18 Best Strategies on How to Find Someone's Email Address

Thomas founder at Enrow

Thomas

December 12, 2023

15 min read

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title

Have you ever struggled to find someone’s email address for networking or sales purposes?

In this article, you will find the methods and tools to find anyone's email address. This article includes 18 different methods to help you find valid emails. We provide only free methods.

If you need an email occasionally, I recommend using the trial of a paid tool, which will be more efficient than other methods.

However, if you need hundreds or thousands of emails for cold emailing, an email finder will be much more efficient and save you considerable time.

We ranked the guessing methods by effectiveness. We have documented each of them with examples and tutorials when necessary.

Ready? Let's go!

Key Takeaways

  • Utilize email lookup services, free and paid tools, clever guessing techniques, company email patterns & permutator tools to find valid emails.

  • Harness social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram for contact information.

  • Investigate WHOIS records or ask shared connections for introductions to locate emails professionally.

Utilizing Email Lookup Services

Free email lookup service

Email lookup services, otherwise called email search tools, simplify finding a person’s email address. The variety of free and paid options cater to diverse needs, whether you’re prospecting a list of potential sales leads or want to ask someone a question.

An email lookup tool can be a valuable asset in your search efforts, especially compared to other email search tools available.

Free Email Lookup Tools

You can use Enrow to find anyone's professional email. You can create an account simply by clicking this link and then going to Single Search.

Type the name and the company's website of the person you are looking for. Click on Search and wait a few seconds. You can then copy the found email with one click.

The advantage of Enrow is that you can do 25 searches for free, and not found searches are refunded.

You will achieve better results with Enrow as we can verify the catch-alls, which increases your chances of finding an email by 20 to 30%.

Smart Guessing Techniques

Smart guessing presents another efficient strategy for locating email addresses: analyzing company email patterns and using email permutator tools. With some detective work and creativity, you can generate possible email addresses based on an individual’s name and domain, increasing your chances of finding the correct address.

Analyzing Company Email Patterns

The most common email pattern

Suppose we assume that 50% of professional emails are built in the following way: firstname@companydomain. Then, we could deduce that we have a one-in-two chance of landing in the primary inbox.

Most companies use the same email pattern for all employees. Knowing this, we can guess someone's correct email address.

If you need to find a CEO's email address, that would be great; for example, you found out that Angela, Dwight's wife, works with him at Schrute Farms, but you need to find Dwight's email address.

Upon searching, you come across angela@schrutefarms.com; we can deduce that they most likely use the pattern firstname@companydomain.

If Angela = angela@schrutefarms.comThe pattern used should be firstname@companydomainThen Dwight = dwight@schrutefarms.com

Grasping company email patterns is integral to formulating educated guesses regarding a person’s email address. Companies often follow standard formats, such as First Name.LastName@Company.com or FirstInitial.LastName@Company.com.

Recognizing these patterns enables you to better anticipate email addresses for other employees within the same organization, thus simplifying the email lookup process and avoiding reliance on a generic email address.

Using Email Permutator Tools

So far, we have assumed that everyone used the same pattern. However, there are many other variations of email patterns, and doing the work by hand is too long and tedious.

You can use an Email Permutator to create email patterns using the first name, last name, and company URL. You can add a middle name or a nickname if your use case calls for it.

Email permutator to guess the valid emailResults of the Email Permutator

So that you know – the first email is correct if you need help with your email enrichment. Don't hesitate to send me an email.

If you do a Google search, there are many other Email Permutators, but this one is my favorite and provides more patterns than most others.

There's also a Google spreadsheet, but you won't have a nickname like the one above.

Email permutator tools are designed to generate a list of potential email addresses based on a person’s name and domain. With the creation of multiple combinations of common email formats, these tools augment the probability of locating the correct email address, thus conserving your time and effort.

Exploring Search Methods

Utilizing advanced Google search operators

Advanced Google search operators and searching company websites can be powerful tools for finding email addresses. Refining your search and knowing where to focus can lead to hidden email addresses and broadening your contact list. Learning to search Google effectively is essential to get the most out of these tools.

Make a web search

This is the most straightforward method and also the one we think of the fastest. Searching for an email on a search engine is a good idea, but remember that this email may be invalid if the source is old. An email verifier like Debounce can help you solve this problem.

