If you're on a Galaxy Fold, consider unfolding your phone or viewing it in full screen to best optimize your experience.
Email may not be the latest or trendiest way to communicate, but it continues to dominate business communication. In 2019, 3.9 billion people around the world used email. By 2024, the number could hit 4.48 billion.
And even as social media marketing thrives, the benefits of email marketing remain. It’s low cost, easy to measure, and enables you to deliver targeted messages. Email marketing also excels at customer retention and revenue, primarily when you use best practices for email marketing.
Understanding email etiquette -- and avoiding embarrassing email blunders -- is essential. When you send an email with your email marketing software, CC and BCC appear below or alongside the “To” field and are used to include additional recipients. Let’s discuss what they mean and when you should use them.
The CC abbreviation stands for “carbon copy.” CC recipients receive an exact copy of the email and any further “Reply All” responses in the thread. All recipients of the email will also see who has been CC’d.
CC functions exactly like the “To” field. However, email etiquette dictates that only the main recipients of the email appear in the “To” field. Primary recipients are more directly affected by the email and are typically expected to respond or take action.
For CC recipients, on the other hand, responding and acting are generally optional. The key purpose of the CC field is to simply keep someone in the loop. It’s often called a “courtesy copy” for this reason.
For instance, if you ask your copywriter to make a decision that will influence your graphic designer, it would be appropriate to CC the designer in the email.
The BCC abbreviation stands for “blind carbon copy.” BCC recipients also receive an exact copy of the email. However, they do not see further responses in the thread, and other recipients of the email will not see who is BCC’d.
BCC is most commonly used for mass emails and messages to email subscribers. It protects recipients' privacy by hiding their email addresses from other recipients whom they do not know. Additionally, the email has a cleaner and more personal look without a long list of recipients.
Both CC and BCC send copies of an email to additional recipients. The main difference is that CC recipients are visible to others, while BCC recipients are not.
CC’d individuals will receive all additional responses to the email, assuming the “Reply All” function is used. BCC’d recipients do not receive additional emails unless you choose to forward them.
Use a CC email when you want the email list to be visible to all recipients, and you want everyone to be included in the rest of the thread. Here are a few specific uses for CC:
Use a BCC email when you want to include additional recipients but don’t want the recipients to know who else is receiving the email. Here are a few specific uses for BCC:
Let’s say you’re working on a product launch that involves a copywriter, designer, web administrator, and various members of the marketing and product development teams.
You need to send an important update to the designer. The update could potentially impact the project timeline, thus affecting the other people involved. Put your designer in the “To” field, then CC other interested parties, including management.
If your boss asks you to accomplish a task such as obtaining information from a partner organization, you can CC your boss in the email. This way, your boss sees that you’ve done what was asked, and they can stay in the loop on further communication with the partner.
Now, let’s say you need to send an email conveying important information about an event such as check-in times and materials to bring. The email will go to a list that includes all event attendees. In this case, you should use BCC to protect the privacy of your attendees.
Or, perhaps a client has been harassing you. You tell your boss about the situation, and they ask you to BCC them on future communication so they can observe your interactions with the client.
A similar scenario could happen if a coworker is behaving inappropriately. Most of the time, however, it’s best to avoid BCC on emails with coworkers. It can seem shady and potentially lead to workplace tension.
CC makes your email list visible to all recipients and loops everyone into an ongoing thread. BCC recipients, meanwhile, are invisible to each other and won’t be included in email responses.
CC is best for keeping stakeholders informed, while BCC is best for mass emails and email lists.
Our Small Business Expert
We're firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers. The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.