You finally decided to find someone’s email address. You may do this for various reasons, like reaching out to the influencer, getting a list of possible sales leads, or just seeking someone to ask a question. And there are many smart ways to get an email address and contact people. We’ll review 13 of them.
Why Is It Important to Find the Right Email Address?
Suppose you need to send out a critical email to get a reply as soon as possible. In this case, you should go directly to the source. Forget about sending personal emails to the info[at]businessX.com or submitting a “Contact Us” form; there is little chance of getting an actual response.
It’s true if you want to contact someone you don’t know and never got in touch earlier. Here are some basic examples:
- Applying for a job position
- Any type of outreach form (e.g., link request, interview request for your report or website article, if you want to get media coverage of a particular story, etc.)
Plus, getting in touch with a direct source will show your actual initiative and distinguish yourself from the other people wanting this job or interested in the same request. So, don’t hesitate to do this using our set of advice.
Review on how to find someone’s email address
Use X-ray Contact Email Address Search
Need someone’s contact data? You can use X-Ray Contact’s Reverse Email Address Search to find their personal email address by name or phone number. Simply visit the official website and create an account. We provide a free trial to those interested in digital investigations.
Open the Platform Page, choose the type of data you know (phone, full name, social media account), and hit the search button. Our platform will show you a comprehensive report on the person in question, including an email address. You can copy this information and send a letter from your email client.
Basic Name Queries by Googling Emails
Begin your investigation by conducting a basic search using the person’s name. However, this method might not yield much unless the individual has a distinctive name, like Jets WR Jerricho Cotchery. For more common names, it’s essential to include specific modifiers to help differentiate the results. Consider this the fine-tuning aspect of name searching.
Here are some initial modifiers to use to refine your search:
- [name] + email (or) email address
- [name] + contact (or) contact information (or) contact me
Use Google
Another way to get the person’s email address is by searching for it on Google. But there’s a problem: the basic search provides thousands of irrelevant results, so you’ll risk wasting time by simply browsing them to find the person you’re interested in. It’s way better to use some tips on how to use Google like an expert.
Dig in with Advanced Google Search
Suppose you have a couple of email addresses that you sure are relevant and correct. In this case, search for them on Google and check if you’re right. Advanced search operators will help you make your digital investigation more fruitful and precise.
For instance, placing your search terms within quotation marks will yield results that match your query exactly. Prioritize checking the results for official company websites, personal blogs, or social media profiles.
As an example, we’ll show how to find the email address of Bill Gates.
Perform a search with target keywords
Provide the name of the person whose email address you’re seeking and add words like “email,” “email address,” “contact,” etc. If this information is available online, you will narrow the search result list and find only precise data.
Another good idea is experimenting with adding other personal data to your search prompt if you know the job position, previous work experience, etc.
Search company website with Google search operators
You’d be amazed at the amount of insider info tucked away on company websites – email addresses included.
TIP: Hit Google with the search operator “site:example.com” and add a few extra keywords to narrow it down. Feel free to get inventive with your search terms to really zero in on what you’re after.
Got a hunch about what someone’s email might be? Take that guess and run a quick search on the company’s own site like this.
site:example.com + [email protected]
You never know – you might just strike gold.
Don’t forget to verify your finds
As mentioned above, you should always verify the information before you contact the person in question. For this, you can use the Gmail verification.
Use the advanced search on Twitter
People often drop their email addresses in their tweets or bios but play it sneaky with “dot” and “at” to keep the bots at bay. Dive into Twitter’s Advanced Search and snoop around your prospect’s tweets for “at” and “dot.”
You get to fine-tune your search there – pick exact words, ditch the ones you don’t want, throw in some hashtags, zero in on particular accounts, and even set a period. Play with the filters. Toss in terms like “email,” “reach,” or “contact” to help sift through the chatter. It might sound a bit forward, but you can just ask the person you’re interested in for their email on Twitter.
Want to catch their eye and get a reply? Craft a tweet that’s straight to the point and give them a solid reason to hit you back:
Sliding into their DMs is another route. If they’re more of a direct message checker, that’s where they might see you first. Just a heads-up, you might have to be mutual followers to let a DM through, depending on how they’ve got their privacy set up.