If we assume that you only know the company's website and are looking for the email pattern, then a Google or Bing search will not work, as these search engines use @ to index social networks, so you will not find any email in this way.

On the other hand, the search engine DuckDuckGo allows this. Write in the search bar "@companydomain" and click contact info.

Email lookup with duckduckgo

The search engine displays all results using the company's domain, including an email. The keyword 'contact' specifies the pages to search primarily.

Since the correct email address is often present on the contact page or preceded by the keyword 'contact,' it will save you from searching through pages unnecessarily and wasting time.

For even more precision, you can add the first and last name of the person before the quotation marks in this way: first name, last name, and "@companydomain" contact.

Or try other keywords such as 'email,' 'email address,' 'company+email,' 'company+contact,' 'website+contact,' and 'website+email.'

Searching Company Websites

Generic email address. I guess

While looking for email addresses on company websites, it’s beneficial to check pages such as “About Us,” “Team,” and “Contact Us”.

These pages often contain email addresses for different departments or individuals within the company. Additionally, you can search for the company’s name along with the keyword “email” or “contact” in the company website's search bar to find specific email addresses mentioned in blog posts, press releases, or other company-related content.

About Us and Team Pages

When browsing the “About Us” and “Team” pages, look for team members' personal and contact information, including email addresses.

Knowing who’s behind a company can provide valuable insights and help you tailor your outreach efforts more effectively, especially when dealing with the same company in different contexts.

Contact Us Pages

“Contact Us” pages, also known as contact pages, can be a treasure trove of email addresses, as many websites have generic and personal email addresses. Check these pages for contact information, as

Harnessing Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms can be a goldmine for finding email addresses. Some ways to locate email addresses through profiles, posts, and direct messages include:

  • LinkedIn

  • Twitter

  • Facebook

With persistence and a keen eye for detail, you can uncover valuable contact information to connect with prospects and influencers.

LinkedIn Strategies

LinkedIn can be a good source of information when trying to find someone's email. Indeed, we often find an email address or a phone number on a profile. The information can be stored in two places:

  • In the "Contact info,” we often find the Twitter account, email, phone number, etc.

  • In the profile title or the description, even though the description is more likely.

In this case, I was looking at the email of Jason Fried, the CEO of 37signals; browsing his profile, I found his email instantly.

Guess an email address with LinkedIn about section.

Sometimes you should click on Contact info just there

Guess an email address with a LinkedIn contact info section

Now that you have their email feel free to add them as a contact and include a note with your invitation. When they have accepted your invitation, you will interact with them more casually than through email and perhaps build a real relationship.

Twitter Tactics

Most Twitter users often add their email to their bio or tweets. Since you don't have time to review thousands of tweets, we will use Twitter Advanced Search.

Search for terms such as 'email,' 'email me,' 'at,' 'contact,' or 'reach,' along with the targeted account.

Twitter's advanced search interface

Scroll below to Account and add the account you are looking for.

Twitter advanced search

Then click on Search. After a bit of scrolling, I finally found Jason's email!

List of tweets on X with emails inside

Now that you have his email, you can contact him. If your target is active on Twitter, you can also start a conversation with him through direct messages.

When contacting someone on social media, there's less formality than with an email, and you might have a better chance of getting in touch with them. If his messaging seems closed, you need to follow him before being able to DM him.

You could react to his latest tweet and ask to message him directly if you didn't find his email.

You can also use the search bar directly to look for emails using this query: keyword (from:account). Here is an example: email me (from:jasonfried)

Facebook Tips


When searching for someone's email, a frequently overlooked method is to check their Facebook page or profile. This technique only sometimes works but can sometimes get you out of a tight spot. This is especially true when the person you're trying to contact uses a personal email address for their business.

Facebook is a great way to find emails from craftsmen, small businesses, or influencers.

Try with Google products

Google products like Gmail and Google Sheets can also be valuable resources for verifying email addresses. By leveraging these tools, you can ensure that your contact list is accurate.

Verify with Gmail

An excellent way to find someone's email address is to use Gmail. In the previous method, we used an Email Permutator to find different patterns for an email.

Email permutator to guess a valid email address with Gmail

We will paste this list into a new email without sending it. The idea is to hover over each of them with your mouse. When an email is valid, you should see a color different from the blue of the others or the photo of the person you're looking for.

Guess a valid email address with Gmail.

Bingo! Thomas [at] enrow.io is the correct email; could you please delete the other emails, and you can send me an email?

