When you need to get in touch with somebody you don’t know, whether it is for business-related or personal reasons, finding a valid email address will most likely be your firs step. Now, you might start thinking finding email addresses is all about complicated hacking methods. Nonsense! With today’s high-end technology and user-friendly browsers finding someone’s valid email address has never been easier. The information you so desperately need can be literally just a few clicks away.
When you have to send someone an email filled with important information you have to be sure you’ll get a response. Being able to find the valid email address of someone you don’t know will definitely help you in the long run, especially when it comes to applying for jobs or seeking media coverage for a story you wrote on your blog. All you have to do is make sure to follow reliable guides and keep useful tips in mind. Otherwise you risk hitting a wall in your search for valuable information. Here’s some useful pointers that should help you on your road to success:
Basic Google searches come first
Sometimes finding a valid email address can be as simple as typing into your search browser. Start your hunt with some basic search queries for the name of the person you need to get in contact with. If the name is more unique, like Guy McGuyson the IIIrd, then you should get instant results. Otherwise you will need to add certain modifiers. Try typing in these things to narrow down your search:
- The person’s name, followed by the words ’email address’ or ‘valid email’.
- The person’s name, followed by the words ‘contact information’ or ‘contact details’.
- Try typing in the person’s name, followed by the name of their hometown or the company they work for if the previous methods yielded no results.
[ Photo Credits: Amarand Agasi’s flickr ]
Try a company email network to find a valid email address
This can be extremely useful, especially if you are looking for someone’s contact details in regard to a job interview, media coverage or link outreach. If you don’t know where the person in question works and need additional information LinkedIn and ZoomInfo are your best friends. You can choose to either run searches on the websites’ internal engines or try your luck with Google by typing in the person’s name, followed by the name of one of the previously mentioned websites.
If you manage to find the name of the business they work for, your next step should be looking up the company on Google. Once you find the company website try running internal searches with the person’s name, followed by the words ‘valid email’ and ‘contact’. You might just find some indexed documents containing the information you need. If you still don’t find any useful results. then you need to get more creative with Google’s search engine operators. Type ‘site:companywebsite.com’ followed by the person’s name and the words ’email’ or ‘contact’. This is a nifty trick that tells Google to retrieve more accurate information from a specific site or domain.
If the results are still unsatisfactory try typing in the previously mentioned search engine operator followed by variations of the person’s name. Make sure to add underlines and the @ symbol. A standard search query should look like this: site:companywebsite.com + variation of person’s name + @ + companyname.com. The information will most likely be bolded in the meta tags text snippets.
Use websites that can help you
There are various websites you can use to locate a valid email address. You can try your luck with a Whois search for the domain registration of the email you want to find. This method is very effective and oftentimes yields great results. Alternatively, you can try websites like Data, which hold a lot of useful information. Keep in mind that signing up is free, but you will have limited credit to search for email addresses.
You can also try more accurate and user-friendly search engines, like Snapbird. This article explains how Snapbird can be used to single out any instances of people sharing their valid email address on Twitter.
Use social networking to your advantage
You would be surprised how many people actually give out a lot of their personal information on social media websites, whether it is accidental or intended. Luckily for you there is a myriad of options you can choose from when it comes to getting information from social websites. Again, you will use the basic form of the search query on Google. Just type in the person’s name, followed by the name of a popular social website and you should soon find a valid email address.
Get more personal
It might sound like a bad idea at first, but if you play your cards right you will definitely get the information you need. Try contacting someone that you know is a mutual friend of your ‘target’. There is nothing wrong with doing this as long as you play it cool. Ask for an introduction and you have your opener. Alternatively, you can try messaging the person you are interested in on LinkedIn. Just make sure you act friendly and professional. Never contact the person and directly ask them for a valid email address, since it will only put them off.
If all else fails you can try calling
This might not sound like a pleasant idea, but it can actually get you pretty great results. Already know where the person you are interested in works? Great! You can try phoning the company and talking to the receptionist. It might sound scary, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s ultimately the receptionist’s job to give you the information you need. Just tell the receptionist you need to send the person in question urgent and important information. Specify that you lost their contact information. You will most likely be provided with a valid email address. Make sure you keep calm so you don’t sound shady.
