What is bcc in email

Что такое Cc и Bcc, и как их использовать при поддержке клиентов?

Если вы активно используете почту при общении с клиентами и коллегами, редкий день обходится без копий. Они являются неотъемлемой частью рабочей переписки. Поэтому многие клиенты, перебираясь на Омнидеск со старой доброй почты, часто спрашивали о поддержке Cc и Bcc. До появления этой функциональности мы получили 47 (!) просьб добавить её. Цифра внушительная, ведь о своих потребностях и вопросах в лучшем случае пишут 5-7% желающих.

Перед тем, как перейти к подробностям нашей реализации копий, давайте разберёмся, что они собой представляют.

Типы получателей письма

To: (кому) — основной получатель письма.

Cc: (копия, carbon copy) — вторичные получатели письма, которым направляется копия. Они видят и знают о наличии друг друга.

Bcc: (скрытая копия, blind carbon copy) — скрытые получатели письма, чьи адреса не показываются другим получателям.

Примеры использования копий

а. Пользователь обратился за помощью и попросил отправлять ответы как на рабочую, так и личную почту. Вы указываете его личный адрес в копии (Cc), чтобы он смог отвечать с любого адреса и в каждом из них видеть всю переписку.

б. Клиент оплатил консалтинг/поддержку/разработку, и вы регулярно общаетесь с его сотрудниками. Вы добавляете его в копию (Cc), чтобы он получал все ваши ответы, мог в любой момент вклиниться в переписку и оценить качество предоставляемых вами услуг.

в. Руководитель хочет следить за общением поддержки с VIP-клиентами. В обращениях от этих клиентов руководитель добавляется в скрытую копию (Bcc), чтобы он всегда получал ваши ответы (с историей переписки).

Прелесть в том, что клиент не знает о «слежке», а руководитель может ответить лично вам и, к примеру, сделать замечание 🙂

г. Клиент обращается к вам, чтобы обсудить получение скидки и способы оплаты. Он сразу добавляет своего бухгалтера в копию (Cc), чтобы тот мог следить за ходом общения и принять эстафету в нужный момент.

Как мы реализовали поддержку копий?

Приведённые выше примеры описывают лишь некоторые сценарии, которые клиенты «продавали» нам, аргументируя необходимость поддержки копий на сервисе. Мы реализовали все стандартные моменты, но не забыли добавить и несколько полезных фишек. Рассмотрим всё по порядку.

Базовая функциональность

1) Справа от названия поля «Получатель» мы разместили две ссылки для добавления копий — «Сс» и «Bcc».

2) При нажатии на «Cc» появляется поле «Копия», и пропадает ссылка «Cc».

3) При нажатии на «Bcc» появляется поле «Скрытая копия», и пропадает ссылка «Bcc».

4) Если нажать на ссылку «убрать», то поле пропадает, а ссылка «Сс»/«Всс» возвращается на своё место (справа от названия поля «Получатель»).

5) Когда сотрудник добавляет адрес в обычную копию (Cc), его ответ отправляется на основной адрес из поля «Получатель» и на адрес из поля «Копия». В этом случае оба пользователя видят, что письмо было доставлено на два адреса. Каждый из них может ответить как сотруднику, так и сотруднику + другому пользователю.

6) Когда сотрудник добавляет адрес в скрытую копию (Bcc), его ответ отправляется на основной адрес из поля «Получатель» и на адрес из поля «Скрытая копия». В этом случае основной пользователь видит, что письмо пришло только ему, поэтому его ответ может быть отправлен только сотруднику.

При этом пользователь из скрытой копии видит, кто был основным получателем, и может отправить письмо как сотруднику, так и сотруднику + основному получателю.

7) Поддержка копий работает и в обратном направлении. Если пользователь отправляет запрос (или новый ответ в текущую переписку) и добавляет другой адрес в Cc, мы автоматически прописываем этот адрес в поле «Копия», чтобы при ответе сотрудника письмо отправлялось на оба адреса.

Полезные фишки

8) Все изменения в полях «Получатель», «Копия» и «Скрытая копия» фиксируются в истории действий.

