Most organisations spend heavily on cybersecurity awareness training and email filtering, yet still leave one weak spot wide open: the domain. If attackers can imitate your brand, they can phish customers, staff, and suppliers with frightening success.

That’s where BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) helps. It lets mailbox providers display a verified and certified logo next to messages that pass authentication. In simple terms: it makes “real” email look real.

BIMI is not a magic sticker. It is a reward for doing the basics properly:

• SPF and DKIM aligned correctly
• DMARC at enforcement: p=quarantine or p=reject (not monitoring-only)
• A published BIMI DNS record pointing to your logo and certificate (where required)

Google also supports Common Mark Certificates (CMC), which removes the “must have a registered trademark” blocker for many firms. But the Gmail verified checkmark remains tied to Verified Mark Certificates (VMC).

Why BIMI Matters (security first, marketing second)

For CISOs, the benefits are practical:

• Reduces brand impersonation: harder for attackers to convincingly mimic your sender identity when recipients are trained to expect a verified logo.
• Improves user trust signals in high-risk comms (invoices, HR updates, password resets).
• Supports deliverability by pushing you towards enforced DMARC (where protection is real, not theoretical).
• Helps align Security + Comms: one project that improves both brand protection and customer confidence.

And adoption is increasing across major inboxes. You’ll typically see BIMI support across providers like Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, Fastmail, and Apple Mail

Why we like Valimail

You can implement DMARC and BIMI manually. Many teams try. The reality is it’s fiddly at scale, especially with multiple sending services, shadow IT, and constant DNS churn.

What we like about Valimail is the automation angle:

• Automated DMARC enforcement with ongoing configuration and alerting (less “spreadsheet security”).
• BIMI automation that streamlines certificate handling and logo configuration, including VMC or CMC workflows.

That said, it’s not the only route. Other DMARC platforms and managed services exist, and for small estates, manual may be fine if you have strong operational discipline.

A Sensible Rollout Plan

• Start with visibility: identify all legitimate senders.
• Fix SPF/DKIM alignment issues.
• Move to enforced DMARC (p=quarantine/reject).
• Add BIMI with the right certificate path (CMC vs VMC).
• Measure: spoofing reports, helpdesk “is this real?” tickets, and deliverability trends.

Want to Fast Track your BIMI Rollout?

We can review your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC posture, identify every legitimate sender, and map the quickest path to DMARC enforcement and BIMI with minimal risk to business email.

👉 Request a BIMI readiness review

📞 +44 (0) 113 341 0123

📞 +64 (0)9 802 2444

📧 hello@itogether.com