WHAT IS THE USE OF CC AND BCC IN EMAIL?

The email technology that we use today is older and has stayed unchanged for the last several years. Some things used on emails are borrowed from the days when communication was done on paper.

I am sure you have noticed the CC: and BCC: fields rarely used by some people while composing an email. Have you ever thought about what CC and BCC mean?

What do CC and BCC mean?

If you remember the traditional way of writing done on paper. The person would insert something called carbon paper between two sheets of paper.

With this arrangement, anything written on the top paper would print exactly on the bottom sheet. The bottom sheet of paper was called as " Carbon Copy" of the original one.

The CC field stands for Carbon Copy, while BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. If these terms don't make any sense to you, then we'll explain in the context.

What does CC exactly mean?

The field CC stands for Carbon Copy of the email. It allows sending an email to another person apart from the recipient in the place of a To: in the email.

For example, let's say you are sending an email to a client with the project quotation. You want to send a copy to your senior so that he also has a copy of the quotation. In this case, you will enter the email of the client in the To: field and your senior's email in the CC field.

What does BCC exactly mean?

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. Unlike the CC field, the BCC field works similarly and is used to send carbon copy emails to someone. However, there is a difference between BCC and CC.

Let's see from the above example when you CC an email to your senior and client, both client and senior can see each other's email. To avoid this, i.e. to keep the email private of your senior, you need to put it in the BCC field.

When to use CC in email?

From the technical point of view, there is no big difference between CC and TO fields. In short, whether you send an email by using the CC field or TO field, both can see the email addresses of each other.

When composing an email, the To field is for the recipient to whom the email is intended. On the other hand, the CC field is for those to whom you want to keep in the loop for that email.

Generally, when you receive an email with you’re mentioned in the CC, you are just kept in the loop no need to respond.

When to use BCC?

The BCC field is similar to the CC field and is used actually in some bunch of situations. As the email put in the BCC field is hidden or private, the recipient is unable to see the email address- there are some situation in which BCC can be an advantage to use-

1. When you send an email to a large number of people, and you want to keep the email addresses of each member hidden. Example- When an instructor wants to send an email to his students, but wants to keep the email address private. 
2. When you want to send a quotation to your client, keep your senior or manager in the loop by keeping its email in BCC. 
3. When you want to send the email to someone from your primary account, keep the copy in your secondary account.

Conclusion

Lastly, if your email service charges per email sent, you are wasting your credit for every recipient. Using the CC field and BCC field wisely can help maintain the privacy of your customer, as well as team members.

I hope this blog will be able to clear your doubts regarding CC and BCC in an email. What do you think? Let us know in the comment box below.