9) Для каждого обращения мы запоминаем все адреса, которые указывались в полях «Получатель», «Копия» и «Скрытая копия». Поэтому после удаления адреса из поля его можно легко вернуть. Достаточно кликнуть в нужном поле, и мы предложим выбрать адрес из выпадающего списка.

10) Когда пользователь из скрытой копии отвечает сотруднику и основному пользователю, его письмо добавляется в обращение в виде обычного ответа. Если же он отвечает только сотруднику, тогда его письмо добавляется в обращение в качестве заметки, которая не видна основному пользователю (при просмотре переписки по обращению в своём аккаунте).

11) В правилах для входящих обращений мы добавили условие «Копия (Cc) обращения», чтобы можно было отслеживать наличие определённого адреса (или домена) в копии и автоматически выполнять нужные действия.

12) Во всех типах правил появились два новых действия — «Добавить в копию» и «Добавить в скрытую копию» на случай, если требуется добавить адреса в копии, когда обращение соответствует условиям правила.

Вот такие полезные копии. Если вы раньше не использовали их, теперь обязательно начнёте 🙂

What Do CC and BCC Mean in Emails?

Email is the preferred mode of communication in business, both internally and externally. It’s simple, straightforward, secure, and takes place in real time. That’s likely why 281 billion emails were sent daily in 2018.

But, as with all forms of communication, there are rules involved in ensuring that communication between you and your recipient is orderly and civilized.

One of those rules of email etiquette involves the use of CC (carbon copy) and BCC (blind carbon copy).

What are CC and BCC in emails?

If you’ve ever sent an email, you’ve come across two fields right next to the “To” field: CC and BCC. Simply put, CC and BCC are two ways you can include more people as recipients in an email.

What does CC mean?

In email sending, CC is the abbreviation for “carbon copy.” Back in the days before internet and email, in order to create a copy of the letter you were writing, you had to place carbon paper between the one you were writing on and the paper that was going to be your copy.

Just like the physical carbon copy above, CC is an easy way to send copies of an email to other people.

If you’ve ever received a CCed email, you’ve probably noticed that it will be addressed to you and a list of other people who have also been CCed.

What does BCC mean?

BCC stands for “blind carbon copy.” Just like CC, BCC is a way of sending copies of an email to other people. The difference between the two is that, while you can see a list of recipients when CC is used, that’s not the case with BCC. It’s called blind carbon copy because the other recipients won’t be able to see that someone else has been sent a copy of the email.

Can I automate the emailing process?

If you’re already sending emails for your blog or shop, you can easily sign up to use an email service provider (ESP), like Campaign Monitor, and automate your emails. You can separate recipients by subscriber lists, and emails automatically send based on triggers you set.

Do I need an ESP?

Email service providers streamline the process of emailing. Plus, because people check their inboxes so frequently, email is more reliable than social media or ads. If you’re looking to get the most out of your social media following, blog, online store, or website, emailing through an ESP is a low-maintenance way to communicate with the people who love your brand. Read our guide on choosing an ESP here.

How do I spend less time on email?

Sending emails for your blog or shop can be time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. An email platform like Campaign Monitor’s is a cost-effective way to send beautiful emails without needing any technical expertise. You can also implement automation and even track your results to make sure your emails perform well. You can try our free email-builder tool to see how easy it is.

Does it really matter?

While you might not find yourself using these two functions of your email often, they definitely have their purposes.

When should you use CC?

The use of CC is a bit of a debate, as it functions the same as adding multiple recipients in the “To” field. What’s so special about CC?

Using CC is more a matter of etiquette than anything. The general rule is that the “To” field is reserved for the main recipients of your email. Other interested parties can be included as a CC so they can have their own copy of the email.

CCing other parties also makes it clear to all involved that the email has been seen by everyone.

When should you use BCC?

BCC has more solid uses. Here are the most common two:

When you don’t want the primary recipient to know.

