Every day, inboxes are flooded with marketing pitches, newsletters, and transactional alerts. But a single perception of how “real” or “fake” an email looks decides if your message gets opened or ignored.
80% of respondents in a recent survey said they would mark an email as spam if it “looked like spam”. To gain their trust, you need to stand out in the crowded inboxes and seem authentic.
Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) solve this. They show your registered logo next to your sender name.
Let’s talk about VMC certificates and how enabling trademarked logos in email inboxes turns visual identity into higher engagement and improved marketing outcomes.
What Are Verified Mark Certificates?
Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) are a type of digital certificate that lets organizations display their registered trademarked logo in the email inboxes of recipients. It appears in the avatar slot of an email client next to the sender’s name. In Gmail, it also shows a blue checkmark to prove your emails are verified and safe to trust.
How Email Logo Become Trust Signals
As a default, email clients display the first letter of the sender’s name. Showcasing your logo instead of an alphabet strengthens your brand’s identity and authenticity. It also keeps impersonation and phishing attacks at bay to protect your brand reputation. This visual signal stays in the recipient’s memory for longer, so they can instantly recognize your brand. The result? Improved email open rates, engagement and marketing performance.
It’s like having a display picture on social media platforms, like LinkedIn or Instagram. When you post something, your followers can immediately recognize you from your profile picture. But what if you don’t have it? Even your friends will hesitate when accepting your follow request or engaging with your profile.
Without a VMC, most email providers won’t show your logo because of security concerns. And to be able to use VMCs, the email client, such as Gmail or Yahoo, should support Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI).
BIMI is an email specification standard that allows supported email clients to display verified brand logos in inboxes. It verifies that the email actually belongs to the sender. It also confirms the logo is from a trustworthy brand with valid Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) and Domain Name System (DNS) records.
You can think of BIMI as the infrastructure and VMCs as the verified credentials. Together they confirm the identity, authenticity and security of a brand.
The ecosystem of VMC includes several key players:
- Email clients: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Apple Mail, Outlook, etc., support BIMI with VMCs.
- Email service providers: Mailchimp, Constant Contact, etc., integrate VMC capabilities.
- Domain registrars: GoDaddy, Squarespace, etc., register your domain name and manage DNS records for implementing VMCs.
- Certificate authorities: DigiCert, GlobalSign, Sectigo, etc., issue VMCs after thoroughly verifying an organization. Pricing varies from one authority to another.
Today, leading companies such as Netflix, Stripe, and Pinterest are using VMCs. This encourages others to follow suit.
What’s the Benefit of Implementing VMCs for Businesses
Verified Mark Certificates change the way the audience perceives and interacts with emails. Let’s talk about the real, measurable benefits of VMCs for businesses:
Improved Email Performance
A verified logo next to your sender’s address triggers an immediate psychological response. Recipients can quickly identify your brand in the crowded inbox. In the case of Gmail, it also includes a verified blue tick.
This holds immense value for marketing teams aiming to drive trust and security. It’s highly likely the recipient will open your email and engage with it. This translates into hard metrics, such as:
- Deliverability: VMCs improve the sender’s trust and recognition, boosting your email deliverability. Combined with DMARC authentication, it verifies that the email is from a legitimate source.
- Open rates: A study shows that displaying a known logo improves email open rates by up to 39%. This means more engagement. With VMCs, you’re no longer competing with generic initials or unknown sender names.
- Click-through rates: Once the recipient has seen your logo and opened the email, it creates a snowball effect. They are more confident to click through a link and explore your offers, increasing the chances of conversions.
Email Security
Email security risks, such as phishing and spoofing, are becoming more common. In fact, phishing is one of the deadliest of cyberattacks, luring victims through fake promises. In March 2024, 301+ legitimate brand names were targeted for phishing attacks globally. Generative AI has only fueled this further.
VMCs create a visual barrier that attackers can’t easily replicate. Manipulating the VMC verification is a harder cookie to crack. Customers can notice when an email claims to be from your brand but doesn’t show your logo. VMCs also need DMARC compliance, which further shields your brand from phishing and spoofing attacks.
Lower Compliance Risks
Compliance bodies, such as GDPR, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc., require organizations to follow their guidelines for security, safety, and operational efficiency.
