How can I display my logo in Gmail and Microsoft, and what are the potential security risks?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 26 May 2025
Updated 15 Aug 2025
8 min read
Getting your brand's logo to appear next to your email in the inbox can significantly boost recipient trust and engagement. When someone sees your familiar logo, they're more likely to open your email and feel confident that it's legitimate. This visual cue acts as an immediate trust signal, helping your messages stand out in a crowded inbox. It's a key part of building a strong, recognizable email presence.
However, achieving this consistent logo display across major email providers like Gmail and Microsoft is not always straightforward. There are various methods, some official and some less so, each with its own set of requirements and implications. It's a landscape that can feel like the wild west, as one expert once put it.
Beyond the technical setup, displaying your logo also introduces potential security risks. Bad actors can try to mimic legitimate brands to trick recipients, making it crucial to understand how to protect your domain and ensure your logo is a true signal of trust, not a vulnerability. This guide will help you navigate these complexities.
Displaying your logo in Gmail
For Gmail, the primary and most robust method for displaying your logo is through Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI). BIMI works by linking your verified brand logo to your domain's DMARC policy, which itself relies on SPF and DKIM authentication. This means that for your logo to appear via BIMI, your emails must pass strong authentication checks and your DMARC policy must be set to either quarantine or reject.
However, BIMI is not the only way to get a logo to appear in Gmail. Gmail has also historically used JSON-LD based annotations for promotional emails, which can display an icon in the mobile app. While these annotations require a certain level of engagement and authentication, they are not tied to the same rigorous DMARC enforcement as BIMI. Furthermore, some brands have reported success with displaying logos by setting up Google profiles associated with their sending domain, though this method is less official and less reliable.
The existence of these multiple methods can create confusion. While BIMI is intended to be a strong trust signal, other methods might allow a logo to display without the same level of verifiable authentication, potentially leading to a false sense of security for recipients. It's important to understand the distinctions between these methods to truly leverage your brand's presence in the inbox.
BIMI requirements for Gmail
DMARC policy: Your domain must have a DMARC policy set to enforcement, either p=quarantine or p=reject. This ensures strict authentication for your emails.
SVG logo: Your logo must be in Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format and hosted securely.
BIMI record: A specific DNS TXT record must be published, pointing to your SVG logo.
Verified Mark Certificate (VMC): While initially optional, a VMC is becoming increasingly important for Gmail and Yahoo to display BIMI logos. This digital certificate verifies your ownership of the logo.
Displaying your logo in Microsoft Outlook
Microsoft's approach to displaying sender logos in Outlook and other services differs significantly from Gmail. While BIMI is gaining traction, Microsoft currently does not widely support BIMI for logo display in the same way Gmail and Yahoo Mail do. This means that if you've set up BIMI, your logo might not automatically appear for Outlook recipients.
Instead, Microsoft often relies on internal mechanisms like Microsoft Verified Organizations, which requires a manual approval process. This human review is a key differentiator, as it makes it much harder for malicious actors to spoof a brand's logo in Microsoft environments. It adds an extra layer of verification, ensuring that only legitimate organizations can display their logo prominently.
For email signatures, Outlook handles images differently than other email clients. While these images are part of the email body and not typically displayed next to the sender's name, their rendering can impact the overall professional appearance of your communication. Understanding these nuances is crucial for consistent branding.
Understanding the security risks
The very feature designed to build trust—the sender logo—can also be exploited by phishers. When a logo appears, recipients may let their guard down, assuming the email is legitimate because a recognizable brand is associated with it. This is where the security risks arise, particularly with methods that don't involve rigorous verification like BIMI with a Verified Mark Certificate.
Sophisticated phishing attacks often leverage lookalike domains combined with weak authentication to display seemingly legitimate logos. For example, an attacker could register a domain very similar to a real brand, set up basic email authentication, and use methods like Google Profile pictures or annotations to display the brand's logo. This can create a highly convincing, yet entirely fraudulent, user experience in the inbox, making it difficult for recipients to discern real from fake.
The key defense against this lies in robust email authentication protocols like DMARC, SPF, and DKIM. These protocols verify the sender's identity and help mail servers determine if an email is truly from the stated domain. For brand logos to be truly trustworthy, they should be inextricably linked to these authentication mechanisms, reducing the risk of imposters leveraging your visual identity.
