What are some tips for writing emails with high open and click-through rates?

1. Send it to the right people. A company I know closely recently sent out an event invitation to10,000 people. Only111 people opened the email. The worst stats I have seen in my life. Why? Because they just sent the email to a random data. This is exactly what you shouldn't be doing. This is nothing more than spamming, which is a crime. Collect the email addresses of people interested in what you are likely to share.
2. Make sure that your email doesn't end up in the junk folder. To ensure this, you have to learn a lot about what makes an inbox think that an email should go to the junk. Here is a good start. http://emailmarketing.comm100.com/email-marketing-tutorial/emails-going-to-junk.aspx
3. Personalize it. If the person sees his name in the greeting or the subject, he/she is more likely to open it.
4. Keep it short, interesting, and professional.

And once again, send it to the right people.