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How To Find (Non-Public) Email Addresses

OliverR

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Hi Vigilante,

Thanks for posting this thread, read through it and I've been using a similar method to get e-mails for anyone for some time already so great actionable advice for everyone here.

Just gonna drop a few nuggets on what I've done after getting an e-mail as the other important step is to get someone of high position to actually respond when you send out an e-mail.

So here is a series of e-mail templates I've used to get someone to respond to me.

E-mail 1
Subject line : specific to your request but be to the point and not too long, you can test what yields the best response rate.
Content:
Dear (Insert first name), [I've found that first name works better than Mr.Smith]
We haven’t spoken before – I’m (First Name Last Name), CEO of (insert your company name here), a leading (company in your specific industry/niche). (Insert target company name) is one of the leading (which service provider) in the (Insert industry) space and I would like to learn more about your views on (Insert what is the broad scope of your proposition).

Who is the best person to have a short 15 minute call with me? (make it easy to help you)
Kind Regards,
(Insert your signature)

E-mail 2 (wait 3 days if no response)
Subject line: Same as in first but make sure it has RE: in the subject line to show continuity (will come in handy with more advanced tactic I will share later)
Content:
Dear (Insert first name of recipient),

Who is the best person to have a short 15min call about (insert your request here)

Kind regards,
(Insert signature)

E-mail 3 (send 1 week after e-mail 2 if no response, this one is getting aggressive and usually will yield in a response if first 2 fail)
Subject line: Same as first e-mail but have RE:RE: in front
Content:
(Insert first name of recipient), any thoughts on below?

(Your first name)

PS! If you are individually contacting people (not in bulk) then make sure to use the reply all function in your e-mail client for the previously sent e-mails this will make sure that the whole thread is included. If you didn't get a response moving through the 3 e-mails.

Will post some more advanced tactics later to do the same thing in bulk using word/excel/outlook and make it appear personal. As I've found that usually there are plenty of prospects out there to approach in any field and there is no such thing as this one perfect prospect who will make or break your success and it will be a numbers game. (I've used the more advance tactics to reach out to hundreds of prospects this way at once and gotten through to some of the biggest players in the investment scene globally)

Hope it helps :)
 
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vshetty.vs

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You can also find personal emails (which is sometimes better than the person's corporate email) through Facebook. Take my facebook account for example, and go to my profile. Now, look at the URL. It should be a combinations of the person's name and some random numbers. (mine is facebook.com/matthew.sonnier.94). Now, pull up your email and in the TO: box, type everything after the slash@facebook.com (mine would be matthew.sonnier.94@facebook.com). Doing this will send an email to whatever email that person uses for their facebook.
Are you sure about that. I tried it but it didn't work for me
 

Roland

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Quick tip if you want to try and connect with someone on Linked In (this was given to me by a head hunter):

Usually if you don't know this person, Linked In will ask you to confirm your relationship to him/her and his/her email address to prove that you know each other.

If you try and connect with the same person on the Linked In app though it won't ask you this and will send the request straight away.
The person seeing your request might still not accept it but as everybody knows how complicated the connection process is made for unrelated people on Linked In, chances are the curiosity will make him/her accept it to see what you want. This in turn will give you ONE shot to get their attention.

It is a long shot but it has proved to be working several times for me already.
 

DHurt

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Another useful service I use in my real estate investing business is TLOxp. You have to go through an application and auditing process (e.g. have to have a business entity and an office with certain criteria - home offices are fine so long as they check the boxes), but once you have the service you can find just about anyone. I use it primarily to find the owners of abandoned properties, but it has proven useful to find contact info (usually personal and business) for people I can't find through the usual channels.
 
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FeaRxUnLeAsHeD

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Email Hunter - it's a chrome app. I use it for prospecting at my job combined with Linkedin Sales Navigator.
 

amp0193

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You can find it. Don't stop at the first road block. The harder the barriers to entry, the better you will be when you figure out how to navigate past them.

I just got a direct hit on a contact I've been trying to reach. Thanks for the tips!