Legitimate logo display
Relies on strong email authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC with a policy of p=quarantine or p=reject). Requires a BIMI record and, ideally, a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) to prove logo ownership. This setup ties the logo directly to verifiable domain security, making it difficult to spoof. Microsoft's human review process adds further security.
High trust: The logo acts as a strong signal of authenticity due to robust verification.
Bad actors can leverage less stringent logo display methods (like basic Google Profiles or annotations without strong DMARC) with lookalike domains. These domains, while subtly different from the real brand, can still display a convincing logo, leading recipients to believe the email is legitimate. Gmail's security warnings can indicate potential issues.
Brand impersonation: Damages your brand reputation and confuses customers.
Phishing success: Increases the likelihood of recipients falling for scams.
Best practices for secure logo display
To truly leverage your logo for trust and avoid becoming a target for impersonation, it's essential to implement best practices in email security. The foundation of this is robust email authentication.
Implement DMARC with enforcement: Ensure your DMARC policy is set to quarantine or reject. This instructs recipient mail servers what to do with emails that fail SPF or DKIM authentication for your domain. It prevents unauthorized senders from using your domain, even if they manage to display a logo.
Obtain a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC): A VMC provides verifiable proof of your brand's logo ownership, further strengthening the trust signal associated with BIMI. It's a critical step for consistent logo display, especially as email providers tighten security requirements.
Monitor your domain reputation: A poor sender reputation can lead to your emails being flagged, regardless of logo display. Regularly monitor for blocklist (or blacklist) listings and address any issues promptly to maintain good standing.
Adopting these practices ensures that your brand's logo is not just a visual element, but a verified symbol of trust and authenticity in the recipient's inbox, mitigating security risks associated with brand impersonation.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Ensure your DMARC policy is set to quarantine or reject for legitimate logo display.
Obtain a Verified Mark Certificate to strengthen the authenticity of your BIMI logo.
Regularly monitor your domain's email authentication and reputation for issues.
Common pitfalls
Relying solely on non-BIMI methods for logo display, which lack strong authentication.
Not maintaining a good sender reputation, which can negate logo benefits.
Expert tips
While Gmail annotations can display an icon on mobile, they are not a substitute for BIMI and its associated trust signals.
Always link your brand's logo display to strong email authentication standards like DMARC for true security.
Microsoft's manual review process for logos provides a stronger defense against impersonation than automated methods.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says that unless you are part of the BIMI pilot with Gmail, you won't see images as a direct result of BIMI. Annotations also support logos, but this requires a minimum level of effort, engagement, and authentication with Gmail. There are other 'hacks' to get your logo to display, like setting up an accounts/profile with the sending domain, but none of these are considered 'trust' signals.
2020-10-19 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says that it is possible to get your logo to display in Gmail and Microsoft without BIMI at all, which often leads to confusion about how Gmail's BIMI pilot interacts with other display methods.
2020-10-19 - Email Geeks
Reinforcing your brand's trust in the inbox
Displaying your brand's logo in email inboxes is a powerful way to enhance trust and brand recognition. While both Gmail and Microsoft offer ways to achieve this, their approaches and requirements differ significantly. Gmail increasingly leans on BIMI, which ties logo display to strong email authentication, especially DMARC policies set to enforcement.
Microsoft, on the other hand, often involves a manual approval process, making it more challenging for malicious actors to impersonate brands. The underlying security concern across all platforms is the potential for fake trust signals, where imposters might display logos through less secure means to trick recipients. This underscores the critical need for brands to not only display their logo but to do so securely.
By prioritizing robust email authentication, such as implementing a DMARC policy with quarantine or reject, and acquiring a Verified Mark Certificate, you can ensure your logo acts as a genuine symbol of trust. This proactive approach not only helps your emails reach the inbox consistently but also protects your brand and recipients from sophisticated phishing attempts.
Gmail and 
Microsoft is not always straightforward. There are various methods, some official and some less so, each with its own set of requirements and implications. It's a landscape that can feel like the wild west, as one expert once put it.
