What is the value of BIMI and when does implementing it not make a difference?

Key findings

• Varying Impact: BIMI's effect on engagement metrics like open and click rates is inconsistent, with some brands reporting significant lifts while others experience little to no change.
• Brand Establishment: Highly established brands with strong existing recognition and engagement may see minimal additional benefits from BIMI, as their recipients already trust and recognize their emails.
• Beyond Engagement: The value of BIMI extends beyond direct engagement metrics to include broader brand management, recognition, and enhanced security via a properly enforced DMARC policy.
• Implementation Costs: The process of implementing BIMI, especially in large organizations, can be time-consuming and resource-intensive due to legal, procurement, and technical alignment requirements, as detailed in our guide on BIMI implementation steps.

Key considerations

• Audience and Support: Consider your audience's email client usage. If a significant portion uses clients that do not support BIMI, the visual impact will be limited. Learn which email clients support BIMI.
• Strategic Goals: Align BIMI implementation with your strategic goals. If the primary aim is brand protection and anti-phishing, BIMI's value (as a DMARC enabler) is greater than if the sole focus is on immediate, quantifiable engagement boosts.
• Prerequisites: BIMI requires a DMARC policy at enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject). The foundational work of achieving DMARC enforcement often provides significant benefits in itself, regardless of BIMI. The BIMI Group provides extensive FAQs for senders regarding implementation.
• Long-term View: The full value of BIMI, particularly for established brands, might manifest over a longer period through subtle increases in brand recall and customer trust rather than immediate spikes in engagement metrics.

Key opinions

• Engagement Disappointment: Many marketers, particularly those working with already established brands, report seeing little to no change in open, click, or conversion rates after implementing BIMI.
• Overinflated Expectations: Some disappointment stems from exaggerated claims (e.g., +34% open rates) seen on marketing websites, which set unrealistic expectations for BIMI's direct impact.
• Value Beyond Metrics: Marketers acknowledge that BIMI's value might lie in less tangible areas, such as enhancing brand presence, differentiating from competitors, and building subconscious trust with subscribers.
• Industry Specifics: There's a sentiment that BIMI might be more impactful for specific industries (e.g., banks) where user reassurance and anti-phishing efforts are paramount, or for brands with a large user base on supporting email clients like Gmail. Find out more about how BIMI impacts deliverability.

Key considerations

• Holistic View: Marketers should adopt a holistic view of BIMI's benefits, moving beyond direct ROI and recognizing its contribution to brand equity and customer confidence. This helps manage internal expectations, particularly at the C-suite level.
• Established vs. Emerging Brands: The impact may differ significantly between new or lesser-known brands, which could gain substantial visibility, and highly recognized brands, which might only see marginal gains.
• Measurement Challenges: It's increasingly difficult to isolate the impact of a single email technology like BIMI on overall engagement due to privacy changes and complex attribution models. This is discussed further in our article on why emails go to spam.
• Long-Term Brand Loyalty: Even if immediate metric changes are small, BIMI can contribute to long-term brand loyalty and trust by consistently reassuring recipients of message authenticity, which is a key aspect of email marketing success. Dotdigital highlights how BIMI improves email marketing.

Key opinions

• Context Matters: Experts agree that BIMI's value is highly situational; it may be 'worthless' by one metric in one specific scenario but highly beneficial in others.
• DMARC Reinforcement: The true value often lies in the prerequisite DMARC implementation. The process of achieving DMARC enforcement (p=quarantine or p=reject) significantly enhances email security and deliverability. Our guide on DMARC benefits highlights why it is a critical authentication standard.
• Brand Protection Over ROI: BIMI is primarily pitched as a tool for brand protection and recognition, rather than a direct driver of ROI. It helps safeguard against impersonation and phishing, enhancing trust.
• Measurability Challenges: The difficulty in precisely measuring BIMI's impact on engagement is a recognized challenge in the evolving landscape of email marketing metrics.
• Reward for Authentication: BIMI acts as a visual reward for correctly implementing email authentication best practices, specifically DMARC, making it easier for users to identify legitimate senders. Learn more about DMARC, SPF, and DKIM.

Key considerations

• Comprehensive DMARC Setup: The significant 'expense' in BIMI implementation often comes from the rigorous work of deploying DMARC correctly, which involves tracing all email delivery paths, understanding obscure sources, and ongoing monitoring.
• Non-Measurable Benefits: Recognize that not all benefits are quantifiable. Faster delivery or reduced fraud might not directly impact open/click rates but are crucial for overall email program health and sender reputation.
• Brand Perception: BIMI helps in visual differentiation from non-BIMI enabled competitors and makes it easier for users to distinguish legitimate domains (e.g., domain.com vs. d0main.com), reducing phishing risks for consumers.
• Audience Expectation: Once implemented, if an audience grows to expect your logo, stopping BIMI support could potentially lead to a negative perception, which might only be revealed through careful testing.
• Overcoming Roadblocks: While a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) can be a hurdle, there are ways to approach its cost effectively to test BIMI, as discussed by Twilio's blog.

Key findings

• Primary Purpose: BIMI is designed to enhance email authentication and brand recognition within supporting email clients, providing a visual cue for verified senders.
• DMARC Dependency: A crucial requirement for BIMI implementation is having a DMARC record published at an enforced policy (p=quarantine or p=reject).
• Brand Value Proposition: Documentation highlights leveraging DMARC investments to increase brand value by displaying logos and automatically managing correct logo display across inboxes.
• Security Reinforcement: BIMI enhances email security by relying on strong authentication, helping users visually confirm the sender's identity and bolstering defense against phishing.

Key considerations

• Verification Requirements: For many mailbox providers, a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) from an accredited Certificate Authority is necessary to display the BIMI logo. This adds a layer of cost and process to implementation. Learn about BIMI accredited certificate providers.
• SVG Logo Format: Logos for BIMI must adhere to a specific Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, requiring technical preparation and often validation tools to ensure compliance. Our guide covers validating your BIMI SVG and certificate.
• Client Support: While growing, not all email clients fully support BIMI, meaning the logo won't appear everywhere your emails land. This impacts the universal visibility of the brand logo. The BIMI Group provides an overview of BIMI certificate types.