Emailing news and trends 2026

Email, or rather the SMTP protocol that powers our emails, turned 40 in 2022. 40 years, an eternity for a digital technology. And yet, it's still moving. Email is evolving, strengthening and innovating. Faced with the challenges of phishing, spam, AI and legislation, cutting-edge expertise is essential for success in this field.

This page offers a compendium of everything you need to know to build a successful emailing strategy that works. Ideal for anyone who manages email campaigns for their organization and wants to keep up to date.

Messaging: AI, rules generalization and preference center

AI in messaging

En janvier 2026, Google a annoncé l’intégration prochaine de Gemini 3 dans Gmail, ce qui va transformer profondément la gestion de vos emails avec des capacités d’IA avancées.

Here are two examples of features that have an impact on email marketing and newsletters:

• AI Inbox: Automatically filters out noise to highlight priority emails and urgent tasks, identifying your VIPs and critical items like bills to pay or upcoming appointments.
• AI Overviews : Ask your inbox questions in natural language and get instant answers without having to dig through your emails. Gemini also synthesizes long conversations into concise summaries.

Qu’est-ce qui change pour l’email marketing et les newsletters avec l’arrivée de l’IA dans les messageries ?

• Automatic prioritization of their important emails: The AI will decide for them which emails deserve their immediate attention. If your email is not identified as a priority by the algorithm, it may never be seen, even if it does arrive in the inbox.
• Contextual search rather than exhaustive reading: Instead of browsing their inbox from top to bottom, users will directly query their inbox («What promotions are running?», «What events this week?») and the AI will provide them with an instant summary without them having to open your emails.
• Consumption of summaries rather than full content: Users will read your emails less and less in their entirety. They'll settle for AI-generated summaries, which means they won't necessarily see your polished design, images or full text.
• Increased expectations of relevance : Accustomed to having AI filter and summarize for them, users will be even less tolerant of irrelevant or too-frequent emails. They will expect to receive only what really concerns them.

How do you adapt your emails?

• Optimizing copywriting : Structure your emails with clear headings, short paragraphs and a clear hierarchy of information. The AI must be able to extract the essence of your message (benefits, actions to be taken...). This wording must be adapted for both the recipient and the AI.
• Focus on absolute relevance rather than volume: In an environment where AI filters aggressively, only really useful emails will get through. Reduce sending frequency and focus on high value-added content for each segment, linked to the recipient's real expectations and interaction history.
• Encourage natural interaction with commercial emails : To have a better chance of finding your way into AI summaries, you need to generate conversations. This means encouraging answer your e-mails or to make your recipients talk about you (transfer, share by email...)
• Work on your sender reputation like never before: AI algorithms will rely heavily on past engagement signals. Many emails ignored or deleted without being read by the recipient will permanently penalize you in the inbox priorities.
• Measuring success differently: Traditional open rates will lose their meaning if the AI reads and summarizes your emails without the user actually «opening» them. Focus on real engagement metrics: clicks, conversions, responses, time spent on the landing page.
• Test the «AI readability» of your emails: Ask ChatGPT or Claude to summarize your emails before sending. If the generated summary doesn't correctly capture your main message or value proposition, rework your structure and copywriting.

Generalization of Gmail and Yahoo! 2024 rules

In February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo imposed strict new rules:

• SPF/DKIM/DMARC authentication,
• Unsubscribe in one click,
• and complaint rate below 0.3%.

In 2025, these requirements were extended to all senders and messaging services (Microsoft, Orange, La Poste). In 2026, these rules became mandatory prerequisites for good deliverability, so if you're not squared away yet, you need to keep moving forward.

To find out more about these rules, read our full article: All you need to know about the new deliverability rules for Gmail and Yahoo! unveiled in 2024

Impact of “Preference Centers” in messaging services

After Yahoo, it's now Gmail's turn to deploy its “Preference Center”, aptly named “Manage Subscriptions”.

This functionality reveals a critical technical issue to guarantee the consistency of your unsubscribe processes: Align your technical architecture with your marketing granularity

Gmail relies on List-Unsubscribe to feed its Preference Center. If you use a single generic From address for all your feeds (newsletters, promotions, transactional), when unsubscribing via List-Unsubscribe, Gmail will consider all emails sent by this From address to be unsubscribed.