A good example could be when you’re having problems with an employee. When sending them an email, you can BCC your supervisor or HR in the email so that they get a copy of your correspondence. In this case, the other team members will receive it, but your fellow employee will not see that other parties have been included in the correspondence.

When sending to a large list.

When you are sending an email to a list of family and friends that don’t know each other, for example, put their addresses in the BCC field. The email will look as if it has been specifically sent to them since there won’t be anyone listed as CCed. It also makes for a clean email, since there won’t be a long list of recipients.

Just remember: If you’re sending to your business’ mailing list, make sure you use an email platform like Campaign Monitor so that your emails don’t land in the spam folder, get opened, and look professional.

What now?

Now that you know the functions of these two features, go ahead and improve your email etiquette by putting them into practice. The CC and BCC functions are actually email sending best practices and features you should be using if you send personal emails to more than one recipient.

You should also check out this other helpful content.

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With our powerful yet easy-to-use tools, it’s never been easier to make an impact with email marketing.

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BCC For Email: What it Means and When to Use it

I wrote a guide on using CC in email, including what it is, how to use it, and the proper etiquette for using it. As a follow-up, in this article I’ll do a deep dive on BCC for email, the close cousin of CC.

Frequently mistaken for each other, CC and BCC functions are two entirely different features, and it’s important to understand the differences. So what is BCC in email, how is it different from CC, and when should you use it?

Table of Contents

BCC vs CC

We’ll start with a refresher on CC. CC is the “carbon copy” function found in every standard email platform, including Gmail, and it’s used to send a copy of the email to someone other than the primary recipients in the “To” field.

CC is usually used when you want to bring someone in the loop without expecting a response from them, or when you want to introduce new people.

What Does BCC Mean?

BCC means “blind carbon copy,” and it shares some commonalities with CC. If you include a person’s email address in the BCC field, they’ll receive a copy of the email in their inbox as if they were CC’d.

The difference is, their email address won’t be displayed to the other people on the email chain; and as a result of this, they won’t receive subsequent Reply or Reply All messages from other people in the thread. Note that BCC recipients cannot see each other either. Think of it as a stealth mode CC.

Accessing BCC in Email

If you’re using Gmail, BCC is easy to find. To the right of the “To” line of an email draft, you’ll find options for CC and BCC. Click either one (or both) to bring up new lines, and include email addresses as relevant there before sending your email.

If you’re using Outlook, CC will be available by default, and you’ll have to click BCC (to the right of the To field) to add a line for it.

When to Use BCC Instead of To or CC

The To field is for all your primary recipients; these are the people for whom the message was originally intended, and you’ll likely expect a response from this group.

Improve your team’s email response time by 42.5% With EmailAnalytics

The CC field is for all the people who should see the message, and whose email addresses can and should be seen by the group; it’s also helpful if you want these people to get future Reply All messages to this email thread.

So why would you use BCC instead of either of these fields?

There are a few situations that might call for it:

Inappropriate Uses for BCC

That said, BCC can be misused in a number of ways. If you think about it, the BCC field is inherently dishonest; you’re letting people see a message without other people knowing about it. It’s almost like letting someone listen into a speakerphone call without letting the other person know about it.

Accordingly, there are many examples of misusing the BCC feature:

Ask yourself why you’re trying to hide someone’s information. Is this merely to protect the person you’re BCCing? Or are you trying to get away with something deceitful? Be honest, and try not to use the BCC field for sneaky, fraudulent, or insincere purposes.

Mitigating Risk With BCC

If you absolutely must share a message with someone, you can mitigate the risks you face by including them in the To or CC field by, instead, simply forwarding them a copy of the message later. That way, they can’t accidentally Reply All to the message. It still resides in some ethically ambiguous territory, but it should at least protect you from the potential awkwardness of an errant Reply All.

Overall, BCC isn’t a super great or useful feature, and there are more ways to misuse it than to use it appropriately and productively. If you must use BCC in email, use it with caution, and make sure you’re implementing it with respect to all parties involved.

