Competiotion is much higher than it has ever been, new competitors are entering the marker all the time and incumbents are polishing up their use of modern brand assets and marketing methods. The question that remains is how will you stand from the rest and how will your customers notice you?

At Zuri Media we believe appearance is everything. The way you present yourself and your brand can make lasting impressions in the minds of your potential clients. We invite you to reconsider your branding elements and market position and if youre just staring out, we have just the right help for you.

Get starting the right way with one of our corporate identity specials

Users in the U.S.Scanning and ads Gmail looks for keywords that identify topics of discussion based on things such as frequency and context, then matches the e-mail up with related ads. A conversation thread about meeting up at a spinning class, for example, might trigger an ad for a weight-loss product. Data gathered through e-mail scanning can also be used to create user profiles for future ad targeting. What many consumers don’t consider is that companies such as Google can create a comprehensive profile of each user based on information from different products such as search, maps, e-mail and Google+, its social network.”Nothing in life is free, and as a result, it is important for people to understand what value they bring to a free service of any kind,” said Behnam Dayanim, a partner at the law firm Paul Hastings LLP in Washington. When people send and receive messages using a free e-mail service, they are sharing details about their interests, who their connections are and what their finances look like. That information might seem mundane on the surface, but when extracted and organized, it’s incredibly valuable to marketers and advertisers.

Caught red-handed: Google in your G-mail 02:46All the major e-mail providers, including Microsoft Outlook and Yahoo, benefit one way or another from offering a free service. The provider might serve up general or targeted ads, generate a user base for marketing other services, or just use the e-mail service to build brand recognition. And while Gmail may have popularized it, targeted ads based on user data has become the primary business model for many tech companies. It’s how social media companies such as Facebook and search engines such as Bing make money as well as a huge number of apps that scrape contact and location information from users. It’s also led to a number of similar privacy lawsuits against other companies, including LinkedIn, Yahoo and Facebook. Any company that collects personal information has to advise its customers what it is doing with their information and comply with any relevant privacy laws, Dayanim said. These are usually laid out in the lengthy terms and conditions and privacy policies that customers barely skim before hitting “agree.”However, many of the details about how exactly Google’s program works have been kept confidential. And critics say the service doesn’t adequately disclose what it is doing with customers’ information. Legal action when Gmail made its debut in 2004, it was upfront about the fact that it would show contextual ads targeted to match the topic of e-mail threads. People still lined up to be accepted as early beta users of the service because it was slickly designed, included ample amounts of storage, and was excellent at filtering out spam. And it didn’t cost anything to sign up. One problem is that not all the people affected have agreed to Google’s privacy policy. One group of plaintiffs in a recent class-action lawsuit were non-Gmail users who sent messages to Gmail accounts. Google responded that non-Gmail customers had no expectations of privacy when sending e-mails to people who did use the service. Google has defended its e-mail scanning program by pointing out that it’s automated and handled by computers picking out keywords. Google’s employees aren’t personally reading through e-mails for the latest lovers’ spat. Google also says the scans are necessary to cut down on malicious e-mails and spam and for features such as Priority Inbox and the tabbed view that filters e-mails into different categories. A federal judge dealt a blow to the case this month, ruling it couldn’t proceed as a class-action lawsuit because the different groups weren’t cohesive enough. A class-action lawsuit could have cost Google trillions of dollars in damages. A changing landscape when Gmail debuted in 2004, the rules for collecting user information were looser. But the privacy landscape has changed drastically over the past 10 years. Several U.S. states have passed laws that restrict the use of personal information, the Federal Trade Commission has been more active in pursuing privacy violations, and the industry has adopted best practices about what’s acceptable.

Google’s Gmail: 10 years of dominance 04:36One thing that hasn’t changed is the federal law with the biggest impact on how and when companies can share data with third parties. The Electronics Communication Privacy Act is a dusty piece of legislation passed in 1986, long before the era of cloud-based e-mail. Many legislators and technology companies (including Google) have lobbied to have the law updated to reflect the times. Meanwhile, consumers must increasingly weigh the value of using a free e-mail service such as Gmail against their personal privacy.

This article was published on cnn.com

1. You own your website

This is essential for your branding when you promote your website you are promoting your own business and not a 3^rd party website. You have no guarantees of whether or not that 3^rd party website will still be there or as relevant in the future. We have seen a number of social media websites come and go as a result of bad boardroom decisions. Your own website makes you immune to these issues and you have complete control of your website. The buck stops with you.

2. You control search engine results

You control how your business relates to search engines and what your potential customers will see when they search for your business, products or services. This power makes it easier for you to shorten the amount of time it would take a customer or potential customer to make a decision as to whether or not to buy from you.

