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Since the outbreak of the pandemic, phishing and spoofing have become even more common than they already were. There's a good possibility that your brand will be targeted too. It is, therefore, critical to put in place the appropriate security measures to protect your brand's reputation.

For every brand, BIMI has stood out as the most visible and interesting security solution. An official logo in every email builds confidence with your consumers and protects them from being phished or faked by a hacker impersonating your brand.

You will, however, require a VMC to deploy BIMI for your brand.

But what exactly is a VMC?

A Verified Mark Certificate often known as a VMC is a digital certificate given by a recognized agency that validates the ownership of a brand's logo. In accordance with BIMI, a VMC is used to demonstrate a brand's validity to its clients. It demonstrates to the customer that your brand is authentic and recognized by the appropriate authorities. It builds trust between your brand and your customers or clients, resulting in a favorable return on investment.

Implement BIMI using these FOUR simple steps!

  • The first requirement is DMARC (Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance). Your email needs to be DMARC-compliant. Head to What is DMARC? if you’re not familiar with the protocol. You can also use EmailAuth’s free DMARC Record Generator to generate a DMARC record for your domain.

  • Next, ensure that your brand logo is registered and trademarked. A trademark helps you legalize your logo, making it an exclusive and intellectual property. It saves your logo or brand from infringement of copyright issues. Make sure that your logo is your own creation and not a product of plagiarism. 

  • Only after your logo meets certain specifications will it appear next to your email messages and work as intended. Formats like jpeg, png, and gif won’t work with BIMI. Convert your logo to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format.

  • All you need to do now is purchase your VMC from a known authority. You can go to DigiCert or Entrust to get your Verified Mark Certificate. 

Benefits of VMC 

  • Consumers and employees instantly associate trust and recognizability with your brand and your logo.

  • It tells your customers that your company is concerned about security and is keeping up with the latest developments in the field.

  • Delivers a recognizable, real, and unified experience to the clients.

  • The brand logo may be placed next to the sender field in VMC, allowing the receiver to view the logo before the message is even opened.

Once you receive your VMC, it is time to implement BIMI for your brand. 

Getting ready for BIMI

While preparing to implement BIMI for your brand, consider these two important factors:

  • In your domain, you must have a DMARC policy of either ‘p=reject' or ‘p=quarantine'. Configuring these settings ensures that any questionable incoming email is either rejected or quarantined in the spam or trash folder, protecting your system from damage and your email channels from phishing. 

  • Maintain a positive reputation as a sender by having a high engagement rate, low bounce rate, and few spam complaints. All of this is dependent on the frequency with which you send emails and whether or not your domain enforces the email authentication protocol. 

Having DMARC’s underlying technologies, SPF and DKIM, configured on your domain proves that an organization is concerned and serious about its domain's reputation. This boosts brand reputation as a sender, despite reputation’s subjective nature. 

You are now ready to implement BIMI for your brand. Click on How to Create a BIMI Record? to get started.

Original source: https://emailauth.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-2.html

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