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Here's a situation that could happen to email marketers like you in the near future.
You receive a message from someone at the company who notices that one of your top competitors has a logo next to the messages in their inbox. They want to know: “Why doesn’t our brand logo appear in emails like this?”
What you are probably seeing is the result of BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification). A BIMI logo may appear when you implement certain email authentication protocols that validate your domain as a sender. These protocols prevent a type of phishing known as email spoofing, and a BIMI logo is visual proof of authentication.
Unfortunately, displaying an official logo alongside your brand's emails isn't as easy as uploading a JPEG somewhere. Before your BIMI logo is ready, you need to follow some specific steps and go through a few steps. But there are good reasons for this.
Why do we need BIMI logos?
BIMI is a new email specification that helps solve two main problems:
- Standardizing the way mailbox providers find and use logos.
- Encourage senders to adopt stricter DMARC policies for email authentication.
The logo problem
The truth is that brand logos in email marketing have been around for a while. However, email clients like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail all had their own ways of finding logos to use. This resulted in errors like an ugly looking logo, the wrong logo, or even showing explicit content as an icon in the inbox.
BIMI solves this problem Giving brands control which logo mailbox providers they have. A BIMI record is published in your sending domain's DNS, telling the receiving mail server where the correct logo is located.
The authentication problem
Another issue BIMI wants to address is weak DMARC policies that do not prevent spoofed emails from reaching a recipient's inbox.
DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance. It is an email specification built on SPF (Sender Policy Framework) and DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). DMARC checks both of these protocols and has a policy that tells mailbox providers what to do with messages that fail authentication.
This is where the problem comes into play. A DMARC policy is set to either p=none, p=quarantine, or p=reject.
None means your DMARC policy will allow any unauthenticated message through to the inbox. It instructs mailbox providers not to take action against authentication failures. Quarantine and rejection DMARC guidelines are stricter. They recommend that receiving mail servers filter emails that do not meet SPF and DKIM as spam or block their delivery.
Many brands still don’t use DMARC at all. Many who use it have weak DMARC policies set to “p=none”. If we want to stop spam and phishing, this has to change.
The ability to have a BIMI logo is a motivation for brands to adopt stricter email authentication practices. That's why BIMI readiness requires a policy set to Quarantine or Deny.
Steps to review and create a BIMI logo
If someone gives you the task of implementing BIMI or creating a BIMI logo, there are a few things you need to know before you begin. Be aware This process may take a whilebut each step is necessary if you want to get the most out of BIMI.
1. Get your logo trademarked
Mailbox providers want to ensure that they only display branded logos of reputable senders and that the sending domain actually owns the logo. For this reason, BIMI logos must be trademarked.
If you're not sure whether your brand's logo is already trademarked, try looking it up using a tool from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
If you need a trademark for your logo, these government bodies are responsible for it:
2. Get a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)
A new requirement for displaying a BIMI logo is to verify your ownership of that trademarked logo.
Google has made this a requirement when it announced its support for BIMI logos in Gmail. You almost certainly have a large number of Gmail addresses among your subscribers. So you should get verified and purchase a VMC.
Even though providers like Yahoo Mail and AOL don't require VMCs, they can use these certificates to determine whether you are a legitimate sender with a verified BIMI logo.
To date, there are two organizations authorized to deploy VMCs: Entrust and DigiCert. Expect a VMC to cost between $900 and $1,000 in the first year. Once your BIMI logo is verified, you will receive a Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) file that will be added to your DNS.
3. Optimize your BIMI logo for inbox
Now that you have completed the bureaucratic work, we can get to work designing your BIMI logo! Obviously you're not creating a new logo from scratch. But there are some BIMI logo best practices This ensures it looks good in the email experience.
Your BIMI logo should be:
- On a solid background.
- Centered in a perfect square.
- Visible when cropped into a circle.
- A small file size (typically under 32KB)
A BIMI logo cannot be animated or interactive.
Mailbox providers may display your BIMI logo in slightly different ways. Additionally, other types of applications could also use BIMI for official logos in the future. The image from BIMIGroup.org below shows what it could look like.
You understand why you should make sure the logo doesn't get cut off. So leave some space around the logo and background.
4. Create an SVG file of your logo
You'll probably find that most of your brand's logos are saved as PNGs and JPEGs. However, this doesn't work for a BIMI logo. BIMI requires the use of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGs). They are XML files with some advantages that make the format ideal for BIMI logos.
First, an SVG file is a lightweight file that looks good no matter how small or large it is displayed (hence the term “scalable”). That's because it uses a fixed set of shapes instead of pixels. BIMI also requires the use of SVG P/S Tiny 1.2. BIMI Group has chosen this version because it is considered more secure.
You can include additional information in XML files that could be used for tracking purposes. To prevent BIMI records from being used for potentially unwanted or invasive purposes, portable secure SVG version P/S Tiny 1.2 is required.
To create an SVG file, you need to use a vector image editing program like Adobe Illustrator. BIMI Group also lists some SVG conversion tools to use. After exporting your SVG file, you may still need to make some manual edits to the XML attributes. This also includes removing the attributes “x=” and “y=”.
For more details, see BIMI Group's article on creating BIMI SVG logo files.
5. Add the file path to your BIMI record
When you are ready to publish your BIMI TXT record to DNS, the location of your SVG file must be listed there. This is defined in the “l=” tag of the data set.
You can upload your BIMI logo to any secure server (https:), which can be your Content Delivery Network (CDN). Then the BIMI record points to that file location or URL.
A BIMI record looks something like this:
default._bimi TXT “v=BIMI1; l=https://cdn.mydomain.com/bimilogo.svg;”
Once the record is published, mailbox providers can find your BIMI logo and display it next to emails that pass authentication.
Don't forget: You need a DMARC policy set to “p=quarantine” or “p=reject” for a BIMI logo to appear!
How does a BIMI logo help?
You may be saying to yourself, “That seems like a lot of work.”
No, you're not wrong. But we believe it's worth the effort for several reasons.
First — Stronger email authentication benefits everyone. Implementing DMARC with strict enforcement policies helps mailbox providers understand which messages are valid and which are spam or fraudulent scams. This means your customers and subscribers are protected. Email authentication also protects your brand reputation and supports good domain and sender reputation.
Second, there is some very interesting research that points to this A The branded inbox experience is more effective and engaging.
Red Sift and Entrust jointly conducted a survey in 2021 to find out what email recipients think about seeing logos in their inbox. Key findings suggest that BIMI logos could:
- increase Open rates by 21%.
- Thrust Brand recall by 18%.
- Improve that Likelihood of purchase by 34%.
- Increase confidence in the Legitimacy of an email by 90%.
To learn more, check out the full study, Consumer Engagement with Visual Brands in Email. You can also see which brands are implementing BIMI by visiting BIMIRadar.com.
These results suggest that early adopters of BIMI may have an advantage over the competition.
So why wait for your CMO or marketing director to ask you for a BIMI logo? Start the process yourself!
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Author: Kasey Steinbrinck
Kasey Steinbrinck is Senior Content Marketing Manager for Sinch Email, which includes the Email on Acid, InboxReady, Mailgun and Mailjet brands. He understands how email and content work hand in hand to create a strong strategy. Kasey has also spent time working in traditional media, e-commerce marketing and for a digital agency.
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
