If you lined up all the emails you write each month end to end, you could probably connect the Earth to the Moon (or almost). And yet, a mystery remains in this vast digital universe... The "Cc" and "Bcc" recipient fields in email.
Using these two fields correctly can make all the difference in your communications, especially when it comes to confidentiality. Today, we'll explain what the Cc and Bcc fields in an email are exactly, and how to use them properly.
Message received loud and clear, Houston?
The Cc and Bcc fields are distinguished primarily by the visibility and confidentiality of email addresses:
In other words: where the Cc field emphasizes transparency, the BCC function preserves confidentiality. Their use therefore varies depending on the nature and purpose of the message, but also on the level of involvement of different recipients.
Imagine you're an astronaut: for a radio message to be delivered effectively to the ground station, you need to orient your signal correctly and address the right people.
It's kind of the same with Cc and BCC fields: they allow you to filter your recipients, clarify who's concerned (to different degrees), and thus organize your communications as effectively as possible.
Thus:
Proper use of these fields helps avoid misunderstandings, for a successful communication mission!
Commonly used in professional exchanges, the Cc field allows you to communicate information to different recipients while being transparent about the people concerned. It promotes clarity and coordination within teams.
To Keep Management InformedWhen exchanging emails with colleagues, for example about a project or task, professional etiquette dictates that hierarchical superiors (project managers, managers, executives, etc.) be kept informed.
They need to be able to follow the work's progress and see who's involved so they can intervene if necessary.
Using the Cc field keeps management "in the loop" without requiring a response or action on their part.
By the way, for truly professional communications, also check out our professional email writing tips.
To Clarify Who's InvolvedThe Cc field, which displays all recipients, gives all correspondents visibility into the people concerned by the email.
A quick and direct way to present the different stakeholders in a collective project, while favoring transparency, which is essential in business. Team members can, for example, immediately find their colleagues' emails or contact information.
Additionally, adding the concerned people allows you to know who received the information communicated, and thus more easily keep track of it.
To Facilitate Cross-Functional CommunicationsIn a company, inter-departmental exchanges often represent a challenge. They involve several teams that don't necessarily communicate with each other regularly. A bit like trying to transmit critical data from one end of the space station to the other...
The Cc field allows information to circulate quickly without multiplying discussion threads. Everyone can immediately see which department or division of the organization is involved in the exchange, which promotes smooth and well-coordinated communications within the company.
And for inter-departmental communications as transparent as your space shuttle's windshield, think about the professional email signature.
The BCC field is mainly used for mass mailings, for example as part of a marketing strategy. It allows you to reach a more or less extensive audience while preserving recipients' anonymity.
For Group Emails to a Large AudienceIn an email sent to a large number of people, for example during an email campaign or newsletter, displaying all email addresses can cause several problems: security and confidentiality, unsolicited responses, visual overload in the email header, etc.
Generally speaking, the BCC function helps avoid setbacks and reduce various risks associated with displaying email addresses in the BCC. In other words, it helps you communicate smoothly and securely with an extensive mailing list.
To Protect Confidentiality and SecurityThe main advantage of the BCC field is preserving recipients' security and confidentiality. By masking email addresses, this field minimizes the risks of personal information theft, phishing, or spam. It also protects correspondents' anonymity, particularly in the context of sensitive communications.
Now, data protection is a strategic and legal issue for any company. By using BCC, an organization demonstrates its commitment to respecting its users' data, which strengthens its trust capital, but also to complying with current regulations such as GDPR. A commitment that's also reflected in its choice of email provider and the latter's security level.
In short, the BCC field is a reflex as vital as properly closing your spacesuit before venturing outside the space station!
For Emails That Don't Require a ResponseThe BCC field is particularly suitable for emails for which a response isn't expected from recipients. It's thus used, for example, for top-down communications and impersonal emails like newsletters, institutional messages, and broad information campaigns.
The BCC function helps avoid unnecessary reply chains from recipients, which could create confusion, overload inboxes, and muddle communications. Thanks to this one-way communication mode, the sender keeps control over the discussion thread.
They may seem insignificant, yet the Cc and BCC fields are essential for solid, effective, and secure professional communications. Here are our best tips for relevant use of these recipient fields.