So segment your From addresses by type of communication and opt-in level, either via the part before the @ (newsletter@, promo@, notifications@) or via separate sub-domains (ideal for deliverability). Make sure your List-Unsubscribe configuration corresponds to this logic.

To find out more about these topics : List-Unsubscribe guide and Email unsubscribe management

Spam and security: targeted phishing and anti-cold email mobilization

More data theft = more targeted phishing

Massive data theft is fuelling increasingly sophisticated and targeted phishing campaigns. Hackers have access to precise information (names, addresses, purchase histories) and can impersonate legitimate brands with alarming realism.

In the face of this threat, legitimate senders must continue to educate their recipients to spot the signs of phishing (suspicious sender address, unusual requests, fraudulent links).

See Signal Spam's latest barometer.

The anti-spam industry takes action against cold email

The anti-spam industry mobilizes against cold email. In November 2025, the MAAWG published an official position condemning deceptive practices (similar domains, multiple sending accounts, bypassing filters): M3AAWG Position on Cold Email.

Direct consequence: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 could toughen outbound email monitoring, particularly for senders using avoidance tactics. This development marks a major turning point that will have a significant impact on commercial prospecting practices in 2026.

Read our full article: How we won't help you improve the deliverability of your cold emailing!

In 2026, we'll really get going if we still haven't implemented some essential best practices:

• Work on deliverability governance and training Document your complete mailing architecture and train your teams in the fundamentals of deliverability, so that they can integrate these issues into their day-to-day decisions.
• Standardizing the use of domain names Establish a clear architecture of sub-domains by flow typology (marketing, transactional, notifications) to isolate the reputation of each flow and facilitate diagnosis in the event of an incident. These sub-domains should be based on your main domain (where your website is located).

• Monitor your deliverability performance : Set up dashboards to track performance by destination (Gmail, Outlook, Orange, Free) and quickly detect incidents before they damage your reputation.

• Monitor deliverability infrastructure For more information: Set up reputation monitoring tools (Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS) to track your sender reputation, complaint rates and authentication errors in real time. But don't forget to also monitor your DNS records related to deliverability.

• Continuing to work on commitment Our solutions: Define a strategy for managing inactive contacts with clear thresholds, work on your sales pressure. And keep in mind that what your recipients expect is relevance.

Legislation: opening pixel and mandatory accessibility

Consent and Opening Pixel

In the summer of 2025, the CNIL gave its opinion on the opening pixel in emails. This announcement came as a great surprise to email professionals. Today, you have to ask your subscribers for their consent before you can measure whether they open your emails individually. Without this consent, you can't target the people who open your emails in your campaigns. The CNIL has published its rules for tracking opens. It has also warned that click tracking will be the next topic to be addressed. Companies need to prepare for this now.

At Badsender, our advice is simple: Companies and their data protection officers must act on this issue. They must choose their strategy: to ask for consent or not. You also need to check with your emailing tool that you are complying with the rules on anonymizing open tracking. And start preparing for future rules on click tracking.

To find out more about the CNIL's recommendations concerning the opening pixel, read our detailed article : CNIL and opening pixel: what's changing for email marketing

Email accessibility

Since June 28, 2025, a new European directive (the European Accessibility Act) has been in place. It requires all private companies to make their digital services accessible to people with disabilities. Marketing emails and newsletters are covered by this law. Since that date, therefore, companies that have not made their e-mails accessible are in breach of the law and risk being fined. (With the exception of companies with fewer than 10 employees and sales of less than 2 million euros).

The main difficulty: there is no official guide to making emails accessible. For websites, there's the RGAA or the WCAG, but not for emails. Email accessibility involves several aspects: design, technical code, structure and text.

To help companies, Badsender has created an evaluation grid with over 50 accessibility criteria for emails. We analyze your emails in detail and give you concrete advice on design, technical code and copywriting.

To find out more about email accessibility, read our complete guide : Guide to accessibility in emailing

Performance 2025: what our customer analyses reveal

Our statistical analyses of our customers in 2025 reveal clear trends by campaign type.

Newsletters perform better than commercial emails in terms of open and click rates, and dissatisfaction.

• For newsletters, On average, we observe an open rate between 30% and 40%, a click rate between 3% and 5%, an unsubscribe rate around 0.10% to 0.20% and a dissatisfaction rate between 5% and 10%.
• For commercial emails, We're seeing slightly lower performance, with an open rate between 20% and 25%, a click rate between 1.5% and 2.5%, an unsubscribe rate between 0.20% and 0.30%, and a dissatisfaction rate between 20% and 30%.
• Automated campaigns are distinguished by generally superior performance: welcome emails achieve open rates between 40% and 50% and click-through rates between 8% and 12%, while transactional emails often exceed 70-80% open rates.