3. It’s a long-term strategy

An effective way to leave an imprint on your customers is to drive traffic from your social media. Social media should be engaging people to click on the link to your actual website! It’s the only place that people can get a clear snapshot of what you do and encourage them to call you, buy your product/service and get a different vibe of what you are about. In the long run, they get accustomed to visiting your website and will spread the word for you as they will always know where to find you.

4. Higher Sales Conversion rate

Visitors to your website are more likely to buy from you than those that peruse your products/services on social media or 3^rd party websites. This is also because your website presents them with more information on your line of business and how you go about things and this is presented to them in a manner, they can follow through the information in a rational manner.

5. You control all the content as well as your brand

You have control over what goes where you have control of how your brand is presented to the marketplace. You can control what goes up and what goes down and when. You are truly the king of your castle.

6. You portray professionalism

Everyone can create a social media page, all your competitors have those, but what sets you apart is the effort you have made in creating your own website and making sure it is professionally designed and works immaculately. You are not limited by anyone or anything so you can totally spread your wings and fly.

Have a look at other businesses in your industry’s websites on the Internet and you’ll notice that you will quickly decide whether you like the company’s website in about ten seconds. The importance of making the company’s website easy on the eye and engaging to the user is essential.

This could mean that you have about ten seconds to keep people on your website before they click away, start doing something else and forget about you.

7. You have Flexibility

You can create polls and get information directly from your customers and potential customers. You can keep contact details for your customers so that you can reach them with information on your products and services at any time.

8. You have no fear of being deleted for being too “commercial”

Some 3^rd party websites will want to control your content so that it doesn’t conflict with their narrative. So, they may want to direct how you communicate with their audience.

9. You own the shopping cart

You don’t need to pay a commission to a 3^rd party so you get to keep all of your profits. You also don’t have challenges with withdrawing money from your account as all payments will go straight into your bank account.

10. You can sell space on your website

You can sell advertising space and sponsor pages for your customers and you have money coming directly to your pocket.

11. You build credibility

Because promotion is all about professionalism! Potential customers want to see if you are the real deal! Anyone can make a Facebook page, but the benefits of websites for businesses show the dedication behind the company.

This doesn’t mean social media platforms aren’t essential tools, but there are benefits of websites for companies where they can be represented concisely with a range of pictures, videos, news, and products or services all clearly labeled and easily navigated.

12. You are investing in yourself and not others

Websites are cheap real estate; you can get your website running for very little in comparison to what you would lose by not having a website.

The goal isn’t to live forever; the goal is to create something that will.”

Charles Palahnuik

These are some of the many reasons why every business that has a long-term vision should get a website so that they can better place themselves in the marketplace and leave their mark.

It is also advisable to use STARTTLS for your encryption method.

Outlook

1. Select File
2. Select Account Settings
3. Select Account Settings from the dropdown
4. Select your email account from the lists in the Email tab and select Change
5. Select More Settings
6. Select Advanced
7. Change the Outgoing server (SMTP) option to 587
8. Change the encryption types on both IMAP and SMTP to STARTTLS
9. Select Ok
10. Select Next
11. Once tests have completed select Close and then Finish

Windows Mail

1. Start Windows Mail, click the Tools menu at the top of the window and then click Accounts.
2. Select your account under Mail, and then click on the Properties button.
3. Go to the Advanced tab, under Outgoing server (SMTP), change port 25 to 587.
4. Click the OK button to save the changes.

Outlook Express

1. Start Outlook Express, and then select Accounts from the Tools menu at the top of the window.
2. Double click on your email account.
3. Under the Advanced tab, change the Outgoing server (SMTP) port 25 to 587.

Thunderbird

1. Select Tools
2. Select Outgoing Server (SMTP)
3. Select the server for this account then Edit
4. Change the port to 587
5. Change the Connection Security option to STARTTLS
6. Change the Authentication Method option to Normal Password
7. Enter your full email address as the User Name
8. Select OK
9. Select OK

Mac Mail

1. Select Preferences
2. Select Accounts
3. Select the Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) drop down menu, then Edit SMTP Server List
4. Select the SMTP server for this account
5. Change the Port to 587
6. Select OK

iPhone

1. Go to Settings
2. Select Passwords & Accounts
3. Select your email account
4. Select the Account
5. Under OUTGOING MAIL SERVER select SMTP
6. Select the server
7. Update the Server Port to use 587
8. Select Done
9. Select < Account then Done

Android Mail

1. Open the Email App
2. Select Settings
3. Select Account Settings
4. Select the account you wish to change
5. Scroll down to More Settings
6. Select Outgoing Settings
7. Change the port to 587 and the Security Settings to STARTTLS
8. Select Done