Blind Courtesy Copying 101

Respecting the privacy of clients

As a financial advisor you have certain groups of people who receive keys pieces of information from you on a regular basis.  For example, sending out a reminder that account reviews are coming up, or an event invite to all of your prospects. If so, you are more than likely sending the same email to a group of people, all at the same time.

Have you ever stopped to see if the recipients of your email can see everyone else’s email addresses?

It is a great idea to send out emails to your contacts in the most efficient way possible, but it is also unprofessional to share their email addresses with one another. You can easily avoid this mistake by using an email service like MailChimp or Constant Contact which would ensure that each person’s personal information is kept private and protected.

If you choose to not use an email tool, use the blind courtesy copy (“bcc”) function in your email software so that recipients are protected.

Understanding Email Sections

Email is set up in a format defined as multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME). Internet email messages consist of two major sections. One is the header with the from, to, cc, bcc, subject and date fields plus a brief subject line. The other section is the body or text of the email.

Header:

To: this is used for sending communications to one or two people where all people can/need to respond.  This should be used for communications that are private, and information intended only for the person named in the “to” line to see. The to-line will include the email address, optional name, and primary recipients in which you would like to send the message to. You can put multiple names in this section if you wish or need. The to-line is similar to a header address on a letter.

CC: Courtesy copy or carbon copy. This means the listed person is copied on the email but is not the primary recipient. This is for sending information to a different person, but you don’t expect or require them to reply or provide feedback to your message. It is a “courtesy” that you are sending this information out to them. CC also acts as a second witness for information or acknowledgment that you sent the information.

BCC: Blind courtesy copy. This means that the email recipients will not see this email address. This is a good option for when you want other recipients to see the information, but you do not want them to see the email addresses of the primary recipients.

The Body

The other section is the body where basic content or unstructured text and information is written. This is like the body of a regular letter. For more information on what we recommend to be included in the body of an email message see previous articles.

I know that it may sound simple and that most assume that a financial advisor would know how to send an email, but you would be surprised.  So, I thought I would share the proper email etiquette when it comes to addressing an email.

If you need help with something as simple as getting your email lists in order or as complicated as managing multiple email funnels you can check out my Funnels for Financial Advisers Series.