My Formula for Finding Emails and Connecting with Top Talent
Finding email addresses is both an art and a science. It is an art and science that you can use to help improve your recruitment activities, win more business and headhunter more candidates.
I have been finding and emailing clients, potential clients and candidates for over a decade and a half. In that time I have picked up a wide range of hints, tips, tricks and hacks that can help you find people's email addresses quickly and effectively.
Below I have outlined these hints, tips, tricks and hacks. They are not presented in a linear process, but as a mish-mash, so you can pick and choose which ones are suitable for your situation and current project.
So let's dive in, and get started.
Guess, then Verify
Guessing can quickly get you the outcome you need when trying to find a prospect's email address. Guessing then verifying makes this the best first step far more efficient.
Many companies are very obvious with their email address format. Once you have a person's name, the format is normally one of the following:
| Format | Example |
|---|---|
| Name dot Surname | name.surname@example.com |
| Name Surname | namesurname@example.com |
| name | name@example.com |
| surname | suranme@example.com |
| First Initial dot surname | f.surname@example.com |
| First Name dot Suranme Inital | First.s@example.com |
| First Initial Surname | fsuranme@example.com |
| First Name Surname Initial | firsts@example.com |
| First initial Surname Initial | fs@example.com |
| Hyphens - | All the examples above could have the dot replaced with a hyphen |
These combinations will likely cover a large range of the formats organisations use. Some organizations will use multiple variations of the above.
Guessing is more powerful and quicker than you realize. Many companies are very, very boring with their email structure. So take a guess, and put your guess into Mailtester.com.
Mailtester is free, however, it is designed for use a few times a day, If you are doing bulk verification there is a paid option available.
Alternatives to Mailtester include:
Verify email - https://verify-email.org/
Never bounce - https://neverbounce.com/
QuickEmailVerification - https://quickemailverification.com/
Use Google Search
Google is one of the greatest tools to have ever been created. It can help you find almost every detail and contact you need. Google has a knack for finding the direct email address you are looking for, or at least the company’s format so you can make a highly educated guess.
You can use the below search strings to find a prospect's email address:
- [name] + email (or) email address
- [name] + @
- [name] + @example.com
- [name] + contact (or) contact information (or) contact me
- [name] + “company they work for”
- [name] + LinkedIn
- [name] + email
Finding the Email Format with Google
There are several ways to find out the email format if Google has not been able to find the correct prospect email address. Going on to the company website and looking for email addresses on staff pages and blog pages.
However, a far quicker way is to find email addresses on company websites, and use Google.
- Open Google up
- In the search bar type “site:” and insert the company home page URL and type @ within quotation marks e.g. site:microsoft.com “@”
- This will bring up all the web pages with the @ symbol and will provide if available on the website the email address format
- You could go a step further and put the person's name into the search as well. e.g. site:microsoft.com “@” First Name Surname
Use Alternative Search Engines
Google is a great search engine. Indeed, it is probably the best search engine around. However, if Google does not bring up any results, why not try the following search engines as well:
Yahoo Search (Powered by Bing) - https://uk.search.yahoo.com/
Bing - https://www.bing.com/
DuckDuckGo - https://duckduckgo.com/
StartPage - https://www.startpage.com/
Swisscows - https://swisscows.com/en
Mojeek - https://www.mojeek.com/
Qwant - https://www.qwant.com/?l=en
Check LinkedIn: Direct Email Address
LinkedIn is a treasure trove of information, including email addresses. Around a billion profiles are on LinkedIn, so there is a good chance that you will find the person you are looking for.
If you are looking to find an email address on a LinkedIn profile, follow the below steps:
- In the search bar above put the person's name and company (if you know this)
- If you are looking for a job title, replace the name with the job title
- Navigate to the profile you are looking to find an email address for. Just below the profile photo and headline is a link that says Contact
- Click this and a small pop-up will come up for this person's profile.
- If their email address is open and available it will be presented here.
- If it is present all you need to do is copy and paste it.
