I don’t often review companies anymore. However WrapMail is a company worth talking about, especially in light of my recent focus on effective methods for marketing early-stage companies.
I initially encountered WrapMail in the latest section of Techcrunch’s new section Elevator Pitches. After writing a post calling into question the marketing copy used by WrapMail, the founder Rolv exchanged a few comments with me on this blog and then offered to walk me through a product demonstration (Incidentally, this is also a great example of a CEO going the extra mile to win some businesses).
Concept: WrapMail allows emails to be jazzed up with eye-catching marketing in the form of banner ads. It’s like an email signature on steroids. When an employee sends an email the receiver gets the email ‘wrapped’ in advertisements. The ads can be tracked to show conversion rates and monitor campaign progress. Also the ads are dynamic so they can populate ads based on the context of the delivery. Semantic inklings.
For example, say you are a boat dealer and you knew your email recipient was only interested in buying boats over 10 feet in length. Using WrapMail you could limit the inventory being shown in the ad to be only 10�+ boats. Likewise you could have different boats displayed for each delivery based on the inventory then in-stock .
Conclusion: My impression is that WrapMail is interesting and has the potential to be a key catalyst for a viral marketing campaign. For startups seeking low-cost distribution it’s a good place to consider some marketing dollars.