Corporate newsletters are here to stay: trust is built through email

Before they take to the pitch under the gaze of fans and cameras, there are endless hours of training spent in the most unlikely of places. Because top players, before they’ve made it, can often be found in the suburbs. Adidas’s new campaign, launched to coincide with the 2026 FIFA World Cup, tells a story very much in the spirit of the American Dream. It’s called ‘Backyard Legends’ and is a hybrid of a cinematic film and a magazine feature. The sports giant tells the stories of neighbourhood legends, reminding athletes around the world that they can make it – they just need to believe in themselves. A storytelling campaign rolled out across all channels, including the newsletter.

The new frontier in the relationship between brands and consumers? It’s an old tactic but still effective because it reaches the email inboxes of 4.5 billion people – 58 per cent of the world’s population. The Wall Street Journal has put this in black and white, highlighting how relationship marketing is linked to the business of newsletters, which has reached a turning point in 2026. The reason? The growing importance of direct audience ownership and the reduction in dependence on search engines, social media platforms or artificial intelligence. Analysts call it inbox intimacy: it involves entering a space perceived as personal, almost domestic. A place where trust is worth more than visibility and where the continuity of the relationship matters more than virality.

A return to the past that feels like the future. According to estimates by Mordor Intelligence, the sector is set to exceed $22 billion by 2030, with annual growth of +11%. Today, email generates a return of $36 for every dollar invested, the highest figure amongst the main digital channels. What’s more, 82% of B2B and B2C businesses actively use it as a channel for engaging with customers and prospects. The average global open rate stands between 37% and 43%, which is high compared to other social media channels and display advertising. This is according to a report by Litmus, a US company specialising in email marketing, as reported by Forbes in the US. Meanwhile, according to HubSpot, 42% of marketers cite word of mouth as the main driver of growth.

But there’s more to it than that. Whilst platforms battle to capture attention, the most valuable aspect of the relationship is once again one of the oldest in the digital world: email. Despite AI platforms where content is abundant and often indistinguishable, writing continues to be a competitive advantage by fostering an authentic relationship between the writer and the reader. ‘But all this is also reinforced by AI when it stops fixating on targets and starts thinking of the reader as a person. Even thousands, or millions, but always as a single person who has feelings, expectations, and perhaps prejudices towards our proposal, our brand or the ideas we represent,” says Alessandro Lucchini, one of the leading experts in business writing and author of the book *Due orecchie, una bocca* (Two Ears, One Mouth), published by Palestra della Scrittura.

But what are the elements that transform a newsletter from a simple communication into a ongoing relationship? Lucchini has no doubts. ‘Having rules. But there is also a semantics of trust that harmonises subjective meanings. And even a syntax of trust: the structure of clauses and words within sentences. Where do I place the main idea depending on the objective? Can I clarify the message by dispelling ambiguities, or do I risk confusing the reader with my industry jargon? I’ve let you into my inbox; you have my trust: respect it, it’s precious.”