Not too long ago, if you wanted to boost your business by doing a direct solicitation to prospective customers, you sent out a direct mail letter or printed piece. There were many list brokers who sold lists of business contacts using a variety of criteria, including state, city, type of business or SICS classification. (Sustainable Industry Classification System.) Today, direct mail is still used, but the most accurate and personal way to contact a business prospect is via email.
Using email contact information isn’t limited to businesses, however. Many individuals are using email addresses to contact former friends, relatives, organizations and many other important types of contacts. As with businesses, it’s the fastest and most personal way to contact somebody.
But how do you find a person’s email address, unless they’ve sent you an email? Most probably, you have the name, address or phone number of the individual that you’re looking for. If you do, there are a variety of ways to search for their email address; both for free and by using paid services.
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Looking Email Addresses Up For Free
A starting point for an email search is, of course, the Internet. You can go to Google.com, type in an individual’s name, along with their city or state or even a full address, and do a search. Culling through the results, you may be able to find the individual you’re hunting for, along with a valid email address. It’s the same with Facebook.com, where you can do a search for an individual, or LinkedIn, trying the same approach.
The problem is, it isn’t easy to find someone’s email address because people have become very protective of their addresses, for one key reason: preventing spam. Most people don’t like to receive unsolicited emails, but by personalizing what you’re sending, using innovative subject lines and other tricks, you can get most people to open your email.
If you’ve tried Google.com, Facebook and other social media sites, you can always try a company’s “About” page on their website. Most companies post their key personnel and employees’ contact information, which often includes their email address.
In addition to company websites, you can also search personal blogs or personal websites, which usually feature a “contact me” page that includes an email address. Another option is to go to the Google Chrome store and download the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Lite extension. Google Chrome has some extensions that can help you find a person’s email address.
They have two versions of “Sales Navigator Lite” available as an extension. “Lite” is available for free LinkedIn members, and “Premium” is for LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscribers. After you install it, you’ll view publicly available contact info, which includes a person’s email address.
Another Google Chrome extension that can help is Hunter. You’ll get 50 free searches per month, which is plenty for an average user. If it’s not enough, you can always opt for a paid subscription for unlimited searches.
If you use Gmail or Outlook, download Clearbit Connect Using the extension is easy, and it enables you to find email addresses directly from your inbox by clicking the Clearbit button, adding a selected domain and selecting the right email address from a list that will appear.
Here’s something else to consider: be a sleuth! That’s right, take an educated guess and see where it leads you. If you can get hold of one of your prospect’s coworker’s emails, the person you’re searching for may have a similar format.
Another free option to go to people-search sites, which often allow you to get free results. The only problem is that the info you find may be out of date, but it’s worth a shot since it doesn’t cost you anything.
You could also find a phone number of the person’s department at the company they work for and ask to speak to their admin. Just tell them you’re trying to “confirm” if the email address you have is accurate, and provide your best guess of what the email might be. They’ll either tell you it’s incorrect and give you the correct one, or simply tell you they can’t give it out. It’s worth trying.
Using Paid Sources To Find Email Addresses
Nuwber is one of the new generations of online tools used by those who are looking to verify or identify unknown callers, as it provides accurate reverse phone number lookup information. This tool is also used when searching for people who they would like to contact or reunite with, which includes family members, business colleagues, friends, and others. For people who are only planning on using the tool occasionally, Nuwber offers a free option. For those who do extensive searches, there is a paid option that provides exceptional value.
Find That Email is often called the “Yellow Pages of Email,” and it has a high score in the “email lookup tools test.” Companies use it for recruiting candidates, verifying email addresses, new business development, building2 links for content marketing and so much more.
eMail Prospector Pro is an email finder tool that helps you find anyone’s business email address. This tool helps to automate your search with “smart deep web search,” and uses a variety of email-finding techniques used by experts. You can check out its features by getting your first 50 email addresses for free.
Voila Norbert is another tool that is used to find emails and has a high accuracy rating in terms of finding correct emails. They offer a variety of plans that can provide up to 50,000 searches/leads per month. You can access 50 free searches on a trial basis.
Summary
The bottom line is that with some perseverance, knowledge and the right resources, you will be able to find the email of the person you’re searching for. Start with free lookup tactics on the Internet to find the email address, using everything from “educated guessing” and “sleuthing” to Google Chrome plug-ins.
To take your search to the next level, use paid sources like Nuwber, Find that Email, Voila Norbert and others. Those will expedite the process and use the best that technology has to offer or help narrow down your search.
If you are interested in even more technology-related articles and information from us here at Bit Rebels, then we have a lot to choose from.
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