There are many reasons to find someone’s email address. There are also many ways to find those email addresses. Some of those methods provide better results than others. It might take some digging and heavy searching, and you might need to use multiple methods, but it is possible to find the email address you need. In this post, we’ll see how to find someone’s email address using several methods to ensure your hunt is successful.
Written on by Randy A. Brown
Estimated read time 5 minutes
How to Find Someone's Email Address
Perhaps the easiest method to find an email address is to use an email address lookup tool. There are lots of email lookup tools to choose from. The image above is from Hunter.io. To use them, enter the person’s name and website into the search field.
Here is a list of popular email search websites and extensions. Most require a subscription, but most of them do include some searches for free.
Look up the Email Address with Domain Searches
If the person has a website, you might be able to find their email address by searching on Who.is, or similar tools. Their WHOIS information is registered when they purchased the domain name, and this information is available to the public. If they’ve paid extra for privacy, then this won’t provide the email address, but it’s worth trying. However, the person that purchased the domain might not be the same as the person that owns the website. If not, they might be able to help you anyway.
Popular search tools include:
Check Their Social Media Profiles
Many users of social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter (now X), LinkedIn, and many others often show their email addresses. As long as the person has included, and updated, their email address, this is one of the best methods for finding email addresses. We’ll look at the details for the main three platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) individually.
Find an Email Address with Facebook
Many people include their email addresses in their Facebook information. To find it, go to their personal Facebook profile, or their Facebook Page for businesses, select About, and then click on Contact and Basic Info. If they’ve provided an email address, it will be under the section called Contact Info.
Find an Email Address with Twitter (X)
Many Twitter, or X, users include their email address in their bio. That makes it easy to find. Some users include them in their tweets. Simply search for them on Twitter and look through their tweets to find their email address.
We can also search Twitter for email addresses. Some use the words “at” and “dot” to keep bots from finding their email addresses too easily. Fortunately, we can use Twitter to search for these email addresses using the Twitter Advanced Search Tool.
Opening Advanced Search provides you with a popup where you can adjust your search parameters. Under Words, search for the words “email”, “at”, “contact”, etc. to filter the results.
Under Accounts, enter the name of the company you want to see email addresses for. Then, run the search and look through the results.
Find an Email Address with LinkedIn
LinkedIn was designed to make connections. This means that people are more likely to provide an email on LinkedIn than any other platform. To find an email on LinkedIn, simply go to their profile and select Contact Info. You’ll see a popup with their contact information that likely includes an email address.
If the person hasn’t provided an email address, and they’re a connection with you on LinkedIn, you might be able to get their email address by exporting your LinkedIn connections. Use this with caution, though. Abusing this method could result in losing your LinkedIn account as it could raise a red flag and be seen as a data breach. Using it once won’t hurt, though.
To export your LinkedIn contacts, select Me and click Settings and Privacy.
Next, select Data Privacy. Look for a section titled How LinkedIn Uses Your Data and select Get a Copy of Your Data.
Select Connections and click the button labeled Request Archive. LinkedIn will then send you an email with a spreadsheet that includes the email addresses of all your contacts.
Check Their YouTube About Page
If the person you’re interested in publishes videos on YouTube, there’s a good chance they’ve included their email address on their About page. Go to their channel, select About, and scroll down to Details. There may be an email address for business inquiries. Click the button labeled View Email Address. You might have a verify that you’re a person and not a bot.
Check Their Website
Many website owners include their email addresses on their About, Contact, and Team Members pages. They often use the words “at” and “dot” to keep bots from finding their email addresses too easily. Team pages often display cards of each team member with contact information. All these pages sometimes include a clickable email address that opens in your default email app.
Use Their Contact Form
Many websites include a contact form rather than providing an email address. You could ask for the email address you need. The responses are sent to your email address, providing you with their email address. Sometimes, these are generic email addresses that don’t check for replies, but it’s possible to get an email address that you can use.
For more information about contact forms for WordPress, see the article Best WordPress Contact Form Plugins.
Subscribe to Their Newsletter
Subscribing to newsletters is an excellent way to contact someone. Publishers often include their contact information in their newsletters. Some even send the newsletter from their personal email address. Sometimes the newsletter is sent from an info address, such as [email protected]. This could also be an email the person uses. You can reply to the newsletter to see if you get a response.
Check Your Email List
If there’s a possibility that the person you want to contact has subscribed to your email newsletter, then you could view your list of subscribers to find their email addresses. This is more likely if you have a large subscriber base, are a large company, run in the same circles, or are well-known in your industry.
