Email addresses are public information, but finding them can be tricky. If you're looking for a friend's email address, for example, it's best to ask that person directly.
If you don't have the person's email address and want to find it yourself, try one of these methods and tips.
7 Tips on How to Find Someone's Email Address for Free
1. Check their personal website or blog site
Many people post their email addresses on the front page of their website, especially if they use it for business purposes. If you want to contact someone with a personal blog, check out their “About” page or contact page for more information.
2. Search for them on LinkedIn
If you know someone's name, you can usually find them on LinkedIn.
To search for their email address, however, you’ll need to connect with them first. Go to their profile and look at their connections. If they're connected to people in your network, there's a good chance that you'll find them in your network as well. If not, try looking at the connections of people who are connected to them.
If you still can't find them, try typing their name into the search bar at the top of any page on LinkedIn. This will bring up all profiles with that name on LinkedIn. Then use the Advanced Search feature to see which people are in your network or follow them closely enough to be able to send them an invitation request.
From here, a quick profile sweep will show whether or not their email address is posted on their LinkedIn page.
3. Look them up on social media
Twitter and Facebook both allow users to include an email address in their profiles, so this is another way to find someone's contact info without much trouble at all! Just look up the person on Facebook and click on "About" or "More" under their name to access their profile information and see if there's an email address listed there. If not, try looking them up on Twitter instead — many Twitter users include an @ symbol followed by their username to connect with other people who follow them online (e.g., @username). You can also search for keywords that appear frequently in tweets made by your target person.
4. Google them
Oftentimes a simple Google search is all that is required to find what you’re looking for. By putting in a person’s name and the company they work at, accompanied with the word “email”, you can often yield the desired results. If you’re having trouble, you can also perform an advanced search (link to other email trace article that includes advanced search) to refine your results even further.
5. Specialize
Email search engines. These services scan through databases of email addresses and return results based on certain criteria you provide, such as name or company name. Some services only work with domain names, while others will scan other sources as well. You can also use these tools to find out if someone has an active account or if their account has been marked for deletion.
Database lookup services. These companies specialize in providing access to databases of people's personal information. They usually require payment for their services but offer more detailed results than other methods mentioned here. If you want something simple and free, however, there are still plenty of options available for you!
Here is a quick list of email-finding software you can use to find what you are looking for (insert the link from the previous article outlining reverse email search tools).
Chief among these email finders is Closely, which works as an entirely automated sales platform as well, but specializes in that first step of the sales process: email finding.
The tool has 50 free credits so you can try it out. Simply register and apply the needed filters. You can find direct and work emails of people in it.
Also, LinkedIn Email Extractor can pull emails from LinkedIn profile pages.
Simply install Surfer and it will be running in the background. Find the needed person on LinkedIn. Tool will reveal their email addresses: direct and work ones.
6. Guess (With Some Help)
In another article (insert a link to the “sure-fire email finder article:) we discuss the different potential ways an email can be put together for company use. There are only a handful of ways a company will add a person’s name to the company’s domain name so generally, it is a walk in the park. Using tools like the Email Permutator takes the guesswork out. Entirely and populates every option a regular business would use.
7. Simply reach out
At the end of the day, it is a person you’re trying to get a hold of. Somewhere online, this person is going to have an online presence. Even if the ideal interaction you have is a formal one over email, it doesn’t hurt to reach out on the platform you know you can access them on and simply ask for a way to email them. If you are courteous and respectful when you ask, there’s a good chance the human being on the other end will understand and comply with your request. From there you can even leverage this human interaction by breaking down barriers with a friendly joke about how you asked them beforehand for their information.
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