PR Play

This is not a groundbreaking technique, but it will make your e-mailed press releases and other communications look more professional. Sometimes the simplest techniques are the most important …

While most professionals realize that you can send out an email to multiple people without showing every recipient’s email address to everyone receiving the email, I’m guessing (from the emails that I receive anyway) that some people don’t think about the practice.  Unless there’s a reason to share every recipient email with every recipient, it looks more professional to hide all the emails.  Simply paste all the email addresses in to the “BCC” line instead of the “To” line; send the info to yourself in the “To” line.

I get emails at least once a week where every recipients’ email address is in the “To” header.  Not only can it make that header ridiculously big (emails going out to 20 or more people for example), but you shouldn’t be sharing everyone’s email address with everyone else, especially if the information is sensitive or of a competitive nature. 

For example, I got an email last week from a contact at an association to which my client belongs.  That email included every email address in the “TO” list, telling me exactly which of my client’s competitors were vying for the same opportunity as I was – no secrets there.

Use “BCC” when sending emails out to more than five people.  It looks cleaner and more professional and keeps your address book private.