So, I've been participating in a LinkedIn discussion lately.  And, it was about how this person could improve her Open Rates on her email campaigns. 

After all sorts of suggestions, she wrote us back and said:

"and realized that I was talking to my prospects as if they were clients. I completely rewrote my e-mail and sent it again, to the same list, at the same time of day, on the same day of the week. My open rate is 23% (up from 11% a week ago) and I just sent the e-mail an hour ago!! Woohoo my boss is thrilled!! If anyone else was having similar trouble, try the tips in this webinar. The key ones I picked up were:

1) Personalization is KEY!!!
2) Don't try to sell them ANYTHING. Step one has to be building a relationship.
3) Don't jazz up the e-mail with headers and images and attachments. Simple, personal communication is best.
4) Make it short and simple to act on.

Thanks everyone for all of your feedback! "

...from the eMarketing Association Network discussion called "How do I get clients/prospects to open my e-mails? I test by splitting my lists so I can send the same e-mail multiple times with different subject lines - but no change in open rates."

Found this to be the easiest way to share someone else's results.  These are all Email Marketing basics.  Following some basic guidelines doubled this person's results and they can have a significant impact on our own results.  Too often, we are tempted to sell people.  We need to use email marketing as it was intended, to build rapport by educating, informing and entertaining people.

It just makes sense.