If you’re interested in learning more about your own email habits, or improving your email productivity, you’ll need more than better etiquette standards to do it. You need a tool like EmailAnalytics, which is designed to help you understand your email patterns, including the number of emails you send per day, your average response times, and the average length of your email threads. Sign up for a free trial today, and start learning how you can improve!

3 tips for using CC and BCC in an email

Ensuring email compliance in 2020 can be a tricky process, as can achieving email security during transit, unless you use a system like Zoho Mail. Ten years ago, when email was essentially the only form of electronic communication available, tools like CC and BCC fields made sense to use it to disseminate basic information. Today, the best email systems—like Zoho Mail—will give you much more effective ways of keeping your team up to date.

In this article, we’ll give you a quick overview of the differences between these fields, along with a set of guidelines on how to use them effectively: when, where, and how to use the CC and BCC fields.

1. CC vs. BCC in emails – What are they?

In order to use the CC and BCC fields effectively, it’s worth remembering the basics of how these fields work. Though the terminology used by email systems is now confusingly outdated (with CC standing for “Carbon Copy” and BCC for “Blind Carbon Copy”), both of these fields work in a fairly straightforward way.

If you enter an email address into the CC field, that account will receive a copy of your email. They will also see all of the other recipients in both the address field and the CC field and will be able to see that they are in the CC field. BCC works slightly differently. Recipients in the BCC field will still receive a copy of the email, but they won’t be visible to anyone else. They will also not receive replies to that email thread unless their address is re-entered in the BCC field or moved to the CC field.

2. CC and BCC in email – Best practices

The way in which CC and BCC fields work is simple, but unfortunately, many people have fallen into bad habits when it comes to using them. So let’s take a look at the basic rules of using them effectively.

Don’t Use CC for FYI emails

Perhaps one of the mistakes that people make when using the CC field is to use this to share important information with other colleagues. There are a few ways of avoiding this. Of course, you can always reach out to colleagues directly using the TO field and include a short explanation of why you are sending them this information. Alternatively, put the information you would like to share into a message designed for general consumption—either through a Streams post or by sharing the email conversation with your colleagues—where you can give the necessary context to help people understand it.

Expanding the Conversation with email CC

The best way to use the CC field is to expand an email conversation to colleagues who can make a genuine contribution to it. However, if you are not the originator of an email thread, you should ask permission before adding new recipients, because the number of people in the email exchange can quickly become unmanageable if you don’t. Adding new recipients without first asking can also lead to accidentally leaking private or proprietary information.

While it might seem like an email with the whole team in the CC field would be the best way to do this, it’s not. A better approach is to designate one team member who can collect important information into a single email update.

Be Wary of BCC in your emails

When it comes to using the BCC field, there is a simple rule to follow: use it carefully. You should always ensure that you use your email system in a way that protects the privacy of your recipients, and BCC is a helpful tool in that regard.

Another issue to be aware of when using the BCC field is accidentally breaking the privacy laws that apply in your region. Most data privacy laws now in place—from Europe’s GDPR to the CCPA in California or the PIPEDA in Canada or the HIPAA —contain explicit provisions on how you can store and share personal contact information such as email addresses. Using the BCC field can be interpreted as sharing this information without the consent of the main recipient, and could lead to you being fined in countries with strict censorship laws.

Using Email Respectfully

Finally, a rule that applies to the use of email more generally, and not just the CC and BCC fields: be respectful. Primarily, this means not sending emails unless necessary, and sending them at times that doesn’t cause unnecessary stress. If you can have a quick chat with a colleague instead of writing an email, do so. If your clever idea can wait until the morning, don’t put it in an email “as a reminder, ” just schedule the email to be sent later.

3. Write Better Emails

Ultimately, all of the tips above can be reduced to a simple principle: spend the time necessary to write quality emails and your team communication will be improved.

There are many more features that Zoho Mail has to help you get the best out of your email system. Stay tuned to our blogs and Zoho Mail YouTube channel for the latest feature updates, tips, tricks, and more.

CTO of Hosting Canada, a website that provides expert reviews on hosting services and helps readers build online businesses and blogs. Gary is also a full-time blockchain geek, a front end developer, and a volunteer working for the Ethereum Foundation as well as an active Github contributor.

