Rose of Sharon Jewelry

Congratulations to Christine Cazares - whose birthday was June 20th! Christine won a lovely green heart anklet from the new AdornableAnkets line as part of our Birthday Club membership.

Christine will be receiving the fun and colorful anklet (shown below).

Every month, we draw a name from the club members born during that month. June’s drawing will be followed with July’s next week. (Thanks every one for your patience.)

It’s not too late to join for our July drawing where we will be giving away a beaded watch from our upcoming Time Will Tell line which will be part of our A.F.F. Jewelry Collection at Etsy.

Join the Rose of Sharon Jewelry Birthday Club. It’s free! Besides our monthly handmade jewelry giveaway, you’ll receive regular newsletters, special sale notices and member only discounts.

• Love our anklets? Check out the Adornable Anklets store.

• Interested in other affordable handmade jewelry? Check out the A.F.F. Jewelry collection. We’re adding new items every day!

• “The earrings came today. What a nice surprise! I am disabled due to breast cancer and am always looking for freebies but this was the best! Thank you so very much. I love them. It is very sweet that you do this.”  Ginny B

• Wanted to thank you for the beautiful earrings. They are really nice....:)” Marla M

• “Thank you so much.  You don't know how much I appreciate it.” Amanda

• “Thanks ladies for the free earrings as a birthday present!! :) If you include color in the earrings, do you take requests? If so, I would prefer anything in blues, teals, greens, pinks, or purples. :) If you have it, maroon would even be awesome and preferred (Go Aggies!) so I could wear them with my A&M shirts and on game days too! :) Thanks again and I look forward to my first pair of Rose of Sharon earrings! :)”  Paige B [We sent her a lovely teal pair.]

• “Thank you so much for the birthday club, it will definitely help with choosing jewelry purchases in the future.” Jessica S

• “What a blessing. Am disabled, limited income, but love to receive such a gift from you, thanks, God Bless!” Michelie B

• “This is a great idea. Now i won't feel so bad about getting older.” Alison W.

• “Finally women who love birthdays and jewelry! You have very beautiful pieces of art!” LaRynda H

• “I love your designs!!”  Leslie

• “What a great marketing strategy. Thank you and I will tell others.” Linda W

• “Thank you ! Looking forward to my birthday gift! Don't get too many at my age!!”  Marilyn B

• “This looks like a great site, especially since June is coming up - along with graduation presents, wedding presents, etc. Thanks very much. “ Marisa R

• “Just browsing the website for a moment has been a beautiful experience. What a talented group of Ladies! Thank you so much for the opportunity to enjoy your wonderful creations!” Melinda M

• “I love your jewelry and look forward to purchasing some of it soon!” Nancy C

• Your jewelry is beautiful!!!

• “Great site and love the jewelry!”  Melissa D

Our free newsletter/marketing tool – the Rose of Sharon Jewelry Birthday Club – was a small success its first year. When several freebie sites posted a link 3 weeks ago, we were hit with over 2,000 subscribers in 3 days! Never in my wildest dreams did I think we would be “mined” and shared like this.

The Birthday Club was created to encourage interested Rose of Sharon Jewelry blog readers and handmade jewelry lovers to keep in touch. Our web site is clear about what the club is – a marketing newsletter.

As a thank you to members, we give you a free (shipping included) pair of handmade earrings or,  if you prefer, a generous jewelry discount coupon during your birthday month. The only requirement is you must return to the site, “buy” the earrings (the coupon covers all costs) and provide us with a mailing address. This is pretty standard practice for any type of email marketing. We do not sell, share or otherwise use the info provided except for our basic marketing emails and you can unsubscribe immediately at any time.

We are a small partnership of women working together to market our handmade jewelry so supplying over 2,000 pairs of earrings will be beyond our budget. However, I decided that we are honorable so we should do our best to fulfill our promise. But after this weekend, I’m having some serious second thoughts.

Traffic – Yes.  Marketing Value – No?

While I do love having the traffic and many people sent thanks and wonderful comments about our jewelry, there is a dark side to this goodwill marketing effort.You see I have several Google alerts which forward me whenever Rose of Sharon Jewelry is mentioned. That’s  when I started reading less than positive messages about our club and free jewelry offering. I also started noticing that a mathematically impossible number of April birthdays were supplied by subscribers.

The word of mouth in freebie forums has been a bit ugly. I have read posts where people set up fathers and brothers and anyone else so they could get free jewelry every month. Many people thought this offer was a scam and would only receive the earring after a purchase or would require expensive postage – all untrue if they had actually read our Birthday Club enrollment message.

I’m a freebie participant too but I think I will rethink this as frankly, I’m really conflicted and upset. I am proceeding with setting up the subscriber base. There is some significant manual data entry required as our Constant Contact form was not fully implemented.

The purpose of this post is to share the important lesson of “be careful what you wish for.” Hopefully, you’ll be able to avoid the pitfalls of offering freebies as a marketing incentive.

Any thoughts? I’d love to hear some feedback.

Also don't forget to join our birthday club - free earrings on your birthday along with our monthly newsletter. Sign up on the right.