The time and date the message was produced locally are displayed in this field

Email is the online communication of computer-stored messages between a sender and one or more recipients. Emails are a convenient, affordable, and quick method of communicating for both personal and professional purposes. As long as a user has an internet connection—which is usually offered by an internet service provider—they can send emails from anywhere.

Email can be shared between public and private networks, like a local area network, although it is mainly shared over computer networks, the internet included. Emails can be sent to specific recipients or to lists of recipients. A reflector for emails can be used to manage a common distribution list. Users can subscribe to some mailing lists by contacting the mailing list administrator with a request. A list server is a mailing list that is managed automatically.

Built on fundamental protocols, such as Post Office Protocol 3 for receiving mail and Simple Mail Transfer Protocol for sending mail, the suite of protocols offers a versatile email system. As an alternative, you can get mail using the Internet Message Access Protocol, which allows you to access email from any location and on any device. When using POP3, the email message is saved on the device making the request after being downloaded from the email server. Only that device can view the message.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange is the standard format used to encode email messages. Nevertheless, users are also able to attach non-text files as file attachments, such as sound and graphic images. One of the earliest things done online was email, which is currently the most widely used application. Email accounts for a significant portion of all internet traffic.
The main components of an email message

Software that moves emails between a sender's and a recipient's computer is called a mail message transfer agent. Since every email address must be unique, no two addresses can be the same.

An email message usually has two primary parts: the body and the header.

Header
Every email message has a header that is divided up into different fields. Crucial details about the sender and the recipient(s) are contained in these areas. However, depending on the email system being used, the email header's content differs.

An email header typically includes the following data:
Subject. This appears on a separate line above the message body and summarizes the subject of the message. A subject line might read "Employee Stock Purchase Plan" or "Company mission statement," for instance.

Sender (From). The email address of the sender is entered here. If a display name is connected to the email address, it may also be displayed in its place. The majority of email clients automatically complete this form.The email address of the sender is entered here. If a display name is connected to the email address, it may also be displayed in its place. The majority of email clients automatically complete this form.

Date and time received (On).The time and date the message was produced locally are displayed in this field. The majority of email clients automatically fill this required header information.
Reply-to. Clicking the Reply button causes this box to automatically fill in the message with the email address of the sender, who is now the "recipient."

Recipient (To). The sender-configured first and last name of the email recipient are displayed in this field.
Recipient email address. The recipient's email address, or the address from which the message was sent, is this.

Carbon copy (CC). The email addresses of those who require the email but are not anticipated to respond are listed in the carbon copy box. A reply is sent to all of the CC addresses when someone hits Reply All.

Blind carbon copy (BCC). Senders can insert those addresses in the BCC section if they don't want the recipient to know who else got the email. When someone clicks Reply All, responses are not sent to the addresses in the BCC list.
Attachments. Any files that are connected to the message are contained in this area.

Body
This is what the email is about. Anything the user wants to transmit can be included, such as text, movies, or file attachments. The email body type can be either plain text or HTML, depending on the email client being used. HTML emails allow for customized styling and the incorporation of multimedia options within the message body, something that plain text messages cannot do. Signatures and automatically generated text inserted by the sender's email system may also be included in the message body.

Uses of email
The following are the most common use cases for email:
Individual or group communications.Email is a useful tool for communicating with friends, coworkers, or individuals in smaller groups. Sending and receiving documents, photos, links, and other information is made simple for users by it. Additionally, it allows users to communicate with people whenever it's convenient for them.

Notifications, reminders and follow-ups. IAfter appointments, meetings, or interviews, individuals, small groups, or organizations can send follow-up emails to remind participants of upcoming events, deadlines, and time-sensitive tasks. Most email clients come with calendars that allow you to enter events and appointments. By displaying the set amount of time each day, these features assist users in managing their time more effectively. Users are able to prioritize their time and decisions as a result.

Conveying information to a large group of people. Companies can use email to convey information to a large number of employees, customers and potential customers. Email is frequently used for newsletters, where mailing list subscribers are sent specific, promoted content from a company and direct email marketing campaigns, where an advertisement or promotion is sent to a targeted group of customers.

Turning leads into paying customers.Another way to turn a possible transaction into a completed buy is through email. An automated email could be designed by a business to be delivered, for instance, to online shoppers who leave things in their shopping carts for a predetermined period of time. The email could serve as a reminder to the customer that they have things in their cart and a prompt to finish the transaction before the stock runs out.
Reviews and surveys.After making a purchase, follow-up emails may include a survey asking the recipient to rate the level of service or the most recent product they got.

Types of B2B emails
Businesses that want to let others exchange products, services, or information with their organization employ business-to-business email marketing. Rather than appealing to customers' emotions to persuade them to buy a product, it focuses on communicating the rationale and reasoning behind a particular purchasing choice in connection to a business's specific goals. This is how it varies from business-to-consumer email marketing. Various forms of business-to-business emails consist of the following:

Welcome emails - are delivered to potential customers who have signed up for a business's opt-in offerings, like a mailing list, blog, or webinar. They frequently include extra information that would be beneficial to a new subscriber. A sequence of welcome emails can assist the company build rapport with the customer and increase subscription retention

Promotional emails - Give customers a discount of some kind, whether a percentage off the purchase price, a complimentary month of service, or a reduction in or removal of fees for managed services. The most typical kind of B2B email is this one.

Lead-nurturing emails - are employed in an effort to convert every possible transaction into a completed purchase by educating prospective customers about the products and services that are offered. Since lead-nurturing emails are started by a potential customer completing an initial action, like downloading a free sample or clicking links in a promotional email, they are also referred to as trigger campaigns. Emails that nurture leads should be brief and targeted. To target the content and maintain contact with the prospective customer over time, they should make advantage of the behavioral data that has been collected about the lead.

Newsletter emails - are regularly distributed on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to all subscribers of mailing lists. They include specific content that has been released recently by the company. These emails give companies the chance to send their customers vital information from a single source. Newsletters may include invites to events, company blog entries, content offers, and headlines or snippets of industry-related news with links to the full articles.

Onboarding emails - sometimes referred to as post-sale emails, are frequently employed to increase client loyalty. These emails can be used to instruct customers on how to use recently purchased products or to acquaint them with the services offered. A lot of the time, these emails provide management and usage tips for the new goods and services. When it comes to large-scale service deployments, onboarding emails can make user adoption easier for clients.

Origin of email
Mailbox, a program created by MIT scientists, allowed messages to be sent and received between time-sharing machines in the same lab. A developer at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (now Raytheon BBN Technologies), Raymond Samuel Tomlinson built the first email software on the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET), the forerunner of the internet, in 1971. For the PDP-10 computer, Tomlinson created a messaging program that was composed of two separate programs: READMAIL for mail retrieval and SNDMSG for mail sending.