques before they are granted access to the platform,” Dees wrote. Fans want more Tea The announcement of Tea’s return has been met with excitement. Although Dees declined to share the size of the website’s “VIP waitlist,” it has a massive existing fanbase to rely on—even after the breaches. The app surpassed 6 million downloads before it was removed from the App Store, and according to Dees, an in-app poll that garnered 34,000 responses found that 73% of users felt Tea had made dating a safer experience for them. “Thank God,” one commenter wrote of the platform’s return. “[T]his app saves lives when the legal system fails to protect us!!” View the full article

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For most people, leaving Apple after two decades would mean stepping away from sleek design and obsessive detail. For Xander Soren, it simply meant translating those principles into a different medium and bottling them. During his 20-plus years at Apple, Soren helped shape some of the company’s most culture-defining products and creative tools. He was the original product manager for iTunes, worked on the launch of the iPod, led the development of GarageBand, and oversaw features like iPhone ringtones that became ubiquitous parts of Apple’s ecosystem. His career spanned Apple’s rebirth into a design-led powerhouse, a period in which he absorbed the philosophy of simplicity, emotional resonance, and uncompromising craft that defined the company’s second act. Soren is now the mind behind a radical wine venture years in the making, developing a high-end Pinot Noir crafted specifically to pair with Japanese cuisine. After decades spent building products at Silicon Valley speed, he chose to pursue a more contemplative set of passions such as wine, Japanese culture, and Japanese food, while building a business that is deliberately small, design forward, and personal. He produces just 600 to 800 cases per vintage, sometimes fewer than 100 cases of a single wine. It is a boutique operation with a big vision, rooted not in scale but in intention. A Lifelong Connection to Apple and Japan Ask Soren where this all began and he traces it back to two childhood obsessions, the Mac and Japan. “My Apple journey probably started as a kid. I had the original Mac in 1984 that I was totally obsessed with. I was an Apple fan boy as a kid, and I followed the company . . . and I really was drawn to a lot of things with Japanese culture.” When he eventually joined Apple, that thread only deepened. “When I came to Apple, Steve [Jobs] had just been back as CEO for a little over three years . . . the first job I had was the iTunes product manager, the original iTunes product manager. So talk about throwing into the deep end . . . My first project that I worked on was the original iPod launch, which wound up changing the company.” At Apple, Soren was steeped in design-first thinking. Now, it is inseparable from his winemaking. A Pinot Noir Built for the Japanese Table Soren’s wines are crafted from conception to blending to shine with Japanese cuisine. He focuses on cooler appellations, especially the Santa Rita Hills, where unique terroir produces fruit capable of Burgundy-level nuance. He sources from historic sites including La Encantada, Sanford & Benedict, Sierra Mar, and Olivet Lane, as well as Yuki Vineyard on the Sonoma Coast, owned by Japanese producer Akiko Freeman. Why Pinot? “I think I agree with a lot of the sommelier and chef community, where people feel the Pinot Noir is one of the most versatile food pairing wines,” Soren says. Santa Rita Hills fruit, in particular, clicked. “They always say it has a saline sea spray, Nori, umami . . . flavors,” he says, flavors tailor-made for sukiyaki, wagyu, tempura, or even raw tuna. “You can drink Pinot Noir with raw tuna.” The wines are deliberately high acid, bright, lower in alcohol, and built with balance in mind, attributes essential for delicate, complex dishes. Minimal Intervention, Maximum Precision Soren’s winemaker is Shalini Sekhar, a rising star who has earned 2015’s Winemaker of the Year (San Francisco International Wine Competition) and the San Francisco Chronicle’s 2019 Winemaker to Watch. Her résumé spans Williams Selyem, Stag’s Leap, her own Ottavino label, and a portfolio of boutique producers. At Xander Soren Wines, Sekhar leads a nonintrusive, labor-intensive approach. Not only vineyard blocks but individual clones are fermented and aged separately in carefully selected French oak before final blending. Production is small because the process demands it. Soren describes their partnership this way: “I consider myself more of a creative director and then Shalini is this masterful, award-winning winemaker.” Blending is their meeting point. “We both of us sit down, we try a whole bunch of different blends. It’s always done blind. [We ask] what do you think, A versus B?” Design as Experience: Boxes, Logos, and the Apple Touch Soren’s Apple design background is unmistakable the moment you unbox a bottle of Xander Soren wine. The packaging is deliberately minimalist, tactile, and engineered to create a moment of anticipation, much like peeling back the lid of a new Mac or iPhone. “It started with wanting the unboxing experience to be something very special . . . made out of this beautiful but simple cardboard, which I felt like was more eco-friendly,” Soren says. The idea for the packaging crystallized when he encountered a sake package he found almost impossibly elegant, with clean lines, restrained materials, and boxes that opened with gentle friction to reveal their contents with quiet ceremony. It felt Japanese in its simplicity, but also familiar in a way he could not place. When he tracked down the designers, he got his answer. “They told me, very coincidentally, that the sake box that I fell in love with was inspired by the original iPhone packaging. So it kind of felt like this full circle thing.” For Soren, the connection was not just aesthetic. Both Apple and traditional Japanese design value containers that elevate the object inside rather than distract from it. His wine packaging follows the same logic, using understated materials, intentional geometry, and nothing extraneous. The experience begins before the cork is pulled. And that attention to micro-details is central to his brand. “Small, little, tiny things are important,” he says. The box, like the wine, is not meant to shout. It is designed to reveal itself slowly through weight, texture, proportion, and subtle precision that reflects both Soren’s Apple lineage and his reverence for Japanese craft. After decades building software at breathtaking velocity, Soren had to adjust to a new