Does logo visibility translate into market value?

Red Sift and Entrust have put this report together to highlight the key findings from our research into the impact of a visible logo in an email’s avatar location on open rates, brand recall, and buying behavior. We assessed the impact that logo visibility and the new standard BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) has on consumer interaction and buying behavior, and how this could influence the use and success of verified logos in email going forward. 

We hope you find it both interesting and useful!

Email recipient interaction increases when the sending organization’s logo appears in the avatar slot, irrespective of brand strength or size.

BIMI increases consumer interaction and companies need to get on board or risk losing market share

Consumers do interact better with emails when they have a visual logo attached, irrespective of brand strength or size

BIMI will encourage businesses to adopt DMARC as the global standard, something we should be doing already as a best practice

The color and style of a logo does impact brand recall and is something retailers may want to consider when implementing BIMI

BIMI serves as a key indicator of authentication enabling consumers to be sure that an email has come from a legitimate source (using DMARC)

BIMI boosts market value as every percentage of opens and purchases a logo generates translates into revenue

Logo visibility in email has the greatest impact on the younger generations, suggesting this technology-first demographic is more expectant of standards like BIMI for the future

We surveyed 1,026 participants across the US and UK to assess the impact that logo visibility has on email open rates, brand recall, and buying behavior.

We baselined responses to test emails across participants, covering transactional and promotional emails along with brand recall. We then compared the baseline to responses to the same emails with the inclusion of logos using BIMI.

We assessed the impact logo visibility (enabled by BIMI) had on:

We also assessed participant awareness of BIMI.

Executive Summary

Email - the foundation of all ecommerce communications

Email is a vital tool used by almost all ecommerce businesses in every capacity. From promoting new products and offers to sending tracking updates and invoices, email is the structural glue that underpins the key lines of communication between business and consumer. 

Statista estimates that 361.6 billion emails will be sent on a daily basis across the world in 2024.

Email isn’t going anywhere. But as with anything, the evolution of how businesses use this channel is inevitable, making it work harder for their goals and needs. As part of this evolution comes BIMI.

BIMI - the new standard for logo visibility in email

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is the standard that enables senders to display validated, registered trademarked logos on every DMARC-authenticated email they send. 

As email continues to be the most popular medium for organizations and industries to communicate, BIMI is a brand-enhancing reward that DMARC authenticated senders can use to highlight the authenticity of their emails while increasing brand impressions. As much as BIMI could be a beneficial tool for improving ROI, it’s important that it is viewed as an addition or reward for the security protocol that enables its use: DMARC.

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance) is a security protocol that protects businesses from exact domain impersonation and its harmful effects. 

When correctly configured, it works using existing security protocols SPF and DKIM to tell any receiving servers that an email coming from your domain is legitimate. This stops hackers using your domain for phishing attempts against your customers, employees and suppliers and has also been shown to improve email deliverability and placement.

BIMI - the standard for logo visibility in email

The impact of logo visibility on email open rates

Depending on the figures, email open rates can be a digital marketer’s dream - or nightmare. There are many ways a business can increase these numbers, but if something as theoretically simple as attaching a verified logo can make a positive impact, surely this should be every marketer’s top priority to implement? In our research we looked at the impact of logo visibility, enabled by BIMI, on both transactional and promotional email open rates in the US and UK.

How does logo visibility impact transactional email opens in the US?

Transactional email is the backbone medium of most customer communication strategies. In the US, we looked at how the open rates of transactional emails from two investment firms were impacted by displaying logos using BIMI. We found that when displaying a logo, a leading financial investment organization saw a 6% increase in its share of opens, while a competitor’s decreased by 10%.

How does logo visibility impact transactional email opens in the UK?

In the UK there were similar findings. We conducted the same experiment using a leading energy provider and a competitor. This time, it was the competitor brand that displayed logos next to its emails in the inbox. Although the leader’s email was at the top of the inbox, it lost out to its competitor who raised its presence in the inbox (against itself with no logo) by 38%.

Does this trend translate into promotional email?

Transactional emails are vital for communicating with existing customers, but do we see the same results when businesses are trying to sell products and services? To test this, we measured how visible logos impacted the email open rates of some of the most popular food delivery services brands in the US and UK against their competitors.

