Making sales in business means forging new relationships with specific partners. Let’s face it; you’ve probably got your own list of dream connections that you’re sure would not only boost your figures but turn you into the superstar of your department
Connecting with you’re A-list, though, isn’t always super easy. Cold calling by phone is a challenge and often frowned upon without good cause.
You could slide into their DMs, but again, finding the right balance between cool and creepy takes tact, creativity, and careful consideration.
You’d love to know how to find someone’s professional email address without stepping on anyone’s toes, but that’s easier said than done, isn’t it?
Why email is the best tool for the job?
When it comes to B2B connections, most professionals prefer to connect by email.
According to Copper.com, when it comes to business, email is king.
- 86% of professionals prefer email while communicating for business.
- Email is the 3rd most influential source of information after colleagues’ recommendations or those of industry thought leaders.
- 59% of B2B marketers say email is their most effective channel in terms of revenue generation.
It’s a fact, then, that professionals prefer to connect and operate over email, as long it’s relevant and valuable. However, many of us keep that information private, protecting ourselves from masses of spam, a priority for the efficiency of our schedules.
And that brings us to today’s topic: what is the best way to find business emails?
Creating the copy that earns a connection
Cold outreach can be creepy and spammy. Finding any kind of balance between ‘Let’s be friends!’ and ‘10 reasons you need to buy our product…’ is quite a task, even for the best marketing wordsmiths.
With documented low reply rates, cold outreach is part of outdated email marketing techniques and certainly not the future.
We know that to get a reply that develops a connection, you have to make your message personal, complimentary, and valuable to the recipient.
Be kind – be interesting – and be useful.
Why you might need to look for business email addresses
Ultimately, we imagine all anyone wants when reaching out is to sell us something we probably don’t want. As much as that’s often the case, there are plenty of valid reasons.
- To create partnerships on projects with mutual benefits
- You need a specialist to help develop a product, system, or strategy
- You’re recruiting high-flyers for contract work or private enterprises
- Link building practices
- Industry networking
- Investor and investment opportunities
The list goes on. Yes, email prospecting is a strong contender when trying to find company emails, but it’s not the only reason. There are many legitimate motives and purposes for expanding our email address books.
‘Top tips’ to find business email addresses
This section covers how to find business email address using a little business sense and without turning to digital tools and business email service.
1. Google them
It sounds too obvious, and let’s face it, we’ve all been there, but if a simple search using Google pulls up the page you need that delivers that prospective email address, look at all the time and effort you just saved!
If you don’t get lucky with the details you have, don’t panic, there are plenty other ways to dive deeper into your search.
2. Check out their company ‘contact us’ or ‘meet the team’ page
Depending on the business, its size, transparency protocol, and operation, you might just get lucky and find that they have a ‘meet the team’ or ‘head of departments’ section on their contact or about us pages.
If they’ve got such pages, you need to keep your fingers crossed that your contact features are somewhere on that list; otherwise, find their team leader and see if you can’t reach out that way.
At this stage, it’s important not to dive straight in with your ultimate goal. Building a relationship takes time, so remember—slow and steady. Ease your way in and keep things nice and super easy until you’ve developed a bond that allows you to lay your true goals out on the table.
3. Sleuth your way through social media
The ‘professional social network’ is a great place to find business email addresses. Almost everyone in the business world is likely to have a LinkedIn page. Even if it doesn’t deliver a direct email address, it provides you with a contact point to start building your relationship.
Far too many LinkedIn DMs sound like sales pitches, so don’t fall into that trap. Instead, we suggest you make a connection over shared interests and posts, compliment them on something they’ve written or ask them about a comment they made on someone else’s article.
Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram
Despite being considered the social where people’s darkest sides go to play, many businesses still carry out a lot of networking and brand-building using Twitter.
You don’t need to have a fanboy/girl crush on a celebrity to slide into someone’s DMs; complimenting or commenting on a post is a healthy way to start a personal and meaningful conversation that can culminate in swapping email addresses.
