Before you can send a cold email, you need a valid email address. Here's how to find them reliably — without burning through credits on tools that guess wrong half the time.
Free Methods
Company website: Check the contact page, about page, and footer. Many businesses list a general email like hello@company.com or info@company.com. For small businesses, this often goes directly to the owner.
LinkedIn: Many professionals list their email on their LinkedIn profile. You can see it once you're connected, or sometimes it's visible in the "Contact info" section even without connecting.
Google "email" site:company.com: Sometimes emails are buried in press releases, blog posts, or team pages. A quick Google search usually surfaces them.
Hunter.io (free tier): 25 free searches per month. Enter a domain and it returns all emails it's found associated with that domain, with a confidence score.
Paid Tools Worth Considering
Apollo.io: The most generous free tier in the market (100 email credits/month). Also includes prospect search and sequencing features.
Hunter.io Pro: Better for agencies doing high-volume prospecting. Good confidence scores and domain search features.
Clearbit: More expensive but very accurate. Better for B2B SaaS targeting specific roles.
Verifying Emails Before You Send
Sending to invalid emails damages your sender reputation. Before any campaign, run your list through an email verifier:
- NeverBounce: ~$0.008 per verification
- ZeroBounce: Similar pricing, slightly more features
- Reoon Email Verifier: Cheaper alternative, solid accuracy
Aim for a bounce rate below 2% to protect your domain reputation.
Building Your List
The best prospect lists come from combining tools: find businesses with Apollo or LinkedIn, find emails with Hunter, verify with ZeroBounce.
Or export to a CSV and let ColdKit handle the research and personalization automatically. Join the waitlist →