Getting your emails noticed has become incredibly difficult, with the average person juggling hundreds of emails each day. So, how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd?

That's where BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) comes into play. It is a relatively new tool that helps your brand stand out while also providing some security. In this post, I'll be guiding you through how to get started.

What Exactly is BIMI?

BIMI stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification which is simply a way for you to display your brand's logo next to your emails in supported inboxes.

The primary benefits of BIMI include:

1. Instant Brand Recognition: Your logo makes your emails stand out in crowded inboxes, helping recipients quickly identify communications from your brand.
2. Increased Trust and Credibility: By verifying your identity through BIMI's authentication process, you differentiate yourself from spammers and untrustworthy senders, boosting open rates and engagement.
3. Improved Email Deliverability: While BIMI itself doesn't directly impact deliverability, it encourages strong email authentication practices like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which are crucial for reaching inboxes.

How Does BIMI work?

To get your logo showing up via BIMI, you need to ensure your emails are authenticated using protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. BIMI then builds on that by letting you associate your verified logo with your domain.

Design Your Brand Logo

Your brand logo must be in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format and meet specific guidelines. It should be a square aspect ratio, static (no animations), and visually clear even at smaller sizes. This is what will be displayed in supported inboxes.

Get Your Logo Verified

Some email providers require you to verify your logo through a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). This step involves working with a third-party certificate authority that checks your brand's authenticity and issues the certificate. This extra layer of verification helps prevent abuse and ensures that only authorised parties can leverage BIMI for a particular brand.

Add BIMI DNS Record:

Once you have your logo designed and verified, the next step is to add a BIMI DNS record to your domain. This record tells email clients where to find your brand's logo and includes any relevant verification information.

The BIMI DNS record is a TXT record that follows a specific format:

default._bimi.yourdomain.com IN TXT "v=BIMI1; l=https://yourdomain.com/logo.svg; a=https://yourdomain.com/vmc.pem"

Let's break down the different components:

• default._bimi.yourdomain.com: This is the subdomain where the BIMI record is located. The default part indicates that this is the default BIMI record for your domain.
• v=BIMI1: This specifies the version of the BIMI specification you're using.
• l=https://yourdomain.com/logo.svg: This is the URL where your brand's logo (in SVG format) is hosted. Make sure this URL is publicly accessible.
• a=https://yourdomain.com/vmc.pem: This is the URL where your Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) is hosted. This component is optional, but it's required by some email providers to verify your brand's authenticity.

Adding this BIMI record to your DNS is crucial for email clients to recognise and display your brand's logo in supported inboxes. The process for adding the record may vary depending on your DNS provider or hosting platform, but it typically involves accessing your domain's DNS settings and creating a new TXT record with the BIMI information.

Monitor and Optimise

After setting up BIMI, keep an eye on how your emails are displaying across different inboxes and email clients. You may need to make adjustments to ensure your logo is rendering correctly.

By following these steps and meeting the necessary requirements, you can implement BIMI and have your brand logo displayed prominently in supported email inboxes, enhancing your brand recognition and building trust with recipients.

A Few Things to Consider

As BIMI continues to gain traction and more email providers recognise its benefits, we can expect broader support in the future. But for the time being, it’s not yet universally supported.As of now, major email services like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Fastmail have adopted BIMI, allowing users to see brand logos in the inbox when emails are received from BIMI-compliant senders. Also, getting a Verified Mark Certificate can be a bit of a process and might involve some costs, so it’s something to weigh up.

If you’re serious about making an impact, investing a little time in setting up BIMI could pay off big time.It gives your brand a unique edge by making your emails stand out visually and by building trust right from the inbox.

We'd love to hear your thoughts and experiences on implementing BIMI, so please feel free to leave a comment below. For more industry insights and the latest updates from our agency, be sure to visit Toru Digital's Insights.