It’s even more important if your brand operates in highly regulated industries, such as healthcare, finance, and banking. Non-compliance can result in penalties, fines, or possible jail time. According to GDPR, severe compliance violations can lead to up to 20 million euros in fines or 4% of total turnover.
For regulated industries, VMCs provide documentation with reasonable steps to protect customer data and communications.
Brand Reputation
VMCs help protect your brand as well as the logo once you register it.
You acquire the certificate only if you pass the verification process. It assures people to trust your brand, which doubles down on your reputation.
Also, once you register your logo under your company’s name, others can’t use it without your permission. Otherwise, you can file a legal complaint.
Early Adopter Advantage
A study shows that the use of BIMI/VMC logos is growing. Out of the top 10 million websites on the web, around 17,000 domains use a BIMI record and many of those have also adopted VMC certificate.
That’s a good start. It gives an edge as an early adopter, an opportunity to stand out as the others are still catching up. Displaying your branded logo in inboxes triggers psychological factors, like:
- Business credibility
- Professionalism
- Familiarity and brand recall
Revenue Impact
Email marketing offers the highest ROI among all marketing channels. Now, think about how the revenue will add up when you have an email with a VMC logo.
You know VMCs positively influence trust and email engagement. This means recipients are more likely to open your emails and interact with the CTA, such as signing up for a service, downloading a guide, etc. This way, your company’s return on investment further rises.
VMC Implementation Best Practices
Implementing a Verified Mark Certificate is a great step to improving your brand trust in email inboxes. But installation is just a first step.
To maximize its value, you’ll need to follow some key best practices:
Optimize DNS
Without a solid DNS setup, your stunning logo won’t reach inboxes consistently.
- Configure redundant DNS servers across multiple providers rather than using one. So that even when one does fail, another can take their place.
- Speed up logo loading. Host the SVG logo files on a faster content delivery network (CDN) with global locations. If possible, compress SVG files without losing quality.
- Use DNS monitoring to track BIMI record status from multiple locations. Set up alerts if availability ranks below 98%.
Multi-Platform Testing
Your customers might use various email clients. What looks perfect in Gmail might be broken in Outlook. So, it’s important to test how your logos appear across various email clients that support VMCs, such as:
- Gmail (with blue checkmark)
- Apple Mail (with message details containing a digitally certified label)
- Yahoo Mail
- ZohoMail
- FastMail
- Cloudmark
- La Poste
- Zone
- Zoner
- Onet
Train Your Staff
When VMC or BIMI issues occur, the complete weight of troubleshooting falls on your team’s shoulders. With no previous guidance, even a small issue could take hours to resolve. In the meantime, your security and trust are at stake. This is why employee training is essential.
Educate your staff on:
- DNS basics
- Email authentication
- Troubleshooting common issues in BIMI/VMCs
- Relationship between SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and BIMI
Develop effective documentation and escalation measures to address problems promptly rather than cover them up until they escalate to be a crisis.
How Verified Brand Logos Strengthen Email Trust
Email logos are visuals that trigger trust, recognition and authority. Here’s how VMCs transform them into strong trust signals:
- Authenticity: Only businesses that pass rigorous verification can display their logos.
- Security: VMCs require DMARC enforcement, making phishing and spoofing harder to pull off.
- Recognition: A logo in the inbox is a visual anchor. Recipients recall it faster than text.
- Authority: The Gmail blue checkmark signals verified legitimacy, much like on social media.
This combination gives the recipients the assurance that they are dealing with an authentic brand and not an impersonator. Practically, it implies increased open rates, stronger engagement and faster decision making among customers.
How to Get a Verified Mark Certificate?
To obtain a VMC certificate, there are a few steps to follow:
- Set up DMARC enforcement
- Trademark Your Logo
- Buy Verified Mark Certificate
- Host VMC securely on your server
- Publish a BIMI TXT record in your DNS
The steps can vary depending on your domain and email infrastructure. For a complete walkthrough, check out our full guide:
How to Get a Verified Mark Certificate? Step-by-Step Process.
Conclusion
No matter how strong your content or message is, if your email doesn’t appear trustworthy, it will never convince the audience. So, you need to establish trust before you expect them to open your emails or engage with them.
Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) are visual indicators that quickly grab the attention of your recipients and prompt them to engage with your emails. If you’re a business looking to build authenticity around your brand and prevent others from impersonating you, get a VMC for your domain today.
