What is BIMI and Why It Matters for Email Trust and Brand Visibility

Why do even legitimate marketing emails get ignored? It’s not always the message it’s how the email looks. Years of phishing, spoofing, and sketchy sender names have trained users to second-guess even legit emails. And honestly, they’re not wrong to be cautious.

If you’ve ever managed a mailing list or run a brand campaign, you’ve probably seen it happen, your emails land in inboxes, but people still hesitate to click. Not because your content’s bad, but because your email looks like it might be a scam.

To rebuild that trust, Gmail introduced blue checkmarks for verified senders in 2023. This wasn’t just a cosmetic update, it was a response to this trust gap. BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a standard that gives users a quick visual cue by tying verified logos to emails.

The result? A clear, visual trust signal that improves brand recognition, email deliverability, and engagement. In a crowded inbox, these signals can make the difference between getting opened or getting ignored.

What is BIMI and How Does It Work?

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an email authentication standard that lets brands show their official logo next to authenticated messages in the inbox. It’s an emerging standard that connects domain authentication with brand identity. Developed by the AuthIndicators Working Group (which includes Google, Yahoo, Mailchimp, and others), BIMI aims to drive adoption of DMARC while giving brands greater visibility and control.

The goal is to help users quickly recognize trusted senders. It also gives organizations more control over how their brand appears in email. At first glance, BIMI seems like a front-end feature. But it depends entirely on backend email authentication. It only works when certain technical conditions are met. That is what makes it both effective and secure.

At a technical level, BIMI is implemented through a DNS TXT record. This record contains a reference to a logo file, specifically, a square, SVG Tiny Portable/Secure image that meets strict formatting guidelines. But publishing this record alone doesn’t make BIMI work. Your domain needs to be set up correctly with SPF and DKIM. Most importantly, it must have a DMARC policy in place. That policy should be set to either “quarantine” or “reject.” This setup tells receiving servers to filter or flag messages that fail authentication. It helps stop unauthenticated emails from being delivered as if they were legitimate.

When email passes SPF, DKIM and DMARC checks and the receiving mail providers support BIMI, then the provider can use the DNS record to fetch and display the brand’s logo directly in the inbox. These logos are usually shown in the avatar or profile area of the message list.  On the user side, this creates a more trustworthy visual experience. On the brand’s side, it enables a consistent identity across email platforms, similar to how profile badges and logos work on social media platforms. However, because BIMI is authentication-dependent, it also acts as a reward mechanism: only brands that have taken the proper steps to secure their sending infrastructure can access this visual enhancement.

That blend of security and branding is what gives BIMI its appeal. It’s not just about visibility, it’s about making sure that visibility only goes to senders who have earned it through proper email practices.

Email Authentication and the Role of Verified Mark Certificates

BIMI only becomes visible after your email passes strict authentication checks and that’s what makes it powerful. But to see how BIMI earns trust in the inbox, you need to understand the underlying email authentication ecosystem and how Verified Mark Certificate contributes to it.

To see the role of BIMI, it’s important to know the basics behind it. BIMI doesn’t work on its own. It relies on existing email authentication protocols. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC form the foundation of sender verification. SPF tells receiving servers which sources are allowed to send email for your domain. Without these protocols in place, BIMI cannot function. Every message is added with a digital signature by DKIM which allows receivers to verify that the content has not been altered in transit. DMARC links SPF and DKIM and adds a policy on top of it to instruct mail servers on what should be done if SPF and DKIM checks fail. All of these should be properly configured with DMARC policy set to quarantine or reject. In absence of this, your logo will not be shown even when you have all the rest in order.

Some mail providers, like Gmail, demand a second level of verification like a Verified Mark Certificate. VMC confirms that the logo you are trying to display belongs to your organization and is associated with an officially registered trademark.  This is not just a formality. The trademark verification helps to prevent malicious actors from using someone’s logo or passing off their messages as coming from a reputable brand. It also allows mailbox providers to offload part of the trust decision to a third party like the Certificate Authority.

The process of obtaining a VMC involves submitting a trademarked version of your logo, providing legal documentation, and going through a validation process. Once issued, the VMC is hosted alongside your BIMI record and acts as a cryptographic signal that reinforces the authenticity of your logo. Mail providers like Gmail will check both your DMARC status and your VMC before choosing to display the logo.

VMCs are already a prerequisite for logo display in Gmail and may soon become the industry standard as BIMI adoption grows. Brands like CNN and LinkedIn were early adopters, showcasing how VMCs enhance both brand legitimacy and anti-phishing defense. As inbox providers move toward broader BIMI support, having a VMC will likely become a competitive necessity rather than an optional layer.