To compare your results with market standards and identify areas for improvement, consult our detailed statistical benchmark : Benchmark emailing statistics

Downward trends if content is exclusively commercial and irregular

Companies that send almost exclusively commercial emails have very low click-through rates, often less than 1%. When subscribers don't click, this increases the number of inactive contacts and can cause deliverability problems.

The same problem applies to companies that send out a newsletter every 3-4 months. Sending so infrequently doesn't create a bond with your contacts. What's more, messaging systems don't like it when you send irregularly. This can damage your reputation.

The solution: vary your content. Alternate sales emails with informative newsletters and useful content. In your sales emails, always add tips or interesting information next to your sales CTAs. The most important thing in email marketing is to get clicks. Even if your subscribers don't buy right away, they still need to be active. Offer them content that arouses their curiosity and makes them want to click. A subscriber who regularly clicks on informative content will be more open when you offer to buy something.

Upward trends if wording is clear

The main problem we identify in our email design analyses is the lack of clarity in the copy.

• When an email is well written, easy to understand and in the reader's interest, subscribers click more.
• When the message isn't clear, they don't click.

The basic principle is simple, but often forgotten: put yourself in your reader's shoes. Ask yourself the questions they would ask themselves. Consider the situation they'll be in when they read your e-mail. Adapt your message accordingly. A good email doesn't just present an offer or a piece of information. It naturally guides the reader towards action, responding to their needs and expectations.

To learn more about effective copywriting techniques and how to choose the right angle of attack for your emails, check out our complete guide : Email copywriting: finding the right angle of attack

Performance gap between ISPs (open and click)

A closer analysis of our customer data reveals significant differences in performance by messaging service. We consistently observe lower open and click rates for La Poste and Free than for Gmail and Orange. Microsoft messaging services (Outlook, Hotmail) show a particular all-or-nothing behavior: either your emails are perfectly delivered and perform well, or they encounter major blockages with few intermediate nuances.

Tools and processes: dashboards, composable CDPs and email builders

The evolution of emailing requires us to regularly challenge our processes and tools. Our processes, because long-established practices can become obsolete and lose their effectiveness. Our tools, because a new generation of CRM and emailing solutions offers essential functionalities that it would be a shame to ignore.

Dashboards: Still no integrated solutions in campaign orchestration tools

Campaign management tools are still very poor when it comes to analyzing the data from your CRM campaigns in depth. With very few exceptions, it will not be possible to create customized dashboards. So it's time to take the matter into your own hands and create your own dashboards outside these tools.

Campaign and scenario performance

Emailing tools offer complete reporting on each campaign, but are limited when it comes to analyzing your performance across the board. You can't easily break down your results by target, campaign type or period to identify what's working and what's not. The dissatisfaction rate, although essential for assessing the relevance of your communications, is (almost) never calculated automatically. And tracking the performance of your automated scenarios on a monthly basis is an obstacle course.

And yet, these dashboards are essential for effectively managing your CRM business. Without them, you're sailing at a dead end, with no clear view of your performance drivers or warning signals. Companies wishing to professionalize their approach must therefore build these dashboards in parallel with their mailing tool.

Deliverability monitoring

Campaign management tools don't allow you to track performance by destination (Gmail, Outlook, Orange, Free), which is essential for quickly detecting deliverability incidents. Without this breakdown, it's impossible to identify that Outlook is blocking your e-mails while Gmail is delivering them normally, or that your open rates are dropping sharply on Orange. These dashboards need to offer three levels of readability: a monthly view to monitor underlying trends, a weekly view to spot evolutions, and a daily view to immediately detect moments of stalling and react as quickly as possible to implement corrective actions.

Evolution of your contact database

Understanding the evolution of your contact base is a strategic challenge that is often overlooked. The essential questions: What is the profile of your inactive customers? Which segments generate the most unsubscribes? We recommend setting up regular data studies that cross-reference your CRM data with your sending performance, segmenting according to age, last interaction, origin and engagement behavior.