rhythm when it came to wine. When shifting something like the vineyard a wine is made from or adjusting the blend, “We won’t really know the impact of that decision for four or five years,” he explains. A bit slower than an iPod launch. That patience guides his small scale. The brand currently makes around 800 cases of wine each year. A Logo of Symbolism and Storytelling Soren’s logo blends Japanese symbolism with deeply personal references. Inspired by the traditional Kamon crests used by Samurai families, the mark embraces simplicity and iconic geometry. At its center sits an X-shaped Phacelia wildflower, chosen for its four petals that echo his own name, while the circular form subtly nods to elements of music, evoking the look of a speaker, a reel-to-reel tape, or even vintage vinyl inserts. His father, industrial designer Leon Soren, contributed a final touch by breaking the top edge of the outer ring to mimic the silhouette of a Japanese temple roof. The result is a layered emblem meant to unfold slowly, rewarding close study and reflecting the Japanese appreciation for small, intentional details that reveal themselves over time. Silicon Valley’s Quiet Migration Into Wine Soren is not the first tech veteran to trade circuits for cellars. Silicon Valley has a long, often understated history of executives who eventually find their way into vineyards. One of the earliest and most influential examples is Oracle cofounder Bob Miner, whose family transformed rugged hillside land in Napa into Oakville Ranch, now considered one of the valley’s most respected mountain estates. Miner’s approach was a precursor to today’s tech-to-wine ethos, centered on small-lot production, meticulous farming, and a belief that great wine begins with great design in the vineyard. Former Intel executive Dave House followed a similar path with House Family Vineyards in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where he built a boutique operation focused on Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Cabernet Sauvignon. His shift from high-performance computing to high-elevation viticulture mirrors a familiar pattern among tech leaders seeking a more tactile, craft-driven second act. Even the tech world’s biggest names have dipped into wine. Tesla’s Elon Musk previously owned Ellison Vineyards in Napa, although he never developed it into a consumer-facing label. Jeff Bezos of Amazon owns a sprawling estate in Napa’s Atlas Peak AVA, an ultra-premium site whose wines are not released under a public brand. Both illustrate the tech sector’s fascination with wine, which often becomes an alternate industry where engineering instincts meet agricultural patience. Soren admits that he still thinks like a product designer, even if the products now grow on vines. In tech, momentum is everything. In wine, momentum is measured in rains, ripeness, and the passing of seasons. Soren seems content with that reversal. It’s not the speed that matters anymore, but the satisfaction of work that unfolds on its own clock. View the full article

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Customer lifetime value (CLV) is often treated as a static metric. In practice, it is shaped by how different types of customers behave – and churn – over time. One of the most important dynamics to understand is the “shakeout effect,” where early churn removes lower-value customers from a cohort, leaving a smaller, more stable group with higher engagement and more predictable purchase behavior. This article takes a closer look at the shakeout effect in CLV analytics, why it happens, and how marketers should account for it when evaluating churn, retention, and long-term profitability. What is the shakeout effect in the context of CLV analytics? Imagine a cohort of new customers. As time goes on, all the “bad” customers drop, leaving only the “good ones,” with low propensity to drop, more engagement, better product-market fit, and more predictable purchase behavior. Therefore, the overall churn propensity decreases over time. This is called the shakeout effect and is a byproduct of having heterogeneity across customers. As far as time goes, analysts typically use one-year windows or examine all-time purchase history, but it depends. For businesses with monthly subscriptions, the window after the first 30 days is essential to analyze, as no purchases after 30 days means new customers have churned. If you’re looking at overall probability to churn over time, you’ll see something along those lines. If you break out retention rates across various dimensions, such as UTM medium in the example below, you start to see this heterogeneity. In this case, email as a first touch is associated with a higher retention rate over time, roughly 27% after 500 days, while Google shows a lower retention rate, roughly 18% after 500 days. Dig deeper: How to use CRM data to inform and grow your PPC campaigns Why should the shakeout effect matter to marketers? Not all customers are equal from a CLV standpoint. Businesses often lose money on a large percentage of newly acquired customers who churn before they register a CLV high enough to justify acquisition costs. Profitability is often highly concentrated in a smaller segment of highly loyal customers. If marketers don’t account for shakeout and conduct an analysis of churn over a reasonable period of time, they may either overestimate long-term churn, assuming early churn continues, or overestimate CLV if they ignore the early loss entirely. A strong high-level view implements the Lorenz curve and the Pareto principle, showing that 80% of CLV comes from 20% of customers. It’s critical for businesses to identify this core loyal segment, understand what these customers’ demographics and behaviors look like, and what they specifically like about the brand and products. There may be more customers like them out there – and the data can produce insights to help engage them with smart targeting and messaging. Get the newsletter search marketers rely on. See terms. How to identify heterogeneity in your CRM One of the easiest and effective ways to explore your CRM data and get a sense of what is driving CLV up or down is ranked cross-correlation analysis (RCC). As an initial take, we want to know whether there are features in the data that clearly show a lot of variance in terms of CLV. In the example above, customers with above-average CLV: Show high purchase frequency. Are subscribed to the newsletter. Made a purchase recently. Initially subscribed to at least one product. While some of these features are redundant, such as purchase frequency being closely tied to product subscription, this view does a good job of suggesting