WrapMail: Wrap Your Company Emails In Ads

What made Hotmail for a time the largest webmail venue online? Well, most credit it to tiny little text ads that appeared at the bottom of every message that was sent from their platform. I know you've seen them:

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Fast free email.
www.hotmail.com
Get your account today.

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Send and receive email anywhere
Get your Hotmail account free.
www.hotmail.com

This is what was known as passive viral - because the spreaders, who were the users of Hotmail, passively spread these messages rather than actively deciding to evangelize for Hotmail. Hotmail simply appended every message with these post scripts as they were sent.

This strategy was so effective that nearly every major webmail provider soon followed suit. Yahoo Mail, for example was and continues to be a big proponent of this strategy.

The same idea forms the basis of WrapMail. WrapMail turns the email stream of every employee into advertising inventory for your company. As an employee sends messages, small graphical ads are appended to the top and sides of the message. These ads can say what you want, including communicate your product story. Recipients can click on these messages and learn more or buy!

Here's their Tech Crunch 60 second pitch:



And here is an example of how a message might look.



The employee doesn't get distracted by the ads as they compose -- the ads are only added after s/he hits send.

The cost for this service is $5 per email user (account) per month.

For individuals that want to surround their missives with personal graphical content, WrapMail offers a free consumer version of the product. They describe it thus:

The Individual Edition is ideal for students, recent graduates, hobbyists or anyone that wants to customize their email to reflect their interests and personality. Users can create Wraps that contain content from their Facebook, MySpace, eBay or LinkedIn profiles, resumes, dating profiles, alma mater, or favorite sports teams. WrapMail is perfect for creating and sending invitations and greeting cards or surveys.

Naturally, whether this sort of approach pays out is going to depend on the category. I can certainly imagine that in some industries this could be a very compelling proposition. Real estate screams to mind first. Graphical house listings around every message sent by a realtor. That sounds big to me.

Find out more at wrapmail.com.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.