Monthly Archives: September 2024

Google to support Common Mark Certificates for BIMI

We’ve discussed the value and difficulties of BIMI in the past, but it appears that there is some growing support for the standard that might make it more relevant to small and medium businesses – Google has announced that it will support Common Mark Certificates and display the BIMI logo for companies opting this route.

What is BIMI?

BIMI is an Internet standard for taking ownership of email and securing your outbound brand that also provides clear indication of trust by displaying the Brand Owner’s Logo in the UI of the email client. To have your Brand Logo displayed by your email, you need:

  • To be DMARC compliant
  • To have DMARC policy of Reject
  • To have a compatible BIMI logo in DNS
  • To have certified ownership of that brand logo

The big value of BIMI is that the logo in the UI provides reassurance that the email does indeed come from you and that you are a trusted sender.

Why is this a big deal?

Until this announcement, the only type of certification for brand ownership was a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). VMC’s initially cost between $1000 and $1500 per year, per domain and required the owner to obtain an official government trademark on the logo and branding. If you broke your email across multiple domains or manage multiple sending brands, a VMC could get expensive quickly. In addition, many smaller businesses would find governmental registration of their trademark difficult, and the expense might price them out of the verification altogether.

Common Mark Certificates (CMC) are another method of certifying your logo and protecting your brand from being used in fraud and phishing, while providing the benefit of display in the recipients’ inboxes. Because CMC’s do not require official trademark, the hope is that CMC’s will reduce the cost of certification and broaden support and use of BIMI.

The Caveat

Don’t rush out today and grab a CMC. Why? Because you can’t. The BIMI workgroup only announced support recently and vendors have yet to define the product and pricing for a CMC. Most likely pricing will be very similar to that of a VMC, so even with the “greater flexibility” to obtain a mark certificate, the cost might be prohibitive.

How can MxToolbox Help?

Regardless of whether or not you are adopting BIMI, adopting DMARC and getting DMARC to a strict policy is imperative for good email delivery.  MxToolbox Delivery Center has everything you need to improve your email delivery:

  • Manage SPF, DKIM, DMARC to improve compliance and reduce the threat of fraudsters and phishing campaigns using your domain. DMARC will get you prepared for BIMI.
  • Review daily volume and SPF, DKIM, and DMARC compliance rates to ensure the best email deliverability.
  • Gradually move your DMARC policy to “Reject” to enable better inbox placement opportunities and reduce the risk of phishing and fraud using your domain. Also, it is the next step to become BIMI compatible
  • Check and maintain your BIMI setup, including certificate configuration and alerts to when certificates will age out.

We also provide free tools!  To get started with BIMI, check out our Knowledge Base and free BIMI Lookup tool.

iOS 18: Changing the Email Delivery Game

For over a decade, Gmail users online and in mobile devices have been using the “Promotions” tab. With the release of iOS 18, Apple device users will now have a similar experience in the Apple Mail application.

Apple Mail introduces Categories

With iOS 18, Apple Mail will categorize all incoming email into four separate buckets:

  • Primary: Most important messages from contacts and time-sensitive mail
  • Transactions: Receipts and order confirmations
  • Updates: Newsletters, social notifications, and all other messages
  • Promotions: Marketing and sales emails

In addition, the Apple Mail client will adopt BIMI support to append icons to DMARC and BIMI compliant email and provide extended Snippets to allow users to get a more in-depth, quick view of the email content.

BIMI icons and extended Snippets in iOS18

How does this affect Senders?

Around 55% of iOS users manage their email in Apple Mail, while around 30% use the Gmail application. In addition, historically the majority of iOS users adopt the latest operating system upgrades quickly. Senders can expect near immediate adoption of the new Apple Mail meaning changes to (probably reductions of) Open Rates, Click Through Rates and probably increased Unsubscribe Rates. Email Senders, especially marketers, will have a new landscape to navigate. Making the Inbox may no longer be sufficient to get your message across – “Primary” may be the new goal.

What can Senders do?

  • Adopt DMARC – You message has low chance of making the Inbox without DMARC
  • Get your DMARC to a Reject posture – Adopting DMARC is not enough. You need to actively manage your email senders and get your email in a position so that a Reject policy protects your brand.
  • Adopt BIMI – The new Apple Mail application will feature BIMI support. Having your company’s icon/logo next to your email will give customers comfort and trust, making them more likely to open it.
  • Stop Cold Outreach Email – Our article, The Days of Unsolicited Email are Over, goes into detail about why this practice will destroy your ability to send email.
  • Improve your email targeting and content – Learn more: Does email content affect your email delivery? | MxToolbox Blog.
  • Use separate subdomains for marketing and transactional email – This can help Apple Mail and Google classify your email better. You want your users to find your Transactional email in the Transactions folder and your Promotions in Promotions. This gives them comfort and will cut back on Unsubscribes.

How can MxToolbox help?

MxToolbox Delivery Center is our suite of tools and monitors to actively manage your email deliverability across all Inbox Providers. We enable you to:

  • Setup DMARC quickly and easily
  • Actively manage your response to DMARC reports and DMARC compliance rates to help you make the Inbox
  • Migrate to a DMARC Reject policy
  • Adopt BIMI
  • Monitor and alert on Spam Rates to protect your email delivery
  • Proactively test your email for Inbox Placement issues
  • Parse your message for common issues like spammy content, broken links and link shorteners
  • And much more…

If managing your email delivery sounds complicated… We even over a Managed Services option. We’ll work with you, make suggestions, help with configuration and proactively monitor your email delivery to enable you to concentrate on your business.