Finding someone's professional email from their LinkedIn profile is essential for cold outreach. Here are the most effective techniques.
Waterfall Enrichment
The idea: use multiple tools sequentially. If the first doesn't find the email, the second takes over, and so on.
Typical waterfall: Apollo → Hunter → Dropcontact → Snov.io → RocketReach
Top Tools
- Apollo.io - Best database, ~70% find rate
- Hunter.io - Good for company domain emails
- Dropcontact - GDPR compliant, good for Europe
- Snov.io - Email finder + verification
- Lusha - Chrome extension, direct on LinkedIn
Automation with Clay
Clay lets you automate waterfall enrichment:
- Import your LinkedIn URLs
- Configure enrichment sources in order
- Clay tries each source until it finds the email
- Export with verified emails
Email Guessing
If tools don't work, try guessing the pattern:
// Common patterns
firstname@company.com
firstname.lastname@company.com
f.lastname@company.com
firstnamelastname@company.com
Use Hunter.io to verify if the email exists before sending.
Verification is Critical
Always verify emails before sending. High bounce rate = ruined deliverability.
- Neverbounce - Bulk verification
- ZeroBounce - Very accurate
- Hunter - Built-in verification