To help you build these dashboards and correctly interpret your emailing statistics, consult our complete guide : Guide to emailing statistics

Data: The emergence of composable CDPs

A new generation of platforms is overturning the traditional approach to CDP projects. Composable CDPs radically reverse the logic of monolithic CDPs: rather than duplicating all customer data in a proprietary database, they rely on the company's existing data warehouse as a unique foundation of truth. In concrete terms, data are not replicated in the CDP, but remain centralized in your data infrastructure, and you assemble around this base various specialized bricks (collection, identity unification, segmentation, activation via reverse-ETL) chosen according to your real needs.

This «best-of-breed» approach profoundly changes the philosophy of projects: away from the rigid, closed turnkey system, towards a modular, scalable architecture that you control from end to end.

CEP : The rise of the Customer Engagement Platform

The market for CRM orchestration tools is evolving with the emergence of Customer Engagement Platforms (CEP). This change of terminology reflects a profound transformation of architectures: CEP are part of a modular logic where they connect to the Data Warehouse and the composable CDP without duplicating data. They make it possible to orchestrate coherent omnichannel paths (email, SMS, push, WhatsApp...) based on unified data, updated in near-real time. This model offers greater agility, reduces technical dependency and improves collaboration between marketing, data and IT teams.

Beware, however, of the “buzz word” effect! Take a close look at your real needs, and don't select your future campaign orchestration tools on the basis of glitter alone.

Compliance and joint responsibility

Email campaign management tools are co-responsible with you for compliance with regulations. It's essential that these platforms are proactive on compliance issues and support you in adapting your practices to legal developments. If your router doesn't communicate clearly on these subjects, or doesn't implement the necessary functionalities to ensure compliance, don't hesitate to ask specific questions and to follow them until you get satisfactory answers.

As the CNIL points out in its recommendations on the opening pixel, technical solutions (routers, ESPs) have a crucial role to play. The CNIL reminds us that «publishers of emailing solutions must provide their customers with the tools to obtain consent for tracking openings» and that they must «guarantee effective anonymization of data when consent is not obtained». In other words, your tool must provide you with the technical means to comply with the regulations, whether through consent gathering mechanisms or robust tracking anonymization.

Email Builder: balancing creativity and consistency

One of the recurring findings of our audits is that our customers' emails go off in all directions and end up deviating considerably from their graphic charter.

This dispersal creates a visual rupture: emails are no longer consistent with landing pages or the company's website, which undermines brand recognition and the overall user experience.

There are two main reasons for this situation:

• No graphic guidelines nor a design guide adapted to email, leaving users of email builders with no clear guidelines to follow.
• No strategic thinking about template industrialization in an email builder, The result is a multitude of uncontrolled variations over time.

To avoid this drift, (or to make up for it) it's essential to challenge your use of your email builder, document the rules of email design, structure your templates in a coherent way and educate your teams about the importance of respecting these rules.

This also involves assessing the relevance of your email builder in relation to where you've placed the creativity/consistency cursor, in relation to the profile of your teams and in relation to your strategic objectives.

Your 2026 roadmap: priorities and concrete actions

• Taking control of compliance issues Take a clear decision on the conformity of the opening pixel and require your campaign management tool to provide you with the technical means necessary to comply with CNIL recommendations.

• Make your sender identity transparent Check and secure your sender authentication configuration: implement DMARC as a «reject» policy and deploy BIMI to reinforce your credibility with messaging services.

• Set up dashboards to monitor your performance:
  • Delivrability performance: monitor your technical performance in real time and quickly identify filtering problems by e-mail.
  • Performance for your one-shot campaigns, segmented by targeting and typology, integrating the dissatisfaction rate
  • Monthly performance monitoring of your automated campaigns

• Targeting and relevance: Identify and exclude inactive subscribers from your recurring mailings, or adapt your sales pressure to this segment (e.g. with a monthly digest) to preserve your reputation as a sender.

• Reviewing the rules of drafting Invest in the editorial quality of your emails as a priority, even before working on the design, as this is the determining factor in click-through rates.

• Systematize quality testing :
  • Launch an email accessibility project and train your email builders' users in accessibility and clear writing best practices.
  • Industrialize your email templates in the email builder, respecting your graphic charter and limiting design options to maintain consistency with your visual identity.

• Improving governance and team training To help your teams, set up reference documents: an email writing framework defining editorial rules and templates in line with your graphic charter. Then train them in good design practices and accessibility rules by putting them into practice directly in the email builder they're using.