Businesses should hold accounts on all the socials these days, so check out their pages to see if your contact makes comments, writes posts or links to associated content you can use to connect through.
Social media advanced search options
Don’t just search for your contact or company; add ‘email’ into an advanced search and see if they haven’t already handed the information out to a previous enquirer.
4. Subscribe to their email list
When it comes to spreading the word and sharing company information, email newsletters are full of information about the teams your contact works with.
If you hit the jackpot, they may be the focus of a piece, or even the creator asking for replies, thoughts, and your input on their work.
Most businesses hope to develop leads and create new connections by sending out newsletters, so it’s a perfect opportunity to fire a few friendly questions back.
Even if the author isn’t your end contact, they could act as an interim, delivering the details you need through a little cunning conversation.
5. Call the company
Unless you’ve got a great plan and flawless script to hand, phoning the company is 50:50. As we determined at the top of the post, most professionals prefer email, so being interrupted with unsolicited phone calls will be fairly low on their priorities and high on their irritation list.
Chances are, you’ll probably annoy or confuse them, so it’s better to make your case to a receptionist and request your email be passed on with an appropriate reach-out email messages.
6. Find the elements you need to make a predictable educated guess
If you can find out the email address pattern for your contact’s business, there’s a good chance you can work out what your potential contact is.
Addresses are standardised for simplicity and professionalism throughout most businesses, so if your contact’s colleagues addresses follow the format [email protected], then chances are, theirs will too.
If you’ve exhausted all other avenues and are desperate for an in, this technique might just do the trick.
‘Top tools’ used to find company email addresses
Looking at where to find business email inbox online, there are masses of digital tools—apps(e.g., small business recruitment software) and websites (e.g., small business marketing tools)—to help you track down and validate missing email addresses.
Some demand subscriptions while many others are free, and some sit somewhere between with varying free credit systems or complimentary monthly allocations.
Here are a few of the more popular systems and a suggestion of their key features.
Hunter
Hunter includes a professional business email address finder, a domain search, and a verification process. You can focus on a business or an individual. Their free plan gives you a generous 150 credits per month: enough to take a test drive to see if it’s worth expanding into a paid plan .
Lusha
Lusha offers its users a prospecting platform, an extension, API, and as many integrations as you need to make any business email lookup as simple as possible. Lusha returns email addresses, phone numbers, business and personal contacts on each contact card, with plenty of filters to narrow your searches.
VoilaNorbert
Norbert, your quintessential British-looking virtual assistant, does his best to fill the gaps in your information. Not only does it locate business email addresses, but it does it with a 98% accuracy success rate. Norbert integrates with plenty of popular tools using various coding languages, as well as providing Google Chrome and Gmail plugins.
You receive 50 free leads as an incentive, with four pricing tiers reaching 50,000 leads/month.
Apollo
Apollo provides 50 credits with their free account, rising to unlimited credits with their top-tier professional account. It boasts an impressive 220 million+ contacts over 30 million companies—ideally situated to find business contact information.
Apollo is another platform with a Chrome extension and countless integrations. You can also build detailed email lists using over two hundred customisable attributes.
Vocus.io
Vocus is a low-cost full-stack outreach platform that integrates with Gmail account, G Suite, plenty of CRMs, and many others.
Its business best email service is only a single attribute—as with most of these tools—of what the full-service offers. Vocus verifies addresses, schedules campaigns, automates reminders, and more, with very reasonable pricing tiers from only $5 to $20 per month.
FindEmails
FindEmails (formerly Toofr) searches by name, company or job role, verifies its returns and offers three pricing tiers ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 credits per month. It’s one more good option offering its own API and a Chrome extension to help you verify emails wherever you land online.
How not to look for business email addresses
- Never buy email lists
- Don’t be spammy when reaching out
- And finally, make sure you know the difference between ‘being creative’ with your outreach and ‘being creepy’!
Buying email addresses is rarely a good idea.
Yes, they might fuel your lists with masses of hopeful new users and leads, but they’re unlikely to be healthy and appropriate to your market. Also, they’re usually full of fake addresses and spam traps—not what you need for email marketing campaigns delivery and metrics.
