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I’ve made a career out of finding CEO email addresses, and there are fewer things more valuable to the growth of your company than mastering this skill!
Nowadays, I find addresses in bulk (that’s what Coldlytics does!), but I didn’t always. I used to spend my time hunting for CEO email addresses for free in order to grow my M&A pipeline.
I know firsthand that:
Let’s dive in and talk about the best strategies to find CEO email addresses that I’ve personally used!
The highest hit rate usually comes from searching the company’s website! Smaller websites often have CEOs who are willing to be more customer facing, meaning they might post their email directly on the website.
Check the “About Us” or “Teams” page and you might be able to grab an email address (or, if not, perhaps a social media handle).
For larger companies, they’re less likely to share a CEOs email address, but you can often at least confirm who the top decision-maker is. Then, you can pair this with another strategy on the list to find an email address.
Here’s how that looks on Sony’s website:
Doing this for free is going to hamstring you a little bit…but it can be done! First, it’s a great place to verify that you’ve actually found the right person as they’ll typically list their job role.
If you’re lucky, they’ll put their email address right in their contact info. Here’s what that looks like on my profile:
I don’t have my email address when you view my contact info, but sometimes you can get lucky and find that a CEO has put theirs in.
And if it isn’t there, you still have other options.
If it’s a specific CEO that you’re set on reaching, you could always try to Connect with them. You could follow them and start commenting on their posts (with real, insightful stuff) and then even hope they’ll accept an invitation to Connect.
Also, check if anyone in your current network happens to be connected to that person already. Perhaps they can help you make an introduction.
A simple Google search isn’t likely to find what you need (unless you get lucky), but with their search operators, you can greatly increase the odds of finding what you’re looking for.
Once you have the CEO’s name, try these:
The “site:” search operator will force Google to only search on that site. You don’t have to do this only with their company site—you could try LinkedIn or an industry database as well.
There are dozens of permutations of just what I listed above. Get creative and keep trying!
Companies often put out press releases when changes happen at the company, such as a merger, there’s a new member of the C-Team, or a company-wide service project. Sometimes, these press releases will have the CEO’s name and information on them.
Many companies will have their press releases distributed, but they often post them on their own website as well. Check there first, but then also look for news sites or magazines focused on the company’s niche.
At OpenAI, they released an article announcing their new CEO:
If you’re having trouble even finding the name of the CEO, this can be a great under-the-radar way to confirm who’s in charge.
Keep an eye out for mentions such as “Mike, the owner, really stepped up when…” or “John helped out even though he’s the CEO.”
While it’s a bit of grunt work, you might get lucky and find an email address in publicly available company filings. You can start your search using the SEC’s EDGAR system.
You can also look for the business’s registration documents by checking the website for the Secretary of State’s office. They typically keep records of all registered businesses.
Many CEO’s don’t even realize that they’ve put their email address in a place where the public can see! What I’ve also found is that you can sometimes find a personal Twitter account for the CEO. They’re much more likely to make their email publicly available there.
For smaller companies, the CEO may just post their email address, especially if they’re a freelancer, coach, or another type of solopreneur.
Many industries keep a list of people in their industry, sometimes with available contact information. Real estate agents are a good example, as you can search for real estate agents or an entire office.
On NAR’s website (National Association of Realtors), they make it convenient to search their directory:
Doing a quick search for offices in Utah gives you more than 1,000 results:
When you click any of those, you’ll get a name for the designated Realtor, Office Contact and a phone number. It’s not an email, but it’s still a good deal of information you can get for free in a few seconds.
Now, real estate agents are an easy sector for this search because agents want to be found, unlike many other industries. It doesn’t hurt to do a quick Google search to find industry databases and see what information is available for CEOs.
If the CEO hasn’t always been the CEO of the company, it’s possible that he or she was the hiring manager for a role in the past. Sometimes, job postings will say something “please send your resume to john@company.com” or “if you have questions about the role, please reach out to john@company.com.”
Again, it’s a bit of a long shot, but piecing together several of these strategies can dramatically increase the odds of finding a CEO’s email address for free.
While it’s a bit hit or miss, this strategy is more likely to work for smaller companies where a CEO has more time to make themselves available or to give out their information.
The key here is not to be tricky. Be nice and explain to the customer service rep why you want their email address (i.e., “I’m interested in doing some free SEO work for him.”). You’ll get some nos, but you’ll also get some yeses.
In many cases, they might redirect you elsewhere, like to a marketing director. In many cases, this might be just as effective, as that person may be the decision-maker for your purposes anyway.
Many companies like to send out emails as if they’re being written by the CEO (whether they actually write it or not). While large companies rarely use the CEO’s email address, smaller companies often do.
For this, you’ll want to check the “from” line:
By clicking on “to me,” you’ll uncover details about the email, including who sent it. In some cases, you’ll see “no-reply” type emails or “hello@company.com” which are unlikely to go to the CEO.
In that example image above, it appears to be an email address that goes straight back to the owner. Bingo!
There are plenty of reasons why attending industry events is incredibly useful beyond gathering email addresses!
For example:
This strategy is especially effective if you’re going after larger accounts, such as a $20k consulting package.
Is finding CEO email addresses the right move for your business? It depends, of course. If you’re just starting out with little budget but a ton of grit, it can be the best way to blunt-force your way to build a significant business.
But let’s dive into why it’s right or not for you.
Here’s why finding CEO email addresses for free can be exactly what you need.
Accuracy - This is the best way to ensure that you’ve got the latest, most up-to-date information for that CEO. Many list providers don’t update their data often enough, resulting in disconnected phones or bounced emails.
Unique - Another issue with purchasing lists is that data providers often sell the same lists to dozens or hundreds of marketers. Your pitch is less effective if tons of other marketers are already hitting them up. When you build a list manually (i.e., free), no one else will have your exact list.
Free - The strategies outlined here don’t cost anything! You could spend some money to access a directory or to upgrade your LinkedIn account, but even that’s usually not very expensive.
What’s the downside of finding CEO email address for free?
Time-Consuming - There’s only one on this list, but it’s a biggie. You’ve probably heard the adage that you’ve got to spend time or money, and it’s never truer than here. After purchasing a list from a data provider, you can get a list of thousands quickly, but it’ll cost you.
However, finding an address yourself can take minutes (or even hours, if there’s an account you’re really set on getting) and there’s no guarantee you’ll get it. You’ll get faster, but it’s never going to be a process where you spend an hour and you have a massive list of CEOs to talk to.
There is an option that falls into the best of both worlds. I spent years sending millions of cold emails, and there’s one factor that influences response rate more than any other.
It’s not your “from” line or the content of your pitch. It’s not even the subject line.
It’s data quality.
Too many purchased lists are overused (i.e., the same list sold to many people), are riddled with outdated emails, or contain emails to the general office or the secretary’s inbox.
So, I made it my life’s mission to change that. At Coldlytics, we pride ourselves on having the most up-to-date information out there. In fact, we take a bit longer to get our lists to you than anyone else because a human verifies everything.
If any of those emails bounce, you send us a message, and we credit it back to you.
In other words, you can get a custom, unique list with better data than you could find on your own, and get it tomorrow. While it’s not free, results are much easier to come by with the best lists in the business.
Ready to take the next step? Schedule a quick chat—we’d love to help you grow!
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