How to Find an Email Address [11 Free Ways]

Looking for a specific email address?

These 11 email lookup tools and tactics can help you find it! 👇

1. Use an email finder.
2. Get it manually from LinkedIn.
3. Use Google search operators. 
4. Ask for an introduction through your network.
5. Check your CRM.
6. Try a WHOIS lookup.
7. Try company pages.
8. Guess the email structure.
9. Ask via the “contact us” form.
10. Check people search sites.
11. Just ask for it. 

1. Use an email finder

When you want to find an email address, using an email finder tool only makes sense!

SDRs regularly use numerous email finder tools to find the contact information for prospects they want to reach. These tools may be attached to databases that provide contact information like email addresses, current job roles, company info and phone numbers.

Kaspr is an all-in-one prospecting tool that serves as an email finder (we’re great at providing accurate phone numbers if you need that, too!). 

Use Kaspr’s LinkedIn Chrome Extension to capture a prospect’s contact information from their profile while browsing on LinkedIn.

You can also use Kaspr to save prospect information in bulk from targeted searches in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, building segmented lists. Kaspr also works to enrich data in bulk from LinkedIn posts, events, groups and the people search function.

Kaspr’s free plan includes the following:

• LinkedIn Chrome Extension.
• 5 phone credits per month.
• 5 direct email address credits per month.
• 10 export credits per month. 
• Task management. 
• Basic API access.

You’ll also get unlimited access to B2B email addresses when you invite three colleagues to Kaspr (once they’ve completed signing up).

Get started with Kaspr free today. 🙌

2. Get it manually from LinkedIn

When viewing someone’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll likely see “contact info” underneath their name and headline. If you click on it, it will show contact information like their email, professional phone number, blog or self-owned website - if they’ve chosen to share it.

The manual approach to get emails from LinkedIn is effective as long as your targeted prospects have their email addresses listed. To speed up the process, however, consider using Kaspr’s LinkedIn Extension, which saves SDRs hours in finding prospects.

3. Google search operators

Google search operators will help you cut through the clutter in search engines to find the information you really need.

Search operators are commands and characters that allow you to set unique search parameters to find the exact information you need - including a prospect’s actual email addresses. 

You can use Google search operators to search for a prospect’s name and the site you want to search on to make the process efficient. Here’s an example showing how we’ve used the Kaspr website as the domain we want to search.

This method can be effective if the company you’re targeting has chosen to put contact information for its people on their website. Or if you search using a profile directory (as we’ve shown with Kaspr’s above).

4. Ask for an introduction through your network

Value-based selling is becoming increasingly important. So, if you’re already building great relationships with your prospects, why not tap into your network’s connections? Prospects ask their networks for advice on which solutions to use. So, if you’re staying close with people you’ve already sold to, the introduction could be made organically. 

But If you spot a hot prospect with a mutual connection, contact that connection directly and ask for an introduction. A quick message letting them know that you believe your product could solve a pain point is all you need; you’ll want to do some research before, in any case.

If they say yes, you’ll get an email address, a genuine introduction, and a recommendation from someone already in your network. This can build trust quickly and increase the chance of an ongoing relationship. 🤝

5. Check your CRM

Before you jump through hoops to find a particular email address, take a minute to check your CRM.

It’s entirely possible that you already have the prospect’s information in your database. If not, you might have contact information from someone else at the same company and use this to guess the email address of the prospect in question (more on that in a minute!). 

6. Try a WHOIS lookup

A WHOIS lookup is a way to search registered users of a particular company domain name, potentially along with their contact information. 

It’s a domain lookup service more than an email lookup service, but it can still give you the necessary information. 

When using account-based sales prospecting tactics, you may find a particular business you want to pitch but aren’t sure who to contact. You can use a WHOIS lookup to find the domain owner and (ideally) their email address to get in touch.

This tactic isn’t foolproof, as domains can use privacy protection services to hide their information. And if you can get the contact’s information, it may not be the right person within the company to contact. 

That said, it never hurts to try and ask to be directed to the correct decision-maker. 

7. Try company pages

Company websites can be a valuable resource. They can help you determine who to reach out to (especially in smaller businesses where key people are often featured). You can start by checking a company’s “our team” pages - you might even find their email address, too. 

You can also use LinkedIn’s company pages feature to determine who to contact and look for an email address. Even if the prospect doesn’t have an email address listed, you may notice a trend in how the company’s emails are structured so that you can guess. 

8. Guess the email structure

We’ve mentioned this a few times already, but sales professionals have previously needed to be skilled at “guess the email structure.” Most sales teams now use email tools like Kaspr so they don’t have to, but it can still happen. 🤷 

Most companies automatically use the same standard format for all of their employee email addresses, often using one of the following:

• firstname.lastname@company.com
• firstinitiallastname@company.com
• firstinitial.lastname@company.com
• firstname@company.com
• firstnamelastinitial@company.com 

If you can find someone in the company with their email listed, you can use that same structure using your prospect’s name. 

And if you don’t find a company email address online, you can play the guessing game. If it bounces back, try again using a different email structure. If it’s not a valid email address, you’ll likely get a “could not be delivered” message immediately. 

You never know - you may guess the correct email address! 

9. Ask via the “contact us” form

Almost all websites have “contact us” pages featuring forms so anyone can get in touch. 

Use this contact form to say who you’d like to get in touch with and why. Think of this as a precursor to your sales email. 

Keep it brief, as you don’t need the full pitch here.

10. Check people search sites

People search sites and directories will also help you contact prospects. But you need to think about where you look. The information needs to be kept up-to-date, and you should check that they have professional email addresses listed rather than personal ones. 

Industry directories may be a good place to start, but you can also use people search sites offering free contact information. Make sure it looks like a corporate email address before you use it. 

11. Just ask for it

If you haven’t found an email address using any of the strategies above (or if steps one to three didn’t work and you don’t want to go through the rest), there’s no harm in just asking the prospect for it directly.

Start your sales cadence with a connection request, with the aim being to get a reply.

If you message with value-led info showing you’ve done your research and already know how your solution can help the end-users at the company - bingo, you’re in! Then, ask the prospect if you can continue the conversation over email and send them a personalized short demo.

If they respond, outstanding! If not, you have your answer (at least for now). 

Find email addresses with Kaspr

Kaspr makes it easy to find accurate professional email addresses so SDRs can speed up prospecting processes and accelerate the sales pipeline - sign up now.

Use our LinkedIn Chrome Extension to access prospect email addresses while browsing on the platform, or use Kaspr to find and export phone numbers in bulk to your chosen CRM. 

And with 500M+ phone numbers and email addresses in our database, there’s plenty for SDRs to do. 

Join 50K+ companies taking advantage of these benefits with Kaspr: 🙌

✅ Unlimited B2B email addresses on all plans (including free).
✅ 500M+ phone numbers and email addresses.
✅ 5 free email addresses per month
✅ Free professional email lookup service.
✅ GDPR and CCPA aligned.
✅ Collect contact information individually or in bulk.
✅ Integrations with popular CRMs.
✅ Custom plans available.
✅ Card-free signup.