Communication makes the world go round…but, in order to get a conversation started with someone, you typically need to find their email address. When it comes to contacting those people who can really make things happen, though, this isn’t always simple.
Senior company executives and public figures often don’t share their contact info very widely, or they’d be overwhelmed by sales pitches and requests for help. This means that making the most valuable connections doesn’t just require smooth talking, but also resourcefulness and some technological proficiency.
Let’s look at some methods of retrieving nearly anyone’s email address. In particular, we’re going to be interested in ethical approaches that result in useful information, not questionable techniques that aren’t known for their accuracy.
If you're at least curious about the question of finding someone's email, we've got a list of 11 ways to do so. However, it's more than discovering an email address. It's about finding the correct one. We'll delve into the structure of email addresses, the importance of accuracy, and how to find the correct email for effective blogger outreach for those interested in specifics.
In some ways, the system we still use to ensure each message gets to the right person is still a holdover from the early days of the internet. In particular, the idea is to first deliver an email to a certain computer (or group of computers), then send it along to a particular individual. This means our electronic addresses all look like this:
username @ domain
If you compare this to hardwired phones, the domain name is like a switchboard: the number you call to reach out to an entire company. Examples are washingtonpost.com and thetimes.co.uk; the letters after the period are called the “top-level domain” and indicate what segment of the internet the preceding part belongs to.
The username of each account is assigned when that inbox is set up. This is like the extension number that allows the phone switchboard to connect you with a specific person. Usually, this refers to an individual based on some format involving their first and last names (eg. [email protected]) or a department’s function ([email protected]).
However, there are numerous possible combinations for each employee’s email, making the task of an intrepid address hunter that much more difficult. A dedicated email permutator can help, but by no means guarantees accuracy.
Even if you know the correct domain name, relying on sheer luck and guesswork to figure out the right employee’s username is not a winning strategy. In the first place, it wastes time: all that effort you may spend drafting a message tailored to each recipient, incorporating all the cultural awareness and professionalism you’re capable of, won’t amount to much if your address list isn’t based on up-to-date knowledge.
Secondly, using inaccurate email addresses can derail your outreach campaign, as contacting the wrong employees with information they’re not interested in doesn’t exactly make you seem professional.
Most importantly, though, each email that can’t be delivered means increasing your bounce rate – the proportion of emails you send that can’t be delivered. This can cause system administrators and ISPs to associate your account with spam, harming all your future digital marketing efforts.
Compiling a list of verified email addresses for marketing purposes can be an exercise in creative problem-solving. There are several techniques you can try and resources you can consult but, at the end of the day, the quality of the contact info you end up gathering will depend on how detail-oriented and diligent you are.
By far the easiest way to get a list of prospects’ email addresses is to use a service that specializes in exactly this task. These don’t, to be honest, do anything you can’t eventually manage yourself.
However, they automate this extremely research-intensive process with customized searching and pattern-recognition algorithms, as well as cross-referencing multiple sources of information for greater efficiency and accuracy. BookYourData, for instance, guarantees that at least 97% of the email addresses they uncover belong to the right person.
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In most cases, using email lookup tools costs money, whether you get the results you want or not. In addition to not charging customers for addresses that can’t be verified in real-time, BookYourData as well as some other email finder services offer new users a free trial. In this way, you can check out their features without making any kind of commitment.
Alternatively, if you want to give your analytical skills a workout, you’re also welcome to look for email addresses the hard way.
When somebody tweets (or whatever verb we’re supposed to use now that the platform is called X), they’re effectively announcing their willingness to form new connections. Aside from allowing people to send them direct messages, if enabled, some people may include their work email in their bio. Occasionally, like when they’re networking and asking contacts for opinions, their email address will also appear in individual tweets.
Analyzing social media activity for useful email addresses is a lot easier if you can see them all in one place, regardless of when they were published. You may use Twitter’s advanced search page and adjust the “From” and date filters, visit the WayBackMachine, or use a third-party tool like Tweet Hunter.
Subscribing to companies’ newsletters or blogs generally isn’t the easiest way to locate an email address linked to a particular name. This is because any message you send back is usually directed to a donotreply address or a generic inbox like [email protected]. Still, you can sometimes find a way to get in touch with the person you’re interested in, either in the email itself or by hitting “Reply” and hoping for the best.
Almost all company websites have a “Contact Us” page you can navigate to easily. This will contain either a web form allowing you to send them a message or a catch-all email address they use to interact with the public. Some are more diligent than others when it comes to directing your query to the right person or department, though.
