Reference
How CC and BCC work in outbound email

Pendula supports CC (carbon copy) and BCC (blind carbon copy) recipients in outbound emails, allowing you to include additional recipients for transparency or archiving purposes. This article outlines how CC and BCC function within Pendula, including key considerations and limitations.

How CC and BCC works in Pendula

When configuring an outbound email in Pendula, you can specify CC and BCC recipients alongside the primary recipient (To).

• CC and BCC recipients receive an identical copy of the email sent to the primary recipient.
• The email address(es) of primary and CC recipients are visible to all recipients.
• The email address(es) of BCC recipients are not visible to any recipient.

CC and BCC functionality follows standard email behaviour, ensuring additional recipients receive identical email content while maintaining their intended visibility.

Recipients can be added through merge fields or by typing the email address(es).

• Use string for one or more email addresses in a comma separated format (e.g. email1@example.com, email2@example.com), or for merge fields that resolve to a single email or a CSV string of multiple emails.
• Use field for merge fields that contain an array of email addresses in your payload. (e.g. "emails":["email1@example.com", "email2@example.com"])

Key considerations

BCC for archiving & compliance

BCC is commonly used to retain copies of emails for archiving or compliance purposes. In this case:

• The BCC email is an exact copy of the original message.
• BCC email addresses are not included in the email headers, maintaining confidentiality.
• Some email providers automatically track opens and clicks for BCC emails, which may impact engagement metrics (expanded on further below).

No individualised event tracking for To/CC/BCC recipients

When an email is sent to a single recipient, events like opened, clicked or bounced are generated and can be matched to that recipient, as there is a 1:1 relationship between the recipient and the events.

When CC and BCC recipients are added, additional events are generated, but there is no method to match any of the events back to the recipients, as these events do not contain information about which recipient generated them.

❌ You cannot see which specific recipient (To, CC, or BCC) opened or clicked the email.

❌ A bounce for any recipient (To, CC, or BCC) is recorded as a general bounce and is not tied to a specific recipient.

Example Scenario:

If you send an email to:

• To: alice@example.com
• CC: bob@example.com
• BCC: charlie@example.com

And charlie@example.com bounces, the email will be marked as bounced, and the rejected outcome path (if enabled) will be followed—even if Alice and Bob successfully received the email.

Bounce handling for BCC recipients

If the primary recipient email address bounces, the other recipients will still receive a copy of the email.

If a BCC or CC recipient's email address bounces, email providers may apply bounce handling rules. In Pendula:

• Bounces are not tied to specific recipients—a single bounce can trigger the rejection path, even if other recipients received the email.
• BCC bounces are treated the same as To and CC bounces (i.e., no differentiation in event tracking).
• Some email providers may suspend sending if a BCC address repeatedly bounces.
• To avoid deliverability issues, we recommend monitoring your BCC inboxes and ensuring your BCC addresses are valid.

Best practices for using CC and BCC

To get the most out of CC/BCC functionality, follow these guidelines:

✅ Use CC for visibility: Ideal when a recipient needs to be aware of an email but does not need to act.

✅ Use BCC for archiving: Helps maintain records without exposing email addresses.

✅ Verify and monitor BCC addresses and inboxes: Invalid addresses could affect overall deliverability.

✅ Consider limitations when designing flows: Since CC/BCC events are not separately tracked, avoid using them in scenarios where recipient-level tracking is required.

✅ Avoid excessive CC/BCC recipients: Some email providers limit the number of additional recipients per message.