A PROMOTIONAL TIP
One of the ways I toot my own whistle to call attention to what I do.
This is a 1500 ml Riesling Wine bottle whose format I love. Retail: $10.58. Tall, beautiful, cobalt blue. Good glass. Striking presentation. When I want to get someone’s attention, either for the promotion of my wine bottle engraving, or to make a doctor or realtor or hotel banquet director remember me, I’ll hatch up a rhyme (It’s a blessing and a curse, or worse. I think in rhyme. But not all the time) and engrave it one the bottles. The recipient’s name goes just above the label; you see a hint of the bottle for Christine, the keeper of the body scanner gizmo at my cardiologist’s office. Legions of patients come through her cubical every day so I figured a nice little conversation piece might generate some business if I sent her a bottle. I did just that.
Well, just as I figured, she set the bottle in a prominent place so every patience sees it as he or she get’s horizontal for the body scans. It worked.
In case you’re interested, here is the other side so you get the full treatment. Without the body scan and fat bill to Medicare.
In the Workshops we talk in great detail about similar ideas and many others to get yourself noticed, without having to purchase ads and other conventional means of promotion. In fact, most of it all is unconventional.
Every year about this time, I started getting ready for the onslaught of engraving jobs that hit my door. That is in addition to the heavy schedule of in-store events where I engrave wine and spirits bottles. Personalized bottles make one-of-a-kind gifts and people line up for them. I’m the only one in my neighborhood who can claim ‘groupies.’ Wine groupies, at least!
When those on my mailing list get the email reminder that a store in their area will be hosting one of my wine engraving events, they show up. For those people who have everything, a personalized wine bottle is the proverbial no-brainer birthday, anniversary, wedding, or good-old-boy gift. Likely they’ve never seen an engraved bottle. Even more likely, as the headline above implies, they won’t dare open the bottle! It becomes a conversation piece for friends, family, and guests who see in on the bar or mantle in their home.
Our Workshops teach what I do. It is NOT brain surgery or rocket science. It is muscle memory, the memorization of a few simple, easy-to-make strokes that are connected together in the right order to make letters. The letters are not WRITTEN! They are FORMED. Your normal handwriting can look like the grandkid’s Etch A Sketch doodles. Doesn’t matter. You learn a technique. Like learning to play the guitar or piano, except this takes only ONE hand! Half as difficult to learn? I don’t know. I play neither, but satisfied I could if I wanted to put in the time and practice and energy.
So, it’s ONE hand. A few simple elemental strokes, easily made. It’s hooking them up together to make letters. That’s it. THAT’S IT! Yes, there is practice. Yes, there are other facets you learn to combine with the making of individual letters. But I’ve taught 80-somethings and I’ve taught teenagers who will NEVER need to flip burgers for money in college.
Enough. If you have the time, the resources to invest in the closest thing to a sure thing, the guts, and the need for an extra income stream, this is the ticket. Many students earn back their full investment in less than a year. Some do it in a few months.
Call me with your list of questions. Careful though. I can be pretty convincing. Unless you’re serious and want in the game, better stay on the fence or in the rocking chair while those who got off the fence are getting ready for the onslaught just as I am.
-Ken 214.250.6958
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