what the main CLV needle movers are. Another simple way to get a feel for CLV across dimensions is to visualize the distribution of the data. Is it normal, left-skewed, or right-skewed? What is the median CLV by frequency? In the example below, using a ridgeline chart, we can see that CLV distribution is right-skewed, with Brazil having the highest CLV, at $2,014, and India the lowest, at $820. Which dimensions you choose to analyze depends on what’s available in your CRM. At the very least, examine purchase frequency, purchase recency, channel, geo, and product purchased. For B2B specifically, I recommend using job title, vertical, and type of account, such as SMB, enterprise, and high-growth. When marketing offers more ways for customers to engage, I also find utility in including yes-or-no dimensions for newsletter and SMS subscriptions. More advanced statistical methods, such as collinearity analysis, stepwise regression, and random forest, help account for collinearity challenges and estimate the importance of each feature in the data. I’ll keep that for another article. Dig deeper: LTV:CAC explained: Why you shouldn’t rely on this KPI CLV takeaways from the shakeout effect In a nutshell, savvy marketers should: Account for the shakeout effect to accurately estimate CLV. Use both descriptive and predictive analytics to understand and predict what is influencing CLV. Identify and dig up insights into their core loyal segment to find similar customers in the future. View the full article

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How familiar with Jira does a product manager actually need to be? The engineering team lives there. Sprint work happens there. Context lives there. But Jira was built for engineers. The interface assumes you care about workflow states, story points, and sprint velocity rather than customer problems and strategic priorities. PMs only need to know enough to communicate effectively with engineering, maintain visibility into progress, and avoid becoming a bottleneck. They don’t need to know enough to become a Jira admin. Not enough to configure workflows. Enough to participate without getting lost. This guide covers what product managers actually need to know about Jira: which features matter, which you can ignore, and how to use the tool strategically without getting lost in its complexity. Why product managers use Jira Jira is where engineering work lives. Even if you manage your roadmap in Productboard, your backlog in Notion, or your strategy in Asana, the actual sprint work ends up in Jira. This creates a fundamental challenge: your view of the product and engineering’s view of the work exist in different systems. The translation layer As a PM, you operate at the feature and outcome level. You think about customer problems, market positioning, and strategic priorities. Engineering operates at the story and task level. They think about implementation details, technical constraints, and sprint commitments. Jira is where this translation happens. A roadmap item becomes an epic. An epic breaks into stories. Stories break into tasks. Each translation step adds detail and removes abstraction. Your job is to ensure the translation is accurate: that the stories being built actually deliver the feature you defined, and that the feature actually achieves the outcome you intended. Visibility without micromanagement PMs need to know what is being built and if it’s on track. This doesn’t mean watching every ticket move through every status change. It means having enough visibility to answer questions from stakeholders, identify risks before they become crises, and plan upcoming work based on realistic capacity. Jira can provide this visibility, but only if you know where to look. The default views show you everything, which is too much. Learning to filter, query, and visualize Jira data lets you see what matters without drowning in details. Input without obstruction You need to add information to Jira: acceptance criteria, priority context, customer background. You should not be the bottleneck for ticket creation, status updates, or workflow management. That is engineering’s domain. The goal is contributing your expertise without creating dependencies on you for routine operations. Jira concepts product managers need to understand PM’s don’t need to know everything there is to know about Jira. But they need to know the following. Projects and boards A Jira project is a container for issues. Your team probably has one or more projects that organize work by product, team, or both. A board is a view into a project, typically showing issues in columns representing workflow states. The most common board types are Scrum boards (organized around sprints) and Kanban boards (continuous flow without sprints). Know which board your team uses and where to find it. Issue types Jira uses different issue types to represent different kinds of work. The standard types that PMs encounter are: Epic: A large body of work that can be broken into smaller pieces. Epics often map to roadmap items or features. As a PM, you will likely create and own epics. Story: A unit of work that delivers user value, typically completable within a sprint. “As a user, I can reset my password.” Engineering creates most stories, though you may create some. Task: Technical work that does not directly deliver user value but is necessary for development. “Set up database schema for password reset.” Tasks are engineering’s domain. Bug: A defect in existing functionality. You may create bugs based on customer feedback, but engineering handles most bug tracking. Sub-task: A smaller piece of work within a story or task. Engineering uses these to break down their work. You rarely interact with sub-tasks. Understanding issue types helps you contribute at the right level. You should be creating and updating epics, writing acceptance criteria on stories, and reviewing progress. You should not be micromanaging sub-tasks. Workflows and statuses A workflow defines the states an issue moves through from creation to completion. Common states include To Do, In Progress, In Review, and Done. Your team may have additional states for design review, QA, or staging deployment. You need to understand your team’s workflow well enough to interpret what a status means. When a story is “In Review,” does that mean code review, product review, or both? The answer varies by team, and getting it wrong leads to miscommunication. Sprints and versions Sprints are time-boxed periods (usually two weeks) during which the team commits to completing specific work. The sprint board shows what is committed for the current sprint and its progress. Versions (or releases) group issues that ship together. A version might represent a product release, a quarterly milestone, or a feature set. Versions help you see what is planned for upcoming releases. Components and labels Components and labels categorize issues. Components typically represent product areas (checkout, authentication, reporting). Labels are more flexible tags for any categorization scheme. If your team uses components consistently, you can filter views to see only the product areas you care about. Labels can track things like customer-requested features or technical debt items. What product managers should do in Jira Now for the practical part. Here is how PMs typically interact with Jira. Creating and managing epics Epics are your primary touchpoint. When a roadmap item moves to development, you create an epic that captures the full scope. Epic description: Write enough context that anyone reading understands what the feature is and why it matters. Include customer problems being solved, success metrics, and links to designs or specifications. Epic scope: Define what is in and what is out. Ambiguous scope leads to scope creep and misaligned expectations. Be explicit about boundaries. Epic priority: Set priority relative to other epics so engineering knows what matters most. This should align with your roadmap priorities. Epic acceptance criteria: What conditions must be true for this epic to be considered complete? These are higher-level than story acceptance criteria and describe the outcome rather than implementation details. Writing acceptance criteria on stories Engineering creates most stories, but you should review and refine acceptance criteria. Good acceptance criteria are: Testable: Someone can verify whether the criterion is met. “User experience is good” is not testable. “User can complete checkout in under 60 seconds” is testable. Specific: Criteria describe concrete conditions, not vague goals. “Error messages are displayed” is vague. “Error messages appear inline below the relevant field within 200ms of validation failure” is specific. Complete: Criteria cover the important scenarios, including edge cases and error states. Missing criteria often mean missing functionality. Using filters and JQL Jira’s query language (JQL) lets you create custom views of your data. As a PM, a few queries are particularly useful: My epics: project = XYZ AND issuetype = Epic AND creator = currentUser() ORDER BY priority Epics by status: project = XYZ AND issuetype = Epic AND status = “In Progress” Stories without acceptance criteria: project = XYZ AND issuetype = Story AND “Acceptance Criteria” is EMPTY Recent activity: project = XYZ AND updated >= -7d ORDER BY updated DESC Save useful queries as filters. You can then create dashboards that show your filtered views without manually entering queries each time. Checking sprint and release progress Sprint progress shows whether the current sprint is on track. Look for: Burndown chart: Is work being completed at a pace that will clear the sprint? A flat burndown mid-sprint indicates blockers or over-commitment. Sprint backlog: What is committed for this sprint? Are your priority items included? Blocked items: Are any items flagged as blocked? Blocked items often need PM input to unblock. Release progress shows what is planned for upcoming releases and how much is complete. If you committed to a stakeholder that feature X would ship in release Y, check that the linked work is on track. What product managers should avoid in Jira Knowing what not to do is as important as knowing what to do. Reassigning stories or changing sprint commitments Sprint commitments are the team’s commitment, not yours. If you think something should be in the sprint that is not, talk to the engineering lead. Do not add items to the sprint directly. The team needs to own their capacity and commitments. Similarly, reassigning stories overrides the team’s internal work distribution. If you have concerns about assignments, raise them. Do not change them unilaterally. Creating stories without engineering input Stories describe implementation work. You can suggest stories, but engineering should create them. When you create stories, you are making implementation decisions that should be engineering’s domain. Write epics and acceptance criteria instead, and let engineering break them into stories. Treating Jira status as communication “It’s in Jira” is not communication. Stakeholders who are not in Jira every day need updates in formats they use. If a stakeholder asks for status, do not tell them to check Jira. Translate Jira status into stakeholder-appropriate communication. Over-configuring or customizing Jira is infinitely configurable, which is both its strength and its trap. As a PM, resist the urge to request new fields, workflows, or issue types for every need. Every customization adds complexity. Work with existing structures unless you have a compelling reason for change. Connecting Jira to your other tools If your roadmap lives outside Jira, you need a connection between them. Manual synchronization does not scale. The integration challenge When your roadmap is in Productboard, Asana, or monday.com, and your engineering work is in Jira, information needs to flow in both directions. Connecting tools like Asana and Jira enables this flow. Roadmap priorities should inform Jira epic priority. Jira progress should update roadmap status. Without integration, you become the integration. You manually copy priorities from your roadmap tool to Jira. You check Jira status and update your roadmap manually. This works for small teams with simple roadmaps. It breaks down as complexity grows. Integration options Native integrations: Many PM tools offer native Jira integrations. These native integrations often provide basic linking (this roadmap item corresponds to this Jira epic) but limited synchronization. Changes in one system may not flow to the other automatically. Two-way sync platforms: Bidirectional sync at the field level means changes flow both ways automatically. Update priority in your roadmap tool, and the linked Jira epic shows the new priority. Complete work in Jira, and your roadmap reflects the progress. This eliminates manual synchronization. API-based custom integration: If you have engineering resources, you can build custom integration using Jira’s API. This gives you complete control but requires ongoing maintenance as both systems evolve. What good integration looks like Good integration means you can work in your preferred tool and trust that Jira reflects the same information. You update a feature status in your roadmap tool, and engineering sees the update in