Why CD Baby's Emails Aren't Spam

I purchased a CD from CDBaby.com back in January, and am loving their approach to email marketing. It started with a clever tale on how careful they were shipping my compact disc:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Saturday, January 10th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...

Obviously none of that is true (other than the fact the disc was shipped), but I dug it nonetheless. The brilliance is how they follow this up. From then on, emails I get from CD Baby all list "CD Baby loves Daniel" as the sender. The next email wasn't as colorful as the first, and only attempted to get me to review the CD I purchased. A direct link to the CD on their site, though, made it easy.

What's really clever is how it continues, as if a story is playing out. The third email I received started:

Now that we're getting to know each other a little better, we feel it's the perfect time to open up a little; you know, let you in on some of the things that make us tick.

And the tone of their first email to me is reflected in the remainder:

In the past decade we've helped thousands of independent artists get their music to the masses. We now have over 250,000 albums in our warehouses, shelved neatly as to form a grid-like maze of independent music that more than a few of our employees have become lost in the vast recesses of. Luckily, we're all accounted for at the moment, and we've been busy picking out some great new music for you. Have a look-see.

What are they doing that has their emails to me not immediately deleted, like those from other online retailers?

1) The creativity actually has me curious as to what's next.
2) CD Baby loves Daniel! Cheesy, but cool.
3) Infrequent. I don't feel bombarded. One email a month on news and suggested listening is enough.

Being in the automotive marketing field I'd like to see more dealers apply some of these techniques. Follow up my purchase with more than just "You need an oil change" -- make those reminders a part of a larger story. On my car's "birthday" send me an e-card with a coupon off service. Tell me what my car is up to when I'm not looking, how my vehicle's brothers and sisters are doing, be creative. Whatever route you go with the campaign, remember it's a campaign. Don't confuse me by having one silly tone followed by another far different one. That will just confuse me.

In short, give me a reason to read your emails or it'll go to the trash, or worse be flagged as spam if I feel the emails are too frequent.