This technique works only for Google Workspace users. It won't work if the email is set up with Microsoft 365 or other providers.

Verify with Google Sheet

This technique for finding someone's email is relatively unknown but works as well as Gmail's, except it's simpler to check several at once and more efficiently.

Like the previous method, this technique only works if the email you are looking for has been set up with Google Workspace (ex-Gsuite).

The first step is to use an Email Permutator; this tool will generate the email patterns you want to check on your behalf. Fill in the first name, last name, and the company's URL, then click on Permutate. Copy the list of generated emails as shown below.

Email permutator to guess a valid email address

Then, go to Google Sheets. You can use the Google Chrome shortcut by typing 'sheet.new' in the URL bar to open a new spreadsheet quickly.

This is a valid email address

People smart chips Google sheet valid email

This is an invalid email address

People smart chips Google sheet invalid email

If you see a photo or the profile photo is not blue like the screenshot above when you hover it with your mouse, the email you are looking for is valid.

The advantage of Google Sheets over Gmail is its scalability. Indeed, if you are looking for several emails, it's more straightforward and more practical with a spreadsheet than an email.

Subscribing to Newsletters

Subscribing to newsletters can be a clever way to:

  • Find email addresses

  • Engage with content to build relationships

  • Boost your opportunities to connect with the right individuals

  • Grow your network

Finding Opt-in Forms

Locating opt-in forms on websites or blogs is the first step to subscribing to newsletters and receiving email updates from prospects. By providing your email address and opting into their mailing list, you can gain access to valuable information and build a relationship with the content creator.

Engaging with Newsletter Content

One of the best ways to build a relationship with prospects is by engaging with their newsletter content. Replying to emails with insightful questions or comments can increase the chances of receiving a response from a personal email address. You can engage authentically and show genuine interest in the content; the connections you form may surprise you.

Investigating WHOIS Records

How to find email addresses with WHOIS records

WHOIS records can be a valuable resource for finding the email addresses of a website or personal blog owners. By performing a WHOIS search, although contact details may be concealed due to privacy considerations, scrutinizing WHOIS records can yield helpful information about domain ownership and registration.

Asking for Introductions

Sometimes, the most direct approach is the best one. Requesting introductions or the appropriate email address to reach a prospect through shared connections on social media or within your network can be an exceedingly effective method for locating email addresses.

Maintain courtesy and authenticity in your request; the results may pleasantly surprise you.

Reviewing Your Email List

Don’t forget to review your existing email list! You may already have prospects who have subscribed to your newsletter or engaged with your content. Analyzing your subscriber data and email marketing reports allows for identifying potential prospects, enabling a more effective targeting of your outreach efforts.

Summary

In conclusion, finding someone’s email address or contact database doesn’t have to be daunting. You can uncover valuable contact information and build lasting connections by utilizing email lookup services, clever guessing techniques, social media platforms, search methods, and more. Persistence, creativity, and genuine engagement are essential to successful email hunting. Happy hunting!

Have you ever struggled to find someone’s email address for networking or sales purposes?

In this article, you will find the methods and tools to find anyone's email address. This article includes 18 different methods to help you find valid emails. We provide only free methods.

If you need an email occasionally, I recommend using the trial of a paid tool, which will be more efficient than other methods.

However, if you need hundreds or thousands of emails for cold emailing, an email finder will be much more efficient and save you considerable time.

We ranked the guessing methods by effectiveness. We have documented each of them with examples and tutorials when necessary.

Ready? Let's go!

Key Takeaways

  • Utilize email lookup services, free and paid tools, clever guessing techniques, company email patterns & permutator tools to find valid emails.

  • Harness social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram for contact information.

  • Investigate WHOIS records or ask shared connections for introductions to locate emails professionally.

Utilizing Email Lookup Services

Free email lookup service

Email lookup services, otherwise called email search tools, simplify finding a person’s email address. The variety of free and paid options cater to diverse needs, whether you’re prospecting a list of potential sales leads or want to ask someone a question.

An email lookup tool can be a valuable asset in your search efforts, especially compared to other email search tools available.

Free Email Lookup Tools

You can use Enrow to find anyone's professional email. You can create an account simply by clicking this link and then going to Single Search.

Type the name and the company's website of the person you are looking for. Click on Search and wait a few seconds. You can then copy the found email with one click.

