A Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) is a digital document used with Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) to validate the identity of an email sender. It proves that the logo displayed with an email message through BIMI belongs to the brand, not an impersonator.
Email has become the predominant communication channel in most businesses worldwide, which has given rise to threats like phishing and spoofing. Therefore, security measures like VMC and BIMI must be implemented to curb these threats and make email marketing effective.
So, with BIMI, you can add your brand’s logo to an email message. Still, VMC takes it further to validate the logo and domain ownership by a trusted third party who acts as the verified mark authority and provides the verified mark certificate alongside the logo.
How to get the Verified Mark Certificate
The verified mark certificate can be obtained through a very simple process; follow the instructions below carefully.
Step 1
Reach DMARC compliance.
Step 2
Ensure your company or brand logo is registered and recognised as an official trademark. The verified mark certificate can only be issued to brand logos registered and recognised by an official intellectual property office.
Step 3
Convert your logo to scalable vector graphics (SVG) format. This is the only format that will be accepted.
Step 4
Register for your VMC; you can do this by contacting the Entrust Certificate Authority or DigiCert and simply requesting your VMC. Once your request is approved, you will receive the Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) file.
Step 5
Upload the Privacy Enhanced Mail (PEM) file to your public webserver. Make sure you save the URL of the PEM file.
Step 6
For the final step, log in to your domain provider and use the URL from your PEM file to add a MIMI TXT record. This will make your logo completely BIMI compliant and have a verified mark certificate. Your recipients will begin to see your brand’s logo displayed beside every email you send.