Eloqua's Tip Tuesday: Display Your Logo Next to Your Email in the Inbox

JodyMooney-Oracle

Welcome our “Tip Tuesday” post for Eloqua! Each week we post interesting tips and tricks for Eloqua users, on Tuesdays. To see more Tip Tuesday posts, head here.

This week’s tip comes from @Otilia Antipa-Oracle , Eloqua Product Manager and previous Eloqua Expert Serivces Consultant.

Did you know that you can display your brand logo next to your email messages in your recipients’ inboxes?

You might first be asking yourself what is BIMI? BIMI stands for Brand Indicators for Message Identification and it essentially allows you to display your brand logo next to your message in an inbox. Here's an example:

Source: BIMIGroup

BIMI adoption is a growing industry trend and already supported by many mailbox providers (Google, Apple, Yahoo! ). Google for example, announced in 2020 a pilot program to use BIMI and in 2021 announced they are expanding and are making it generally available.   

Suffice to say that BIMI is the blue check mark of the email world, it puts your brand power front and center in the users’ inboxes.

Pop into your own inbox and you’ll see BIMI in action first-hand!

How to implement BIMI in Eloqua

 Please note these steps may vary depending on mailbox provider, and can potentially change in the future as new updates release. Additionally, please note that Eloqua Domains are managed in the client end and Oracle does not have any control over it to implement the BIMI. As BIMI does require full authentication you will need to ensure you have DMARC level of authentication – review you branding and deliverability package to ensure you have met these requirements.

Steps to implement BIMI:

1. You need full authentication for BIMI to work, including SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
   1. DMARC policy must be at enforcement to either:
      1. Reject on the organizational domain and subdomain policy (i.e. p=reject; sp=reject)
      2. or Quarantine (i.e. p=quarantine; pct=100) [Note: the percentage subdomain policy cannot be set to anything less than 100pct.]
2. Create an SVG file of your logo
   1. Info on creating BIMI SVG logo files: here
3. Add TXT instructions to publish a BIMI record in your domain in DNS
   1. Add a new BIMI DNS entry to your TXT record:
4. (optional) Obtain a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) for those receivers that require it.
   1. You need to have access to your domain name servers to set up a new BIMI DNS entry, in order to add a TXT record.
   2. I.e. default._bimi.[domain] IN TXT “v=BIMI1; l=[SVG URL]; a=[PEM URL]

See BIMI group for more information and their Implementation guide.

Build brand reputation and trust

The core value of implementing BIMI is building trust and recognition for your brand. And although the requirements to be fully authentication to implement BIMI can take a bit of time, let’s face it – it’s worth while to ensure your email authentication checks off all the boxes. BIMI adoption is growing, and several email provides are starting their own pilot program – get ahead of curve by implementing BIMI with your Oracle Eloqua marketing strategy today!

Have you heard of BIMI or had your company implemented this feature? Let us know below

Thanks for sharing your tip, @Otilia Antipa-Oracle!

Have an Eloqua tip you would like to share for a future “Tip Tuesday” post? Drop me (@JodyMooney-Oracle) a message via Topliners with your tip including any relevant screenshots/links to help share your favorite tips with fellow Eloqua users ? If your tip is selected, we’ll tag you in the post too!

 

Cyrielle

Great tip !

I would say though that it's better to get the VMC for the logo as gmail doesn't accept BIMI if you don't have a VMC (and doesn't display your logo) and the VMC costs about 1200$ a year per domain - which is an investment on brand recognition :)

Otilia Antipa-Oracle

Thanks @Cyrielle ! Absolutely agree with you on making the investment and getting the VMC to have a verified trademark logo , brand recognition in your inbox is key :)