The advantage of Enrow is that you can do 25 searches for free, and not found searches are refunded.

You will achieve better results with Enrow as we can verify the catch-alls, which increases your chances of finding an email by 20 to 30%.

Smart Guessing Techniques

Smart guessing presents another efficient strategy for locating email addresses: analyzing company email patterns and using email permutator tools. With some detective work and creativity, you can generate possible email addresses based on an individual’s name and domain, increasing your chances of finding the correct address.

Analyzing Company Email Patterns

The most common email pattern

Suppose we assume that 50% of professional emails are built in the following way: firstname@companydomain. Then, we could deduce that we have a one-in-two chance of landing in the primary inbox.

Most companies use the same email pattern for all employees. Knowing this, we can guess someone's correct email address.

If you need to find a CEO's email address, that would be great; for example, you found out that Angela, Dwight's wife, works with him at Schrute Farms, but you need to find Dwight's email address.

Upon searching, you come across angela@schrutefarms.com; we can deduce that they most likely use the pattern firstname@companydomain.

If Angela = angela@schrutefarms.comThe pattern used should be firstname@companydomainThen Dwight = dwight@schrutefarms.com

Grasping company email patterns is integral to formulating educated guesses regarding a person’s email address. Companies often follow standard formats, such as First Name.LastName@Company.com or FirstInitial.LastName@Company.com.

Recognizing these patterns enables you to better anticipate email addresses for other employees within the same organization, thus simplifying the email lookup process and avoiding reliance on a generic email address.

Using Email Permutator Tools

So far, we have assumed that everyone used the same pattern. However, there are many other variations of email patterns, and doing the work by hand is too long and tedious.

You can use an Email Permutator to create email patterns using the first name, last name, and company URL. You can add a middle name or a nickname if your use case calls for it.

Email permutator to guess the valid emailResults of the Email Permutator

So that you know – the first email is correct if you need help with your email enrichment. Don't hesitate to send me an email.

If you do a Google search, there are many other Email Permutators, but this one is my favorite and provides more patterns than most others.

There's also a Google spreadsheet, but you won't have a nickname like the one above.

Email permutator tools are designed to generate a list of potential email addresses based on a person’s name and domain. With the creation of multiple combinations of common email formats, these tools augment the probability of locating the correct email address, thus conserving your time and effort.

Exploring Search Methods

Utilizing advanced Google search operators

Advanced Google search operators and searching company websites can be powerful tools for finding email addresses. Refining your search and knowing where to focus can lead to hidden email addresses and broadening your contact list. Learning to search Google effectively is essential to get the most out of these tools.

Make a web search

This is the most straightforward method and also the one we think of the fastest. Searching for an email on a search engine is a good idea, but remember that this email may be invalid if the source is old. An email verifier like Debounce can help you solve this problem.

If we assume that you only know the company's website and are looking for the email pattern, then a Google or Bing search will not work, as these search engines use @ to index social networks, so you will not find any email in this way.

On the other hand, the search engine DuckDuckGo allows this. Write in the search bar "@companydomain" and click contact info.

Email lookup with duckduckgo

The search engine displays all results using the company's domain, including an email. The keyword 'contact' specifies the pages to search primarily.

Since the correct email address is often present on the contact page or preceded by the keyword 'contact,' it will save you from searching through pages unnecessarily and wasting time.

For even more precision, you can add the first and last name of the person before the quotation marks in this way: first name, last name, and "@companydomain" contact.

Or try other keywords such as 'email,' 'email address,' 'company+email,' 'company+contact,' 'website+contact,' and 'website+email.'

Searching Company Websites

Generic email address. I guess

While looking for email addresses on company websites, it’s beneficial to check pages such as “About Us,” “Team,” and “Contact Us”.

These pages often contain email addresses for different departments or individuals within the company. Additionally, you can search for the company’s name along with the keyword “email” or “contact” in the company website's search bar to find specific email addresses mentioned in blog posts, press releases, or other company-related content.

About Us and Team Pages

When browsing the “About Us” and “Team” pages, look for team members' personal and contact information, including email addresses.

Knowing who’s behind a company can provide valuable insights and help you tailor your outreach efforts more effectively, especially when dealing with the same company in different contexts.

