Accessing contact information on a company website usually isn’t hard; if you’re lucky, someone might even find it in their heart to answer your query. What, however, if you’re looking for a way to introduce yourself to a specific individual or department, like the email address of a hiring manager?
Making these strategic connections and getting your message in front of the right sets of eyeballs is what BookYourData is all about. Though delivering your job application more strategically isn’t this online service’s normal use case, it may assist in your job search just like it helps B2B marketers do their work. While we’re at it, we’ll also investigate some of the features of this suite of cold-email tools.
Every job posting you’re likely to come across is almost certain to attract a tidal wave of resumes. Typically, a hiring manager or other HR decision-maker will rely on their colleagues to weed out those sent by people who wouldn’t make good employees: anyone without the requisite industry experience, applications with less professional cover letters, bios that lack keywords associated with the job title, and so on.
As any recruiter knows, you have only a slim chance of standing out from the crowd and getting the attention of the person who can grant you an interview. One way to raise your profile and get results is to email the hiring manager directly. At the very least, your application landing straight in their inbox shows them that you’re a resourceful, technologically savvy, and detail-orientated candidate worthy of consideration.
Simple guessing remains one way of determining someone’s email. Many companies have a rigid system for assigning addresses involving some combination of each person’s initials and last name. An email permutator can suggest some possibilities, but you may want to narrow your focus with a more precision-focused approach:
Not all job advertisements include the company name; third-party recruiters try to obscure this information so as not to lose out on their commission fees. If you’re fairly research-oriented, though, you can probably cross-reference the terms used in the ad with searches through company websites’ “Careers” sections.
Naturally, this kind of exploration of the company website will probably allow you to extract more information about the job description, but navigating through company staff listings also requires some time and persistence.
Another idea, assuming you can identify the hiring manager’s name, is to investigate various social media accounts for contact details. Executives who are exceptionally networking-driven may post their email addresses online. In practice, though, most are more discreet with their utilization of social media.
You could also see if the person you wish to contact engages in professional forums or groups. To retrieve information from these, you will probably have to create an account.
You can try to discover email addresses using search tools like Google. Unfortunately, these systems aren’t especially context-aware: you’ll have to be very detail-oriented when drafting your search query. Try to use the HR manager’s full name, their specific role, terms like “email” and “phone extension number”, and don’t forget to leverage search operators like “site:[company URL]” and “filetype:pdf”. Unfortunately, Google doesn’t handle symbols like @ very well, so searching for “@[company URL]” in the hope of locating their email addresses doesn’t work.
Unfortunately, even when you employ advanced search techniques on search engines, the results can be disappointing. They will sometimes retrieve contact details from business directories and other sources, but there’s no guarantee that these are up-to-date. There’s also no way to verify the validity of the email address short of sending them a cold email (which may never be answered even if it gets to the right inbox).
Especially if you’re near the company’s location, you may be able to contact mutual acquintances for an introduction. Even if you don’t know anyone who works there, you can see if there’s anyone you can connect with via LinkedIn or other professional networks where you have a profile.
Be aware, though, that someone who leverages connections for referrals has to be respectful of boundaries. In many companies, personal contact details for senior managers are considered confidential. If you’re rebuffed, be empathetic and considerate – there’s no reason to burn any bridges by asking someone to do something they don’t consider ethical.
In many instances, the straightforward approach remains best. As long as you’re polite and culturally sensitive, you’d be amazed at what kind of information receptionists and employees within the HR department are willing to give out.
It helps to be upfront about what you want to know and what you plan to do with that information. If you can provide the person on the other end of the line with a reasonable, clear objective, they’ll be that much more likely to help you out.
Any of the above methods can work, but they each take time and effort…not ideal if you’re applying for dozens of different jobs or indeed trying to get an email marketing campaign off the ground. Wouldn’t it be cool if there were a tool that does all this automatically, i.e. extracts information from online profiles and queries databases for email information? As it turns out, there is: called BookYourData, it doesn’t require a subscription and can, in fact, do a whole lot besides finding an HR manager’s email address.
The key point here is that this product cross-references multiple sources for accuracy. BookYourData, for instance, boasts a consistent 97% hit rate for legitimate, up-to-date email addresses (any that can’t be verified in real-time are free).
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All it takes to utilize email finder tools and services is a press of a button. These websites explore industry publications for contact information, analyze corporate press releases or news for email clues, consult company press materials for relevant contacts, as well as mining sources like social media and professional networks.
This may sound like hacking, but you may rest assured that such companies are legally compliant. Only publicly available information is consulted, after which it is filtered through innovative pattern recognition software. Nonetheless, it’s expected that you use the email addresses you obtain appropriately – there’s already enough spam on the internet!
No matter how outcome-focused your personality might be, you probably realize that simply demanding what you want is no way to get things done. Instead, you should try a friendly, customized approach – sending the same message to multiple recruitment professionals is likely to look like spam. Try to foster a collaborative atmosphere and highlight the things you can bring to the table.
First impressions matter, as you’ll often not get the opportunity to make a second. There’s often no single correct way to write a cold email, as the best message will be the one that reflects your own personality. That being said, there are certain steps you can take to improve your odds of being selected for an interview.
A hiring manager almost certainly has a pile of applications to browse through for every open role. Chances are that they’re not going to read past the first page of any email that just pops up in their inbox.
Like any busy CEO, people in this position tend to be fairly analytical. Make sure that they can immediately tell which position you’re interested in, why you’re a suitable hire, and why you’re interested in working with them.
The email itself will be a kind of cover letter. Given how much time you’ve probably spent drafting it, it would be a shame if the reader isn’t able to locate the attached resume!
Job postings typically state which supporting documents are required along with your application. It pays to review this information carefully and verify that every article that they ask for is included…and be careful about cluttering up your message with anything they don’t need at this stage. If, for example, they don’t request that you provide a photo, they probably don’t care what you look like.
There’s no good excuse for failing to proofread your work or at least using a software tool to check your spelling and grammar. Take five minutes and look a little deeper: does your email’s structure make sense?
If you start by asking the recipient a question to grab their interest, do you actually answer it? Do you conclude the message by providing steps they can take to contact you? No matter how eager you are to get the job, it’s often a good idea to leave the message alone for half an hour or so before giving it a final check and hitting “Send”.
Not everyone posts their email address where anybody can see it, so this technique doesn’t bear fruit very often. If the hiring manager accesses professional networking platforms, though, you can always send them a direct message if you’re also a member.
Most busy executives analyze the importance of any message they receive within the first three lines. Your message should be precision-focused, get straight to the point, and briefly explore what you can offer the company.
Cold emails – those that weren’t solicited, especially if you had to get creative to find the address – can easily be seen as intrusive and the recipient is under no obligation to respond. At most, once a week has passed, you can send a single short, polite follow-up message.
Speaking of the latter, BookYourData is an email finder tool that can help you extract the email address you need by searching the Internet, social media, and public databases. With 97% accuracy and real-time verification, you can be confident that your message will land in the hiring manager's inbox.
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