bimi
It all starts with a list of top domains. Top ten million, in this case. Of those top, around 12% of them have published a DMARC record. Of those, which ones have a BIMI record in place? That’s what this data shows. That means that it’s a percentage of a percentage of an arbitrary measure of “top domains.” But hey, we can still have fun with this — sort of questionable data set, so let’s do that! BIMI logo adoption is growing in this data set. Perhaps not exploding like gangbusters, but it is still good to see it growing, from 1.26% of top domains up to 1.38%. Today, that’s nearly 17,000 domains (of that top 10 million) that have published a BIMI record. From June through December 2023, the rate at which BIMI-publishing domain owners also implemented a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) rose from around 10% to around 14%.
Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is an email spec that allows email senders to display a brand or company logo alongside email messages when displayed in different email applications and webmail platforms. It helps to promote trust and security by requiring proper underpinnings of email authentication and a Yahoo study indicated that the logo display can increase chances that recipients will interact with your email messages. The BIMI specification is overseen by a collaborative email industry group known as the AuthIndicators Working Group, comprised of email senders, email receivers, email security and deliverability experts. Which mailbox providers and webmail platforms will display BIMI logos? As of January 2024: Supports BIMI: Apple (iOS and MacOS email clients), Cloudmark, Fastmail, Gmail, La Poste, Onet Poczta, Yahoo Mail and Zone. (This also includes Pobox, AOL/Netscape, and Google for Business/Gsuite mailboxes). Considering BIMI Support: atmail, BT, Comcast, Qualitia, Seznam.cz, GMX/Web.de, Yahoo Japan. Does not support BIMI: Microsoft. Implementation Considerations:
Time to decode another deliverability acronym. Today, we’re going to talk about VMC, which stands for “Verified Mark Certificate.” A VMC is something that a domain owner will purchase to go along with their BIMI (“Brand Indicators for Message Identification”) sender logo implementation. BIMI is the specification to allow a domain owner to publish details of a logo meant to show up in the inbox next to email sends from that domain. VMC is a certificate purchased from and issued by either DigiCert or Entrust. The purchase process involves either of those companies verifying that you are who you say you are, and that your logo is appropriately trademarked. VMC is an optional add on to the BIMI specification. However, Apple and Gmail will only display BIMI logos for domains that have implemented the Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) process. No VMC means no BIMI logo in Gmail or on Apple
Hey, recently I had a lot of fun chatting with a couple of smart folks about DMARC and BIMI on this webinar for the CSA. Click on through to the Kickbox blog to see the recording of me, Karsten Vendler from LEGO Group and Sebastian Kluth from the CSA talk about the trials and tribulations of implementing DMARC and BIMI (and I also share the numbers around DMARC and BIMI adoption rates). It’s quite different than the usual “Deliverability 101” webinars I do, and it’s good to mix it up with a deeper technical discussion sometimes. Hope you enjoy.
Google seems to have put Gmail’s BIMI logo checking (and the new blue checkmark) on hold temporarily starting perhaps on Monday, June 5th, while they roll out a fix to address an exploit that was allowing bad guys to spoof authentication on mail sent from certain platforms into Gmail mailboxes.I’ve got multiple examples in my own inbox: Last week’s mail from that sender shows a BIMI logo and blue checkmark (still, even today, when checking), but Monday or Tuesday’s email from that same sender shows no such logo and no blue checkmark. Others have confirmed to me that they see something similar; some exactly the same, some not. Fellow email nerd Hagop Khatchoian notes that he was only seeing a BIMI pause when dual DKIM signatures are in play. I also note that daily emails from Amazon seem to show no pause in Amazon’s BIMI logo display (with checkmark).This appears to
Let’s have some fun with numbers, shall we? Why don’t we take a list of the top ten million domains (found various places online) and scan the DNS for each of them to look for DMARC records? Good thinking, because that’s exactly what I just did!Here’s what I found.Of the top ten million domains, about 1.1 million (11%) of them have published a DMARC record. I suspect good growth over time here, but I don’t really have backward looking data to compare it to. We’ll see how this grows over time.Looking at the mix of DMARC policies being published, I see that about 61.5% publish “p=none,” 20.5% publish “p=quarantine,” and the remainder (about 18%) publish a “p=reject” policy. DMARC.org has tracked similar data — though not the same data set, but compared to theirs, I’m seeing that a higher percentage of domains publishing a strong (aka “reject” or “quarantine”) policy
Today, let’s define the acronym BIMI, aka “Brand Indicators for Message Identification.”Let’s go straight to the folks who have created the BIMI specs, the Authindicators Working Group. From their website: “Brand Indicators for Message Identification is an emerging email specification that enables the use of brand-controlled logos within supporting email clients.”What? It’s a way to publish a logo that will show up next to email messages you send.Why? To increase branding, increase customer confidence that your emails are legitimate, and it can increase engagement.How? First, you must secure your domain with DMARC (and that DMARC policy must be a “strong” one, aka “quarantine” or “reject”). You must purchase a “verified mark certificate” (required by some BIMI-supporting mailbox providers, though not all) to prove that your logo is properly trademarked, and then you need to publish a version of your logo in a special limited vector graphics format. BIMI is supported by
Hey, I’ll be participating in the next Certified Senders Alliance (CSA) webinar, where I’ll be chatting with Sebastian Kluth (CSA) and Karsten Vendler (LEGO Group) about where DMARC and BIMI are today and where we think this is all headed. It’s sure to be a fun discussion and I’ll have some new data to share on DMARC and BIMI adoption. Please join us? It’s on June 1st at 10:00 am US central time and you can register for it here. I hope to see you there!* I also promise to annoy Karsten with many LEGO related questions, like, is it truly fun to work for LEGO? Do you get many free LEGO blocks? Will you get me some free LEGO blocks? And more.
There are enough BIMI questions floating out there nowadays, that I thought it’d be good timing to put together a BIMI mini-FAQ. If you did not already know, BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a way to attach a logo to your email sending domain and with recent Gmail developments (not to mention, Apple support), it’s poised to become rather a big thing. And assuming you did know what BIMI was, let’s jump right into the FAQ:What’s that new blue checkmark thing at Gmail? How do I get that?Gmail recently announced that for senders who implement BIMI, they’ll show a little blue checkmark next to the sender’s email address, showing that the sender has been validated. You’ll get that by implementing BIMI (with a VMC). Read more about that here.What’s a VMC again and where do I get one of those?VMC means “Verified Mark Certificate” and it’s a certification you
Hey, look at that! Gmail is starting to show a blue checkmark next to the sender name when the sender’s domain passes BIMI checks. And they provide helpful pop-up info when you mouse over the blue checkmark. This rolls out starting today (May 3, 2023) so if you don’t see it today, you will likely see it soon. Read more about it here. It’s yet another reason that it’s time to jump on the BIMI train!