BIMI Email Standard Decoded: Best Practices, Benefits, and Way Forward

Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is a new email authentication standard. CNN, Groupon, and Aetna are some of the top brands that use BIMI to build trust through emails. Read on to understand the concept of BIMI, the best practices to implement it, the benefits offered, and what the future holds.

According to StatistaOpens a new window , the number of email users worldwide will grow up to 4.3 billion by 2023. With the growing number of users, it gets tricky for marketers to be noticed as every other brand is vying for users’ attention.

The average email open rate across different industries is 17.92%Opens a new window . And marketers are constantly looking for ways to increase this number by innovating on the subject line, preview text, etc. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could do all that and more using something visual and memorable while ensuring that no one else can use it for foul practices? Enter BIMI.

What Is BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification)?

Brand Indicators for Message Identification, BIMI for short, is a new email standard that displays the brand logo alongside its email content in the email inbox. The logo will appear in place of the sender’s profile picture or initials.

The BIMI standard acts as a form of authentication to help users distinguish genuine emails from fraudulent ones. We can view it as the email equivalent of verified accounts for social media.

Image Source: Valimail

The BIMI email standard will display brand logos in the inbox

BIMI sits on top of other email authentication standards such as Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC).

The founder and executive chairman of Agari (the company that contributed to DMARC), Patrick Peterson, refers to BIMI as DMARC 2.0.

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Why BIMI?

BIMI is perhaps the most transparent way to let users know about the authenticity of your emails. As your logo appears alongside your emails, it will be easier for your subscribers to locate your brand in the swarm of emails, hence boosting the open rate.

Yahoo! Mail has already started testing BIMI, while Google has slated its BIMI pilot for 2020Opens a new window . Some of the brands that have implemented BIMI include CNN, Groupon, Agari, Wish, SparkPost, Aetna, among many others.

How to Implement the BIMI Standard?

BIMI is a text file that resides on your sending servers, and it follows a specific format similar to other email authentication formats like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Once the recipient receives the email, the email service identifies the BIMI file and its location to verify the message. After verification, the BIMI file points the recipient’s email service to the brand logo and the service fetches it into the inbox.

Here are five best practices that will enable seamless implementation of BIMI.

1. Set Up Other Email Authentication Standards
 

Before implementing the BIMI email standard, you need to have the following email authentication standards in place:

• SPF: The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) validates that the sender’s mail IP address is on the domain’s whitelist.
• DKIM: The DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) authenticates email messages.
• DMARC: The Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance (DMARC) checks the ‘From’ field of the messages authenticated by SPF and DKIM and makes sure that ‘From’ is visible to the user. Update your DMARC at p=quarantine or p=reject.
• ARC: The Authenticated Received Chain (ARC) allows email services to verify email authentication even if the email has multiple forwards.
   

2. Develop a Good Sender Reputation
 

Implementing the BIMI standard doesn’t imply that your logo will pop-up beside the email content right away. Your emails need to have a good domain and IP reputation along with an excellent subscriber engagement, which includes the open and click-through rate.

3. Choose a Logo
 

You can choose one logo for each domain. The logo needs to be square and center-aligned. The format of the logo must be SVG. There should not be a tagline or any other text on the logo file.

4. Obtain a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)
 

A Mark Verifying Authority (MVA) issues a Verified Mark Certificate that authenticates the brand logo with the sender’s domain. Although it’s not a mandatory prerequisite, it is expected to become a requirement in 2020.

5. Publish Your BIMI

Once you update your BIMI record with the logo and the VMC, you can publish your BIMI record into the Domain Name Service (DNS).

Learn More: 5 B2B Email Marketing Best Practices You Can’t Afford to MissOpens a new window

Benefits of the BIMI Email Standard

One of the common queries raised with the introduction of BIMI is, will it guarantee a 100% deliverability? The short answer is no. Nothing can guarantee a 100% deliverability, but BIMI can certainly increase your email deliverability. Besides this, here are the three key benefits of implementing BIMI:

1. Strengthens brand recall
 

With the brand recall appearing alongside your emails, brand-savvy users will be encouraged to click on your emails, which they otherwise could have missed. So, along with the enhanced email performance, the BIMI standard will also boost brand impressions and strengthen brand recall in the process.

2. Prevents fraudulent activities
 

The brand logo appears next to your emails only after the receiver’s email service validates the authenticity after a string of actions. This will, therefore, help recipients distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent emails.

3. Cultivates trust
 

Authenticity leads to trust. BIMI will help brands grow trust in the minds of their consumers and improve loyalty and overall user experience.

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The Way Forward

The BIMI standard is yet to gain mass adoption among brands, but we can predict this picture to change as Google, along with other players, execute their BIMI programs. Along with this, the BIMI standard will be regulated as brands will be necessitated to get certified from MVAs. DigiCert issuing a VMC to CNNOpens a new window is the most recent example of this.

Do you have any questions related to the BIMI standard? Ask us on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , or TwitterOpens a new window . We’re listening!