Jira. Engineering completes a story, and your roadmap shows the progress without manual updates. This reduces the friction of working across tools and ensures that everyone operates from the same source of truth, regardless of which tool they prefer. Jira best practices for product managers Learn your team’s setup Jira is highly customizable, which means your team’s Jira may differ significantly from another team’s. Before developing habits, understand how your team has configured projects, workflows, and issue types. What works on one team may not work on yours. Focus on epics and acceptance criteria These are your highest-value contributions. Invest time in writing clear epics with complete acceptance criteria. This input pays dividends throughout development. Use dashboards, not deep dives Create a personal dashboard that shows the information you need: your epics, sprint progress, blocked items, upcoming releases. Check your dashboard regularly rather than diving into individual tickets unless something needs attention. Communicate beyond Jira Jira is a source of truth for engineering work, not a communication tool for stakeholders. Translate Jira information into formats appropriate for your audience. Executives don’t need to see Jira; they need a summary of what is shipping and what is at risk. Improve your JQL over time Start with simple queries and add sophistication as you learn. Every time you find yourself manually filtering or searching, ask whether a saved filter could automate that work. Your JQL skills will develop through practical use Get more out of Jira as a PM Jira is a tool, not a methodology. Understanding it well enough to communicate with engineering and maintain visibility into progress is valuable. Mastering every feature is not necessary and probably not the best use of your time. Focus on the parts that matter for your role and let engineering own the rest. If you are ready to connect your product tools to Jira, see how Unito helps product and engineering teams stay aligned. View the full article

The post AI Search in 2026: The 5 Article GEO & SEO Playbook For Modern Visibility appeared first on Search Engine Journal. View the full article

Yesterday, customers of Verizon Communications across the country picked up their phones only to discover that they had no service. Calls, texts, and the internet simply didn’t work. Verizon now says the underlying issue has been resolved. But just what caused it, and will Verizon compensate customers for the outage? Here’s what you need to know. What happened? On Wednesday, a little after noon ET, customers around the country began taking to social media to report that they had lost Verizon service on their phones. Calls and texts could not be made or received, and internet access was nonexistent. Many iPhone owners on Verizon’s network saw the “SOS” icon in their menu bar, meaning no network was available, and any communication was limited to satellite connectivity. Over the course of a few hours, Verizon posted several social media messages saying it was aware of the issue and had teams working on the ground to fix it. But it wasn’t until around 10 p.m. ET that Verizon said the issue had been fixed. “The outage has been resolved,” Verizon said in a post on X. “If customers are still having an issue, we encourage them to restart their devices to reconnect to the network.” What caused the outage? Right now, Verizon hasn’t disclosed what exactly caused its network to go down for so many hours. Fast Company has reached out to the company for comment. What is known is that many Verizon users on social media who have multiple phones on Verizon’s network reported that not all of their phones lost service yesterday. Many customers have reported that only their phones with Verizon eSIMs lost service, while their phones with physical Verizon SIMs remained active. However, there is so far no evidence that the disruption was directly linked to eSIMs or that only eSIM users were affected. The massive outage also comes just a few months after Verizon conducted the largest layoffs in its history. In November, the company announced it would begin laying off 13,000 workers. In a memo to staff at the time, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said the layoffs were needed “to address the complexity and friction that slow us down and frustrate our customers.” It is unknown whether the workforce reductions had any impact on Verizon’s outage or the company’s ability to resolve it in a timely manner. Will customers be compensated? Verizon’s outage lasted about 10 hours, severely straining people’s ability to work and communicate for a significant period, leading to understandable outrage from its customers. In a post on X, Verizon said that “account credits” will be provided to those customers affected and that customers will be contacted directly. However, it has not provided more details about the compensation, including how much the credits will be worth and whether they will be automatic or if customers will need to apply for them. We’ve asked the company for additional details and will update this story if we hear back. Free donuts and snarky competitors To every problem, there is usually some kind of silver lining. Or, in this case, sugary lining. As the Verizon outage quickly became the thing that everyone on social media was talking about yesterday, donut giant Krispy Kreme decided to get in on the action by announcing it was giving away free donuts due to the outage. “SOS got you down?” the company posted on its Instagram account. “We can hear you now…” the post went on, in a reference to Verizon’s famous “Can you hear me now?” slogan. The donut chain then announced customers could come by between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. yesterday for a free original glazed donut, “because some days need a sweet backup plan you can rely on.” And it wasn’t just Krispy Kreme getting in on the Verizon outage action. Verizon’s competitors, AT&T and T-Mobile, decided to jump in on the free-donut action and leave their own snarky comments on Krispy Kreme’s post. “T-Mobile members out here texting everybody they know,” the official T-Mobile account commented in response to the free donut offer. As for AT&T, the company’s official IG account commented, “Def not us this time, we’ll sit this one out and enjoy the donuts,” alluding to its own nationwide outage, which occurred in February 2024. How has Verizon’s stock reacted to the outage? The incident has not seemed to impact the company’s stock price (NYSE: VZ). Shares rose more than 2% yesterday and were roughly flat on Thursday in premarket trading. View the full article

In regard to boosting sales, upselling and cross-selling are two fundamental techniques that can greatly influence your bottom line. Upselling encourages customers to contemplate a higher-priced version of a product they’re interested in, whereas cross-selling suggests complementary items that improve the original purchase. Both strategies not just increase revenue but likewise enhance customer satisfaction by providing more value. Comprehending how to effectively implement these techniques can transform your sales approach, so let’s explore their nuances further. Key Takeaways Upselling encourages customers to purchase a more expensive version of a product, increasing overall transaction value. Cross-selling recommends complementary products or services to enhance the customer experience and boost sales volume. Upselling focuses on higher-margin items, while cross-selling aims to increase average transaction value with relevant add-ons. Both strategies can significantly improve revenue; effective upselling can increase order values by 10-30%, and effective cross-selling can boost revenue by 20%. Understanding the differences between upselling and cross-selling is essential for maximizing sales and customer satisfaction. What Is Cross-Selling? Cross-selling is a strategic sales technique that focuses on offering additional products or services that complement a customer’s initial purchase. Unlike upselling, which encourages customers to buy a more expensive version of a product, cross-selling improves their experience by suggesting relevant add-ons. For instance, if you’re buying a laptop, you might be offered accessories like a carrying case or software. This approach not just increases the average transaction value but also helps meet more of your needs, nurturing customer loyalty. Research shows that effective cross-selling can boost revenue by 20% and profits by 30%. To succeed, businesses must understand customer preferences and utilize targeted marketing techniques to present relevant suggestions. By doing so, they create a seamless shopping experience, demonstrating the key difference between upselling and cross selling. Essentially, cross-selling enriches your purchase and makes it more satisfying as it drives business growth. What Is Upselling? Upselling is a key sales strategy that encourages customers to opt for a more expensive or improved version of a product they’re already considering, finally increasing the overall transaction value. For instance, when you’re looking at smartphones, you might be prompted to choose a higher-tier model with better features instead of a basic one. This technique can greatly boost revenue; studies show that effective upselling can increase average order value by 10-30%. It’s especially influential in industries like technology and luxury goods, where customers often seek premium options for increased value. To succeed at upselling, it’s crucial to understand customer preferences and communicate the benefits of higher-tier options effectively. Key Differences Between Cross-Selling and Upselling Although both strategies aim to boost sales, grasping the key differences between cross-selling and upselling is vital for maximizing revenue. Cross-selling involves recommending complementary products, like suggesting a phone case when a customer buys a smartphone. Conversely, upselling encourages customers to purchase a more expensive or upgraded version of the same product, such as promoting a higher-tier smartphone model. Whereas upselling focuses on increasing the order value through higher-margin items, cross-selling aims to boost sales volume by adding related items to the purchase. Research shows that effective cross-selling can increase revenue by 20% and profits by 30%, whereas upselling can improve average order values through premium options. Furthermore, cross-selling often requires a deeper awareness of customer needs, whereas upselling builds on existing customer interest. By recognizing these differences, you can effectively implement both strategies to improve the customer’s purchasing experience and drive sales growth. Effective Strategies for Cross-Selling Implementing effective strategies for cross-selling can greatly improve your sales performance and customer satisfaction. Start by identifying related products that genuinely add value to the customer’s purchase. This alignment increases the chances of a successful sale. Utilize customer data and insights to tailor your recommendations, ensuring they match customer preferences and needs. After a purchase, consider sending targeted email campaigns to introduce complementary products, leveraging the established relationship with the customer. Training your sales associates is crucial; they should recognize satisfied customers and discern their potential needs without appearing pushy. This approach promotes a positive customer experience. When implemented correctly, successful cross-selling can lead to a revenue boost of 20% and profits by 30%, markedly impacting your business’s bottom line. By focusing on these strategies, you can improve both sales outcomes and customer loyalty effectively. Effective Strategies for Upselling When considering how to improve your sales strategy, effective upselling can play a pivotal role in increasing your average order value. To implement successful upselling tactics, consider the following strategies: Use comparison charts to highlight premium product benefits. Offer tiered options, like “Good, Better, Best,” to simplify decision-making. Encourage upgrades at checkout by suggesting additional features. Time your upselling efforts strategically, presenting options just before payment confirmation. Personalize recommendations using customer data to align with individual preferences. Frequently Asked Questions What Is Upselling and Cross-Selling With an Example? Upselling and cross-selling are sales techniques to improve customer purchases. For instance, if you’re buying a laptop, the salesperson might suggest a model with better specifications—this is upselling. On the other hand, if you purchase that laptop, you might be offered a protective case or software, which is cross-selling. Both methods aim to increase your total spending during the process of providing you with products that better meet your needs or complement your initial purchase. What Is an Example of Cross-Selling? An example of cross-selling occurs when you purchase a laptop and the retailer suggests a laptop bag or software that improves your experience. This strategy aims to provide you with complementary items that augment your primary purchase. For instance, if you buy a camera, the salesperson might