Most people who send out emails don't have a clear understanding of the differences that exist between CC and BCC. If you can understand what they are, you can get the maximum use out of the available features at the time of sending out emails. In this post we will cover what is cc and bcc in email and how you can use them.

What is CC in email?

CC stands for Carbon Copy. The email addresses that you include under the "To" section would be the primary recipients of the email. You can include all secondary recipients of the email under the "CC" section. The recipients under CC will be able to get the same email. However, the email will not be directly addressed to them. In other words, people who are in CC will act as observers of the email thread. All the people tagged in the mail can see which recipients are in the "CC" section.

What is BCC in email?

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. It is pretty much similar to an additional copy of the email that you are sending out. However, no person tagged in the email can see who was included in the "BCC" section of the email. The people who are tagged under "BCC" will be able to see all the primary recipients and secondary recipients of the email. In most instances, we can see how BCC is being used at the time of sending out mass email marketing campaigns.

Understanding SMTP

SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This protocol is dedicatedly designed for the transmission of emails. Every email that you send out will be an activity within an SMTP session. It would include the exchange of commands between the SMTP clients and sender, as well as the commands transferred between SMTP server and receiver. All these commands are standardized.

How to get the maximum out of BCC

Even though the BCC feature is available for all emails we sent out, we often don't tend to get the maximum use out of it. You can use the BCC feature when you are sending out notifications for the users. For example, if you want to send a mass notification to your team, you can add all their email addresses to the BCC section.

It is even possible for you to use the BCC section to monitor the latest real-time copies of the emails that contain correct variables. To do this, the developers will be able to include one of their emails in the BCC section, so that BCC mail will be sent at each time when a mail is fired.

The most popular application of BCC is at the time of sending out mass emails. When you are running a mass email marketing campaign, you would not want to disclose all the recipients. This is where you can think about using the BCC section. However, this method is not usually recommended, especially for email marketing campaigns.

How can you test BCC in emails?

Now you know the answers to the question, "what is BCC in an email". Before you start using this feature, you will need to implement and do extensive testing. This testing will help you to confirm whether the BCC feature is working or not. For example, you should add some test recipients under the BCC section and check whether the emails that you send out are getting filtered by spam filters. On the other hand, you can also test whether the BCC email is displayed to the recipients according to the way you expect it to display. After this testing, you can go ahead and get the most out of BCC in emails.