 |
| How to round up those emails!! YeeHAW!!! |
Finding people's emails address is one of those tasks that can be a real pain. Whether you are in sales, marketing, recruitment, journalism or community activism, finding out the email address of a potential new client or contact, can be a make-or-break process. It is also time-consuming and if you have to search for hundreds or even thousands of email addresses.
Although there is never going to be a full-proof method to find everyone's email address. There certainly are ways that you are going to be able to find people's email addresses.
We have included a few ways that you can find people's email addresses below:
Call reception at lunchtime and ask
During lunchtime many companies have someone cover the front desk whilst the normal receptionist pops out to buy a tasty lunch from Greggs, Pret or Itsu. This is the perfect time to call the company. Why? Because the staff member who is covering reception is likely to be untrained in the ways of hardcore gatekeeping.
And this means you just ask for "Joe Bloggs" email address and you will be amazed how many times people will just give out email addresses without a moment's notice.
If you are struggling to figure out what to say or feel embarrassed when calling. For a long time, I used the trick of saying that I had a proposal that needed to be submitted and that could I confirm the email address.
I used for years this basic script:
Reception: Hello Acme Direct how I can help?
Me: Hello, I have a proposal request to send to Mr Bloggs, that is Joe Bloggs. Can I confirm his email address is joe.bloggs@acmedirect.com?
This is a simple short script that will open the door. Ask the question and you will be amazed how often you get the answer you are looking for.
Google and Mailtester double whammy
Using Google in combination with mailtester.com can ensure that you can have a fighting chance of finding the right email address.
Google "email format X company" and once you have the available formats, visit mailtester.com and use the format to test the name of the person you are trying to contact.
Normally, within one or two tries you will get the right combination.
If you combine this with some of the methods below you will be likely to find the email address you are looking for and verify it. It is worth using https://mailtester.com/en/ to check all the email addresses you are sourcing.
Alternatives to Mailtester include:
Verify email - https://verify-email.org/
Never bounce - https://neverbounce.com/
QuickEmailVerification - https://quickemailverification.com/
Reverse Google
Using Google to look up information about the company to come from another search direction can really bring results when you are looking for results from your email search.
Google the telephone number of the company you are targeting and include the prospect's name and the telephone number.
If that does not work try the same above, but try the telephone number of the company, the name of the person and the word email.
Same above, but try telephone number, name and "@"
Remember when you are doing this ensure that you put the "Company" "persons name" and "email" into quotation patterns so that it brings only the most relevant information to the top.
Google Site Search
A Google site search is one of the most powerful ways that you can search a website for an email address.
Visit Google.
In the search bar type site: company.XYZ then the person's name.
An example of this boolean string would be "site:disney.com "Micky Mouse"
Make sure to format it as above.
If this does not work, use this string "site:disney.com AND "Micky Mouse" Or "site:disney.com AND Micky Mouse.
These three searches should bring up the information. However, if they do not, play around dropping surnames and adding "@" into the search as well.
Linked In
You will be surprised to find that many people have their email addresses present on their LinkedIn accounts.
The best way to find this is to head over the Linked In, search for the person or person profile that you are looking for and scroll down to the bottom of the page and look at the contact details.
You will be amazed just how many profiles have email addresses both professional and personal just sat there waiting to be emailed.
The Clever Guessing Method
Another one of these simple hacks. Take a clever guess.
Common email formats include:
Firstname@company.com e.g. joseph@homeworkinghenry.co.uk
First.Secondname@company.com e.g. joseph.henry@homeworkinghenry.co.uk
firstletteroffirstnamesecondname@company.com jhenry@homeworkinghenry.co.uk
firstnamesecondname@company.com josephhenry@homeworkinghenry.co.uk
Use email directory websites
These websites are great resources for finding how companies structure their email address and you can use them to enhance the clever guessing method. There is a wide range of these websites out there in the internet universe, however, I would recommend that you try out the following two as they cover most companies out there.
http://www.emailaddresses.com/ - It looks old as hell, but it is a fantastic resource.
https://www.email-format.com/ - This website has the email format for millions of companies around the world.
Paid directories
Paid contact directories are an alternative if you have the budget. There are many companies out there that offer services that can tell you who works at a company, what their job title is and what their email address is likely to be.
Of course, with these sites being a paid service they can be expensive. A couple we have used before include:
Zoominfo - https://www.zoominfo.com/
Uplead - https://www.uplead.com/
Use Hunter and other similar websites
Hunter.io is a wonderful service that allows you to search for verified emails from a domain. All you need to do is search for a domain - https://hunter.io/domain-search - and you will be able to spot quickly and seamlessly whether they have the email address you are looking for.
Similar websites include:
Aeroleads - https://aeroleads.com/
Lusha - https://lp.lusha.com/
Final Thoughts
Finding an email address can be a bit of a pain at times, however, if you follow the above steps, there is a very good chance that you will find the person's email address.
And now the hard bit begins. Crafting a great email!
