How To Get Your Logo To Show Up In Your Subscriber's Inboxes

Hey it’s Max from The Inbox Newsletter.

You ever notice how some brands have their logo show up in people's inboxes, while most brands don't?

Today I’m sharing how you can do this as well, so you can stand out.

And unfortunately, it’s not as simple as updating your Google profile picture to get your brand logo to show up in people’s inboxes...

Let’s get into it!

Step 1: Create An SVG File Of Your Logo

Start by creating your logo in a specific SVG format called SVG Tiny PS (not just any regular SVG).

A regular SVG file won’t work for BIMI since email providers need this specific format to render your logo cleanly in the inbox.

A few key things your SVG needs:

• Minimum 96 pixels wide and tall

• Centered in a square with a solid background (transparent backgrounds break the render)

• File size under 32 KB

• No scripts, animations, or external links in the file

Your designer can handle most of this part in Adobe Illustrator in a few minutes. If you don’t have a designer, you can also hire someone on Upwork to handle the SVG prep for pretty cheap.

Step 2: Get A VMC Or CMC Certificate

The next step is getting a VMC or CMC certificate for your brand. This is where most brands get stuck.

Here are the differences between both:

• VMC (Verified Mark Certificate) — the premium option, costs ~$1,500/year, requires your logo to be trademark-registered. Gives you a verified checkmark next to your sender name in Gmail which is the strongest brand trust signal you can get.

• CMC (Common Mark Certificate) — the cheaper option, no trademark required, no checkmark but still gets your logo showing up in supported inboxes.

Both certificates come from a Certificate Authority (CA)… but the main ones that issue these are Entrust and DigiCert.

Step 3: Upload The PEM File To Your Web Server

Once your certificate is issued, you’ll get back something called a PEM file. This is basically a single file that bundles your SVG logo + certificate data together.

All you have to do here is upload that PEM file to your domain’s public web server (usually in a /bimi/ folder) and copy the URL since you’ll need it for Step 4.

Step 4: Add A Bimi TXT Record In Your DNS

Last step is adding a BIMI TXT record to your DNS settings…

This record tells Gmail and other supported email providers where to actually find your logo and certificate files.

v=BIMI1; l=; a=https://images.yourdomain.com/brand/certificate.pem

Once that record is live, give it 24-48 hours to propagate across the DNS network. After that, your logo should start showing up next to your sender name in Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Apple Mail.

And there you have it!

Definitely a lot more technical than the usual newsletters I drop, but once you get through the setup it pays off big time…

Give it a shot this week or hand it off to your dev to get it live!

BTW, I share insights like this every single day in my private community which you can find here.

Email Inspiration Of The Day

Brand:
Timeline

Email Design:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1z57fv_7cTg0HI3lIyy_KnbNw8kpF33PD/view?usp=drive_link

Notes:
Banger email where it's a weekly wordle-style game. You have to guess a 6-letter longevity word in 5 tries and a new puzzle drops every Friday. A great way to garner engagement!

Reply to this email if you have any questions or further content you want covered.

Cheers,

Max Sturtevant

P.S
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