Check LinkedIn: Researching The Format
Although you might not find the email address on the profile you are looking for, however, you can still use the same trick to
- Search for the company you are looking for in the search bar at the top of Linked in
- Click on the first profile or navigate to the profile you are looking to find an email address for.
- Just below the profile photo and headline is a link that says Contact
- Click this and a small pop-up will come up for this person's profile.
- If their email address is open and available it will be presented here.
- If it is present all you need to do is copy and paste it.
- If the email was present you have the format. If not, they go back to the list of employees from stage one and click on the second one.
- Repeat until you have your answer.
**Check the Company Website*
Many companies and organizations will have ABout Us and similar pages dedicated to the staff within the organization.
These pages can lead you straight to the information that you are seeking. They should be the first ports of call that you check out if you are digging around on the internet.
Use the following Google searches to bring these pages up:
site:example.com AND “About us”
site:example.com AND “Contact Us”
site:example.com AND “Staff”
Telephone Reception
Now you might be wanting to, cut to the chase and go straight into the reception desk and try and “blag” the email address. This method is for the shameless, the fool hard and the brave. The script below will help you to
Ring the main reception line. Ring ring.
When someone picks up say “Hello, thank you for picking up, I am just trying to send an email to Mr Email, and just wanted to check that I have their email correct, is it INSERT THE GUESS?
With this, you should get something along these responses:
Yes, that is their address - brilliant that you have confirmed their address No, this gives you a chance to ask We do not give out personal information
If the receptionist says “No, that is not their email” respond with the following
“Oh gosh, my boss must have written the address down wrong, could you let me know what the address is?”
You may now get number 3, we do not give out personal information. In this case, you can be pushy one more time, or, you can quickly retreat from the conversation and move on.
Ringing the reception cold is not for everyone, however, it does get results. Remember to be polite, sound friendly and say thank you.
Use Hunter.io
One of the best tools on the internet for finding email addresses is Hunter.io. This is a tool I have personally used for years, and would highly recommend it to any recruiter.
Hunter.io is an all-in-one cold email sending, email address sending and email address verification tool.
It has a database of millions of email addresses, with a high percentage of accuracy.
It can verify email addresses both singular and en-mass Hunter.io can connect to your email client
Hunter's ability to tackle this problem from three approaches. It allows you to find pre-verified prospects on its system. It allows you to check other email addresses and it also allows you to get out the cold emails as well. It is a great tool and I highly recommend it.
Similar websites include:
Aeroleads - https://aeroleads.com/
Lusha - https://lp.lusha.com/
Use Format 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 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/
Check social media accounts
Social Media Accounts can be a great way to find a company's email address format and even direct email addresses.
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.co.uk/
Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/en/
Twitter/X - twitter.com
Masterdon - https://mastodon.social/
Threads - https://www.threads.net/?hl=en
Each of these platforms has different routes to finding the email address. However, dig into both the account details and the social media posts and you will be amazed how many companies will put out posts that include the email address of someone from the business on the posts or in the comments.
This, however, is a very time-consuming method of finding a corporate email address. A quicker way to find the email address is to combine Google search and social media accounts.
Combine Google Search and Social Media Accounts
You can speed up the process of searching for an email address across social media pages. You can combine the site search and the social media accounts at the same time.
An example of this for Facebook would be:
site:facebook.com “@example.com”
This search will only look at posts and content on the Facebook website that include @example.com. Make sure that you include the quotation marks “ “ to define and reduce the number of results that come in.
Company Newsletters
Most companies have some kind of newsletter subscription service. Visit their website.
Subscribe to the newsletter and you can use the marketing material that comes to you to figure out the format for the email address you are looking for.
TL;DR
- Finding email addresses is both an art and a science.
- Key methods include guessing common email formats and verifying them using tools like Mailtester.
- Google and alternative search engines can also help uncover contact details.
- LinkedIn, company websites, and directories like Hunter.io are valuable resources.
- For those seeking faster results, using tools, search engine queries, or even contacting reception can yield success.
Call-to-Action
Thank you for taking the time to read this article.
If you are having trouble finding an email, feel free to drop me an email at joseph@homeworkinghenry.com
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