What Does CC Mean in Email and How to Use it?

The email technology as we know it today is very old and has stayed nearly unchanged over the years. Some of the terms associated with email that are still in use today are borrowed from the days when communication was still done using paper. I am sure that you have noticed the CC: and BCC: fields when composing an email. Have you ever wondered what the CC and BCC fields mean?

What does CC and BCC mean in Email?

The CC field in an email stands for Carbon Copy, while the BCC field stands for Blind Carbon Copy. If these terms don’t make any sense with respect to an email, don’t worry. In this article, we’ll explain the context, why you need CC and BCC in email and when to use these fields.

You see, back in the old days when most communication was done on paper. If you had to create a physical copy of a letter, you had to insert something known as a carbon paper between two sheets of paper. Here’s what that would look like.

[Holger.Ellgaard / CC BY-SA]

With this arrangement, anything that you wrote or typed on the top sheet of paper would get imprinted through the carbon paper onto the button sheet of paper. The bottom sheet of the paper would then be known as the “Carbon Copy” of the original.

As the communication slowly changed from paper over to email over the years, there was a need to send a “carbon copy” of an email to someone. That’s how the CC field was born.

What does CC mean in Email?

In effect, the CC field in an email allows the sender to send a “carbon copy” of the email to someone apart from the recipient in the To: field of the email. The CC field in email lets you keep recipients in the loop.

For example, let’s say you are sending an email to a prospective client with the project quote. You want to send a copy of your email to your manager, so that he is kept in the loop. In this case, you will enter the prospective client’s email address in the To: field and your manager’s email address in the CC: field.

What does BCC mean?

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. Just like how CC works in an email, BCC is used to send a carbon copy of the email to someone. However, unlike CC, there is a major difference in the way BCC works.

When you CC an email to someone, the recipients in both the To field and the CC field are able to see the email addresses of each other. In the above example, the prospective client can see that your manager has been CC’d in the email. To avoid this, i.e. if you want to keep the carbon copy recipients private, you need to use the BCC field.

All email addresses that are mentioned in the BCC field are kept hidden, so recipients in the TO and CC field are unable to see them.

When should you use CC in email?

From a technical point of view, the CC field works exactly like the TO field in email. That is, it makes no difference whether you include an email address in the TO field or in the CC field — the email is delivered to the recipients and each of them can view the other’s email address. So why do you need the CC field?

It really just boils down to email etiquette. When composing the email, the TO field is for those recipients who the email is directly intended for. On the other hand, the CC field is for those recipients who are receiving the email as a courtesy or so that they are kept in the loop.

Generally speaking, if you receive an email where you’re mentioned in the CC field, no action is expected from you.

When should you use BCC in email?

The BCC field is very unlike the CC field, and actually has a bunch of use cases. As the email addresses mentioned in the BCC field stay private and hidden, here are some examples where you can use BCC to your own advantage.

What are the problems with using CC in Email?

The CC field allows you to send a copy of the email with any recipient of your choice. In most cases, the CC field is used to keep someone in the loop, or to share the same email with them. Unfortunately, this creates a literal copy of the same email in the recipient’s inbox. Imagine the state of your manager’s inbox if you were to CC him onto every outgoing email that you send. This is a quick-fire way to clutter your inbox.

Not just that, CC’d emails also take up unnecessary storage space in the email account. If the email has attachments, copies of those attachments are created and delivered to every recipient mentioned in the TO and CC fields. Imagine how much storage space is wasted this way.

Lastly, if you use an email service that charges per email sent (such as Amazon’s SES), you are wasting a credit for every recipient mentioned in the CC field. So what are the alternatives to CC in email?

What are the Alternatives to CC in Email?

A great way to avoid the clutter that is generated by using CC within your team is to switch to Spark for Teams. Spark is an incredible email client that allows you to share an email with your teammates without creating an additional copy. You can then discuss this email with private comments, so thus avoiding the additional clutter of follow-up emails.

Download Spark for free and switch to a better email experience for you and your team.

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