There are three types of recipients on a standard e-mail message: To, CC, and BCC. When sending an e-mail message, only add direct recipients to the To field. That shows the message is directed to those recipients and they alone should act upon it. Recipients in the CC, or Carbon Copy, field are those who should not directly act upon the e-mail but simply be aware of what it contains. You could consider it an "FYI" field for e-mail.
BCC or Blind Carbon Copy, should only be used when sending e-mail to large distribution lists, and the only other recipients listed in this case should* *be* *in the To field. Those recipients will not be able to see each other's e-mail addresses, only the sender's address in both the To and From fields of the message. It is considered unethical to include BCC recipients on a message with other recipients listed in the To and CC fields since they will not be aware this message was sent to others.
Good e-mail is concise and covers only a single subject. Make sure the subject line effectively describes the point of the message. If you need to cover multiple topics, it is best to send multiple e-mails, so the recipients will see multiple subject lines.
Also, if the recipient should take a specific action or provide a response, it is best to prompt them. Use an "If-Then" format, such as, "I am available for a meeting tomorrow at 10:00 and 2:00. If one of those times works for you, please reply with that time and where you would like to meet. If not, please let me know a couple of times that would work for you." That will let the recipient clearly know that he or she must respond to this e-mail with specific information.
Look for more e-mail tips in the weeks ahead.
Russell Feldhausen
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