How to Check Old Tweets From Anyone?
Finally, you can use the last trick up the sleeve for Twitter – checking out old tweets. Find the All My Tweets section, and you can browse a rundown of up to 3200 past tweets from anyone.
Here’s the play-by-play:
- Head over to All My Tweets and sign in with your Twitter details.
- Pop in the Twitter handle of the person or biz you’re trying to get in touch with to pull up their tweet history.
- Got the list? Smash Ctrl/Cmd+F and start digging with keywords like @domainname, “contact,” “email,” “hit me up at,” or any other phrases that might lead you to that golden email address.
Use Facebook
The biggest social network in the world may become an effective instrument for finding precious email addresses. It is beneficial when you try to find general company email or blogger’s data.
It’s effortless: just visit the target’s page and find the “About” section.
Many bloggers and companies put their email addresses in this section (or the “Contact Us” section). But you can also find the info@, hello@, and contact@ emails that aren’t useful for direct letters.
Use LinkedIn
On LinkedIn, you’ll likely have to make a connection with your prospect before you can ask for their email or other personal details.
After you’re linked up, swing by your prospect’s LinkedIn page, find “Contact Info,” and you might just hit the jackpot.
Don’t forget to scope out the About section on their profile, too. Often, people will have their email right there, or they’ll drop the emails of their colleagues.
The last idea is exporting your LinkedIn contacts. However, this move is only handy if they haven’t hidden their email addresses from their LinkedIn network.
Follow these steps to take:
- Log into your LinkedIn account, click the drop-down menu called “Me” (with your profile photo), and choose “Settings & Privacy.”
- On this page, find the “Data Privacy” subsection, click on “Get a copy of your data,” and select “Want something in particular? Select the data files you’re most interested in.”
- Choose the Connections tick box and click the “Request archive” button.
- Once the export is ready (it takes up to 10 minutes), LinkedIn will notify you by email.
After that, you’ll get an email with a .CSV file containing all your connections and their email addresses (if available). Maybe the address you’re interested in will be there.
Use Reddit
If you want to find anyone’s email address, but they tend to be anonymous online, try looking them up on online forums. This method works best if you want to find someone’s email address while having an online username as the only clue. Follow this chain of actions to conduct such an OSINT investigation:
- Employ Search Engines. Start by searching the username on Reddit. Look for posts and comments made by this user. You can use Reddit’s search function or Google search with the format site:reddit.com “username”.
- Look for Clues in Posts and Comments. Pay attention to any online presence that might give away more personal information to find someone’s email. Users sometimes share their social media handles, websites, or other forums they participate in.
- Go Through Subreddits. Join and participate in relevant Reddit communities where the user is active. Then, use HUMINT techniques to get more evidence and find someone’s email address.
Use Discord Leaks
You can attempt to find someone’s email address in the list of Discord leaks that are openly available online. Employ such tips to find anyone’s email address with ease:
- If the username alone does not yield results, try combining it with other known details, such as partial email addresses, user IDs, or related usernames from other platforms. Cross-referencing multiple pieces of information can sometimes help narrow down the search and find someone’s email address.
- Join Discord servers that a person might be active in to add a HUMINT component to the research. Communicate with other users to inquire about someone’s email address. Otherwise, you can scan through the server chat history and manually find someone’s email address.
Subscribe to your target’s mailing list
If the person in question has a newsletter on their blog, go ahead and subscribe via their website’s sign-up feature. More often than not, newsletters are sent out from the person’s own email address.
Plus, this gives you a golden opportunity to spark up a conversation. Hit ‘reply’ on one of those newsletters with a quick question or ask for their take on a relevant issue. It’s a casual yet effective way to get an actual response.
TIP: You may notice addresses [email protected], [email protected], or something similar. If yes, they are used for newsletters with high probability. However, the person may reply from their personal email address in some cases.
Look around the company website
A company website is an excellent source of information when you’re looking for company decision-makers and their email addresses. There are a few specific pages on company websites where email addresses are published more often:
About page
On this page, you might find almost anything, from brief bios with personal social media accounts to detailed contact information of every team member.
Contact Us page
On the “Contact Us” page, you may often see generic contact forms, but some companies add the contact information of the team members who can help with specific requests.
