Lately we all get overwhelmed with supposedly ‘FREE’ offers stating that they are offering something utterly FREE OF CHARGE. Most of the time it is a disappointing attempt to get numerous emails from our address book for spamming purposes. Are you bored of it all? I know we are!!

It seems that on a daily basis my secondary email box gets hundreds offers giving away everything bar the kitchen sink. It has got to the point that I have been forced to ban my 9yr old (Happy Birthday son!) from using the laptop for fear of him entering one of these spam so-called competition offers. There is an anecdote that ‘Nothing is Free’ but I remember not so long ago that there were real offers which honestly did give away items for free. Perhaps I am getting cynical in my old age but I personally think it is the organisations continually bombarding us with this tripe that have become cynical in their advertising methods.

Do they really believe that we want to be bothered every day to subscribe to their email list in order to have an opportunity to ‘win’ a freebie that maybe we need (yeah right!) The Advertising gurus they employ are, of course, equally to blame. Rather than thinking of new ways to draw us in to their latest way of being able to spam us with each and every offer from now until eternity shouldn’t they be conducting market research to discover what we actually want or need. I believe that used to be the case once upon a time – has the digital age changed us so much?

An example – A little time ago I got an offer from a major Supermarket. Spend £50 and get £10 off. Sounds fair, yes? Well actually it was reasonably genuine. Many of the deals in store were not available but we scraped up to the £50 value in wine. Then we had to book delivery which was not available for several days. This meant that most of the deals we got in our shop were no longer available. More time spent reordering until we had the £50 once more. So the shopping is delivered and despite the hassle we got £10 off – THE END? Unfortunately not.

Upon looking in my second email box reserved for indirect emails I find an average of SIX emails daily from this Supermarket Chain. That equates to 42 per week and 2190 per year. Do I need 2190 emails to tell me that everybody needs food to survive? Of course, it is easy to cancel subscription from this aggravation but my thoughts are that it should not be happening in the first place. Am I alone in the feeling that this kind of behaviour is less likely to encourage me to shop with them again? I seriously hope not!!

So that is how the big boys do it. What about the small companies? My experience tells me that the majority of the SME type companies operate on a different concept. It seems that where staff are not faceless in the whole then customers are treated in the same way. How many SMEs do you receive spam emails from? Not so many, I reckon. It is not difficult and inexpensive to set up an automated email robot to spam customers – so why don’t they do it? My belief is that they care about their clientele and apply the simple thought process of ‘Would I want it done to me?’ As such it is often the case that smaller companies often have offers that are 100% for real and do not need a minimum initial spend. I have discovered a fair few offers just lately from smaller companies that actually offered something worthwhile and I wasn’t flooded afterwards.

Here is a good case:

ADH Gems Antique Jewellery specialist is offering a yellow gold and diamond ring in their Christmas giveaway. If you are into Vintage Jewellery you will appreciate the site anyway, however the essential point to note is that there is no purchase required, there is no email registration needed and definitely no need to call a £3 each minute phoneline for 5 minutes in order to claim a pen that you could have just gone to the Pound shop if you really wanted it.

My love is Old Jewellery so of course this offer appeals to me entirely but there are many smaller companies offering equally good offers. My advice is to look at the SMALLER fish, those that don’t spend all their budget on web marketing in the area that you are primarily interested and you may find something to excite you.

Details of this particular competition can be found at:

Free Diamond Ring

If you uncover a deal from a likewise retailer please share it here or wherever.

All the best

Aaron Hockerday – Jewellery and Watch collector
Antique Jewellery

Aaron Hockerday – Jewellery and Watch collector
http://www.adhgems.co.uk

Author Bio: Aaron Hockerday – Jewellery and Watch collector
Antique Jewellery

Category: Advice
Keywords: Antique Jewellery, Vintage Jewellery, Antique Jewelry, Vintage Jewelry, Antique gold, Victorian Gold