Question 1

Why Do I Need BIMI?

Accepted Answer

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) helps protect your brand by proving you are a legitimate sender. It works with DMARC to prevent phishing and spoofing, showing evolving filtering systems that your emails are trustworthy. BIMI boosts your brand's visibility and recognition in crowded inboxes displaying your logo next to emails. BIMI also improves deliverability and strengthens your brand’s email security.

Question 2

Why Is BIMI So Important?

Accepted Answer

By implementing BIMI, your logo will be broadcast to your subscribers every time your email arrives in their inbox. This helps you create deeper connections with your recipients, improves brand awareness, and keeps your company in the spotlight. In addition, BIMI displays your brand logo through your domain's DNS settings, ensuring that only your company's sending domain can display your logo. This combined with the requirement of DMARC authentication and a good email reputation means that BIMI helps distinguish trusted brands with legitimate emails from phishing, spoofing, or fraudulent emails. As a result, the increased brand awareness and credibility of your company leads to better deliverability, open rates, click-through rates, and conversions for your email marketing campaigns.

Question 3

What is a BIMI Checker?

Accepted Answer

BIMI Checker is a diagnostic tool designed to help you verify and validate BIMI implementation for the queried domain name. It indicates whether your BIMI setup is properly configured, meets all requirements, and how your logo is displayed on devices.

Question 4

What Can You Verify with Our BIMI Checker?

Accepted Answer

With our BIMI inspector, you can easily verify the following for your domain:
 
- **DMARC Record Validation**

Ensure that your DMARC record is correctly configured and valid.
 
- **DMARC Policy Settings**

Check that your DMARC policy is properly set to enhance email security.
 
- **Logo Appearance**

Visualize how your BIMI logo is displayed on mobile and desktop devices.
 
- **BIMI Record Verification**

Confirm that your BIMI record is correctly implemented and valid.
 
- **BIMI Record Generation**

Generate a BIMI record if you don't already have one.

Question 5

How to Check Your BIMI Record?

Accepted Answer

You can easily use GlockApps' free BIMI validator tool for instant BIMI record lookup.

Question 6

How to Use a BIMI Checker?

Accepted Answer

It’s simple and intuitive! To conduct your BIMI record check just enter your domain name, click the "Check" button, and receive immediate results.

Question 7

Is Deploying BIMI Required?

Accepted Answer

No, deploying BIMI email authentication is not required, but highly recommended. However, it provides senders with significant benefits in terms of email security, deliverability, brand recognition, and user engagement.

Question 8

Does BIMI Improve Email Deliverability?

Accepted Answer

Yes, BIMI can improve your email deliverability by making your messages recognizable and trustworthy with a verified logo. Increased brand awareness, credibility, and visual trust boost open rates and engagement. Deliverability today depends more on authentication and sending reputation than content. BIMI DNS record adds an extra layer of authentication, increasing the chances of your emails reaching the inbox. Most spam filters automatically mark unauthenticated emails as spam, making BIMI crucial for your marketing efforts, particularly in B2B contexts.

Question 9

Which Mailbox Providers Support BIMI?

Accepted Answer

**Supporting BIMI:** Apple (iOS and MacOS email clients), Fastmail, au.com, Cloudmark, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, La Poste, Onet Poczta, and Zone (Including Pobox, AOL/Netscape, and Google for Business/Gsuite mailboxes).
 
**Considering BIMI support:** Atmail, BT Mail, Comcast, Qualitia, Seznam.cz, GMX, Web.de, Yahoo Japan.
 
**Doesn't support BIMI yet:** Microsoft.
 
For the latest BIMI email authentication updates, please visit the BIMI Group website.

Question 10

Does BIMI Allow Supporting Multiple Domains and Logos?

Accepted Answer

BIMI currently supports one logo for multiple domains and subdomains. VMC certificates, which may be required by some email providers, support only one logo, which should be a trademark.

Question 11

The BIMI Record Has Been Published, How to Check That It Works?

Accepted Answer

After you create and publish your BIMI record, to check if it works, use our free BIMI Checker tool. Enter your domain name to validate your BIMI record, DMARC settings, and logo.

Question 12

Why is the BIMI logo not appearing in emails?

Accepted Answer

If your BIMI logo is not showing up in emails, try these troubleshooting steps:

- Make sure you have a DMARC policy in place (p=quarantine or p=reject)
- Use our BIMI validator tool to see if there are any issues with your record or logo format
- Confirm you have the correct certificate type: either a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) or a Common Mark Certificate (CMC) for Gmail and other providers that support it
- Check if your logo aligns with Google's expanded acceptance of CMCs, which includes unregistered trademarks used for at least 12 months
- For Yahoo! and other providers that do not require a VMC, make sure your domain has a good reputation

Question 13

How Does BIMI Contribute to Anti-Abuse Measures?