Contact Us Pages

“Contact Us” pages, also known as contact pages, can be a treasure trove of email addresses, as many websites have generic and personal email addresses. Check these pages for contact information, as

Harnessing Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms can be a goldmine for finding email addresses. Some ways to locate email addresses through profiles, posts, and direct messages include:

  • LinkedIn

  • Twitter

  • Facebook

With persistence and a keen eye for detail, you can uncover valuable contact information to connect with prospects and influencers.

LinkedIn Strategies

LinkedIn can be a good source of information when trying to find someone's email. Indeed, we often find an email address or a phone number on a profile. The information can be stored in two places:

  • In the "Contact info,” we often find the Twitter account, email, phone number, etc.

  • In the profile title or the description, even though the description is more likely.

In this case, I was looking at the email of Jason Fried, the CEO of 37signals; browsing his profile, I found his email instantly.

Guess an email address with LinkedIn about section.

Sometimes you should click on Contact info just there

Guess an email address with a LinkedIn contact info section

Now that you have their email feel free to add them as a contact and include a note with your invitation. When they have accepted your invitation, you will interact with them more casually than through email and perhaps build a real relationship.

Twitter Tactics

Most Twitter users often add their email to their bio or tweets. Since you don't have time to review thousands of tweets, we will use Twitter Advanced Search.

Search for terms such as 'email,' 'email me,' 'at,' 'contact,' or 'reach,' along with the targeted account.

Twitter's advanced search interface

Scroll below to Account and add the account you are looking for.

Twitter advanced search

Then click on Search. After a bit of scrolling, I finally found Jason's email!

List of tweets on X with emails inside

Now that you have his email, you can contact him. If your target is active on Twitter, you can also start a conversation with him through direct messages.

When contacting someone on social media, there's less formality than with an email, and you might have a better chance of getting in touch with them. If his messaging seems closed, you need to follow him before being able to DM him.

You could react to his latest tweet and ask to message him directly if you didn't find his email.

You can also use the search bar directly to look for emails using this query: keyword (from:account). Here is an example: email me (from:jasonfried)

Facebook Tips


When searching for someone's email, a frequently overlooked method is to check their Facebook page or profile. This technique only sometimes works but can sometimes get you out of a tight spot. This is especially true when the person you're trying to contact uses a personal email address for their business.

Facebook is a great way to find emails from craftsmen, small businesses, or influencers.

Try with Google products

Google products like Gmail and Google Sheets can also be valuable resources for verifying email addresses. By leveraging these tools, you can ensure that your contact list is accurate.

Verify with Gmail

An excellent way to find someone's email address is to use Gmail. In the previous method, we used an Email Permutator to find different patterns for an email.

Email permutator to guess a valid email address with Gmail

We will paste this list into a new email without sending it. The idea is to hover over each of them with your mouse. When an email is valid, you should see a color different from the blue of the others or the photo of the person you're looking for.

Guess a valid email address with Gmail.

Bingo! Thomas [at] enrow.io is the correct email; could you please delete the other emails, and you can send me an email?

This technique works only for Google Workspace users. It won't work if the email is set up with Microsoft 365 or other providers.

Verify with Google Sheet

This technique for finding someone's email is relatively unknown but works as well as Gmail's, except it's simpler to check several at once and more efficiently.

Like the previous method, this technique only works if the email you are looking for has been set up with Google Workspace (ex-Gsuite).

The first step is to use an Email Permutator; this tool will generate the email patterns you want to check on your behalf. Fill in the first name, last name, and the company's URL, then click on Permutate. Copy the list of generated emails as shown below.

Email permutator to guess a valid email address

Then, go to Google Sheets. You can use the Google Chrome shortcut by typing 'sheet.new' in the URL bar to open a new spreadsheet quickly.

This is a valid email address

People smart chips Google sheet valid email

This is an invalid email address

People smart chips Google sheet invalid email

If you see a photo or the profile photo is not blue like the screenshot above when you hover it with your mouse, the email you are looking for is valid.

The advantage of Google Sheets over Gmail is its scalability. Indeed, if you are looking for several emails, it's more straightforward and more practical with a spreadsheet than an email.

Subscribing to Newsletters

Subscribing to newsletters can be a clever way to:

  • Find email addresses

  • Engage with content to build relationships

  • Boost your opportunities to connect with the right individuals

  • Grow your network

Finding Opt-in Forms

Locating opt-in forms on websites or blogs is the first step to subscribing to newsletters and receiving email updates from prospects. By providing your email address and opting into their mailing list, you can gain access to valuable information and build a relationship with the content creator.