I felt this thread could use a bump too :)
 

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Here is another little tip that should help you guys out.

When sending emails, put a question as the subject of your email.

Frame your usual statement as a question. It sounds cheesy but it works.

I have been emailing a few contacts and I get no replies. I reframe my subject as a question and it automatically pops out for my target. Think about it, these guys might get 100 emails a day that all look the same. Force them to think about answering a question (subconscious reaction) and it automatically stands out.

Humans see questions and our brains immediately think of an answer, if we want to or not. Forcing the brain out of its habit of ignoring emails, and thinking about answering, moves your email from the lizard brain and into the frontal cortex.

Here is another thing that works on the phone. Never ask "Do you have a few minutes to chat?". When you do that they can say no, it is an automatic response. Or if they do say "yes" they don't have to mean it. Ask them "Is now a bad time to talk?". By doing that you snap them out of their ignore-mode and forces them to think about what you just asked them, because it is different than what they are used to. If they say "No, now is not a bad time. I have a few minutes", they had to think about it. They will pay attention to you. Make it interesting because you only have them for a short while before they go back to thinking about whatever shit they are dealing with.
 
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OliverR

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Here is another thing that works on the phone. Never ask "Do you have a few minutes to chat?". When you do that they can say no, it is an automatic response. Or if they do say "yes" they don't have to mean it. Ask them "Is now a bad time to talk?". By doing that you snap them out of their ignore-mode and forces them to think about what you just asked them, because it is different than what they are used to. If they say "No, now is not a bad time. I have a few minutes", they had to think about it. They will pay attention to you. Make it interesting because you only have them for a short while before they go back to thinking about whatever sh*t they are dealing with.

Solid piece of advice from "Never Split The Difference" by Chris Voss, a very good read by the way :)
 

OliverR

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Also if you are hunting for personal e-mails then a good trick is hidden in Twitter. If you log out of your account and your target has a twitter account then go to "forgot my password" and insert the user name of the target. 70% of the time it will give you part of the email, where it gives you some of the characters of the real email they use to login (mostly their personal one) and then hides the rest with ******* where the character count equals that of the actual email. From there it's fairly easy to figure out the email of the person when adding to excel the hidden email and doing a character count and then test different options on your own with the character count and if they match you might have a winner ;)
 

GPM

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That is where I got it @OliverR

I felt like a moron when I started doing it, because it feels so unnatural. But it works!! It absolutely has changed the way I go about initial communication, and the results are amazing. Not one person has ever called me out on it, which is what I deep down thought would happen.

In fact, it is so powerful I even use it on my own family when sending them things. People are notoriously bad at replying to emails and/or not paying attention on the phone. This gives them a little kick in the a$$ so that they actually listen.
 
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OliverR

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That is where I got it @OliverR

I felt like a moron when I started doing it, because it feels so unnatural. But it works!! It absolutely has changed the way I go about initial communication, and the results are amazing. Not one person has ever called me out on it, which is what I deep down thought would happen.

In fact, it is so powerful I even use it on my own family when sending them things. People are notoriously bad at replying to emails and/or not paying attention on the phone. This gives them a little kick in the a$$ so that they actually listen.
Yeah for sure, completely changed my approach after reading it. Was awkward as f*** at first but the results speak for itself. Also does wonders if you redo your sales strategy in for example websites with the standard approach of guiding prospects through a "yes" funnel.
 

amp0193

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I have been emailing a few contacts and I get no replies. I reframe my subject as a question and it automatically pops out for my target. Think about it, these guys might get 100 emails a day that all look the same. Force them to think about answering a question (subconscious reaction) and it automatically stands out.

Can concur, questions rock!

If cold-emailing a gate-keeper, my subject line is just "Appropriate Person?". Then a 1-2 sentence email asking if they are the appropriate person for X. No spiel, no info about me. Just a question.

Ask them "Is now a bad time to talk?".

