Everyday e-mail habits for a business: To, Cc and Bcc, reply all, subjects and attachments

E-mail·· 3 views· 3 min read

The short answer: most e-mail trouble in a business is not technical. It is a customer put in Cc with everyone else’s address, a “reply all” that should never have happened, a heavy attachment that never arrives, or a request to change bank details that someone believed. A few simple habits prevent nearly all of it.

To, Cc and Bcc: which to use

Field For whom Watch out
To Whoever has to act or reply. With many people in To, nobody feels responsible. Put there only those who have something to do.
Cc Whoever should know, but does not have to reply. Everyone sees everyone else’s address.
Bcc (blind copy) Several people who do not know each other, for example different customers. Each one receives it without seeing the others. To write to many people at once, use a proper tool: e-mail marketing.
Reply all When everyone in the conversation needs the answer. Check the list before you press it. Someone who was in Bcc and replies to all reveals they were there.

The habits that save the most trouble

1 A subject that says what it is (“Quote for the warehouse job”, not “Hello”), and a new subject when the topic changes. It is easier to find later.
2 Before forwarding a conversation, read what is underneath: the history may hold internal notes, prices or comments the recipient should not see.
3 Large files go as a link, not an attachment: attachment too large. And check that you attached what you say you attached.
4 Reply from the address you received on: if the customer wrote to sales@, the reply goes out from sales@: a shared address for a team.
5 Check the recipient before sending. Autocomplete easily swaps two similar names, and a sent e-mail does not come back.
6 Never send passwords by e-mail. And a request to change the bank account for a payment is always confirmed by phone, on a number you already had, never by replying to the e-mail itself: how to recognise a phishing e-mail.
7 A short signature, the same for the whole team: adding a signature to your e-mails.
The e-mail asking you to pay into a new account is one of the costliest frauds for a small business. The address may look right, or even be the supplier’s real one with a hacked mailbox. Confirm through another channel before paying, however urgent the message sounds.
Do not rely on read receipts. Many programs never send them and others ask first: read receipts and tracking pixels.

Want help getting the team’s addresses and signature in order? Tell us which addresses the company uses.

Open a support ticket

SEE ALSO

A shared address for a team: one shared mailbox, a forwarder or a mailing list

Attachment too large: why the message bounces and how to send big files

Adding a signature to your e-mails: webmail, computer and phone

How to recognise a phishing e-mail or message, and what to do if you clicked

Read receipts and tracking pixels in e-mail: what they tell you and what they do not

How to write an e-mail that does not land in spam: behaviour, recipients and limits

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