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How to Display Your Brand Logo in Gmail: A 5-Step Guide to BIMI

If you’re a marketer, brand manager or email strategist, one of the most powerful trust signals you can deliver is your logo directly in the inbox. In Gmail, that means using BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification). When implemented correctly, your emails gain immediate brand recognition and stronger credibility.


In this article, I’ll walk you through a step-by-step blueprint for making your logo appear beside your email in Gmail — with maximum deliverability, legal safety, and design quality.


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📌 Why This Matters (and Why Gmail First)



  • Gmail is one of the largest mailbox providers globally, with hundreds of millions of active users.

  • Gmail’s support for BIMI is relatively mature: it recognizes both VMC-based and CMC-based BIMI records (depending on certificate type).

  • When your logo appears in Gmail, many recipients instantly perceive your message as more trustworthy — especially in a crowded or suspicious inbox.

  • From an SEO and brand strategy perspective, a visible logo in Gmail strengthens your brand consistency across touchpoints.



Keyword tip: Throughout this article, I’ve integrated terms like “Gmail BIMI setup”, “verified logo in Gmail”, “SPF DKIM DMARC for Gmail”, “VMC certificate for Gmail BIMI”, etc. These help search engines connect this guide to marketers searching how to display a logo in Gmail.




Step 1: Set Up SPF, DKIM & DMARC (Strong Email Authentication)



Before any logo appears, Gmail must trust that your email is genuine. That means implementing and enforcing the three pillars of email authentication:


  1. SPF (Sender Policy Framework) – declare which servers are allowed to send emails on behalf of your domain.

  2. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) – cryptographically sign your email content so recipients can verify it’s not tampered.

  3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) – orchestrate SPF and DKIM alignment, specify policies (none / quarantine / reject), and receive reports.



Best practices:


  • Use a “reject” or “quarantine” DMARC policy (not just “none”) once your sending ecosystem is stable. Gmail and other providers often require enforcement to activate BIMI.

  • Monitor DMARC reports weekly to catch misconfigurations.

  • Ensure DKIM alignment (the “d=” domain in DKIM must match your From: domain or a parent domain).

  • Test your setup with tools such as MXToolbox, Dmarcian, or Agari before proceeding.



If your authentication stack isn’t clean, Gmail will refuse to render your logo.




Step 2: Prepare Your Official Logo in SVG Format (with Precision)



Gmail requires your logo to be provided in SVG Tiny P/S (a simplified, secure subset of SVG). A few tips:


  • The logo must match your trademark or brand identity exactly — no unauthorized variants.

  • No external references: embed all paths, no external styles or scripts.

  • The viewport and dimension settings should be optimized. Use a square or near-square design (eg. 300x300 viewBox).

  • Keep file size minimal (generally under 50 KB) — simpler vector shapes fare better.

  • Validate your SVG via online validators or Illustrator / Sketch “Save As → SVG Tiny / SVG Profile” options.



This SVG becomes the canonical visual file that Gmail and other BIMI-aware clients fetch.




Step 3: Register or Verify Your Trademark / Brand Ownership



One of the common blockers to BIMI activation is establishing legal ownership of your logo/mark. Depending on your jurisdiction:


  • Trademark registration is the strongest route — the logo must be legally registered in one or more recognized trademark offices.

  • If registration is pending, some certificate authorities accept “proof of use” (e.g. 12+ months of public usage, brand consistency across media) for CMC (Common Mark Certificate) eligibility.

  • Collect documentation: registration certificates, brand guidelines, usage evidence (ads, packaging, website, marketing) — these will be required by the certificate authority.



Without brand verification, you cannot claim legitimacy. Gmail, by its policies, tends to accept only fully validated certificates for BIMI logo display.




Step 4: Obtain a VMC or CMC Certificate (We Handle This for You)



At this stage, you choose between VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) or CMC (Common Mark Certificate):


  • VMC is typically required for full display (including Gmail’s blue checkmark). It demands formal trademark registration and stricter validation.

  • CMC is a newer alternative, allowing brands without a registered trademark to participate (provided brand use is proven). Gmail’s evolving support for CMC makes it a viable path if your trademark is in process.



Key notes:


  • The certificate must be issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) that supports BIMI (e.g. Sectigo, DigiCert).

  • The CA will audit your brand documentation, domain ownership, and possibly, mark registration.

  • Cert validity is usually annual; renewal requires revalidation.

  • Some CAs allow upgrading from CMC to VMC later as your IP rights evolve.



At Bimimi.io, our platform helps manage the entire validation and issuance process — we interface with CA authorities on your behalf and coordinate proofs, so your marketing/IT teams don’t have to juggle it manually.




Step 5: Publish Your BIMI Record in DNS (Make the Logo Available)



Once you hold a valid certificate and your SVG is ready, you publish a BIMI DNS record. Gmail (and other BIMI-aware clients) looks up this record to fetch your logo and certificate.


Here’s how:


  1. In your DNS provider, add a TXT record under your domain (or a subdomain) with name:


default._bimi.example.com



  1. The record content follows the BIMI standard syntax, e.g.:

v=BIMI1; l=https://example.com/logo.svg; a=https://example.com/your-vmc.pem;




    • v=BIMI1 indicates BIMI version.

    • l= is the URL to your validated SVG logo.

    • a= is the URL to your certificate (VMC or CMC) (if required by client).


  2. Ensure the logo URL is served over TLS/HTTPS and uses proper caching headers (e.g. Cache-Control headers).

  3. Validate that the DNS record and file URLs propagate and resolve globally (use DNS propagation checkers, dig, or BIMI validators).

  4. Allow time — Gmail may take 24 to 72 hours to start rendering the logo across your recipients.



Once valid, Gmail (and other compatible inboxes) will show your brand logo next to your email, reinforcing identity and trust.




Putting It All Together: What Changes & Why It Matters



  • Pre-authentication requirements: Without a clean SPF/DKIM/DMARC setup and enforcement, Gmail will ignore the BIMI record altogether.

  • Gmail will fetch your logo via DNS, validate the certificate, and then render the image in the message list.

  • Even for non-Gmail inboxes that support BIMI, the logo boosts open, click, and trust metrics — you add brand visibility where there was none before.

  • This sets you apart: in a crowded inbox, your email looks recognized and safer — reducing recipient hesitation to delete or ignore.



For marketers, the payoff is clear: better engagement, brand consistency, and less friction around delivering trust in an often untrusted channel.




✅ Checklist Summary

Step

Action

Note

1

Configure SPF, DKIM, DMARC (with enforcement)

Must be strong and aligned

2

Prepare SVG logo (Tiny P/S)

Clean, exact, minimal

3

Validate brand ownership / trademark

For certificate eligibility

4

Acquire VMC or CMC certificate

From a trusted CA

5

Publish BIMI DNS record

DNS + HTTPS + certificate URL


Ready to see your logo shine in Gmail? Bimimi.io takes care of every technical step so you can focus on what truly matters — building trust through every email you send.

 
 
 

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