All You Need to Know about Verified Mark Certificates (VMC)
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Reading Time: 5 min
Key Takeaways
- Verified Mark Certificates (VMCs) validate trademarked logos and provide an added layer of visual trust.
- VMC + BIMI require DMARC enforcement (p=reject/quarantine), ensuring only authenticated mail is delivered under the brand.
- Implementing VMC and BIMI boosts trust, security, and engagement, improving email marketing performance while reducing impersonation risks.
- The setup process is straightforward: enforce DMARC → purchase VMC → publish BIMI → display verified logos in supporting mailboxes.
- Result: stronger brand recognition, higher customer confidence, and visually authenticated emails that stand out in crowded inboxes.
Phishing remains one of the biggest email security threats. Attackers send emails that appear legitimate to steal credentials, information, or money, often impersonating trusted brands. Estimates suggest that billions (approx 3.4 billion) of phishing emails are sent annually, and phishing constitutes a significant share of cyberattacks. With 4.48-4.6 billion email users worldwide, and more then 45% of email traffic being spam, the attack surface remains massively exposed.
This is why email authentication is a critical missing link in cybersecurity, with BIMI being a key player in visual sender verification. BIMI allows a brand’s logo to display in email inboxes. But to ensure the logo itself is verified and not spoofed, a VMC is required. Without a VMC, a logo might display in some contexts, but the verified badge and strongest trust signals may not appear.
What is a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)?
A Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) is a digital credential that certifies your company’s registered trademark and enables your logo to appear next to your email messages in supported email clients.
VMC for BIMI is a clear indication to your customers that you are a legitimate business, and not a malicious source trying to phish them. A VMC instills trust among your esteemed client base by visually affirming that you’ve gone through a process to verify your identity and the legitimacy of your business.
VIMI and BIMI: How Are They Related?
BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an email authentication protocol that allows brands to display their logos in supported inboxes once DMARC enforcement is in place.
VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) is the certificate that verifies a brand’s logo trademark so that BIMI can display a verified logo in certain mailboxes (like Gmail).
In simple terms:
- BIMI = the protocol for showing logos in email
- VMC = the certificate that proves the logo is legitimate
How VMC Works: Step-by-Step Implementation
Step 1: Make Your Emails DMARC Compliant
To get your VMC, as a prerequisite, you need to:
- DMARC compliance on your emails. DMARC helps you mitigate the risk of email abuse and impersonation attacks like phishing, spoofing, and ransomware by authenticating emails sent from your domain. It also helps in spam compliance and improves email deliverability.
- To get on board, a minimum DMARC enforcement level of p=reject/quarantine is necessary. By using a DMARC analyzer, you can achieve maximum DMARC compliance on your emails and move to an enforced policy to meet the certificate requirements faster.
Check whether your domain is already DMARC compliant or not, with our free DMARC record checker.
Step 2: Purchase Your Verified Mark Certificate
- The next step is to purchase your VMC from a trusted, industry-recognized, and licensed Certification Authority.
- Make sure your brand logo is trademarked and converted to SVG format before you place the order for your VMC.
PowerDMARC’s strategic partnership with GlobalSign can help you get your VMC in no time. Contact us today to get it issued for your domain.
Step 3: Implement BIMI at Your Organization
After getting hold of your verified mark certificate, configure BIMI for your organization to make sure your emails can be visually authenticated, and your selected logos are being displayed by supported mailbox providers.
Note: All providers do not require VMC for BIMI logo display, but many do.
- Simply sign up for PowerBIMI, your one-click hosted BIMI record implementation service.
- Upload your BIMI logo image and VMC instantly and generate a single CNAME record to configure your protocol.
Forget about the pain of having to access your DNS every time you need to modify or update your record, while you sit back and enjoy the benefits of BIMI.
Benefits of VMC and BIMI
The benefits of implementing BIMI and VMC are many. Let’s explore some standout advantages:
1. Boost Customer Trust and Engagement
Experience upto 10% higher engagement rate for your email marketing campaigns. Having your verified logo appear on emails sent from your organization is an instant trust indicator that has a much higher impact on receivers.
2. Secure Your Emails Against Phishing and Spoofing
Reduces risks of spoofing, phishing, and BEC significantly by enforcing your DMARC policy. DMARC at p=reject prevents impersonation threats and stops hackers from sending emails from your own domain.
3. Control Which Logo is Displayed
This is particularly useful for multi-logo brands. Multinational companies may have separate logos for separate departments or services. BIMI lets you control the logo you want to be displayed for multiple domains.
4. Enhance Email Marketing and Brand Visibility
Visual differentiation in inboxes is the key to high engagement rates. BIMI, along with VMC, is the perfect tool for enhancing your email marketing efforts and increasing your brand recall.
Final Words
As email remains one of the most targeted communication channels for phishing, spoofing, and spam, user trust is more fragile than ever. Verified Mark Certificates (VMC) and the BIMI standard address this gap by combining visual brand verification with enforced email authentication.
To recap, the main benefits are clear: you get enhanced trust and brand recognition, improved email security posture, and higher engagement.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to check your DMARC policy, acquire a VMC, and configure BIMI to bring trust, visibility, and better engagement to your outbound email strategy. Contact PowerDMARC to simplify your VMC issuance and BIMI deployment journey today!
Frequently Asked Questions
How many VMCs are needed for multiple domains?
One VMC can cover multiple domains if you use the same logo; you only need additional VMCs if you want to display different logos for those domains
How to trademark a logo for Verified Mark Certificate?
Register your logo as a trademark with your national or regional intellectual property office (e.g., USPTO, EUIPO), which legally establishes your ownership. This is a requirement for a VMC.
How to convert BIMI logo image to SVG?
You can convert your BIMI logo to SVG Tiny P/S manually using Adobe Creative Tools, or you can use PowerDMARC’s BIMI SVG logo converter for instant results.
Which mailboxes currently support BIMI VMC?
According to the BIMI Group, Apple Mail, Comcast, Google, Cloudmark, Fastmail, La Poste, Docomo, Onet, Yahoo Mail, Zoho Mail, Zone, Zoner, and GMX currently support BIMI.
Domain & Email Security Expert at PowerDMARC
Ahona is the Marketing Manager at PowerDMARC, with 5+ years of experience in writing about cybersecurity topics, specializing in domain and email security. Ahona holds a post-graduation degree in Journalism and Communications, solidifying her career in the security sector since 2019.
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