Engaging with Newsletter Content

One of the best ways to build a relationship with prospects is by engaging with their newsletter content. Replying to emails with insightful questions or comments can increase the chances of receiving a response from a personal email address. You can engage authentically and show genuine interest in the content; the connections you form may surprise you.

Investigating WHOIS Records

How to find email addresses with WHOIS records

WHOIS records can be a valuable resource for finding the email addresses of a website or personal blog owners. By performing a WHOIS search, although contact details may be concealed due to privacy considerations, scrutinizing WHOIS records can yield helpful information about domain ownership and registration.

Asking for Introductions

Sometimes, the most direct approach is the best one. Requesting introductions or the appropriate email address to reach a prospect through shared connections on social media or within your network can be an exceedingly effective method for locating email addresses.

Maintain courtesy and authenticity in your request; the results may pleasantly surprise you.

Reviewing Your Email List

Don’t forget to review your existing email list! You may already have prospects who have subscribed to your newsletter or engaged with your content. Analyzing your subscriber data and email marketing reports allows for identifying potential prospects, enabling a more effective targeting of your outreach efforts.

Summary

In conclusion, finding someone’s email address or contact database doesn’t have to be daunting. You can uncover valuable contact information and build lasting connections by utilizing email lookup services, clever guessing techniques, social media platforms, search methods, and more. Persistence, creativity, and genuine engagement are essential to successful email hunting. Happy hunting!

Have you ever struggled to find someone’s email address for networking or sales purposes?

In this article, you will find the methods and tools to find anyone's email address. This article includes 18 different methods to help you find valid emails. We provide only free methods.

If you need an email occasionally, I recommend using the trial of a paid tool, which will be more efficient than other methods.

However, if you need hundreds or thousands of emails for cold emailing, an email finder will be much more efficient and save you considerable time.

We ranked the guessing methods by effectiveness. We have documented each of them with examples and tutorials when necessary.

Ready? Let's go!

Key Takeaways

  • Utilize email lookup services, free and paid tools, clever guessing techniques, company email patterns & permutator tools to find valid emails.

  • Harness social media platforms such as LinkedIn and Instagram for contact information.

  • Investigate WHOIS records or ask shared connections for introductions to locate emails professionally.

Utilizing Email Lookup Services

Free email lookup service

Email lookup services, otherwise called email search tools, simplify finding a person’s email address. The variety of free and paid options cater to diverse needs, whether you’re prospecting a list of potential sales leads or want to ask someone a question.

An email lookup tool can be a valuable asset in your search efforts, especially compared to other email search tools available.

Free Email Lookup Tools

You can use Enrow to find anyone's professional email. You can create an account simply by clicking this link and then going to Single Search.

Type the name and the company's website of the person you are looking for. Click on Search and wait a few seconds. You can then copy the found email with one click.

The advantage of Enrow is that you can do 25 searches for free, and not found searches are refunded.

You will achieve better results with Enrow as we can verify the catch-alls, which increases your chances of finding an email by 20 to 30%.

Smart Guessing Techniques

Smart guessing presents another efficient strategy for locating email addresses: analyzing company email patterns and using email permutator tools. With some detective work and creativity, you can generate possible email addresses based on an individual’s name and domain, increasing your chances of finding the correct address.

Analyzing Company Email Patterns

The most common email pattern

Suppose we assume that 50% of professional emails are built in the following way: firstname@companydomain. Then, we could deduce that we have a one-in-two chance of landing in the primary inbox.

Most companies use the same email pattern for all employees. Knowing this, we can guess someone's correct email address.

If you need to find a CEO's email address, that would be great; for example, you found out that Angela, Dwight's wife, works with him at Schrute Farms, but you need to find Dwight's email address.

Upon searching, you come across angela@schrutefarms.com; we can deduce that they most likely use the pattern firstname@companydomain.

If Angela = angela@schrutefarms.comThe pattern used should be firstname@companydomainThen Dwight = dwight@schrutefarms.com

Grasping company email patterns is integral to formulating educated guesses regarding a person’s email address. Companies often follow standard formats, such as First Name.LastName@Company.com or FirstInitial.LastName@Company.com.

Recognizing these patterns enables you to better anticipate email addresses for other employees within the same organization, thus simplifying the email lookup process and avoiding reliance on a generic email address.

