What are the benefits and requirements of BIMI for email deliverability and branding?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Mailjet.com shares that BIMI helps improve engagement by making your emails stand out in a crowded inbox and can lead to higher open rates.
Email marketer from Valimail.com shares that BIMI enhances brand visibility in the inbox, increasing trust and recognition among recipients by displaying a logo next to authenticated emails.
Email marketer from Litmus.com explains that BIMI strengthens brand recognition and provides a more trustworthy and professional appearance, encouraging recipients to interact with your messages.
Email marketer from Red Sift shares that BIMI can significantly improve brand trust and customer confidence, as the presence of a verified logo assures recipients of the email's legitimacy.
Email marketer from OnlyDomains.com.au explains that BIMI requires your logo to be a registered trademark and properly formatted as an SVG file to ensure it displays correctly across different email clients.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow explains the challenges in generating the SVG file for BIMI, that it has to be a specific XML-based format and properly accessible for mailbox providers to read and display. This can often require working with a designer or specialized tool.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce shares that BIMI can help improve brand recall with email recipients. The consistent display of the brand logo in the inbox reinforces brand awareness.
Email marketer from EmailonAcid explains that BIMI requires strict DMARC alignment to ensure proper authentication and deliverability and is the security foundation for displaying brand logos in recipients' inboxes.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) is a digital certificate that validates the ownership of your trademarked logo and is required by some mailbox providers, like Gmail, for BIMI to display correctly.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that BIMI is the reward for doing DMARC properly, allowing you to display your trademarked logo next to authenticated emails. Google and Apple require a VMC (approx. $1299/year) to display the logo but BIMI does not improve deliverability.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that the purpose of BIMI is displaying the logo which draws the recipient’s attention to the message and theoretically drive increased engagement.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise discusses how Google/Gmail uses BIMI to indicate a brand has taken steps to properly secure their email and the effect it has for the user.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that BIMI is designed to increase the trust and visibility of email messages, leading to improved engagement and brand recognition.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that if BIMI isn't needed as an incentive to implement DMARC, it can be considered later. Once DMARC is in place, deciding on BIMI becomes a simpler decision involving expenditure for logo display.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from DMARC.org highlights that BIMI builds upon DMARC authentication. Enforcing a strict DMARC policy (p=quarantine or p=reject) is a prerequisite for BIMI.
Documentation from Agari by HelpSystems outlines that BIMI uses a VMC to digitally prove logo ownership, ensuring only authorized senders can display a specific brand logo. VMCs also require a trademarked logo.
Documentation from Entrust.com explains that BIMI requires DMARC to be enforced, logo to be a registered trademark, and a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) issued by an authorized provider.
Documentation from DigiCert explains that implementing BIMI involves the cost of obtaining a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). The cost varies depending on the issuing certificate authority and any additional services included.