Is Microsoft's Business Profile Experience still available?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 15 Jun 2025
Updated 16 Aug 2025
5 min read
For many businesses, the allure of a verified icon next to their emails in recipient inboxes is strong. Microsoft's Business Profile Experience, also known as the verified icon feature, was an initiative that aimed to provide this very benefit within Microsoft Outlook. It was designed to enhance sender trust and combat spam by allowing legitimate businesses to display their brand logo and a verified badge.
However, a persistent question from clients and email marketers alike has been whether this experience ever moved beyond its beta phase or if it's still available for new registrations. From what we can tell, the Microsoft Business Profile Experience, in the way it was originally conceived, is no longer actively supported.
The journey of Microsoft's business profile experience
The Microsoft Business Profile Experience was initially announced in a beta phase in 2018, primarily aimed at the United States market. Its core purpose was to allow businesses to register their profiles and have their brand logos appear in Outlook, along with a verified badge, to help users identify legitimate senders. This feature was closely tied to Bing Pages, a platform designed for businesses to manage their online presence across Microsoft's services.
However, Bing Pages itself has since been discontinued, with its services ceasing in early 2022. This directly impacted the underlying infrastructure for the Business Profile Experience. Consequently, the verified icon feature tied to Bing Pages is no longer available for new enrollments and its continued functionality for existing users is not guaranteed.
Lack of clear communication
Despite its deprecation, Microsoft has not issued a widely disseminated official announcement regarding the formal end of the Business Profile Experience. This lack of clarity has led to ongoing confusion among businesses and email service providers. Attempts to reach the previously active support email addresses for Bing Pages have also proven unsuccessful, further confirming its inactive status.
Impact on brand identity and trust in email
The disappearance of the Business Profile Experience leaves a gap for businesses seeking to prominently display their brand identity in Microsoft inboxes. A verified icon can significantly boost recipient trust and engagement, as it visually confirms the sender's legitimacy. Without this feature, distinguishing legitimate senders from malicious ones becomes slightly harder for recipients, which could indirectly impact open rates and overall deliverability metrics.
In the broader email ecosystem, Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) has emerged as the industry standard for displaying brand logos in inboxes. While Microsoft Outlook supports BIMI for brand logos, its implementation often requires specific authentication protocols to be in place.
For BIMI to work effectively, robust email authentication is critical. This includes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is particularly important as it enforces alignment between your sending domain and authenticated identifiers, helping to prevent email spoofing and phishing attacks.
Microsoft business profile (past)
This was a proprietary Microsoft initiative tied to Bing Pages. It aimed to display a verified badge and brand logo.
Verification: Manual sign-up and registration through the Bing Pages platform.
Supported clients: Primarily within Microsoft Outlook.
Current status: Discontinued and no longer supported for new registrations.
BIMI (present and future)
BIMI is an industry-wide standard for displaying brand logos next to email senders in supporting inboxes.
Verification: Relies on strong email authentication (DMARC at enforcement policy) and often a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC). This is done via DNS records.
Supported clients: Supported by major email providers including GmailYahoo MailAOL Mail, and Microsoft Outlook.
Current status: Active and growing in adoption, considered the standard for email branding.
Ensuring deliverability to Microsoft recipients today
Given the discontinuation of Microsoft's Business Profile Experience, the focus for businesses should shift to universally accepted email standards and best practices. Establishing a strong sender identity and ensuring email deliverability to Microsoft inboxes now primarily relies on robust authentication and consistent sending habits.
Implementing a strong DMARC policy with SPF and DKIM alignment is paramount. This not only supports BIMI but also significantly improves your email deliverability and protects your domain from phishing. For Microsoft 365 users, ensuring these records are correctly configured is vital for avoiding delivery issues.
Maintaining a positive sender reputation is also crucial. Microsoft uses its own internal systems, such as the Spam Confidence Level (SCL) and Blocklist Confidence Level (BCL), to assess incoming mail. Monitoring your standing and proactively addressing any issues with Microsoft SCL and BCL is key to successful inbox placement. Familiarizing yourself with Outlook's new sender requirements is also paramount.
When your domain is on an email blocklist (or blacklist), it can severely impact your ability to reach inboxes. Regularly monitoring for blocklist (or blacklist) listings and maintaining clean sending practices are foundational to strong deliverability. This proactive approach helps to avoid issues with Microsoft's filtering systems and ensures your messages are not flagged as spam. Understanding Microsoft's deliverability tools will give you an edge.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Actively pursue BIMI implementation, ensuring your DMARC policy is at enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject) and consider a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) for broader client support.
Regularly monitor your DMARC reports for authentication failures and address any issues promptly to maintain a strong sender reputation with Microsoft and other ISPs.
Segment your email lists and personalize content to reduce spam complaints and improve engagement, positively impacting your Microsoft SCL/BCL scores.
Common pitfalls
Continuing to expect Microsoft's old Business Profile Experience to function for new brand logo registrations, leading to wasted effort and no visual identity benefit.
Failing to implement DMARC with an enforcement policy, which is a prerequisite for BIMI and essential for robust email authentication.
Neglecting sender reputation and allowing email practices that lead to high spam complaint rates or blocklist listings, impacting deliverability to Microsoft inboxes.
Expert tips
For optimal logo display and deliverability with Microsoft, prioritize consistent authentication across all sending platforms and ensure your DNS records are correctly published.
Engage with the email community and stay updated on Microsoft's evolving email policies and requirements to adapt your sending strategies proactively.
Periodically test your email deliverability to Microsoft domains using various tools to identify and troubleshoot any hidden issues before they escalate.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says the Microsoft Business Profile Experience, often linked to Bing Pages, appears to be defunct as Bing Pages itself stopped functioning, indicating it is no longer a viable method for displaying logos in Microsoft inboxes.
2022-04-11 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says the Bing Pages initiative, which supported Microsoft's Business Profile, ceased operations in early 2022. While some legacy client setups might still display the logo, new registrations or consistent functionality are unlikely.
2022-06-22 - Email Geeks
Staying visible and trusted
While Microsoft's Business Profile Experience may no longer be a viable path for displaying verified brand icons, the objective of enhancing sender trust remains as critical as ever. Businesses must adapt to the evolving landscape of email security and branding, prioritizing established industry standards.
By focusing on strong email authentication, proactive reputation management, and adherence to sender guidelines, you can ensure your brand remains visible and your messages reach their intended recipients, regardless of the specific proprietary features of any single email provider.
Microsoft Outlook. It was designed to enhance sender trust and combat spam by allowing legitimate businesses to display their brand logo and a verified badge.
Gmail
Yahoo Mail
AOL Mail, and Microsoft Outlook.
