How to Display your Logo in the Inbox with Apple Branded Mail?

What is Apple Branded Mail?

Apple Branded Mail was launched as part of Apple’s Apple Business Connect (ABC) platform to empower businesses to optimize their email marketing efforts.

Companies will now be able to display their logo next to their emails in Apple Mail, thus giving emails a visual cue that makes them immediately recognizable and, hence, entrusted.

The feature is available in macOS Ventura 13, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16 and onwards, which means it fits naturally into the ecosystem created by Apple.

Apple Branded Mail is different from BIMI, which is an established industry standard; it is limited to Apple’s email client, making it an easier, more streamlined setup experience.

Why Use Apple Branded Mail?

Boost Brand Recognition

With the logo stamped on the emails in the inbox, it’s hard to miss them in a busy inbox. Instantly, your recipients will incorporate you into their brand recollection; this is how small cues impact engagement probabilities.

This logo stamp would anchor your emails into a cohesive business ambiance that infuses brand identity into your audience every time an ad is in their inbox.

The more times a person sees this, the more robust their understanding of your brand grows; your emails start to become firmly stamped in their mind as reliable.

Build Trust and Credibility

There is enough assurance here that when the recipients see mail from your domain, they know it is not intercepted. Hence, they check for spam less often; they’ll feel that Apple Branded Mail protects them from virtually all cyber threats to mail.

Emails from verified senders are more likely to be opened and their messages acted upon; hence, it naturally leads to deeper customer loyalty and better email performance.

Cost-Effective

BIMI requires a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC), the setup of which is difficult and expensive. In this context, as with DMARC authentication, it uses existing protocols and doesn’t require further certificates or barnacled tech setup.

Therefore, it is open to organizations, of all sizes and scopes, that like to improve email marketing with minimum expenditure on other installations. Besides, it saves time in going ahead with other pieces of a marketing strategy.

Engagement with Emails Makes All Things Better

Since an eye-catching logo in the mailbox can mean increased rates of opening the email, as opposed to spam clicking, the entire email performance improves. This also inspires greater customer trust to open and read those emails, click on links in them, or take some recommended action.

Improving engagement will further enhance the effectiveness of your campaign and help to build an impeccable sender reputation that will improve future performance in delivery. Apple-branded mail makes your emails aesthetically appealing and credible, thus yielding marketing gains.

Integration to Work with Apple Ecosystems

Apple Branded Mail taps into the ABC platform that allows businesses to manage their presence and view in Apple Maps, Wallet, and Siri: Apple Branded Mail.

This commitment creates a uniform brand experience in any engagement through Apple, whether marketing emails, business searches customers do on Maps, or queries using Siri.

Apple Branded Mail establishes a strong professionalism in branding that undoubtedly shall improve marketing.

How Does Apple Branded Mail Work?

In an effort to bolster the security of emails and promote your brand when customers receive them, Apple Branded Mail provides a verified logo near the authenticated emails in Apple Mail.

Here are the basic steps that accentuate this model:

Domain Authentication with DMARC

DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is a set of email authentication protocols that protect against domain spoofing for Apple Branded Mail.

With a DMARC policy on ‘quarantine’ or ‘reject’, only authenticated domains will have their logo in Apple Mail. This effectively protects your brand from phishing or spoofing attempts directed toward your audience.

Logo Verification

After having verified domain ownership, you upload the logo to Apple Business Connect (ABC), which is the platform for managing your brand in Apple’s ecosystem. The logo is then smeared against their beauty standards and all of its authenticities shall be confirmed by Apple.

The logo must be square and must be created with any of the following formats: PNG, JPEG, or HEIF. The sizes must not vary from those between 1024x1024px and 4864x4864px.

This is to prevent impersonation since Apple allows only genuine brands to display their logos in Apple Mail.

Logo Display in Apple Mail

Apple Mail retrieves your logo from Apple Business Connect and displays it next to your emails in the inbox, once your domain and logo are verified. The visual presence of your brand can immediately come to the minds of your recipients, thus improving trust and engagement.

It broadcasts within Apple Mail on macOS Ventura 13, iOS 16, and iPadOS 16 or later to create a consistent experience for Apple users.

Ongoing Compliance

This means that, if you have approval for your domain, you must have it verified by a DMARC mechanism, the logo stays verified by ABC. If you changed your domain name or the logo, you may have to go for re-verification, which shall guarantee unbroken deployment on Apple Mail.

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Apple Branded Mail

To set up your Apple Brand Mail, here is what you need to do:

Step 1: Register for Apple Business Connect

• Open the Apple Business Connect website and sign up with an iCloud account or Apple Business Manager.
• Of course, permission from an authority figure is necessary to agree to Apple’s General Terms and Conditions on behalf of your company.

Step 2: Provide Basic Information

• Please enter your company name, country, category, and official website.
• Upload your logo in PNG, JPEG, or HEIF format. Ensure that the logo is close to a square dimension (between 1024×1024 and 4864×4864). It must remain legible when cropped within a circular or square frame..

Step 3: Verify Your Company and Domain

• Enter the domains and subdomains where you would like your logo to appear in Apple mail.
• Ditto for ensuring that the domains listed all have a DMARC record that has been applied with either ‘quarantine’ or ‘reject’.
• You can verify your domain with either adding a TXT record to your DNS or uploading some certification like your business license or tax ID.

Step 4: Wait for Verification

• Generally, you can expect the review process to normally take 5 to 8 business days.
• On approval, it will accordingly show up as verified on Apple Business Connect.

Step 5: Enjoy Logo Display in Apple Mail

• Once it has been approved by Apple, the logo would display beside the email sent from one’s mail through Apple Mail.
• You can easily track your email performance to find out how Apple Branded Mail performs in terms of engagement and delivery.

