Difference Between CC and BCC

Now a day, there are so many medium of communication. But In olden times it was not easy to talk to people sitting far away from you. There was no phone, no internet, no video calls etc. Science and technology have made these things is really easy. That was the time of sending and receiving handwritten letters via post.

The invention of the internet has made the communication a lot easier.

Email plays a vital role more often in the professional world. Via email, school/ university notify the students, organization share information with their employees, companies pinch to their customers for increasing sells and so on. In today’s time, email is the most important element of marketing.

Companies use email to run campaigns, for survey, collecting data with customers, notify their consumers about exciting offers, brand promotion, asking for feedback and suggestions, promote their products and services etc. So we can say that email marketing is really powerful marketing platform.

If email is such a powerful tool, then everyone should know some basic features of email. That will help you to save your time and energy.

Electronic mail was invented by RayTomlinson in 1971. By the passing of time, there have done so many changes in the email. It has ungraded time to time and adding new features.

An organization has to send the New Year wishes to its employees and staff members. If they write email personally for every employee, then it will take so much time and efforts. For avoiding this, CC and BCC come into the picture. That’s sure you have noticed these CC and BCC options while composing an email.

CC and BCC Explained:-

CC and BCC are the functions of email. You have noticed these functions in email. Both of these are used to send email to the person you wish to message.

When you compose a new message in your inbox, you will find these two options CC and BCC below the ‘To'option. These all three options; To, CC and BCC are used to add email address/ addresses. All these three options can be use to send the same email with multiple contacts. But if you’re sending email to multiple contacts, you should prefer CC or BCC.

What is CC?

CC is the abbreviation of Carbon Copy.

When photocopies do not exist, we used a carbon paper. By placing carbon paper between the original paper and a blank paper, carbon paper used to shift the content onto the blank paper.

Similarly CC in the emailing works. Like carbon copy produced two or more copies of the same content, so using the CC protocol, it also produces the copies of same email.

CC is used for emailing individual or several contacts. It is used by professionals.

How CC works in professional world?

In a company, there is a director, manager and employees. All the employees work under the manager and the director supervises the manager. If the manager want share some information about the new sales targets via email with all the employees. Then the manager write all the email addresses in the “To” section.

Now, suppose if manager also want to send a copy of the mail with the director, then manager can’t put the director name in the “To” section. The manager writes the email address of director in CC section.

And all the employees or the recipient will know that the copy of this email also share with the director.

When should we use CC?

Often, most of is getting confused about when we should use CC. Insanely use of CC can affect someone’s privacy and also spam mails harm your data. There are some following reasons when you should use CC field:

If the sender wants to share some information with multiple contacts and also send the same information as a copy with specific person, then CC can be used.

If the person who is composing email, use CC in the mail, then all other recipients will know about the CC.

According to the emailetiquette, to section is for those recipients for whom email is directly deliberate for. So here we use CC field for those who receive the mail as a courtesy. That’s why some people also called CC is the abbreviation form of CourtesyCopy.

When the person who is composing email is absolutely fine to show the name of CC recipient with the all other recipient, then CC can be use. Because the address of CC recipient is visible to all.

Features of CC:-

Some specific features of CC section are given below:

• CC is the secondary contact or contacts .It comes after the To section.
• By simply putting CC field in your email you can send copies of email to multiple email addresses.
• This feature of emailing allows you to share the copy with any recipient of your choice.
• Oftentimes, the CC is used to keep recipient in the loop. This will save your time.

Uses of CC:-

• Use CC when you don’t need any further response from that person.
• CC section is used to compose corporate emails.
• Use CC maturely, if someone don’t reply your email so don’ task for CC recipient.
• Use CC to manage projects or staff in your own company.

What is BCC?

What if the sender doesn’t want to show the name or address of the person who is receiving copy? The BCC come into the picture.

BCC is the abbreviation form of Blind Carbon Copy.The BCC feature in the emailing is an enhanced or updated version of CC. Still BCC has its own function and use for specific purposes.

Special Features of BCC

Some special functions of BCC are given below:

• BCC has all benefits like CC but with a different manner. BCC send copy mail as a courtesy but with the respect of someone’s privacy.
• BCC provides the privacy of every recipient because they can’t see the each other’s mail address.
• BCC does not reveal the respective email address/ addresses of the person to whom the mail copy has been sent.
• The recipient of all others can’t know about the BCC address that’s why it is called as blind carbon copy.
• BCC field is the safest option. It keeps the address of special recipient (email address of BCC) confidential.

When you should use BCC field:-

BCC field exists below the CC field. But no one should use BCC prematurely. Before using BCC, everyone must know when to use this section. Here are the reasons why we should prefer BCC field

If you are writing an email for another company then according to email etiquette, you should always prefer BCC field.

For macro projects every organisation should use BCC.

When it comes to privacy of someone to whom you are sending copy of email, always go with the BCC section.

Uses of BCC field:-

Let’s see some examples, where BCC field have used:

• BCC is used to send the newsletter, marketing emails, corporate emails and other unsolicited emails.
• Whole emailing use BCC for someone who want to maintain privacy in front of other recipient.
• BCC section in the emailing has used in the professional world. And correct use of BCC is the sign of professionalism.
• Use BCC whenever composed emails to someone who is from different company. Don’t use it within your own company.
• BCC is used in large enterprises for sharing informational data, newsletters etc.

Key differences between CC and BCC:-

What is the difference between CC and BCC? It is the most common question of interview that has asked to the candidate.

There is no doubt that the use of CC and BCC are almost similar. Although both of these have used when you are composing email for multiple contacts, yet there are differences between CC and BCC. Here are some key differences between these two:

BCC and CC both are used to send copy of the email. But CC function notifies all other recipients about CC recipient. On the other hand, BCC function doesn’t notify the other about BCC’s address.

The name of CC’s is visible to others, so it can harm recipient’s privacy. Sometimes CC’s address can be used for spamming purposes. For overcome such problems, BCC is the safest option. It respects the CC’s recipient privacy.

All the addresses mention in “To” section are the primary contacts.

The addresses of CC field are the secondarycontactwhile the recipients who have mentioned in BCC’s section are the tertiarycontacts.

All these are the major differences between CC and BCC.

For understand it with more clarity, let’s understand with the help of comparison table:

Basis of Comparison	CC	BCC
Expended Form	The expended form of CC is Carbon Copy.	Expansion of BCC is Blind Carbon Copy.
Main Motive	The motive behind CC is basically to send the copy mail for courtesy.	The motive behind BCC is also same but it has some upgraded feature.
Purpose	The CC’s recipient visible to others.	The other recipient can’t see the BCC’s recipient address. It is helpful to prevent the privacy.
Type of Contact	CC recipients are secondary type of contact.	BCC’s are the tertiary contacts.
Security	The CC recipient/s is visible to others. So the privacy can’t be secure.	In terms of maintain privacy, BCC section is the safest option. So this field is more secured.
Uses	If you are composing corporate email in your own company, then send copy via CC field.	If you are emailing with other companies, then professionally you should use BCC section.

Conclusion:-

Both CC and BCC have their own dos and don’ts. Both of these are important tool of emailing in the professionalism. So use these fields with maturity.