Always remember that the recipient, your new contact, is a real person and not just a tool to move ahead in your business plight. Treat them accordingly.
Build each relationship steadily with respect, and they should grow into what you need.
Barge in like a bull in a china shop, and all you’ll end up with is shattered possibilities and failed connections.
Possible issues that such addresses might cause
Understanding how to find a person’s business email address is only the first part of the practice.
Tracking down email addresses and attempting to connect with their owners can result in problems for your marketing team. An accumulation of too many wrong email address guesses or mailing to out-of-date or fake business email accounts will add to your email domain’s bounce rate.
If your recipients consider your attempts as spam and label your messages accordingly, over time, that could create just enough trouble to increase your spam complaint rate.
We don’t have to tell you how important it is to keep your metrics healthy to ensure best email deliverability for all your campaigns.
Advanced Techniques for Finding Business Email Addresses
When searching for business contact information, it’s essential to use a variety of strategies and tools to ensure accuracy and efficiency. Here are some advanced techniques to help you find and verify company email addresses.
Utilizing Professional Email Finder Tools
Email finder tools are a powerful resource for locating company email addresses. These tools can search through databases and provide you with a prospect’s email address based on the company name and job title. They are especially useful when you need to build a contact list quickly and accurately.
Leveraging Company Websites and Business Pages
Many businesses provide contact details on their company website or business page. Check the “Contact Us” or “About Us” sections to find relevant company email addresses. Additionally, company blogs often list contact information for contributors, which can be a valuable source of detailed information.
Conducting a Simple Google Search
A simple Google search can sometimes yield results when looking for business contact information. By searching for the company name along with terms like “email” or “contact,” you might find the valid email addresses you need.
Exploring LinkedIn Profiles and Other Professional Platforms
LinkedIn profiles can be a goldmine for lead generation. Many professionals list their company email addresses and job titles on their profiles. Connecting and engaging with potential leads on professional platforms can also provide opportunities to request their contact info directly.
Using Email Verifier Tools
Before sending any emails, it’s crucial to use an email verifier to ensure that the addresses are correct and active. Verifying e mail addresses helps maintain your sender reputation and prevents your emails from ending up in the spam folder.
Engaging with Business Websites and Online Resources
Many business websites have resources like whitepapers, newsletters, and contact forms that can help you collect data. Subscribing to these resources often provides access to contact details and can sometimes lead to discovering a prospect’s company email.
Checking Job Titles and Company Size on Job Boards
Job boards and company career pages can provide insights into job titles and the company size. This information can help you identify the right person to contact within a company and tailor your outreach accordingly.
Using Email Finder Extensions
Browser extensions for email finder tools can streamline the process of finding prospect’s email addresses. These extensions can extract contact information from company websites and social media profiles, making it easier to build a comprehensive contact list.
Networking through Direct Messages
If you can’t find an email address directly, consider sending a direct message on platforms like LinkedIn or Twitter. Politely requesting business contact information can often result in obtaining a prospect’s email address.
Cross-Referencing Company Domains
When you know a company’s domain, you can often guess company email addresses based on common patterns (e.g., [email protected]). Cross-referencing this with email finder tools and email verifiers ensures you have valid email addresses.
By employing these advanced techniques, you can efficiently find company email addresses and enhance your lead generation efforts. Always ensure to verify the collected email addresses to maintain a high sender reputation and avoid your emails ending up in the spam folder.
How to prevent high bounce rate (email verification and good searching practices)
Your marketing and sales teams will be working hand in hand to provide the best ways to boost connections and sales. A key part of that practice is keeping all email addresses, and email lists clean and healthy with active data that delivers the required metrics.
To keep your mail account in their best condition, email list hygiene and verification should be a priority before every delivery. Using a tool like Bouncer to strip out expired, incorrect, fake addresses or invalid domains will keep you on track and in the green.
With scans that deliver the results you need whilst protecting your domains, Bouncer should be every business’s email delivery partner.
