Set up BIMI: How to show your logo in your recipients" inbox

Set up BIMI: How to show your logo in your recipients" inbox

What is BIMI?

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an open standard that allows you to display your brand logo directly in your recipients' inbox. In the past, various email providers developed their own techniques to display logos in the inbox. However, this required individual technical implementations and additional coordination with mailbox providers. BIMI solves this cumbersome process through a unified standard.


Why should you use BIMI?

The benefits of BIMI for you as a sender are diverse:

  • Your brand logo becomes directly visible in the inbox
  • You increase recipients' attention to your emails
  • You build trust with your recipients
  • You strengthen your brand identity

Additionally, email providers also benefit from BIMI, as fraudulent emails can be identified more quickly when they don't display the correct logo.


Support by Email Providers

Current BIMI Support (As of May 2025)

Gmail: Fully supports BIMI. Offers two options: VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) for full verification with blue checkmark or CMC (Common Mark Certificate) for logo display without checkmark.

Yahoo Mail: Supports BIMI without VMC requirement - one of the simplest implementations.

Apple Mail: Supports BIMI since iOS 16, iPadOS 16, and macOS Ventura 13. A VMC is required for logo display.

GMX: Already supports BIMI (as of November 2024).

Web.de: Still planning BIMI support, currently in evaluation phase.

Other Providers: AOL, Fastmail, La Poste and other smaller providers also support BIMI. Microsoft/Outlook currently does not support BIMI.

IdeaNote: In Germany, Web.de, GMX and other major providers alternatively offer "Trusted Dialog" as a paid solution for logo display.

How can you set up BIMI?

Prerequisites

To use BIMI, you must first have implemented the following DNS entries for your sender domain:

  • SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
  • DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
  • DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)

BIMI Setup in 4 Steps

  1. Create your logo as a square SVG file without text (Tiny PS version).
  2. Host your logo publicly accessible on a web space (e.g., via CMS, FTP server, or MAILINGWORK's web space).
  3. Set up the DMARC policy with "p=reject" or "p=quarantine".
  4. Publish a DNS TXT record for your email sender address.

Example of a DNS TXT record:

  1. default._bimi.example.com  IN  TXT  "v=BIMI1;
l=https://subdomain.example.com/pics/brand_logo.svg; a=;"
Info
Support for Setup
If you cannot make these settings yourself, please contact your IT administration or web agency with confidence.
Are you still unsure or haven't implemented any of the mentioned standards yet? Feel free to contact the MAILINGWORK support team:

By phone: 0371/33 71 61-51

Further Information

You can find further information about implementation and BIMI support at bimigroup.org or directly at https://bimigroup.org/implementation-guide/.