Brand certification for email

BIMI – Brand Indicators for Message Identification is a proposed standard that allows you to display your company logo in your email messages. But only authenticated messages from domains with DMARC policies configured are enabled to take advantage of this important feature.

Certification step by step

1 – MARKETING
Z

Prerequisite

Logo

Is your brand ready for BIMI? Check the requirements.

2 – IT
Z

Prerequisite

~

DMARC

Implement the DMARC protocol and qualify for BIMI.

3 – VMC

Coming soon

VMC Certification

Register your email, we will notify you when it is available.

4 – TI

Coming soon

Configuration

How it works? Check in detail how to perform the configuration.

5 – BIMI

Coming soon

BIMI Ready

Why adopt BIMI? Build trust in your email.

1 – MARKETING
Z

Prerequisite

Logo

Is your brand ready for BIMI? Check the requirements.

2 – IT
Z

Prerequisite

~

DMARC

Implement the DMARC protocol and qualify for BIMI.

3 – VMC

Coming soon

VMC Certification

Register your email, we will notify you when it is available.

4 – TI

Coming soon

Configuration

How it works? Check in detail how to perform the configuration.

5 – BIMI

Coming soon

BIMI Ready

Why adopt BIMI? Build trust in your email.

Logo

This stage of the certification project must start immediately!

  • Does your company already have a registered logo?
  • Does your trademark match your logo?
  • Is your logo suitable?
  • Will your logo maintain the aspect ratio to fit in a square?

DMARC

In parallel with the adequacy of the logo, the configuration of the DMARC protocol must be started immediately.

  • This step can take 1 to 6 months depending on the complexity of the outgoing e-mail
  • DMARC is the foundation of BIMI – BIMI will not stop spoofing the domain – DMARC will do this job!
  • The work is done in harmony – DMARC for impersonation attacks, while BIMI adds a layer for the logo on email recipients

VMC certification

Verified Mark Certificate Requirement

BIMI requires certification to ensure that the logo is registered and is actually from the company that is sending the email. These certificates will be similar to SSL and will have an annual validity. Be informed here as soon as the certification is available! To be eligible for certification, the prerequisites must be met:

 

  • Registered logo
  • DMARC

Register your email here, we will notify you when it is available.

Your email will only be used to inform you about the availability of the certification.

Configuration

BIMI is a proposed standard that allows you to display your company logo in your authenticated email messages when your domain has a DMARC policy in quarantine or rejection mode.

Similar to other protocols, BIMI is a txt record created in the DNS zone. The record points to a URL where your logo is hosted in .svg format, adding it to authenticated emails sent.

How it works?

To implement BIMI, you must first ensure that your domain has the DMARC protocol in quarantine or rejection mode. Then you have to be evaluated and certified by a BIMI certification provider.

Then you can apply the following txt record to your DNS:

Name: default._bimi.[domain] IN TXT “v=BIMI1; l=[SVG URL]; a=[PEM URL]

BIMI supports several logos per domain using what is called selectors. As you can see above, default are the default selectors used in this case. If you want to have different logos for different e-mail sending services you can make use of different selectors.

BIMI READY

Ready! Now your company, in addition to being protected against impersonation attacks on your domain, starts to show your brand in the inbox of your customers and partners.

The potential in marketing is enormous. Companies that have BIMI certification are credible, as they are clearly concerned with the security of this important communication channel, which is e-mail – increasing the engagement of those who receive the message, ensuring its veracity.

Why adopt BIMI?

With this simple visual check, recipients can recognize and trust incoming messages. But if you already have SPF, DMARC and DKIM, why do you need BIMI? Good question. Let’s take a high-level look at each one to identify the main characteristics: 

  • BIMI: add your logo to your inbox emails so that subscribers can quickly identify your messages and trust that they are yours.
  • SPF: authenticates your email to identify email servers that are allowed to send email from a specific domain.
  • DKIM: Adds a digital signature to emails so that destination email servers know that your domain has sent the message and that you are responsible for the content of the message.
  • DMARC: specifies destination email servers how to handle emails that are not authenticated using SPF or DKIM (accepting, spamming or rejecting).

Looking at this list of verification methods, BIMI is the only visual clue that a typical email user can use to identify the origin and authenticity of a message. It is therefore a visual way to show your recipients that you have proper DMARC protection and that email is reliable.

BIMI can help recipients recognize and trust your brand in the inbox. This confidence leads to fewer subscription cancellations and spam complaints, which can play an important role in increasing delivery capacity. Your brand becomes more reliable.

In addition, you get another layer of protection against phishers and spoofers who try to impersonate your brand. Without the standard tracking logo, recipients will be wary of messages that claim to be you. And when BIMI becomes more widely adopted, spam and phishing (in general) will become even more obvious, as they will not have certified and recognizable logos.

Finally, BIMI allows you to market your brand easily and automatically. Recipients will connect the return address, the subject line and the header text to your logo, helping to further strengthen your brand.

    Roadmap

    The adoption of BIMI is already significant and the pilot has important players in the market.
    So now is a good time to ensure that activities to move the DMARC policy to rejection or quarantine are completed.

    Who is behind BIMI?

      CERTBIMI

      CERTBIMI offers all services related to BIMI certification. While certification is not yet available to the market, compliance with the prerequisites must be started. For this, our team is already available to adapt your logo and mainly configure the DMARC policy accordingly.