Deliverability
Exciting news at Google: Introducing BIMI support & Google Postmaster API
Exciting news for Gmail! Google has announced the pilot to support BIMI, and now you can also access the Google Postmaster data through an API.
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There is some exciting news happening on the Google front!
This week, Google announced some new security features for the G Suite, and one of the most exciting ones is a pilot of BIMI, an email specification that allows brand logos to display within authenticated emails. Companies and Gmail users will now be able to benefit from this email authentication standard, which will help brands gain their contacts’ trust.
Another piece of exciting news is Google is now offering an API for the Google Postmaster page, which will allow brands and ESPs to access all of Google Postmaster’s email metrics without having to go through the Google Postmaster Tools’ UI.
Together, these two updates will significantly help email senders gain trust and access information to improve their engagement rates. Read on to learn more about these launches and how the BIMI pilot and Google Postmaster’s API can help strengthen your email programs.
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How does BIMI work on Gmail?
Google launches the BIMI pilot
Google now offers support for the BIMI standard in Gmail to encourage brands to implement DMARC. BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is an email authentication standard that enables brands using DMARC to validate ownership of their corporate logos and securely transmit them to Google. Once these authenticated emails pass all of Google’s other anti-abuse checks, Gmail will display the logo in the Gmail UI.
This important step will not only secure Gmail users, but it also provides more security for the entire email ecosystem. BIMI helps recipients identify the email sender, which prevents them from falling prey to malicious or unwanted emails. It will also help brands gain trust with their subscribers.
Source: Google Blog
How does BIMI work on Gmail?
BIMI relies on SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (Domain Keys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) email authentication standards. This means that, in order to join BIMI, your domain needs to be protected by these standards and have a DMARC policy of p=quarantine or p=reject defined. It’s important to note that BIMI does not work with p=none.
When your emails are successfully authenticated, then you need to create a BIMI TXT record in DNS with an SVG version of your logo. This step lets ISPs know where to find your logo. Mailbox providers such as Gmail will start displaying the logo in existing avatar slots in the Gmail UI after you have passed strong authentications.
Engagement rates are key to a strong deliverability, which is why Gmail supporting BIMI is such great news for email senders around the world. When Gmail members see the brand logo in their inbox, they will have a higher level of confidence opening the email and engaging with the brands.
Introducing the Google Postmaster API
Google is also now offering API for the Google Postmaster page. Google Postmaster is a free tool that Google provides to domain owners of brands and ESPs (Email Service Providers) to monitor the health and reputation of their IPs and Domains. The tool provides visibility to email senders so they can understand how users are engaging with their emails, and how they can optimize their strategy to improve their deliverability.
With the Postmaster Tools, users can see if Gmail recipients are marking their emails as spam, how to prevent their emails from being blocked by Gmail, why their emails might not be delivered, and if their emails are being sent securely.
Now, all of that information is available via the Gmail Postmaster API, a RESTful API that provides programmatic access to email traffic metrics such as spam reports, delivery errors, and others. If you want to have your application call this service instead of accessing the information through the Gmail Postmaster Tools UI, check out Google’s Documentation.
Be the first to know
Some keep suggesting email is dead, but that is far from the truth. Google’s announcement to introduce BIMI support and the new Google Postmaster API prove that the world of email is constantly changing, and staying up-to-date with all the innovations might be hard.
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