1. FAQ
  2. Email Trust
  3. What Steps are Required to get a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)?
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EMAIL TRUST

What steps are required
to get a Verified Mark
Certificate (VMC)?

Wondering if you need a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)?

Verified Mark Certificates, or VMCs, help authenticate your brand in email inboxes by displaying your official logo next to the "sender" field. This is made possible through BIMI and DMARC enforcement.

Check out our VMC flowchart to help you decide if a VMC is right for you.

What Steps are Required to get a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC)?

Before you can qualify for a Verified Mark Certificate, your organization needs to meet several key requirements to validate your domain and brand identity.

  1. Implement DMARC standards for your organization. 
    Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is an email authentication, policy and reporting protocol that makes it harder for bad actors to spoof your brand, and gives you more visibility and control over emails sent and received by your domain.
  2. Trademark your logo. 
    To qualify for a VMC, your logo must legally trademarked with the appropriate office for your geographic region.
  3. Convert your logo file to the .SVG format. 
  4. Purchase a VMC and complete validation.
  5. Install your VMC. 
    After you have submitted your SVG logo file to DigiCert, you will receive a file containing a PEM-encoded certificate chain. Both the SVG and the certificate chain file must be placed on a publicly accessible server and be accessible via https (HTTP will cause a failure). You will then need to update your BIMI record with the correct URL and file location 

How can VMCs Increase Trust in Emails?

VMCs increase trust in emails because they certify that a brand and its logo are authentic by way of Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI) and Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC). VMCs allow a brand’s logo to be viewed inside email clients once the brand has passed DMARC authentication checks to ensure the organization is not being impersonated.

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