Including a verified logo in your emails assures recipients that the messages are genuinely from your business. This feature functions like social media verification badges, enhancing your brand’s credibility.
At CanadaCreate, we recognize that earning the trust of your audience requires time and effort. We achieve this by maintaining a secure and user-friendly website, offering accurate and valuable content, and communicating clearly and promptly with our readers.
Sending emails with a verified logo is an effective strategy for building trust. With the prevalence of spam and phishing attacks, many users are wary of scams. A verified logo can provide reassurance to your customers and readers, leading to increased email open rates.
In this article, we will guide you through the steps to add a verified logo to your business email, enhancing your credibility and boosting your email engagement.
This article will walk you through the process of incorporating a verified logo into your business emails, helping you build trust and enhance your email engagement.
Why Is It Important to Add a Verified Logo to Your Business Email?
Email plays a crucial role in any business, particularly for those operating from a WordPress website. It’s essential to ensure that your emails are not only delivered but also read by your users and customers.
Users receive numerous emails daily from spammers and scammers, leading them to question the safety of your emails and potentially avoid opening them.
You need a solution to reassure them. Imagine if there was a way to clearly demonstrate to readers and customers that your emails are genuinely sent by your business.
This is where verified logos become essential.
BIMI, which stands for ‘Brand Indicators for Message Identification’, is an innovative email standard that authenticates that emails are truly from the business they claim to represent. Your brand logo will appear alongside legitimate email messages, assuring your customers of their safety.
The display and positioning of your brand logo will vary based on the email client used, and some email providers may not show a verified logo at all. Nonetheless, the BIMI standard is gaining traction among more email clients, particularly on mobile devices.
Setting up a verified logo can be intricate. It’s akin to assembling a jigsaw puzzle, with numerous steps to complete, requiring a significant investment of time.
This article will guide you through the process step by step. Please note that certain steps may be quite technical, and you may want to consult with an IT or legal expert for assistance.
Now, let’s explore the process of adding a verified logo to your business email. Here are the steps we will discuss:
- Step 1: Create a Professional Business Email Address
- Step 2: Set Up DMARC to Authenticate Your Emails
- Step 3: Design a Brand Logo for Your Business
- Step 4: Trademark Your Brand Logo to Secure Your Rights
- Step 5: Upload Your Brand Logo to Your Website
- Step 6: Apply for a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)
- Enable a BIMI Verified Logo for Your Business Emails
- Confirm That BIMI Is Properly Configured
- Comprehensive Guides on WordPress Email
Step 1: Create a Professional Business Email Address
Are you still using a generic Yahoo, Gmail, or Hotmail email address for your business? Customers tend to distrust emails from generic accounts.
A custom domain email address appears more professional and enhances your business’s credibility. Ensure it matches your website’s domain.
For instance, if your website is located at miamiflorist.com, then your email address should be formatted as john@miamiflorist.com.
If you haven’t created a business email address that uses your website’s domain yet, you can easily set one up in just five minutes by following our guide on creating a free business email address.
Alternatively, if you prefer using Google’s or Microsoft’s email services, check out our guides on setting up a professional email address with Gmail and Google Workspace or Outlook (Office 365).
After creating your new email address, you might need to update the mail exchange (MX) records for your website. MX records are essential for directing emails to and from your domain name.
You’ll need to obtain the MX record details from your email provider and then refer to our guide on how to update MX records for your WordPress site.
Finally, you may want to use your new email address to receive notification emails from WordPress. To do this, simply follow our guide on how to change the admin email in WordPress.
Step 2: Configuring DMARC for Email Authentication
Now that you have a custom email address associated with your domain name, you can set up DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) for your domain.
Email authentication helps email servers differentiate between your legitimate messages and fraudulent emails from scammers impersonating your address. This enhances email security by safeguarding your users and customers from phishing attacks and ensures your emails are not wrongly classified as spam.
Tip:If you’re unsure whether your domain is already utilizing DMARC, you can verify it using a tool like MXToolbox. It’s crucial to have only one DMARC record for your domain.
BIMI requires that email messages be authenticated through DMARC before your verified business logo can appear on your emails. This ensures that the logo is only shown on emails genuinely sent by you.
As a result, any suspicious emails are either rejected or placed in quarantine.
You can set up DMARC by adding a new DNS record to your domain. The specific code you need to add will depend on your business requirements, and you can find more information on the DMARC website.