recommend extra lenses or a memory card. What Is an Example of Upselling? An example of upselling occurs when you’re purchasing a smartphone and the salesperson suggests a premium model with improved features, like a superior camera or extra storage. This tactic emphasizes the added value of the higher-priced item, making it more appealing. In restaurants, you might be encouraged to order a larger portion or a dish with premium ingredients. Such strategies can greatly boost a business’s revenue by increasing the average order value. What Is Cross-Selling in Simple Terms? Cross-selling’s about suggesting additional products or services that complement what you’re already buying. For instance, if you’re purchasing a laptop, you might be offered a mouse or software that improves its functionality. This technique aims to elevate your overall experience as well as increasing the seller’s revenue. Conclusion In conclusion, comprehending upselling and cross-selling can greatly improve your sales strategy. By encouraging customers to opt for more expensive products or recommending complementary items, you can increase transaction values and enhance customer satisfaction. Implementing effective techniques for both strategies allows you to better meet customer needs as you boost revenue. Whether you’re in retail, service, or e-commerce, mastering these approaches is crucial for maximizing your sales potential and nurturing long-term customer relationships. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Are Upselling and Cross Selling?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

In regard to boosting sales, upselling and cross-selling are two fundamental techniques that can greatly influence your bottom line. Upselling encourages customers to contemplate a higher-priced version of a product they’re interested in, whereas cross-selling suggests complementary items that improve the original purchase. Both strategies not just increase revenue but likewise enhance customer satisfaction by providing more value. Comprehending how to effectively implement these techniques can transform your sales approach, so let’s explore their nuances further. Key Takeaways Upselling encourages customers to purchase a more expensive version of a product, increasing overall transaction value. Cross-selling recommends complementary products or services to enhance the customer experience and boost sales volume. Upselling focuses on higher-margin items, while cross-selling aims to increase average transaction value with relevant add-ons. Both strategies can significantly improve revenue; effective upselling can increase order values by 10-30%, and effective cross-selling can boost revenue by 20%. Understanding the differences between upselling and cross-selling is essential for maximizing sales and customer satisfaction. What Is Cross-Selling? Cross-selling is a strategic sales technique that focuses on offering additional products or services that complement a customer’s initial purchase. Unlike upselling, which encourages customers to buy a more expensive version of a product, cross-selling improves their experience by suggesting relevant add-ons. For instance, if you’re buying a laptop, you might be offered accessories like a carrying case or software. This approach not just increases the average transaction value but also helps meet more of your needs, nurturing customer loyalty. Research shows that effective cross-selling can boost revenue by 20% and profits by 30%. To succeed, businesses must understand customer preferences and utilize targeted marketing techniques to present relevant suggestions. By doing so, they create a seamless shopping experience, demonstrating the key difference between upselling and cross selling. Essentially, cross-selling enriches your purchase and makes it more satisfying as it drives business growth. What Is Upselling? Upselling is a key sales strategy that encourages customers to opt for a more expensive or improved version of a product they’re already considering, finally increasing the overall transaction value. For instance, when you’re looking at smartphones, you might be prompted to choose a higher-tier model with better features instead of a basic one. This technique can greatly boost revenue; studies show that effective upselling can increase average order value by 10-30%. It’s especially influential in industries like technology and luxury goods, where customers often seek premium options for increased value. To succeed at upselling, it’s crucial to understand customer preferences and communicate the benefits of higher-tier options effectively. Key Differences Between Cross-Selling and Upselling Although both strategies aim to boost sales, grasping the key differences between cross-selling and upselling is vital for maximizing revenue. Cross-selling involves recommending complementary products, like suggesting a phone case when a customer buys a smartphone. Conversely, upselling encourages customers to purchase a more expensive or upgraded version of the same product, such as promoting a higher-tier smartphone model. Whereas upselling focuses on increasing the order value through higher-margin items, cross-selling aims to boost sales volume by adding related items to the purchase. Research shows that effective cross-selling can increase revenue by 20% and profits by 30%, whereas upselling can improve average order values through premium options. Furthermore, cross-selling often requires a deeper awareness of customer needs, whereas upselling builds on existing customer interest. By recognizing these differences, you can effectively implement both strategies to improve the customer’s purchasing experience and drive sales growth. Effective Strategies for Cross-Selling Implementing effective strategies for cross-selling can greatly improve your sales performance and customer satisfaction. Start by identifying related products that genuinely add value to the customer’s purchase. This alignment increases the chances of a successful sale. Utilize customer data and insights to tailor your recommendations, ensuring they match customer preferences and needs. After a purchase, consider sending targeted email campaigns to introduce complementary products, leveraging the established relationship with the customer. Training your sales associates is crucial; they should recognize satisfied customers and discern their potential needs without appearing pushy. This approach promotes a positive customer experience. When implemented correctly, successful cross-selling can lead to a revenue boost of 20% and profits by 30%, markedly impacting your business’s bottom line. By focusing on these strategies, you