Psst... Are you looking for inspiration for your correspondence content instead? Get inspired by our professional email examples.
Avoid the BCC Field for Sensitive ExchangesDue to its very function of masking email addresses, the BCC field must be used judiciously. It indeed involves strategic and legal issues that absolutely must not be neglected.
Also, it's better to avoid using it in sensitive correspondence. We're thinking particularly of confidential exchanges, for example related to a dispute or of a legal nature: adding a recipient in BCC to correspondence containing confidential data can put you in a delicate position, or even constitute a legal violation.
Generally speaking, improper use of the BCC field can give your correspondents the impression of a lack of transparency, which can undermine your credibility and trust capital.
You know what, on the other hand, propels your professional communications like a space shuttle launched toward Pluto? A well-chosen professional email address!
Don't Overuse the Cc FieldYou want your professional communications to be as effective and direct as possible. So, to promote clarity, it's better to use the Cc field sparingly.
Only include in copy the people directly involved in a project. This not only helps avoid email overload in inboxes but also prevents confusion about everyone's responsibilities.
So don't hesitate to "prune" unnecessary email addresses as a project progresses, which will ensure clear and smooth communications where everyone knows what they need to do.
Explain an Addition in CopyOn large-scale projects, it sometimes happens that we add a colleague to the loop while forgetting to explain why. This kind of small error can create confusion about everyone's responsibilities or the project's progress.
When you add someone in copy and it seems necessary or relevant to you, remember to specify the reasons for the addition. This simple action reinforces transparency and makes teamwork more effective.
A formulation such as "I'm adding X in copy to keep them informed of our progress" will do just fine!
Moreover, when you add a hierarchical superior in copy, or in the context of a sensitive exchange, briefly explaining the addition of an interlocutor preserves diplomacy. Your correspondents know that the new person's presence is deliberate and doesn't constitute "hidden surveillance."
Check Your Email Before SendingWe can never say it enough: proofreading is essential to good communications! A few seconds of proofreading allow you to correct typos, adjust the tone if needed, and verify proper management of your recipients.
So, before hitting "Send," take a moment to check:
Remove Non-Concerned Recipients When ForwardingWhat's more time-consuming than an onslaught of superfluous emails in the same discussion thread? Especially since adding too many recipients makes your emails more polluting!
To prevent this kind of chain reaction, remember to remove recipients who are no longer concerned by a project or conversation. You thus ensure targeted communications while respecting everyone's time.
Houston, ready to take the controls? Here's how to add a recipient in copy at the speed of light on different email services.
First step to add someone in copy on Microsoft Outlook... well, create your Outlook email account.
Then proceed as follows:
Tip: to display the Cc field by default, go to Options > Fields > Always Show Cc.
Tip: to add multiple addresses, you can simply separate them with a comma or semicolon.
To make your correspondents as invisible as the far side of the Moon, nothing could be simpler! We'll tell you right now how to use the BCC function on Outlook and Gmail.
Tip: to save time, create an email template on Outlook with the BCC field already activated.
Tip: in Gmail, you can copy-paste multiple email addresses into the BCC field by simply separating them with commas or semicolons.
Even the best spaceship pilots can make navigation errors! Here are the mistakes to avoid when using your Cc and BCC fields.
As you've understood: the Cc field displays an email's recipients, the BCC field masks them. Now, in the whirlwind of daily emails, it can happen that we confuse these two fields with very different functions, which can have unpleasant consequences: confusion, email disclosure, even disputes...
Before sending your emails into the virtual stratosphere, make sure you've placed your recipients in the right fields.
Certainly, the BCC field proves useful for masking recipient addresses, for example in the context of group mailings. However, you must be careful not to use it for "spying" purposes or in the context of sensitive exchanges, at the risk of creating unfortunate situations.
Inappropriate use of the BCC field can not only discredit you but also pose a real legal problem, particularly regarding data protection.
So always ask yourself whether your use of BCC is professional and appropriate to the exchange's context.
If your readers have flown off to other galaxies, don't try to keep them in your orbit. Keeping them on your mailing lists (in Cc or BCC) could create frustrations, complaints, or even constitute a violation of regulations like GDPR.
To avoid ending up with a blocked server or legal troubles, make sure to remove all unsubscribed people from your mailing lists.