If you want email servers to reject all suspicious emails, your DNS record should look like this:
v=DMARC1; p=reject; pct=100; rua=mailto:john@miamiflorist.com
Alternatively, if you prefer to have suspicious emails quarantined, the code will be similar to this:
v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; pct=100; rua=mailto:john@miamiflorist.com
Depending on your requirements, the DNS record may require additional code.
Ensure you update the return email address to your business email. This address will receive DMARC reports regarding any scam emails that have been blocked or quarantined.
The process for adding the DNS record varies based on your domain name registrar. If you are using Bluehost, log in and select ‘Domains’.
This action will display your domain names. Click the ‘Settings’ button next to the appropriate domain.
This will reveal various domain settings in Bluehost.
Scroll down to expand the ‘Advanced Tools’ section.
Here, you will find the Bluehost nameservers for your domain along with other records. To add and manage DNS records, click the ‘Manage’ button.
Bluehost will inform you that only advanced users should modify the DNS records. Simply click the ‘Continue’ button to proceed.
You should now see a list of your DNS records. To create a new record, click the ‘+Add Record’ button.
Now, you can proceed to add the DMARC record.
Begin by selecting the TXT type from the first drop-down menu. Then, choose ‘Other Host’ in the ‘Refers to’ field, which will reveal an additional field for you to enter ‘_dmarc’.
Next, paste the DMARC code you selected earlier into the ‘TXT Value’ field. You can keep the TTL setting at its default value.
After clicking the ‘Add’ button, your DNS settings will be updated. Please note that, like any DNS change, it may take up to 48 hours for the new settings to take effect.
Step 3: Designing a Brand Logo for Your Business
Think of a logo as your business’s profile picture. It allows customers to recognize and connect your business with a visual identity. You’ll use this logo across your website, social media platforms, email newsletters, and business cards.
If you don’t have a brand logo yet, your first step is to create one, purchase a design, or hire a designer to craft one for you.
For BIMI compliance, your logo must be in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format. This vector image format ensures that your logo maintains its quality at any size.
Designing a Business Logo
You can create a logo on your own using web design software or by utilizing a free logo maker.
Ensure that the application can export your logo in SVG format using tools like Adobe Illustrator, Affinity Designer, Inkscape, or Sketch.
Your BIMI email logo must adhere to the following guidelines for compatibility with various email services:
- The logo should be centered to fit within a square, rounded square, or circular shape.
- It must have a solid background rather than a transparent one.
- The logo should be saved in SVG file format.
- Keep the file size minimal, ideally under 32 KB.
Consider Hiring a Professional Graphic Designer for Your Logo
If graphic design isn’t your forte, you may struggle to create an appealing logo. Hiring a professional designer can help you develop a standout business logo.
To discover some of the best options for custom WordPress logos that fit your budget, check out our guide on top places to get a custom logo.
Inform the designer that you require an SVG image that meets BIMI’s general guidelines mentioned above.
Ensuring Your Logo is BIMI Compliant
The BIMI Group now mandates that your SVG logo be in a specific format known as SVG P/S (SVG Tiny Portable/Secure). This format is relatively new, and currently, no graphic design tools can save files in this format.
To ensure your logo file meets BIMI standards, you will need to modify it accordingly. You can find detailed instructions on how to do this on the official BIMI website.
Alternatively, you can utilize an SVG conversion tool that can automatically adjust the file for compliance.
Step 4: Legally Trademarking Your Brand Logo
The next important step is to trademark your logo. This is essential because BIMI requires Verified Mark Certificates (VMC) to confirm ownership of brand logos. Currently, VMCs are only available for logos that are registered trademarks.
This will ensure that your trademarked logo cannot be used by anyone else as a verified logo, thereby safeguarding your users from potential scams.
Important Note:To determine if your business already has a trademarked logo, you can search the Brand Database managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
Your brand logo must be registered as a trademark with an intellectual property office recognized by VMC issuers. The recognized offices currently include:
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
- Canadian Intellectual Property Office
- European Union Intellectual Property Office
- UK Intellectual Property Office
- Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt
- Japan Trademark Office
- Spanish Patent and Trademark Office O.A.
- IP Australia
- Intellectual Property India
- Korean Intellectual Property Office
- Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property
- French National Institute of Industrial Property
- Benelux Office for Intellectual Property
- Danish Ministry of Culture
- Swedish Intellectual Property Office
- Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property
- Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand
Submitting a trademark application is a legal procedure that requires careful attention. It can take some time, so it’s important to begin the process as soon as you can.
We suggest hiring a lawyer to assist you with the trademark application. Alternatively, you can utilize online legal service providers like CorpNet, which offers affordable legal services for small businesses and individuals.
