Fun Follow Up Sales Tips: The Fun Finale I Love Marketing Live Series with Joe Polish and Dean Jackson

Why the Receipt Beats the Newsletter

• CD Baby discovered its shipping confirmation email was the most opened email it ever sent.
• Most companies default to a flat “here’s your confirmation number” message at exactly the moment a customer is most excited.
• Dean frames every touchpoint in a customer’s timeline, including a receipt, as an opportunity to add fun.

The Letter That Started It All

• Derek Sivers wrote the first version of the CD Baby shipping email as a plain, forgettable confirmation.
• After a few months it felt incongruent with his mission to make people smile, so he spent 20 minutes writing something goofier.
• He later titled it “the most successful email I ever wrote” on his own blog.

Inside the Actual Letter

• Sterilized, contamination free gloves and a satin pillow cradle the CD before it ships.
• Fifty employees inspect and polish the disc, and a packing specialist from Japan lights a candle before it’s boxed.
• The whole town of Portland marches to the post office to wave the package off on the “private CD Baby jet.”
• The Customer’s picture goes up on the wall as “Customer of the year.”

What One Email Created

• Search “private CD Baby jet” online today and you’ll still find thousands of results.
• Each result is someone who received the email, loved it, and posted it to share with friends.
• One goofy, 20 minute email turned into thousands of new Customers through pure word of mouth.

Tiny Details Over Big Plans

• Joe and Dean’s core lesson: business owners often chase “world changing massive action plans” when a small, delightful detail does more to make people talk.
• The CD Baby letter cost nothing extra to send, it just took intention.
• AI now makes it easier than ever to draft your own version of a delightful follow up.

Every Touchpoint Is an Opportunity

• Dean’s framing: every moment in a Customer’s timeline, before, during, or after the sale, is a chance to inject personality.
• A confirmation email, a shipping notice, or a thank you note can all carry the same spirit as the CD Baby letter.

Jesse Cole and the Savannah Bananas

• Joe points to Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas, as another example of fun driving results.
• Cole’s book Find Your Yellow Tux argues that standing out beats blending in.
• The Savannah Bananas grew into a billion dollar company, and one player has a bigger social media following than many Major League Baseball stars.