Tip: to reduce the risk of unsubscribes, think about optimizing your communications with engaging tools like animated email signatures!
In the haste to reply to an email, the common mistake is clicking Reply All, which can create congestion in inboxes, pollute more, and hinder your communications.
Before replying to an email, ask yourself the following question: "Who needs to see this email?", then click Reply or Reply All depending on the situation.
A simple oversight when adding recipient addresses can have harmful consequences on your communications. For example, an address inadvertently added in copy in an exchange containing confidential information can compromise your company's security.
To prevent any critical situation, double-check the addresses added in the "To," Cc, and BCC fields.
*****
Cc and BCC field: check. Email: ready to send. Houston, everything's under control. 3-2-1, launching your communications...
And because you plan everything, you've even thought about saving your email to keep a record of your exchanges. What an outstanding astronaut!
Yes, with the 'Campaigns' offer, it is possible to track the number of clicks on the email signatures of all your employees in the 'Statistics' area of the platform.
You can then access a detailed or global view of the number of clicks on the email signatures of each employee. You can use the search option to target a specific signature or a given period. Finally, you have the possibility to export all statistics to an Excel document.
If you launch campaigns with banners inserted in your email signatures, you can also access their performance via this same space.
With Letsignit, you can easily add social network icons in your collaborators' email signatures and link to your company pages. Also, our "attributes" feature allows you to manage personalized URLs for each of your collaborators such as their individual LinkedIn profile.
And that's not all: you can add links to an appointment-setting application, allow your customers to leave reviews easily, and integrate our 'Chat on Teams' widget to let anyone start a discussion via Microsoft Teams chat.
It’s up to you! As an administrator of the Letsignit platform, you choose whether or not to grant modification rights to your employees. These permissions are managed on an attribute-by-attribute basis, which means that you can decide to allow the employee to change their phone number, but not the address of your premises, for example.
This feature applies to all attributes in your directory, including custom attributes created on Letsignit. When your employees change one or more attributes, your directory is obviously not affected.
It often happens that employees make their email signature their own: custom format, bad fonts, colors inconsistent with the brand standards... all of this has an impact on your brand!
A consistent visual identity is considered authentic and outperforms a perceived weak one by 20%. And, your customers are 2.4 times more likely to buy your products.
With Letsignit, take back control over your brand identity by standardizing all your email signatures. Our tool has many features that allow you to customize your signatures by department, by audience or by subsidiary. Not to mention the possibility of carrying out campaigns within your email signatures thanks to our Campaign offer.
What is the user experience like for our employees?
In both cases:
In short, they have autonomy in their email signature, but you keep control on the field, signatures, and banners they can edit or use.
With our "multi-signature" feature, your employees can benefit from multiple email signatures. No technical manipulation is required. Thanks to our Add-in for Outlook or the desktop app, they can change their email signatures as they wish with just a few clicks.
Regarding the creation of email signatures, you can make several variations such as:
Everything has been thought of to go further in the personalization process based on the recipient of your emails.
If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.
As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:
As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.
If sending emails has an impact, non-optimized email signatures also have an impact. An unsuitable format or an image that is too heavy considerably increases the size of your signatures... and therefore, your emails.
As a responsible economic actor, we contribute to reducing our CO2 emissions and those of our customers in several ways:
As we are increasingly involved in sustainability initiatives, our priority in 2023 is to develop even more green IT functionality.
Every email software includes the Cc and BCC recipient fields.
The Cc field, for "carbon copy," allows you to add secondary recipients to an email. These recipients' addresses are visible to all correspondents. It's widely used in professional contexts to promote transparency and efficiency within teams.
The BCC field, for "blind carbon copy," gives the possibility to add recipients whose email address is masked from other correspondents. It's mainly used for impersonal emails with a broad audience.
A Cc recipient, or someone "in copy," is a secondary recipient who needs to be informed of a message but without a response or action required on their part. Their email address is visible to other recipients.
To insert an address in blind copy, simply enter the address in question in the BCC field instead of the "To" or Cc field. This field is generally located at the top of the composition window.
Since the BCC function masks recipients' emails, only the sender can see who's included in this field. Addresses in the BCC are hidden from other recipients, which preserves anonymity and security.