Author page
Since most companies have blogs, another effective way to find the email address is to visit each author’s individual author page.
Usually, you need to click on the image of the blog post author (or their name), and you’ll be able to get the author’s personal information. In some cases, you can find all of the information right under the blog post in the author’s bio box.
Some of your prospects may have personal blogs, and usually, it’s much easier to find their email addresses there. Just check the “About” and “Contact” pages.
Check WHOIS records
If you’re trying to find the email address of a website or blog owner, WHOIS is your savior.
We can name WHOIS as the internet’s phonebook, and here’s why. You can find essential information about the domain owner, the domain status, and the owning organization’s relevant people.
To get this info, just run a WHOIS lookup on the website’s domain. Some sites that offer WHOIS database search features – WHO.IS, Namecheap, and GoDaddy are a few popular ones. Just type the domain name into the search bar, and you’ll get the contact details you’re interested in.
Subscribe to the prospect’s newsletter
Many businesses and bloggers send newsletters via personal email addresses. It’s a useful way to build relationships with their target audiences and show there’s a real identity behind the letters.
1. Find the opt-in form & subscribe
Visit the company’s or individual’s website and find the newsletter subscription section. After that, enter your email address into the specific field and hit the “Subscribe” button.
2. Check your inbox
You can check your inbox in a matter of minutes and find a welcome message or the first part of your newsletter. There is also can be a confirmation email in some cases. And, of course, you’ll find an email address.
Feel free to click the “Reply” and begin a conversation. It’s much easier to get a reply from your prospect when taking this step instead of sending an unemotional letter.
Ask for a personal connection via a generic email address
Most large corporations will have a contact form on their site or a general email for questions, like [email protected]. Usually, support staff or virtual assistants are the ones checking these accounts.
Just drop them a quick note asking to be put in touch with the person you’re trying to reach.
IMPORTANT! This step is excellent if your emails have a signature with a clear explanation of who you are. If you’re using a virtual assistant to collect email addresses, check if their signature mentions you as the real sender.
Check your own email list
Suppose you have an extensive list of emails. In this case, the person’s email address may have already been stored there. Let’s look at how to find the particular address using the Mailchimp service provider:
- Log into your account, go to “Audience,” and choose the “All contacts” option.
- Choose the relevant email list from the menu and click “View Contacts.”
- After that, click the magnifier icon to search email address in question.
TIP: As a big name in your field with a massive newsletter subscriber base, chances are you’ve already got a bunch of potential clients reading your updates. Most email marketing platforms allow you to sift through the list using specific filters like first name, last name, company name, and so on.
Take an Educated Guess
Most email addresses are cut from the same cloth as they usually stick to a few straightforward templates. So, armed with just a prospect’s first and last name, plus the company domain, you’ve got a fair shot at guessing their email.
Got the email of someone else in the same company? It’s like finding a cheat sheet in their email format. You can use the common structure templates:
- [name]@domainname.com
- [name].[surname]@domainname.com
- [name][surname]@domainname.com
- [initial].[surname]@domainname.com
Why It Might Be Challenging to Find Someone’s Email Address
However, keep in mind that the task to identify a person’s email address might be trickier than it seems. Be prepared that the investigation might end up in failure if the person takes good care of their digital footprint. Your attempt to find someone’s email address might be in vain if:
- Not everyone maintains an active or extensive online presence. If someone rarely uses social media it would be very challenging to track down and find anyone’s email address.
- Some people use aliases or pseudonyms online, making it harder to connect their real name with their email address. You can try to find someone’s email address on Reddit or other online forums if you have their username.
- Many organizations have strict policies against sharing employee contact information publicly. They may use generic email addresses rather than individual ones.
- In order to avoid spam or maintain privacy, some people use disposable or temporary email addresses that they discard after a short period. That’s why, even if you find someone’s email address, it might no longer be useful for the investigation.
Summary
You finally reached to the end of our guide where we reviewed 13 tips and tricks for effectively searching someone’s email address. Remember that finding such information is a responsible task, so use methods wisely.
The most important thing: don’t spam or sell addresses you got! And don’t annoy business officials or bloggers you want to contact; you’ll miss an excellent opportunity to build a stable and valuable connection by doing this.