Still, this technique is so hassle-free that you may as well try it, perhaps in addition to another method. If you can provide a compelling reason for wanting to talk to a specific person, they may just email you in person, giving you a foot in the door.
Visiting company websites, you’ll often notice an “About Us” section that briefly explains what the business is all about. In some cases, this includes a list of key personnel along with contact details for each.
Aside from a website’s About Us and Contact pages, scanning through the company blog can be worth your while. Very often, individual posts are written by decision-makers within the company. As they are typically eager to establish themselves as thought leaders worth listening to, their bylines sometimes link to pages showcasing their qualifications and achievements.
Here, you can sometimes locate email addresses at which you can contact them, even if these aren’t listed in most industry B2B databases. Taking this a step further, checking professional profiles may reveal where they studied. Using alumni directories, you can then attempt to look for current contact details.
Earlier, we spoke a little about internet domains: the part of an email address following the “@” sign. Now, for reasons including legal compliance, each domain has to be registered to a certain person or company name, along with a mailing address, phone number, and email address.
Browsing public records related to the company’s domain name normally turns up only generic contact information, though. If you’re eager to target exactly those people who need to hear your message, simply buying a list of relevant emails will almost certainly be more efficient.
Searching online for a particular person’s main business email address isn’t really hard and doesn’t require much technological proficiency. You will, however, need tons of persistence, as matching names to emails just isn’t something search engines are designed to do (the whole reason email finder tools have become so popular).
You can, however, save a great deal of time and frustration by learning about search operators. These are essentially ways of telling Google exactly what you’re looking for. You may, for example, be interested only in results from the company’s website. Alternatively, you might want to see only .pdf or .xlsx documents, which are sometimes contain a directory of employees’ contact details.
Social media is a goldmine for those who know how to use it. From utilizing advanced sales lead generation software that automatically compiles lists of sales prospects to just looking for a particular email address, the possibilities are almost endless for someone with some social media savvy.
If someone has their email listed on their social media profile’s “About” tab, they’re probably okay with strangers contacting them. Out of respect for their privacy, though, you may want to think twice about using this information, or a direct message, to open a business conversation on their personal Facebook profile.
If you’re in the same industry or profession as the individual you want to contact, or you’ve made a habit of compiling useful email addresses, there’s a chance that you already know how to reach them without realizing it. You can start by using Gmail’s search function to see if you’ve corresponded with them in the past; perhaps you also maintain an organized list of useful contacts on your hard drive.
If you don’t yet have such a database, there’s an easy way to start, namely downloading details of your existing LinkedIn network. These kinds of email leads are bound to come in handy sooner or later.
Even better, while the person you’re trying to reach may not yet be part of your professional network on LinkedIn, there’s a good chance that one of their colleagues or friends is. You can always just ask these mutual acquaintances to give you their email address.
Whether or not you see this as engaging in social engineering – i.e. gaining access to confidential information through deception – really depends on your intentions. Simply wanting to send them a brief message is certainly legitimate.
To download a list of all the people you know on LinkedIn, simply:
No matter how many business cards you hand out while attending events or conferences, how vigorously you promote your newsletter, how much time you spend on online searches, and how much effort you put into your blog, you’re never going to be able to build the kind of email list you need without some special measures.
All of these ways of reaching out to bloggers are worthwhile but, if you’re serious about getting your name out there, you need to employ an email finder tool. These can generate a list of qualified leads at the press of a button by, for example, checking publications or articles written by popular bloggers.
This happens in a fraction of the time it would take you and the resulting information is carefully verified for accuracy. In most cases, this involves paying either a monthly subscription fee or, in BookYourData’s case, paying only for the email addresses you plan to use.
Looking for contact information on company websites, blogs, and social media often bears fruit. Some email lookup services also offer free trials to demonstrate their features.
Some email finder tools include a verification step – or you could simply send a message and see what happens.
This depends entirely on the service you use. BookYourData more or less sets the benchmark with a 97% accuracy rate.
Finally, the easiest way to find anyone's email contact is to use email finder tools to help you quickly find what you seek. BookYourData is a powerful tool trusted by millions worldwide. It's an efficient way to consolidate data from various sources and verify each address to provide you with market-leading 97% accuracy. With BookYourData, you can reach the intended recipient promptly and increase your chances of success. So, don't wander - connect with the right people.
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