Using Email Permutator Tools

So far, we have assumed that everyone used the same pattern. However, there are many other variations of email patterns, and doing the work by hand is too long and tedious.

You can use an Email Permutator to create email patterns using the first name, last name, and company URL. You can add a middle name or a nickname if your use case calls for it.

Email permutator to guess the valid emailResults of the Email Permutator

So that you know – the first email is correct if you need help with your email enrichment. Don't hesitate to send me an email.

If you do a Google search, there are many other Email Permutators, but this one is my favorite and provides more patterns than most others.

There's also a Google spreadsheet, but you won't have a nickname like the one above.

Email permutator tools are designed to generate a list of potential email addresses based on a person’s name and domain. With the creation of multiple combinations of common email formats, these tools augment the probability of locating the correct email address, thus conserving your time and effort.

Exploring Search Methods

Utilizing advanced Google search operators

Advanced Google search operators and searching company websites can be powerful tools for finding email addresses. Refining your search and knowing where to focus can lead to hidden email addresses and broadening your contact list. Learning to search Google effectively is essential to get the most out of these tools.

Make a web search

This is the most straightforward method and also the one we think of the fastest. Searching for an email on a search engine is a good idea, but remember that this email may be invalid if the source is old. An email verifier like Debounce can help you solve this problem.

If we assume that you only know the company's website and are looking for the email pattern, then a Google or Bing search will not work, as these search engines use @ to index social networks, so you will not find any email in this way.

On the other hand, the search engine DuckDuckGo allows this. Write in the search bar "@companydomain" and click contact info.

Email lookup with duckduckgo

The search engine displays all results using the company's domain, including an email. The keyword 'contact' specifies the pages to search primarily.

Since the correct email address is often present on the contact page or preceded by the keyword 'contact,' it will save you from searching through pages unnecessarily and wasting time.

For even more precision, you can add the first and last name of the person before the quotation marks in this way: first name, last name, and "@companydomain" contact.

Or try other keywords such as 'email,' 'email address,' 'company+email,' 'company+contact,' 'website+contact,' and 'website+email.'

Searching Company Websites

Generic email address. I guess

While looking for email addresses on company websites, it’s beneficial to check pages such as “About Us,” “Team,” and “Contact Us”.

These pages often contain email addresses for different departments or individuals within the company. Additionally, you can search for the company’s name along with the keyword “email” or “contact” in the company website's search bar to find specific email addresses mentioned in blog posts, press releases, or other company-related content.

About Us and Team Pages

When browsing the “About Us” and “Team” pages, look for team members' personal and contact information, including email addresses.

Knowing who’s behind a company can provide valuable insights and help you tailor your outreach efforts more effectively, especially when dealing with the same company in different contexts.

Contact Us Pages

“Contact Us” pages, also known as contact pages, can be a treasure trove of email addresses, as many websites have generic and personal email addresses. Check these pages for contact information, as

Harnessing Social Media Platforms

Social media platforms can be a goldmine for finding email addresses. Some ways to locate email addresses through profiles, posts, and direct messages include:

  • LinkedIn

  • Twitter

  • Facebook

With persistence and a keen eye for detail, you can uncover valuable contact information to connect with prospects and influencers.

LinkedIn Strategies

LinkedIn can be a good source of information when trying to find someone's email. Indeed, we often find an email address or a phone number on a profile. The information can be stored in two places:

  • In the "Contact info,” we often find the Twitter account, email, phone number, etc.

  • In the profile title or the description, even though the description is more likely.

In this case, I was looking at the email of Jason Fried, the CEO of 37signals; browsing his profile, I found his email instantly.

Guess an email address with LinkedIn about section.

Sometimes you should click on Contact info just there

Guess an email address with a LinkedIn contact info section

Now that you have their email feel free to add them as a contact and include a note with your invitation. When they have accepted your invitation, you will interact with them more casually than through email and perhaps build a real relationship.

Twitter Tactics

Most Twitter users often add their email to their bio or tweets. Since you don't have time to review thousands of tweets, we will use Twitter Advanced Search.

Search for terms such as 'email,' 'email me,' 'at,' 'contact,' or 'reach,' along with the targeted account.

Twitter's advanced search interface

Scroll below to Account and add the account you are looking for.

Twitter advanced search

Then click on Search. After a bit of scrolling, I finally found Jason's email!