can improve both sales outcomes and customer loyalty effectively. Effective Strategies for Upselling When considering how to improve your sales strategy, effective upselling can play a pivotal role in increasing your average order value. To implement successful upselling tactics, consider the following strategies: Use comparison charts to highlight premium product benefits. Offer tiered options, like “Good, Better, Best,” to simplify decision-making. Encourage upgrades at checkout by suggesting additional features. Time your upselling efforts strategically, presenting options just before payment confirmation. Personalize recommendations using customer data to align with individual preferences. Frequently Asked Questions What Is Upselling and Cross-Selling With an Example? Upselling and cross-selling are sales techniques to improve customer purchases. For instance, if you’re buying a laptop, the salesperson might suggest a model with better specifications—this is upselling. On the other hand, if you purchase that laptop, you might be offered a protective case or software, which is cross-selling. Both methods aim to increase your total spending during the process of providing you with products that better meet your needs or complement your initial purchase. What Is an Example of Cross-Selling? An example of cross-selling occurs when you purchase a laptop and the retailer suggests a laptop bag or software that improves your experience. This strategy aims to provide you with complementary items that augment your primary purchase. For instance, if you buy a camera, the salesperson might recommend extra lenses or a memory card. What Is an Example of Upselling? An example of upselling occurs when you’re purchasing a smartphone and the salesperson suggests a premium model with improved features, like a superior camera or extra storage. This tactic emphasizes the added value of the higher-priced item, making it more appealing. In restaurants, you might be encouraged to order a larger portion or a dish with premium ingredients. Such strategies can greatly boost a business’s revenue by increasing the average order value. What Is Cross-Selling in Simple Terms? Cross-selling’s about suggesting additional products or services that complement what you’re already buying. For instance, if you’re purchasing a laptop, you might be offered a mouse or software that improves its functionality. This technique aims to elevate your overall experience as well as increasing the seller’s revenue. Conclusion In conclusion, comprehending upselling and cross-selling can greatly improve your sales strategy. By encouraging customers to opt for more expensive products or recommending complementary items, you can increase transaction values and enhance customer satisfaction. Implementing effective techniques for both strategies allows you to better meet customer needs as you boost revenue. Whether you’re in retail, service, or e-commerce, mastering these approaches is crucial for maximizing your sales potential and nurturing long-term customer relationships. Image via Google Gemini This article, "What Are Upselling and Cross Selling?" was first published on Small Business Trends View the full article

Say what you will about AI (and I've said plenty) but the progress in transcription and speech-to-text software is genuinely impressive. Whereas before such software was either clumsy or expensive, there are now all kinds of great open source tools that work well. Which brings me to Pipit, a free Mac dictation app that works offline, meaning it's totally private. Even more interesting, it can be used to do more than just transcribe speech—it can launch apps, toggle settings, and even launch a web search or query an AI service. The first time you open the application, it will ask for permission to use your microphone before downloading the Parakeet model for offline transcription. Once everything is set up you can use the application by pressing and holding the Option key, then talking—the application will record what you say, turn that into text, and paste the text into the currently active text field. I've been trying this for a couple of days and find that the transcriptions are generally pretty accurate, complete with punctuation. There is optional post-processing, which can turn unstructured speech into a properly formatted document, but using that requires an OpenRouter API key. The settings window lets you change the trigger key, choose an input device, and toggle the menu bar icon. There's also a tool for transcribing audio files, complete with speaker identification. Just drag over a file and you get a transcription. The uploads screen for Pipit, allowing you to transcribe audio files. Credit: Justin Pot Finally, on the Enhance tab, you can enable the Quick Actions feature. This allows you to verbally tell your computer what to do and see it happen. To use this, start transcription as normal, but say something like "open Safari" to open an app or "ask Claude" followed by a question to launch a conversation with that AI assistant in your browser. It's a little gimmicky, granted, but I enjoyed using it. The voice commands you can use with Pipit, as seen in the settings. Credit: Justin Pot It's excellent that tools like this are broadly free now, and Pipit has an interesting collection of features. View the full article

The surprise departure deprives Farage of some Westminster theatre and gives the Tories a chance to reclaim groundView the full article

Google is rolling out what it calls "Personal Intelligence" in the Gemini app and it will soon also come to Google Search within AI Mode. Google announced that Personal Intelligence in Gemini "connects Gmail, Photos, YouTube and Search in a single tap."View the full article

Moves of US military personnel and aircraft carrier keep region on edgeView the full article

Earlier this week, Google announced Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) and it has a lot of the industry worried. Once SEO named Ramon Eijkemans said, "I hate to bring this, but SEOs: we're gonna be f$@*ed." John Mueller from Google responded on Bluesky and said, "I disagree."View the full article

While a number of Google Search features are impacted by Google's core update, favicons showing up or not is not one of them. Yes, your site can drop in the rankings, or not show up in Google Discover, or be removed from Top Stories and other features but favicons are not impacted by core updates.View the full article

We have seen ads in AI Mode before but there may be a new Google Ads format coming to AI Mode results, not the just the Direct Offer ads, but Explore guides and article ads.View the full article