WrapMail today signed Hotell Ivar Assen, Hareid Hotell and Sagafjord Hotell in Norway. These hotels should start wrapping early next week.

WrapMail, Inc. has been selected as a finalist for the South Florida Business Journal’s 2009 Technology Awards in the Interactive Marketing category.

The Technology Awards was created to honor the area’s best technology-based companies, the CEOs or CIOs leading the way, and the companies making the best use of a technology in South Florida. We looked for growing startup companies, trend-setting innovations, products and services to highlight. Our judging team – led by our editorial department, along with Mark Smith, COO of 3Cinteractive; Mark Wyllie, executive director of InternetCoast; Travis Berger, VP and president-elect of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association; and Chris Burgio, president of the South Florida Technology Alliance – selected three outstanding finalists in each category from the scores of nominations received.

On Nov. 5, WrapMail, Inc. and all of the finalists will be honored at a special awards luncheon at Jungle Island, at 1111 Parrot Jungle Trail, in Miami.

Dr.Holms Hotel in Norway just signed on with WrapMail as the first hotel in Norway to utilize our technology. Dr Holms Hotel has been a source of recuperation, comfort and well-being since the beginning of the 20th century. Dr Holms is situated in the heart of the beautiful mountain scenery, and is a starting point for inspiring and exiting adventures.

WrapMaker: Method, system and software for creating interactive, dynamic html letterhead(s) and manage usage-rules for same

Filed in the US and International.

Hødd soccer club in Norway has already sold three advertising spots in their email wrap. Sparmax, Allweiler (Colfax) and the local Xerox dealer all have seen the value of advertising in emails sent from the Hødd-staff. The first advertiser was enough to eliminate the cost of WrapMail, the next two represent pure profit for the club. Quite a number of soccer clubs struggle financially and this is where WrapMail creates a hat-trick by branding the club, driving additional traffic to the website and generating a new revenue stream.

WrapMail, Inc. (WrapMail) and Hilltop Engineering and Technical Services Ltd. (Hilltop) has agreed to partnership where Hilltop will represent WrapMail in Kenya.

Hødd soccer club in Ulsteinvik, Norway is the first Norwegian soccer club to start using WrapMail. They already secured advertisers for their wraps and in taking advantage of this possibility are turning WrapMail into a new revenue source. The benefits are many: branding the club, promoting upcoming matches and special events such as the youth league.

It’s a big day for us Wrappers as WrapMail has broken into a mainstream business publication – Inc. Magazine.  The concept of using everyday emails as a new advertising medium is clearly beginning to take hold.  Here is the article and link: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20090501/sales-and-marketing-e-mails-that-sell.html

Sales & Marketing: E-Mails That Sell

Turning employee missives into ad campaigns

From: Inc. Magazine, May 2009 | By: Kasey Wehrum

Several recently introduced products and services, including WrapMail, mailPrimer, BrandMail, and Exclaimer Signature Manager, offer these so-called e-mail enhancements. Prices and features vary, but they all take a company’s outgoing e-mail messages and turn them into marketing mailers, complete with stationery-style borders, banner ads to promote sales and new products, and embedded links. Or as WrapMail describes its service, “It’s like an e-mail signature on steroids.”

As the name suggests, WrapMail takes an outgoing e-mail message and wraps the borders in clickable images. Companies create banner ads, add them to a template, and specify which webpage should appear when someone clicks on an ad. Employees don’t need to install anything — the ads are automatically added after they hit Send. For companies with fewer than 200 employees, the service, which costs $5 per user per month, routes outgoing e-mail through WrapMail’s servers. For larger companies, it’s an additional $3,000 to install a WrapMail server on-site.

Guerin saw results right away. In the first week, someone who clicked on an e-mail banner ad bought an $8,000 printer. The e-mail in question? A reply Guerin had sent to a friend, saying he would attend a dinner party. Guerin’s friend forwarded the RSVP to the host, who happened to work at a photography studio that needed a new printer. Guerin was so impressed that he later joined WrapMail’s board.

There is some evidence to suggest that everyday e-mails make for a persuasive marketing platform. According to a survey by Forrester Research, 77 percent of people say they trust the information in e-mails sent from people they know. That ranks well above the 46 percent who trust what they read in newspapers. And whether or not recipients fully trust the ads in e-mails from acquaintances, they at least look at them. WrapMail claims that nearly all of the e-mails sent with its service get opened. A typical e-mail marketing newsletter, in contrast, is lucky to get a 50 percent open rate.

The e-mail ads may be especially effective in niche markets. Tim Davey, president of Global Marine Travel, an agency based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, that arranges flights for people who work on oil rigs, cargo ships, and private yachts, says WrapMail helps the company target its marketing efforts. Because airlines offer these workers special discounts through Global Marine, the company doesn’t widely publicize its promotions. “We spend about 50 percent of our time turning down people who aren’t qualified to use these fares,” says Davey. About 24 of Global Marine’s 78 employees get ads placed on outgoing messages — about 500 e-mails a month — to cruise-line executives, yacht owners, and other travel agencies. About half of all recipients click on the ads, says Davey.

Of course, there are some drawbacks to plastering e-mails with ads. The messages sometimes get tangled in spam filters. There are also concerns that the in-your-face ads will turn off customers. When WrapMail was mentioned on a tech blog recently, it drew some criticisms. “If I was regularly receiving e-mails with wraps…I would stop dealing with that company,” wrote one commenter. Another added, “Just what we need, more advertising to invade our personal space. Stay out of my inbox!”

WrapMail allows each recipient to opt out of the ads and receive just normal, plain-text e-mails. And a company can omit the ads for contacts who receive frequent e-mails. But Guerin isn’t worried about his ads getting on people’s nerves. “You can’t hit people over the head hard enough when it comes to making them aware of the products you offer,” he says.

Copyright © 2009 Mansueto Ventures LLC. All rights reserved.
Inc.com, 7 World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007-2195.

Wrap it up!

Dave Kustin, CMO – WrapMail

Shop to Earn/Shop to Earth has signed an agreement with WrapMail for a custom solution of WrapMail Lite for Shop to Earn distributors. Shop to Earn has about 150,000 distributors and growing rapidly, all existing and new distributors will be offered the WrapMail solution at a monthly charge (or discounted annual charge). This custom solution will have the following features:

* Complete web-based email system

* Custom Shop to Earn templates

* Individual customization where users can upload their own image, text and unique links to be implemented in the wrap

* Immediate Click tracking (Alert folder) and custom reporting

* POP3 and SMTP option so users can send/receive from email clients such as Outlook, Mac Mail, Cell phones etc

Every Shop to Earn distributor has a unique website and, like all professionals, send emails every day to clients, prospects, friends and family. Using WrapMail’s solution will glue together their unique website with these daily emails. The effect is that every email they send anyway now becomes part of their marketing, driving traffic to their website and giving valuable research as recipients click on various parts of the wrap.

WrapMail’s solution for educational institutions has been approved for listing on Google’s Solutions Marketplace.