Email Essentials: Differentiate Between To, Cc, and Bcc Fields

More than 120 billion work emails are sent every day.

Whether you're sending an email for work or personal reasons, using the recipient fields correctly can help you be an effective communicator.

• The To field is intended for the main recipient(s) of your email.

• These are people you expect to receive a reply from.

• Email addresses listed in the To field are visible to everyone included in the email.

Use the Cc field when you want to involve someone in the conversation but they're not the primary recipients of the email.

Cc is useful when:

• You want someone to be aware of the conversation.

• You want the main recipients of the email to know the other people who have been sent the message.

Use the Bcc field when you want to privately inform someone of an email. The email address included in the Bcc field is hidden from the other recipients of the email.

Bcc is useful when:

• You want someone to receive an email but you don't want the main recipients of the email to know.

• You want to send a copy of an email to a large number of people.

• You want to maintain the privacy of the person included in the Bcc field.

Consider this situation.

You received a customer complaint via email.

• You respond, putting the customer's email in the "To" field as they are the main recipient.

• If you want your boss to see the email, you would put their email in the Cc field.

• If you want your boss to see the email without the customer knowing, you would put your boss's email in the Bcc field.

When sending emails, take a moment to consider whether using Cc or Bcc is helpful or necessary.

Remember:

• To: you expect a response to the email

• Cc: you want to keep someone aware of the email

• Bcc: you want to keep someone hidden from other recipients