Key Requirements for Apple Branded Mail

Hence any business putting up Apple Branded Mail must be aware of the basic requirements that will make sure their logo display is in Apple Mail. These can be defined as follows:

DMARC Authentication

In order for Apple Branded Mail to work, there has to be an existing DMARC whose full meaning is Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance policy set on your domain.

Also Read: What is DMARC Fail? How to Know and Fix DMARC Failure?

DMARC is domain spoofing with an indication of the authenticated servers, ensuring that the mail sent from these domains is valid. Your DMARC policy in relation to Apple Branded Mail must be set either to quarantine or reject.

These definitions really add to the authenticity of your domain; that is, your logo may show only from the emails sent from your authenticated domain, while the unauthorized domain may either have the emails tagged or blocked altogether.

This step is also crucial in protecting one from phishing and spoofing attacks and to ensure the actual showing of your logo in legitimate emails.

In case DMARC has not been certified, Apple will deny the display of your logo in Apple Mail, which forms the basis above everything else.

Logo Specifications

To be cleared for display on Apple Mail, your logo must meet a number of criteria. The most basic element is that it must be in PNG, JPEG, or HEIF format.

Additionally, the logo should have square dimensions of 1024x1024px to 4864x4864px. This will ensure just the perfect high definition and glitter in Apple Mail.

The logo should not be overly complicated, clearly visible up against a circular or square backdrop. Due to the logos with text or any other additional bits, Apple would not allow them, for resizing can distort their typical shape.

Completing this will make the logo appear professional and consistent across devices, achieving brand recognizability and establishing credibility in the inbox.

Domain Verification

Domain verification is actually a crucial step in setting up Apple Mail branding. You ought to go through Apple Business Connect (ABC) for validating your domain, since this is the means to manage the brand presence among the Apple ecosystem.

The verification of your domain can be done through two ways:

• DNS Verification: In DNS verification, you need to add a TXT record in the DNS setting of your domain to establish your ownership, so that Apple can validate that you control your specific domain name.
• Document Verification: If you don’t have access to your DNS settings, document verification will allow you to verify/upload a legal document, such as a business license or tax ID, manually.

Having verified your domain, ensure that all domains and subdomains have been setup correctly with a valid DMARC record, to guarantee compliance and the correct display of the logo on Apple Mail.

Apple Business Connect Account

An active Apple Business Connect (ABC) account will give you the capabilities of sending your mail branded for Apple looks. This will allow you to control your brand’s profile to upload your logo and your domain verification purposes.

The person setting up the account must be authorized to give consent on behalf of your brand, allowing Apple’s General Terms and Conditions to be agreed to.

From here, account setup gives you the capability of entering in your brand name, location (country), category, and website, as well as upload the logo and domains that you want to see on the brand page.

This is at the center of managing the presence of your brand across Apple’s ecosystem: Apple Maps, Wallet, and Siri. Setting up Apple Branded Mail is crucial.

Compliance with Apple’s Guidelines

In order to be allowed to use Apple Branded Mail, your brand must comply to Apple’s logo use policies and domain authentication. In simple words, it must ensure that the logos are accurate and non-offensive and that no intellectual property names already exist.

Apple could deny any undesired logo submission. So it is enormous for any applicant to read through the guidelines before any logo submits. In addition, the logo can only show if the domain remains compliant with DMARC guidelines.

Without the DMARC policy at ‘quarantine’ or ‘reject’ and the domain not passing the verification, your logo will not show.

By complying with Apple standards, you guarantee proper functioning of mail defined under Apple branded mail, ensuring that you squeeze full value for your brand.

Apple Branded Mail vs. BIMI

Feature	Apple Branded Mail	BIMI
Platform Support	Exclusive to Apple Mail (macOS Ventura 13, iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later).	Supported by multiple email platforms, including Gmail, Yahoo!, and Fastmail.
Setup Complexity	Simple and streamlined, with no need for additional certificates.	Requires a Verified Mark Certificate (VMC) or Certified Mark Certificate (CMC).
Logo Verification	Managed through Apple Business Connect (ABC); no third-party certificates needed.	Requires a BIMI Evidence Document (e.g., VMC) to verify logo ownership.
Cost	Free to set up; no additional costs for logo verification.	VMC can be costly; CMC is free but requires more effort to obtain.
Logo Format	Accepts PNG, JPEG, or HEIF formats; square logos preferred.	Requires SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format with strict specifications.
Domain Authentication	Relies on DMARC with a “quarantine” or “reject” policy.	Also relies on DMARC but requires stricter alignment and authentication.
Adoption	Limited to Apple’s ecosystem; only works with Apple Mail.	Broader industry adoption; works across multiple email clients and platforms.
Phishing Protection	Enhances trust by displaying verified logos in Apple Mail.	Provides similar trust signals but across a wider range of email platforms.
Brand Visibility	Boosts brand recognition within Apple’s ecosystem.	Increases brand visibility across multiple email platforms, including non-Apple devices.
Ease of Implementation	Easier to implement, especially for businesses already using Apple Business Connect.	More complex due to the need for VMC/CMC and stricter logo requirements.

Also Read: How to Implement BIMI to Display Brand Logo on Email?

Conclusion

Never let phishing and spoofing obliterate trust in your integrity. With Certera’s advanced email authentication solutions such as Mark Certificates including Verified Mark Certificate, Common Mark Certificate and Enterprise S/MIME, you can ensure that your logo only accompanies legitimate mail, helping your customer’s trust and enhancing email deliverability and prevent phishing attacks.