Discover more in our comprehensive guide on how to trademark and copyright your blog’s name and logo.
Step 5: Upload Your Brand Logo to Your Website
Next, you need to upload your business logo to the website that shares the same domain as your email address.
For instance, if your email address is john@miamiflorist.com, then you should upload it to the website at miamiflorist.com.
How to Upload Your Logo File to the Media Library
For many users, uploading the logo file to the WordPress media library is the easiest option.
However, WordPress does not allow SVG image uploads by default due to the code contained within these files. This precaution helps safeguard your site from potentially unsafe files.
You will need to follow our guide on enabling SVG image uploads in WordPress. We provide several methods, with the simplest being to use a snippet from the WPCode pre-made library.
Next, navigate to Media » Library.
You can upload your logo by dragging and dropping the file or by clicking the ‘Add New’ button located at the top of the page.
After the image is uploaded, click on it to open the attachment page for your logo.
On this page, you will find a button to copy the logo’s URL to your clipboard. Make sure to save this URL, as you will need it later in this tutorial.
How to Upload Your Logo File Using FTP
If you are more experienced, you can use FTP to upload the logo file directly to your website.
Next, right-click the logo file and copy its URL to your clipboard. Make sure to save this URL in a secure location, as you will need it later in this guide.
Step 6: Requesting a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)
The following step is to request a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). This certificate confirms that your organization is the legitimate owner of your brand logo.
To proceed, you must reach out to a BIMI-certified certification authority. Currently, the only two options are DigiCert and Entrust Datacard.
During the application process, you will need to submit the SVG file of your brand logo that you created earlier.
Once your VMC application is approved, the certification authority will provide you with an entity certificate in a Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) file format.
You will need to upload this PEM file to your website using FTP.
After uploading, copy the URL of this file and save it alongside the logo URL you copied earlier. You will need both URLs for the next step.
Important Note:Your PEM file must have a URL that begins with ‘https’. For guidance on transitioning your WordPress site from HTTP to HTTPS, refer to our beginner’s guide.
Congratulations! You have successfully set up everything needed to activate Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) for your domain. This is the next step.
Step 7: Activating a BIMI Verified Logo for Your Business Emails
To enable BIMI, you will need to add an additional TXT record to your DNS settings, similar to how you configured the DMARC record earlier.
The record should contain the URLs for your logo and VMC certificate formatted as follows:
v=BIMI1; l=https://URLTOLOGO/logo.svg; a=https://URLTOCERTIFICATE/vmc.pem
Be sure to replace the logo and certificate URLs with the ones you saved previously.
Alternatively, you can create the necessary code using the official BIMI Generator Tool.
Return to the DNS settings for your domain as you did in Step 2 of this guide. Then, add a new TXT record formatted like this:
The Host Record field should be ‘default_.bimi’ followed by a period and your domain name, for example, default_.bimi.example.com.
In the Text Value field, paste the code you generated earlier. You can keep the TTL field set to the default value.
Once you have completed the setup, click the ‘Save’ button. Please allow up to 48 hours for the new record to be updated across the internet.
Your users can now see a verified logo next to your business emails. Congratulations!
Step 8: Confirming Correct BIMI Setup
After all the effort you put into creating a verified logo for your business emails, it’s important to ensure everything is functioning correctly.
The best way to verify this is by using the official BIMI LookUp & Generator Tool. Just enter your domain name to receive a report that checks your compliance with BIMI standards.
The report will indicate whether your DMARC record meets BIMI specifications. It will also display the contents of your BIMI DNS record, a preview of your verified logo, and confirm if your VMC certificate is BIMI-compliant.
If any issues are detected, the report will provide detailed information on what is wrong and how to resolve it.
Expert Guides on WordPress Email Management
Now that you understand how to add a verified logo to your business email, you might be interested in exploring additional guides related to WordPress email:
- How to Properly Configure Your WordPress Email Settings
- How to Change the Sender Name in Outgoing WordPress Emails
- How to Update Your WordPress Admin Email Address
- Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Free Business Email Address in Just 5 Minutes
- Setting Up a Professional Email Address Using Gmail and Google Workspace
- How to Obtain a Free Email Domain for Your Business
- Ultimate Guide to Configuring WP Mail SMTP with Any Hosting Provider
- Top SMTP Service Providers for High Email Deliverability
- How to Automate Email Sending in WordPress
- Easy Methods to Preview and Test Your WooCommerce Emails
We hope this guide has assisted you in adding a verified logo to your business email. You might also be interested in our tutorial on creating effective email newsletters or our recommendations for the best email marketing services tailored for small businesses.
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