BCC
BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. It is a field in an email message that allows you to send a copy of the email to one or more recipients without those addresses being visible to anyone else on the email.
When you add an address to the BCC field, that recipient receives the same message as the primary To and CC recipients, but their address is hidden from everyone else. They also cannot see the addresses of other BCC recipients. This is in contrast to CC (Carbon Copy), where all recipients can see who else has been copied in.
BCC has legitimate uses: sending a mass notification without exposing the full recipient list, keeping a record copy in another system, or including a manager on a sensitive communication without making that visible to the main recipient. In a professional context, it is also worth being aware of the etiquette: BCC-ing someone on a message to a colleague, for example, can be seen as covert if discovered.
In bulk email marketing, BCC is not the mechanism used to send to multiple recipients. That is handled by your email platform’s list management and sending infrastructure. BCC is primarily relevant in direct, one-to-one or small-group email communication, and in scenarios where protecting the privacy of a recipient list is important, such as sending a notification to a group of people who may not know each other.
What is the difference between CC and BCC?
CC (Carbon Copy) sends a copy of the email to additional recipients and makes their addresses visible to everyone else on the email, including the primary To recipients and other CC recipients. BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) also sends a copy to additional recipients, but their addresses are hidden from everyone else. Use CC when transparency about who is included is appropriate; use BCC when you want to copy someone privately or protect the privacy of a recipient list.
Is it bad practice to BCC in email marketing?
In bulk email marketing, BCC is not used for list sends; that is handled by your email service provider’s sending infrastructure. In direct email, BCCing is generally acceptable when there is a clear reason, such as keeping a record copy or including someone for awareness without making that visible. Where BCC becomes ethically questionable is when it is used to secretly monitor a conversation or to share a communication with someone in a way the primary recipient would find inappropriate if they knew.
Can BCC recipients reply to all?
No. BCC recipients receive a copy of the message but are not included in any subsequent reply-all chains. If a BCC recipient replies, their reply goes only to the sender unless they manually add other recipients. The primary recipients are not notified that a BCC was included, so there is no way for them to include BCC recipients in their responses.