I always say "Is now a good time to talk?" but i like yours better!
 

amp0193

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Also if you are hunting for personal e-mails then a good trick is hidden in Twitter. If you log out of your account and your target has a twitter account then go to "forgot my password" and insert the user name of the target. 70% of the time it will give you part of the email, where it gives you some of the characters of the real email they use to login (mostly their personal one) and then hides the rest with ******* where the character count equals that of the actual email. From there it's fairly easy to figure out the email of the person when adding to excel the hidden email and doing a character count and then test different options on your own with the character count and if they match you might have a winner ;)


hahahahahaha LOVE IT
 
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jpn

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I second @ChrisJHarrington and @GPM comments.

Mail Hunter plugin for Chrome is a goldmine. Go to the website of the company you want to reach, click the icon and it will show you all known names & e-mail addresses, and the structure of their e-mails (for example: fname.lname@domain.com).

And asking a question is a great way to increase response rates. For a recently investigated business idea, I asked prospects for Advice on how they view the problem I wanted to solve. 100% response rate.
 

NaPal

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I use mailtester.com to verify if an email address is valid. This doens't always work since it depends on certain email protocols that can be different between organizations. It is a good resource to pinpoint an exact email address.

A lot of times you can guess the email address, and this will tell if your right!

4gdsf_1.png
 

amp0193

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I use mailtester.com to verify if an email address is valid.

This is good advice. You always want to run a check on emails, especially if you've got a big list. You don't want your email provider starting to hurt your deliver-ability to inboxes by thinking of you as spam, when you're sending a bunch of failed emails to dead accounts.
 
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OliverR

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As long as we are sharing info on email then I wanted to add a great resource I have found with actionable advice for your email game.

E-mail service provider Yesmail has a very decent blog where they give gold on what is working on e-mail based on actual email data that passes through their service. Like open/reply rates of emails by best subjects. When is it good to send e-mails etc. Just scroll through it and you are guaranteed to find actionable information on how to improve your email game.
The blog can be found here Email Tips Archives - Yesware Blog

I also gathered some posts I have found useful so you can go there quickly:

1. Email subject lines. Open and reply rates of subjects based on 115M emails sent. Example of best performers and worse ones:
115 Million Tracked Emails Give Away The Best Email Subject Lines

2. Example of a proposal once email communication has been established
Proposal Template: The Basics You Need & An Easy Template To Use

3. Increase Your Email Reply Rate 12% By Doing This One Simple Thing
Improve Your Email Reply Rate By 12% With This Simple Trick

4. The Best Times To Send Email For Replies (Backed By Data)
Best Time To Send Email For Replies, Backed By Data

5. Another one on subject lines
The Best Email Subject Lines (And The Worst) — Backed By Data

Anyways lot's of useful actionable information there. Definitely worth to read through, enjoy.
 

AshrafI

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I like to use hunter.io as they have an email verifier and they scrape emails from a company's website, however it limits your searches if you do not pay for a subscription. I also tend to use ceoemail.com, which finds the email of the CEO of the company and is a free option, but it is only availabe in the UK.
 

Not Most People

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Step 2. LinkedIn - see if by some miracle of God they listed their contact information on LinkedIn

Step 3. And the most FREQUENT way to cause a direct hit, is by searching for corollary email addresses. corollary means like one that is provided elsewhere.

Here are a few examples :


  • Then I know that Mr.Big would probably be FredB@chicagocubs.com. I am looking for the pattern of how they encode their emails.



I've used a similar angle to this - one that works when you are trying to reach someone of a specific position, but don't even know the name or email of the person you are trying to reach. Here's how it works:

  • Use Step 3 that you mentioned to find out how the business formats their email address. Usually can find at least 1 email somewhere on company website. Common formats such as:
  • Go to LinkedIn and search for the business.
  • When the business comes up, it will show a link for "X amount of employees on LinkedIn" and it will show you everyone who lists that business as their employer on LinkedIn
  • Scroll through the results and find the person in the position you are looking for
  • They won't have their email available to you if you're not connected with them, but you can now apply their name to the company format/corollary email address
  • This doesn't work 100% of the time as not every LI profile is updated but it will work about 80% of the time
Hope that all makes sense
 
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