List of tweets on X with emails inside

Now that you have his email, you can contact him. If your target is active on Twitter, you can also start a conversation with him through direct messages.

When contacting someone on social media, there's less formality than with an email, and you might have a better chance of getting in touch with them. If his messaging seems closed, you need to follow him before being able to DM him.

You could react to his latest tweet and ask to message him directly if you didn't find his email.

You can also use the search bar directly to look for emails using this query: keyword (from:account). Here is an example: email me (from:jasonfried)

Facebook Tips


When searching for someone's email, a frequently overlooked method is to check their Facebook page or profile. This technique only sometimes works but can sometimes get you out of a tight spot. This is especially true when the person you're trying to contact uses a personal email address for their business.

Facebook is a great way to find emails from craftsmen, small businesses, or influencers.

Try with Google products

Google products like Gmail and Google Sheets can also be valuable resources for verifying email addresses. By leveraging these tools, you can ensure that your contact list is accurate.

Verify with Gmail

An excellent way to find someone's email address is to use Gmail. In the previous method, we used an Email Permutator to find different patterns for an email.

Email permutator to guess a valid email address with Gmail

We will paste this list into a new email without sending it. The idea is to hover over each of them with your mouse. When an email is valid, you should see a color different from the blue of the others or the photo of the person you're looking for.

Guess a valid email address with Gmail.

Bingo! Thomas [at] enrow.io is the correct email; could you please delete the other emails, and you can send me an email?

This technique works only for Google Workspace users. It won't work if the email is set up with Microsoft 365 or other providers.

Verify with Google Sheet

This technique for finding someone's email is relatively unknown but works as well as Gmail's, except it's simpler to check several at once and more efficiently.

Like the previous method, this technique only works if the email you are looking for has been set up with Google Workspace (ex-Gsuite).

The first step is to use an Email Permutator; this tool will generate the email patterns you want to check on your behalf. Fill in the first name, last name, and the company's URL, then click on Permutate. Copy the list of generated emails as shown below.

Email permutator to guess a valid email address

Then, go to Google Sheets. You can use the Google Chrome shortcut by typing 'sheet.new' in the URL bar to open a new spreadsheet quickly.

This is a valid email address

People smart chips Google sheet valid email

This is an invalid email address

People smart chips Google sheet invalid email

If you see a photo or the profile photo is not blue like the screenshot above when you hover it with your mouse, the email you are looking for is valid.

The advantage of Google Sheets over Gmail is its scalability. Indeed, if you are looking for several emails, it's more straightforward and more practical with a spreadsheet than an email.

Subscribing to Newsletters

Subscribing to newsletters can be a clever way to:

  • Find email addresses

  • Engage with content to build relationships

  • Boost your opportunities to connect with the right individuals

  • Grow your network

Finding Opt-in Forms

Locating opt-in forms on websites or blogs is the first step to subscribing to newsletters and receiving email updates from prospects. By providing your email address and opting into their mailing list, you can gain access to valuable information and build a relationship with the content creator.

Engaging with Newsletter Content

One of the best ways to build a relationship with prospects is by engaging with their newsletter content. Replying to emails with insightful questions or comments can increase the chances of receiving a response from a personal email address. You can engage authentically and show genuine interest in the content; the connections you form may surprise you.

Investigating WHOIS Records

How to find email addresses with WHOIS records

WHOIS records can be a valuable resource for finding the email addresses of a website or personal blog owners. By performing a WHOIS search, although contact details may be concealed due to privacy considerations, scrutinizing WHOIS records can yield helpful information about domain ownership and registration.

Asking for Introductions

Sometimes, the most direct approach is the best one. Requesting introductions or the appropriate email address to reach a prospect through shared connections on social media or within your network can be an exceedingly effective method for locating email addresses.

Maintain courtesy and authenticity in your request; the results may pleasantly surprise you.

Reviewing Your Email List

Don’t forget to review your existing email list! You may already have prospects who have subscribed to your newsletter or engaged with your content. Analyzing your subscriber data and email marketing reports allows for identifying potential prospects, enabling a more effective targeting of your outreach efforts.

Summary

In conclusion, finding someone’s email address or contact database doesn’t have to be daunting. You can uncover valuable contact information and build lasting connections by utilizing email lookup services, clever guessing techniques, social media platforms, search methods, and more. Persistence, creativity, and genuine engagement are essential to successful email hunting. Happy hunting!

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