How Does BIMI Work?

BIMI works in conjunction with DMARC, DKIM, and SPF to enable recipient email providers to correctly identify your company and allow your messages to appear in the inbox. Technically, BIMI is a DNS (Domain Name System) text entry similar to DMARC.

First, make sure that your domain DMARC policy is set to “reject” or “quarantine”. Your domain should send properly authenticated emails (with SPF and DKIM) so that you can safely enforce the DMARC policy.

What is a BIMI Record?

BIMI allows you to publish a new, standardized DNS record for a domain you own. This record contains a URL to a logo that may require proof that the logo has been validated with a VMC. Here’s how it works:

- An organization publishes a BIMI record containing these URLs.
- A supporting mailbox provider (MBP) checks the sending domain’s DMARC policy and verifies whether it’s included in the BIMI validation.

- If both checks are successful, the MBP may use the logo from the URL in the BIMI record to populate the BIMI image of the qualifying email sent from that domain to the MBP.

What is a VMC?

Similar to Twitter’s “verified user” blue checkmarks, a VMC is an official mark that the domain has the official claim to its brand logo. While Google is currently the only one to enforce Verified Mark Certificates, other email providers are following suit to prevent misuse of a brand logo.
This way, an email recipient can see whether or not you are the authentic owner of the displayed brand before they even open the email. This helps reduce the amount of spam and phishing emails that utilize brand names to appear genuine.
A VMC logo has an added layer of security. Since it’s verified by the official trademark organization, it’s much more difficult to spoof or use for unintended purposes.

What are the BIMI Logo Requirements?

For BIMI to work, first you need to achieve DMARC enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject). This way, you protect your brand reputation and ensure nobody is impersonating your domain.

If the DMARC policy for your domain is at an enforcement level (p=quarantine or p=reject), and the record defines a percentage tag, then that tag must be pct=100, otherwise, the policy does not meet BIMI requirements.

What Is a Verified Mark Certificate?

Similar to Twitter’s “verified user” blue checkmarks, a VMC is an official mark that the domain has the official claim to its brand logo. While Google is currently the only one to enforce Verified Mark Certificates, other email providers are following suit to prevent misuse of a brand logo.

This way, an email recipient can see whether or not you are the authentic owner of the displayed brand before they even open the email. This helps reduce the amount of spam and phishing emails that utilize brand names to appear genuine. A VMC logo has an added layer of security. Since it’s verified by the official trademark organization, it’s much more difficult to spoof or use for unintended purposes.

How to Create a BIMI SVG Logo?

Prepare your logo – square, SVG format. The icon will be small. Configure DMARC, DKIM, and SPF if you haven’t done so before. To further configure BIMI, use the p = quarantine or p = reject policy for DMARC.

The p = none policy will not work. Add a BIMI entry. BIMI is a TXT record. Its meaning looks like this: v = BIMI1; l = https://site.logo.SVG
/v – protocol version, l – path to your logo in SVG format/. You can use our BIMI Logo Converter tool to convert your BIMI SVG images and logos to BIMI-compatible SVG Tiny P/S format and then generate the BIMI Record here.

What are the Sizes of a BIMI Logo?

BIMI relies on a scalable vector format, specifically described as an SVG profile (currently defined as SVG Tiny PS). As such, BIMI logos are not defined by pixel size, so please consult your graphic designer for help in creating a proper vector graphic. Our system uses RNC Schema for BIMI SVG logo verification. If your logo contains issues or doesn't meet the applicable requirements, you’ll find a list of errors (one per line). The most common errors include:
- value of attribute "version" is invalid; must be equal to "1.2"
- element "svg" missing required attribute "baseProfile"
- missing required element "title"
In order to fix the issues, always focus on early errors as resolving them often clear up issues reported later in the list. For example, the value of attribute "version" is invalid; must be equal to "1.2" indicates that your logo is not BIMI SVG Tiny 1.2. Rectifying that error might cause other issues (not all) to disappear as well.