What is BIMI?
BIMI, which stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification, is an email specification that gives brands the ability to display their logo next to their emails when they appear in the recipients' inboxes. It is a visual authentication of email, as well as making brands more recognizable and raising awareness.
You could think of BIMI as the email equivalent of a verified profile picture. BIMI begins with either SPF or DKIM, and if you have DMARC, there are even more protections, by indicating that only the legitimate senders can display this representation of your brand.
How BIMI Works?
With BIMI, trust incorporates a blend of DNS records, email authentication, and a verified logo file.
The general description goes as follows:
Email Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
BIMI stands upon a very stout email authentication. The sender domain needs to have a valid SPF, DKIM, and DMARC in place.
A DMARC policy execution of p=quarantine or p=reject is a must to ensure that emails that fail sender authentication are either not delivered or quarantined.
Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)
VMC is a digital certificate that proves your legal title to the logo you chose to display. The certificate authority (CA) issues the Verified Mark Certificate after performing its due diligence in verifying your brand identity.
It's not an absolute necessity all the time; however, some mailbox providers, Gmail being one among them, require VMC to make BIMI operational.
Logo Creation
Your logo shall be in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format. And your logo must be square and in compliance with the rules established by the BIMI Group.
Setting the DNS Records
Now you must generate a TXT record under your domain's DNS setup. This record will contain the BIMI record indicating the location of your SVG logo file on the internet.
The BIMI record is made up of a version number of the BIMI specification (which is optional), the path to your SVG logo file and your VMC file (also optional).
The BIMI record type as seen in the example below:
default._bimi.yourdomain.com. IN TXT "v=BIMI1; l=https://yourdomain.com/logo.svg; a=https://yourdomain.com/vmc.pem;"v=BIMI1: Specifies the BIMI version.
l=https://yourdomain.com/logo.svg: Specifies the URL of your SVG logo file.
a=https://yourdomain.com/vmc.pem (Optional): Specifies the URL of your VMC file.
Mailbox Provider Implementation
Mailbox providers to whom BIMI may apply will seek to verify your BIMI record within the DNS of your domain.
Provided that the record is discovered, and the email is going through the authentication validation (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), the recipient email box provider will append your logo next to your email message in the recipient's inbox.
Benefits of Brand Indicators for Message Identification
BIMI provides several advantages for organizations implementing it:
Enhanced Brand Recognition
Greater brand identity roles are fulfilled, and BIMI Ads allows images to be displayed in the recipients' inboxes so your brand can be consistent and easily identifiable. There is a very high momentum for email users to trust messages received from recognizable logos.
Improved Email Security
Higher levels of authentication than only DMARC are delivered via the logo; you can count on reduced phishing attacks and email spoofing.
Increased Email Engagement
Users and organizations who use identifiable logos in their emails provide tremendous amounts of visual stimuli- their messages become more recognizable and enticing to open.
Improved Deliverability
While it won't affect deliverability positively as a measured factor, BIMI can improve it indirectly.
Implementing strong email authentication standards (the requirement for BIMI) demonstrates to mailbox providers that you are a legitimate sender, which, in turn, builds your sender reputation and mitigates the chance of delivering spam.
Better Trust and Confidence
A verified logo can make a well-defined and identified brand even more trustworthy. If emails are authenticated and properly identified, recipients will generally have stronger trust levels.
Stronger Competition
BIMI can deliver the huge threat of making your emails more attractive and more legitimate than the unverified, unbranded emails of a competitor.
Reference
What Is BIMI? Benefits, Works and Supported Mailbox Providers
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