BIMI is an email standard that allows you to have a logo appear next to an email message in a contact’s inbox if you have a good sending reputation. BIMI not only improves your visibility and brand awareness but it’s also designed to prevent fraud and support deliverability. BIMI is currently supported by major mailbox providers like Gmail, Yahoo and Apple, with more email providers to join in the future.
There are five required steps to setup BIMI in your account:
Before you start
Things you need to know:
If you are using a subdomain as your custom from address, your top-level Organisational Domain must have DMARC implemented with an enforcement policy (p=quarantine or p=reject) as well.
Some mailbox providers, for example, Gmail and Apple, don't accept self-asserted BIMI records, and you must get your logo certified as being associated with your company and domain. If you want to obtain a Verified Mark Certificate, complete only steps 1 and 5 below.
Audit your email traffic first
If you are setting up DMARC in your organisation for your organisational domain, it is strongly recommended that you audit your email traffic for 30 days before making any changes that result in policy enforcement, as any DMARC policy enforcement changes affects all email traffic related to your domain. This does not apply to domains used in your account to send email campaigns.
If you’d like help with setting up DMARC for your organisational domain or obtaining a VMC, we have a partner who can help. Please reach out to support@dotdigital.com or your Customer Success representative and we can connect you.
1. Set and publish an appropriate DMARC tag status
We automatically publish Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) records for the sending domains of all of our clients.
There are three DMARC policies that recommends what a receiver's mailbox provider should with an email that fails DMARC authentication.
DMARC policy | Definition | BIMI compliant |
none | This means there is no DMARC policy enforcement. | ❌ |
quarantine | Messages that fail the DMARC check are sent to the junk folder. | ✔️ |
reject | Messages that fail the DMARC check bounces back to the sender. | ✔️ |
A domain's DMARC record looks like this:
> v=DMARC1;p=none;rua=mailto:rua@reportingdomain.com;ruf=mailto:ruf@reportingdomain.com;fo=0;adkim=r;aspf=r;rf=afrf;pct=100;
In this example, the p=none tag defines the DMARC policy as none.
To talk to us about changing your DMARC policy, contact our support team and include your sending domain in your message.
Using a subdomain
If you are using a subdomain as your custom from address your top-level Organisational Domain needs to have DMARC implemented with an enforcement policy as well.
Using a custom from address
If the implementation is on your custom from address (CFA), that's the domain or subdomain with DNS control given to us, then our recommendation is to set the p= tag to quarantine, so it meets the criteria; we can also allow reject.
2. Create and publish your BIMI logo
When creating your BIMI logo, please follow the guidance from the BIMI group.
BIMI group have a tool to help with this. Check out the BIMI SVG conversion tool.
Once you create your BIMI logo, publish it at an HTTPS location which can either be your own infrastructure or in your account.
Disable bot protection
If you host the BIMI logo yourself, make sure that bot protection isn't enabled so the logo is automatically grabbed by mailbox providers.
To publish your BIMI logo in your account:
Drag a Text block to the canvas and add text.
Select Add a link.
Go to Link a document > Show document manager to link the text to your BIMI logo.
Select Save.
Select Preview.
Hover over the link you created; this is the HTTPS path where your BIMI logo is stored.
Copy or write down the HTTPS path.
Contact our support team and provide them with the HTTPS path.
Support makes DNS changes and publishes the BIMI record on your behalf.
3. Maintain a good reputation
One of the aspects of BIMI is that the mailbox providers can determine at their discretion whether to display your logo or not. To have your logo published, mailbox providers require that you comply with deliverability best practices and establish a good reputation.
To learn more about deliverability, you can watch this video:
4. Test your BIMI logo
After confirming that you follow the deliverability best practices and have a good sending reputation, create a Yahoo email account and send test emails to it.
If you see your BIMI logo, you are authenticating correctly and are considered as a trusted sender by the mailbox provider.
If you don’t see your BIMI logo, continue following the deliverability best practices to improve your sender reputation. Mailbox providers are continuously reviewing this, and if they determine you're a sender with good reputation, your logo should appear next to any received emails.
5. Obtain a VMC
To enable our customers to obtain a VMC, Dotdigital have partnered with Red Sift/Entrust who can guide you through the VMC process.
You still need to create your BIMI logo, but it will be hosted with Entrust.
There is a fee involved in the creation of the VMC, payable to Entrust.
To do this, contact our support team and include your sending domain in your message.