Accepted Answer

BIMI implementation helps fight email spoofing by allowing companies to display their logos next to authenticated emails in recipients' inboxes. This visual indicator makes it more difficult for attackers to impersonate trusted brands in fraudulent email campaigns, thus strengthening anti-abuse measures.

Question 14

Does BIMI Replace the User Profile Image?

Accepted Answer

When BIMI is set up, your brand’s primary logo appears alongside your email address, enhancing brand recognition. However, BIMI does not replace user profile photos in most cases. The display of profile photos varies by mailbox provider, and while some of them may have specific policies affecting visibility, individual user profile photos typically remain visible in contact cards and similar interfaces.

Question 15

What Are the Benefits of BIMI for Startups?

Accepted Answer

For startups, BIMI offers several key benefits. One of the biggest challenges new businesses face is maintaining a consistent brand identity across multiple marketing channels, including email, social media, and blogs. BIMI helps to ensure that your brand logo is instantly recognizable in emails, improving the user experience and building brand awareness and trust. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use and test BIMI for businesses, especially in the development stage.

Question 16

Does BIMI use DKIM (d=; i=) or my SPF domain?

Accepted Answer

Receivers will attempt to retrieve a BIMI record from the domain identified by DMARC alignment for the RFC5322.From Author Domain. For DKIM alignment, the BIMI record is retrieved from the domain specified in the DKIM “d=” value.

Question 17

What Attributes Does a BIMI Record Have?

Accepted Answer

As for the technical details, a BIMI record includes three attributes:
 
v=bimi1: The record declaration indicating this is a BIMI record.
 
l=URL: The URL hosting the SVG image.
 
a=URL: The URL hosting the VMC/Assertion record.
 
A semicolon separates each attribute (;).
 
A final example of a BIMI record looks like this:
 
default._bimi.example.com  in   txt   “v=BIMI1; l=https://www.example.com/path/to/logo/example.svg; a=https://www.example.com/path/to/vmc/VMC.pem;”

Question 18

Is There a Recommended Logo Size for BIMI?

Accepted Answer

BIMI uses a scalable vector format, specifically an SVG profile defined as SVG Tiny PS. Logos should be square, high-resolution images with a solid background color and enough space to display within a circle. Since BIMI logos are vector graphics, they are not defined by pixel size. Consult your graphic designer to create a proper SVG file.

Question 19

Is the BIMI Checker Tool Free to Use?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the BIMI Checker tool is completely free to use, allowing you to verify your Brand Indicators for Message Identification records without any cost, hidden charges, or limitations.

Question 20

What Are the Prerequisites for BIMI?

Accepted Answer

Before implementing BIMI for email, your organization must become BIMI-ready and meet the following requirements:
 
- Deploy SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication, with DMARC set to “quarantine” or “reject”
- Obtain a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) or, where applicable, a Common Mark Certificate (CMC) for your logo. CMCs allow logos based on prior use marks, provided the mark has been used continuously for at least 12 months.
- Host a valid SVG or SVGZ file of your logo on a publicly accessible HTTPS URL.

Question 21

What is the Difference Between a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) and a Common Mark Certificate (CMC)?

Accepted Answer

Here’s an overview of the main differences between two categories of Mark Certificates: VMC and CMC:
 
**VMC:**
- Allows your registered trademark logo or a government-claimed mark to appear across multiple email clients like Gmail and Apple Mail
- Requires a logo with a valid registered trademark, typically verified through official trademark authorities
- Validation includes organization details, domain control, and trademark registration verification
- More expensive due to the rigorous validation process by the issuing authority
- Your logo is displayed in supported email clients, and Gmail adds a verified checkmark next to your brand
- Best for businesses with a strong brand identity and registered trademarks seeking wide coverage and an additional layer of protection

**CMC:**
- Designed for displaying a logo in Gmail without requiring a registered trademark
- Logos must either demonstrate 12+ months of prior use or be a modified registered trademark
- Validation focuses on organization details, domain control, and verifying 12-month usage of the logo
- Significantly more affordable than a VMC due to lower validation requirements
- Your logo appears in Gmail, but no verified blue checkmark is displayed
- Ideal for smaller businesses or organizations without trademarked logos but looking to improve brand recognition and user trust

Free BIMI Checker Tool

Free BIMI Checker: Add Your Brand Logo to Every Email

How Does BIMI Work?

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Required Certificates for BIMI: Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) and Common Mark Certificate (CMC)

Frequently Asked Questions