Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) is a new standard for digital marketers to authenticate emails. It’s similar to SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, which both protect your supporters from email scams and increase your deliverability.
What makes BIMI different from the other records is major email inbox providers, including Google, Yahoo!, and AOL, will pull in your campaign’s logo when the record is verified:
How to Set Up BIMI
Before you can start with BIMI, ensure you’ve already set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. For your DMARC records, you’ll need to have your policies set to either “quarantine” or “reject” at 100%.
You’ll also need an SVG file for your logo. You can create one here. The BIMI working group recommends a squared version of the logo.
Finally, you’ll publish a new TXT record with this format:
default._bimi.[your domain name]
“v=BIMI1; l=[URL for your SVG logo]; a= [your PEM URL]”
More info on the PEM URL, which is required for BIMI to work with Gmail, here.
As campaigns rely more on online fundraising driven by email and tech platforms make list building advertising more difficult than ever, campaigners need to leverage every advantage they can find. Setting up the proper authentication records takes time and expertise, but it’s a worthwhile investment for increasing the yield of your existing investment in email fundraising.