When Google announced they would support BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) in 2021, it caught the attention of most senders. Being able to display your logo in the inbox has many benefits: increased visibility and trust, better brand recognition, etc. One would assume most senders would adopt BIMI immediately to start reaping the benefits.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy to implement as some senders hoped it would be.
There were a number of requirements laid out by different mailbox providers in order for BIMI to display in their inbox. You can read more about those requirements here, but to simplify things, senders needed to make sure they were sending from an authenticated domain, DMARC was at a policy of ‘reject’ or ‘quarantine’, and there were some logo requirements.
The logo requirements put up a bit of a roadblock for smaller companies. Google required that senders obtain a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). A VMC essentially validates the authenticity of the logo and verifies ownership of the logo. If you didn’t have a trademarked logo, that was an issue. Also, there’s a cost component to acquiring a VMC.
Google released an announcement that states that they no longer require a VMC and instead they will also accept a Common Mark Certificate (CMC). A CMC doesn’t require your logo be trademarked, which opens up BIMI to many more senders. One caveat is that the logo must have been used for more than twelve months on your website.
One might ask—if a VMC is more challenging to obtain and it requires a trademark, is there any reason to use a VMC instead of a CMC? Google still provides one benefit of using a VMC over a CMC—the blue verified checkmark. If you decide to use a CMC, the blue checkmark will not appear.
If you have questions around the requirements or steps needed to set up BIMI, our Expert Services team is here to help.