When the competitor brand displayed a logo:

Can seeing a logo for the first time still encourage opens? 

By including a completely unknown brand as a “control”, the impact of displaying a logo alongside a promotional email could be truly evaluated. For this, we used a business with no market share or pre-existing brand reputation, and perhaps what was most surprising about this outcome was the interaction this “control” brand received. When its logo was displayed it gained 21% share of promotional email opens in the US and 62% in the UK (when compared to itself without a logo).

What do these findings tell us about the impact of visual logos on email open rates?

Looking at the data alone, we can be confident that the inclusion of logos on both transactional and promotional emails does positively impact open rates. We found that overall, when a brand’s emails had a logo but a competitor’s did not, opens increased by 21% in the US and 39% in the UK. What’s perhaps most interesting is that these findings appear to be irrespective of market share or brand size.

When a brand’s emails had a logo but a competitor’s did not, opens increased by 21% in the US and 39% in the UK.

Does a logo make it easier for consumers to recall a brand?

Brand recall is a valuable metric for any business. The better your target market remembers you, the more likely they are to buy from you. But does having a visible logo on an email impact how well a consumer remembers your brand? We exposed our participants to a series of emails from popular supermarket brands for 5 seconds and measured which were best recalled based on logo visibility or absence.

Can seeing a logo make a consumer buy more?

For BIMI and the logo visibility it enables to translate into true commercial value, we need to look at whether the presence of a logo on an authenticated email actually increases buying behavior. In both the US and UK, we compared how logo visibility impacted purchasing decisions on emails from a selection of leading and competitor food delivery services brands.

Impact of a visible logo on buying behavior in the US

Impact of a visible logo on buying behavior in the UK

These results signpost the impact that the adoption of BIMI and subsequent logo visibility in email is likely to have on the market. If companies don’t implement DMARC and BIMI to improve their email messaging now, then losing market share to competitors who do is a real possibility.

Logo visibility and the Millennial (and Gen Z) market

Despite the rise in social media and messaging apps, email is still used by 78% of teenagers. 18-44 year olds predominantly use Google, and throughout our research, we found that logo visibility in email had the biggest impact on interaction in these younger age groups, particularly Millennials and Gen Z.

Affecting the buyer’s choice: Having no logo visible on emails negatively impacted Gen Z purchasing decisions by 28%

Impacting critical decisions: In critical financial decisions, brands with a visible logo attached to their emails saw 18% more Gen Z opens, while those with no logo fell by 10%

Influencing open rates: In lower involvement decisions, open rates of emails with no logo dropped by 14%, while those that did have a logo saw gains of 28%

Generation Z will represent 50% of the US workforce by 2040 and even now many businesses cater solely to this demographic. The younger generations are digital natives, they’ve grown up with technology and have always benefited from the convenience and accessibility it affords them. Ultimately these findings support the likelihood that moving forward, initiatives like BIMI will be what the younger generation expects as standard from the organizations and corporations they choose to buy from.

How can you get BIMI certified and start using your logo on emails?

Email continues to be the most popular and relied-upon way that brands use to communicate with their customers. That’s why it’s also popular with fraudsters who impersonate brands to steal personal information from unwitting consumers.

About the Red Sift and Entrust Partnership

Red Sift and Entrust mobilize brands to improve their email security strategy and create a more consistent email experience for email recipients – it’s a win-win for both InfoSec and Marketing teams. Our award-winning product, Red Sift OnDMARC, helps brands block phishing attempts using their domain. Combined with Entrust’s Verified Mark Certificate, we bring together best-of-breed technologies. For the first time, enterprises have a proven method for showing a registered brand logo on their email communications – a simple and cost-effective way for organizations to boost their outbound email strategy and brand presence. 

Together we’ve already successfully supported a number of global businesses through the BIMI certification process with Entrust shown below, as well as helping them achieve p=reject with OnDMARC.

Get in touch to kickstart your BIMI journey today!

If you'd like this research report in a PDF format, you can download it here.

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Consumer Interaction with Visual Brands in Email

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Red Sift and Entrust have put this report together to highlight the key findings from our research into the
impact of a visible logo in an email’s avatar location on open rates, brand recall, and buying behavior.