Although each platform is different, most work in a similar fashion. Most provide you with a list of your subscribers that you can access online or download and view in a spreadsheet. These lists include the name and email address of each subscriber. Log in to your email newsletter provider, choose the email list you want to see, and then view your contacts. You can sort and search by name, company, etc.
For more information about building your email list, see the article 10 Reasons Why You Need to Build an Email List.
Use Google
Google is a great way to find information. Although you can use Google to find information such as an email address, the results may be difficult to use unless the person has a unique name or you have some information to help identify them. Even my name is so common that you’ll get too many results, and it can be difficult to know which is which.
For the best results, use Google’s advanced search features. This includes using identifiers such as their place of work, occupation, what they’re known for, where they live, and operators such as the plus sign and quotations. You can search for their email or their place of work to find a work email.
Search for their name, an identifier to help narrow the search, and add a keyword such as “+ email”, “+contact”, “+contact information”, etc., to your search. You might need to try several of these options to find the email you’re looking for.
To search a company’s website for email addresses, enter “site:example.com + name + email”. You might need to try several variations, such as “firstname.lastname” in place of their name, add the company’s name, or even add the domain name.
You can use these search features to find emails for company websites, personal blogs, social media pages, and more. To find an email through social media, simply type the social media URL, the person’s name, and the keyword (such as “email”).
Ask Them for Their Email Address
You could always simply ask someone for their email address. Be sure to include the reason you need their email address. This will help ensure a positive response.
The easiest way to ask them is by getting in touch with them on social media. You could ask within a social media comment, direct message, chat box, contact form, generic email address, etc. Most companies include a generic email address such as info, contact, sales, support, hello, mail, etc. Add these to their company name and verify if the email address works.
If you’re not already connected with them, you could also have someone to introduce you. We often have a lot of contacts, and we sometimes have contacts in common with the person we want to meet. This is an excellent use of your network. Most social media platforms show if you have mutual connections.
How to Guess Their Email Address
It’s possible to guess someone’s email address. This is especially helpful if you know their company name or domain name. Many company email addresses follow a few simple patterns. This is easier if you have the email address of someone else at the company since this provides the pattern.
Most company email addresses follow these types of patterns:
If the email address structure doesn’t follow one of these patterns, try similar patterns. Companies prefer simple patterns most of the time because they don’t want their email addresses to be difficult for clients to remember.
Verifying the Email Address
You should verify any email address before sending your message. You’ll get a better response to your email if you’ve sent it to the correct person. This will also help to ensure your email doesn’t bounce. Also, you won’t have to wonder if the email was correct, and it helps keep your email from being marked as spam. There are a few ways to verify email addresses.
Verifying the email is especially important if you’ve gotten several email address patterns that might work for the email address you’re looking for. You could send an email to every address to verify which is correct, but this could get your email marked as spam. You should also verify the email address if you’ve found it in a search.
The best option is to use an email verifier, such as the one from hunter.io. Simply enter the email address and select to verify. You’ll then see a response showing if the email address is valid or not.
Ending Thoughts on How to Find Someone's Email Address
That’s our look at how to find someone’s email address. There are lots of tools and options available to find email addresses. Since most of these options provide the email addresses you haven’t talked to previously, your email would be considered a cold email. Most of the time, this wouldn’t be considered a problem. We all get cold emails every day.
Having their email address is a great opportunity to make connections that you shouldn’t take lightly. Just remember to be polite and not spam them. Also, don’t share or sell their email addresses. Use it wisely.
We want to hear from you. Have you tried any of these tips to find someone’s email address? Let us know about your experience in the comments.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there alternatives to Gmail for sending bulk emails?
Yes, there are alternatives to Gmail for sending bulk emails, such as Mailchimp, Sendinblue, and Mailgun, which offer advanced features and automation options for managing and sending bulk emails.
How can I manage responses from recipients when sending bulk emails?
To manage responses from recipients when sending bulk emails, set up a dedicated email address for handling responses, use email filtering or automation tools to organize and categorize responses, and define a process for handling different types of responses.
How does domain redirection affect emails linked to the domain?
Domain redirection typically does not impact emails linked to the domain. Email services are often separate from the domain itself.
How can I optimize my bulk emails for different devices (e.g., mobile, tablet)?
To optimize bulk emails for different devices, use responsive email templates that adapt to different screen sizes, keep the design clean and simple, test your emails across various devices and email clients, and avoid using large file attachments that may slow down email loading on mobile devices.
