What is BIMI – and why your brand needs it before your competitors do

If you’ve opened Gmail, Apple Mail or Yahoo lately, you might have noticed something new: brand logos appearing right next to the sender’s name.

It’s subtle — but it changes everything.

That small visual indicator is BIMI — Brand Indicators for Message Identification — a global email standard that lets verified organisations display their official logo directly in inboxes.

At first glance, it looks like a marketing feature.

In reality, it’s a new bridge between cybersecurity and brand trust.

A new layer of digital trust

Let’s start with the technical foundation.

BIMI doesn’t work on its own. It builds upon a trio of existing authentication protocols:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework),

• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail),

• and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance).

Together, these mechanisms ensure that emails are truly sent from the domain they claim to represent.

Without them, anyone could impersonate your domain — and that’s exactly how phishing thrives.

Once those are correctly configured and your domain achieves DMARC alignment, BIMI adds a visual seal of trust: your verified logo appears beside the email.

For a CISO or an email security officer, this is a visible proof that their domain authentication is working.

For a marketing team, it’s an immediate boost in credibility and brand visibility.

Two worlds aligned by one small icon.

🧠 How BIMI actually works

To activate BIMI, you need two key ingredients:

• A properly configured email authentication setup (SPF + DKIM + DMARC).

• A Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) — or its more flexible sibling, the Certified Mark Certificate (CMC).

The VMC is issued by a trusted Certification Authority (CA) like GlobalSign or Digicert, and it verifies that your logo belongs to your organisation.

It’s similar in spirit to the SSL certificates that secured websites in the early 2000s — but now applied to email identity.

Once validated, the logo is referenced via a DNS record, allowing supported mail clients (like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Apple Mail, and Fastmail) to display it next to your messages.

This simple visual presence carries immense value:

• Users instinctively trust verified emails more.

• Security teams instantly identify legitimate senders.

• Fraudsters lose their camouflage.

Marketing meets security

That’s where BIMI stands out.

It’s not a “security-only” or a “marketing-only” tool — it’s the first true convergence point between both.

For marketing teams, BIMI offers:

• A consistent, professional brand presence in inboxes.

• Higher open and engagement rates thanks to instant recognition.

• Better deliverability on authenticated domains.

• A modern image of reliability and innovation.

For security and IT teams, it delivers:

• Reinforced email authentication posture (SPF, DKIM, DMARC enforcement).

• A strong anti-phishing signal for users and clients.

• Measurable reputation protection across public mail systems.

• Simplified domain governance — BIMI only works on properly configured infrastructures.

When both departments align — marketing seeking visibility, IT seeking trust — the organisation wins.

BIMI becomes the shared language between branding and cybersecurity.

The challenge — and how we solve it

Implementing BIMI isn’t overly complex, but it requires precision.

Misconfigurations in SPF or DMARC can prevent the logo from appearing.

Trademark verification can be tedious.

And coordinating between marketing, legal, and IT… can take time.

That’s where Bimimi.io comes in.

We handle the entire process — from the technical setup to certificate issuance — making BIMI adoption smooth, secure, and transparent.

Our platform was built to remove friction.

We manage validation with Certification Authorities (GlobalSign, Digicert), ensure compliance with BIMI standards, and deliver clear reporting for both technical and marketing stakeholders.

In short:

We make your logo visible — and your domain verifiable.

The future of trusted email

BIMI represents a natural evolution in how we experience trust online.

Just as the green padlock (SSL) became a universal symbol of safe browsing, the verified logo is becoming the symbol of safe communication.

The question isn’t “Should we adopt BIMI?”

It’s “When will we make sure our brand is among the trusted ones?”

Because visibility shouldn’t be a privilege.

It should be secure, verified, and effortless.