Benefits of BIMI for Brands and Marketers

One clear benefit of BIMI is that it strengthens both trust and visibility in the inbox. It’s not just a logo feature or a technical step. When your brand logo shows up next to authenticated emails, it signals legitimacy to users. This helps build recognition and confidence over time.

1. Stronger Brand Visibility, Right in the Inbox

   Every email is a branding opportunity, but most inboxes strip away brand elements by default. Companies can claim that space by enabling BIMI to show the company’s verified official logo directly next to the message. In a cluttered inbox, that one-second recognition can be the deciding factor between a message being opened or ignored. This makes it easy for recipients to visually identify who has sent the message before even opening the message.

2. Increased Trust and Reduced User Anxiety

   Over time, users have become more cautious. Even emails that look legitimate are often met with doubt. Phishing attacks have made people skeptical. That’s where BIMI helps. A branded logo, backed by strong authentication, sends a clear message. It shows the sender is verified and the email is safe to interact with. This small visual element builds trust. In industries like finance and healthcare, where fake emails are common, it makes a real difference. It lowers hesitation and builds long-term credibility with the audience.

3. Measurable Lift in Engagement Rates

   One major benefit of BIMI is that it improves open rates drastically. Brands that have enabled BIMI indicate that inbox visibility can lead to a 10% increase in open rates. While results do differ from industry to industry, the reasoning is clear that emails that look legitimate are more likely to be opened.

4. Enhanced Anti-Phishing Defense

   BIMI doesn’t prevent phishing directly, but it supports a broader strategy of sender authentication. BIMI indirectly reduces the likelihood of spoofed messages getting through, as it only works when DMARC is fully enforced. BIMI makes it technically challenging for impersonation and enforces the idea that only trusted brands are verifiably different from lookalike scammers. BIMI also enables users and automated systems to spot questionable messages.

5. Long-Term Improvement in Sender Reputation

   Your emails are constantly evaluated by email service providers to determine whether to place them in the inbox, the promotions tab, or the spam folder. Domain reputation, complaint rates and authentication status all factor into this decision. Enabling BIMI shows that your brand has taken steps to secure its domain. It sends a clear signal to mailbox providers. Over time, this builds trust. It can lead to better inbox placement and fewer deliverability issues. Your emails have a higher chance of reaching the right recipient.

6. Marketing and Security Alignment

   BIMI is one of the few solutions that brings marketing and security teams to the same table. While marketers benefit from improved visibility and engagement, security teams benefit from enforced authentication policies and reduced spoofing. For organizations that struggle to align these departments, BIMI offers a shared incentive: better brand protection and more effective communication.

Who Supports BIMI? And Who Doesn’t

As of now, BIMI support is solid across several major email providers, but it’s not universal. Gmail was among the first to adopt BIMI at scale and remains one of its biggest backers. Yahoo and AOL (both part of Yahoo Inc.) also support BIMI, along with Apple Mail, Fastmail, and La Poste in France. These platforms collectively represent a large portion of the consumer email landscape, so if your list includes personal email addresses, there’s a good chance your recipients are already on a BIMI-capable provider.

One major platform that still doesn’t support BIMI is Microsoft Outlook. This includes both Outlook.com and Microsoft 365. Even with its large enterprise user base and strong security features, BIMI hasn’t been rolled out. For companies that rely heavily on B2B email, this is an important gap to keep in mind. There are rumors about future support, but nothing official has been announced yet.

Some brands have already adopted it to reinforce their identity in inboxes. CNN and Apple, for example, display their logo in supported email clients with their distinctive icons. These early adopters show that BIMI is not just theoretical but it’s live, visible and being used by companies with high standards for security and branding.

Final Take: Is BIMI Worth It?

BIMI offers trust, visibility and technical credibility for brands that rely on emails. It signals that your brand takes domain protection and message authentication seriously. The long-term benefits are worth the effort it takes to enforce DMARC or VMC with a registered trademark in case of Gmail. BIMI adoption is not universal as of now, but momentum is growing. If your logo is trademarked and your domain is already authenticated, enabling BIMI is a small step with a potentially big impact.

Next Step: Turn Your BIMI Readiness Into Real Visibility

Related Posts:

• What is a Common Mark Certificate for BIMI and Email Logos?
• CMC vs VMC Explained: Which Mark Certificate is Right for Your Brand?