BIMI

Tech

BIMI stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification. It’s an email specification that allows participating email providers to display a brand’s logo next to their authenticated emails. This helps recipients easily identify legitimate emails from the brand and avoid phishing attempts.

BIMI works in conjunction with three other email authentication methods: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These methods work together to ensure that emails are coming from the organization they claim to be from and haven’t been spoofed by phishers. BIMI adds a visual layer of trust to these methods by displaying the brand’s logo.

Benefits of using BIMI:

  • Increased brand recognition: BIMI helps recipients easily identify emails from your brand, which can help to increase brand recognition and trust.
  • Reduced phishing attempts: By making it easier for recipients to identify legitimate emails from your brand, BIMI can help to reduce the risk of phishing attacks.
  • Improved email deliverability: Because BIMI helps to improve trust in your emails, it can also help to improve email deliverability.

BIMI is not simple to implement, but if you value your brand then its more than worth it.

Implementing BIMI involves several key steps:

1. Authentication with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC:

  • This is the foundation of BIMI, ensuring your emails are truly from your organization.
  • You need to implement all three of these authentication protocols and ensure they are aligned (using the same domain).
  • Additionally, your DMARC policy should be set to enforcement (either “p=reject” or “p=quarantine” with “pct=100”). Resources for DMARC setup are available at https://dmarc.org/.

2. Design and Prepare your Logo:

  • Create a high-quality logo that represents your brand in a square aspect ratio.
  • Convert the logo to SVG Tiny PS version 1.2 (Scalable Vector Graphic).
  • If you plan to certify your logo then it must be trademarked – you MUST use the exact trademarked logo in SVG format.
  • Conversion tools can be found here: https://bimigroup.org/svg-conversion-tools-released/

3. Obtain a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) (Optional):

  • While not mandatory, a VMC from a trusted provider like Entrust or DigiCert can enhance your sender reputation, especially for providers like Gmail and Apple.
  • This requires a trademarked logo beforehand.

4. Publish a BIMI record in your DNS: