7 free tools to validate BIMI for your domain

Having emails stand out in a customer's inbox is a dream and a herculean task for any business. Whether it's an announcement email or a transactional email, it becomes important for a brand's email to stand out. Brand indicators for message identification (BIMI) is one of the ways to achieve this prominence in your recipient's inbox.

BIMI is an email specification that is being adopted by businesses at a rapid speed. With BIMI, your brand's logo can be displayed right next to your emails in the recipient's inbox. If your email passes DMARC verification, your logo will be displayed next to emails in BIMI-supported email clients.

Benefits of using BIMI

1. Brand recognition: The more often that your customers see your branding, the more they’ll be able to recognize your brand. Brand recall can help emphasize your brand's seriousness in the minds of the customer. It will help your emails stand out from the sea of emails in their inbox.

2. Phishing protection: By making your emails easily recognizable, you can protect your customers from phishing or spoofing emails. The BIMI logo will act as a signature that tells the recipient that this email is from your brand and not an imposter.

3. Email security: To adopt BIMI, you'll have to reinforce your email security by ensuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication. This will improve your deliverability and protect your emails from intruders.

Read this article to learn about BIMI in detail.

7 free tools to validate BIMI

Because BIMI is an emerging practice, configuring BIMI for your emails involves a learning curve. And because it’s new, we might not always get it right. Which is why it’s always best to use tools that will validate your BIMI configuration and let you know if something is missing. Here are some tools that you can use to validate BIMI.

1. Mailhardener BIMI Validator

The Mailhardener BIMI validator will validate the BIMI DNS record and VMC certificate if it’s included. The records will be cross-verified with BIMI-02 to see if all the requirements are met.

2. PowerTool by PowerDMARC

Power DMARC's PowerTool allows you to look up the BIMI configuration for any domain. Simply entering the domain will give you details about the availability of DMARC enforcement, BIMI record, BIMI logo, and VMC certificate. If it’s unavailable, there’s a provision in PowerTool that lets you generate a BIMI record.

3. Easy DMARC

Easy DMARC BIMI checker will let you check the status of your BIMI record. If it’s available, it’ll be displayed. If not, the tool will tell you that there’s no BIMI record for the domain. It also provides a BIMI generator that lets you generate a BIMI record and a BIMI converter that lets you convert your company logo to a BIMI logo.

4. MXtoolbox BIMI check tool

The MXtoolbox BIMI checker simply allows you to enter your domain for BIMI lookup. Once entered, it will display if you have set up a BIMI record or not.

5. Red Sift BIMI tool

Red Sift's BIMI tool gives you a look into every step that needs to be completed in the BIMI setup. It will show the status of your SPF, DMARC, and BIMI records. It also displays the steps in getting BIMI and which ones you’re yet to complete.

6. DNS Checker

DNS Checker displays the availability of a DMARC record, DMARC policy, and a BIMI record. It also provides the option to generate a BIMI record by providing logo SVG links and VMC certificate links.

7. Valimail domain checker

Valimail domain checker displays if DMARC is enforced, if the BIMI logo is available, and if the BIMI certificate is available. This will allow you to correct whichever step you’re missing.