Table of Contents
There are many ways to find out who owns an email address. Some of the most prominent methods include social media platforms, web searches, and phone directories. These options can be time-consuming or difficult to use in certain situations. Here is a list of five quick solutions for you when trying to identify someone’s email address.
Most salesmen will get a business email from someone they don’t know at some point. When this occurs, tracing an email (also known as reverse email search) might help by providing further information. Fortunately, there are various ways and tools you can use to determine who owns an email account, and we’ve ranked the top five.
Why Is It Necessary to Verify the Owners of Email Addresses
A salesperson could want to run a reverse email search or verify the owner of an email address for a variety of reasons. For example, you may have gotten an email request from someone you’ve never met before and want to learn more about them before responding. You may also have a lead database contact you’d want to connect with, and you’d like to add details about where they work, their position, or any shared connections.
Reverse email search demonstrates to potential consumers that you’ve done your homework. Furthermore, associating an email with a specific person might help you identify known contacts whose email addresses have changed as a consequence of company purchase or restructuring, reducing the danger of duplicate information in your contact database.
However, no one way of reverse email search is totally failsafe, which is why we’ve put up a list of options to guarantee you obtain the most information possible when performing a reverse email lookup.
How to Track an Email Using 5 Different Techniques
We chose 15 email addresses at random from an opt-in subscriber list that simply required an email address to test each of these strategies. We then compared what information we could get using simply an email address to see how accurate each approach was. To figure out which was the best, we kept track of the outcomes as well as the benefits and drawbacks we identified throughout our research.
1. Perform a Google search
One of the most simple methods for looking for an email address is to use Google and type the address into the search field. While this isn’t the most accurate way, if the email address is posted on a search-engine indexed website, Google will return results. Because they are more likely to be published in an internet directory or on a corporate website, work email addresses are more likely to be discovered this way.
If you’re searching for the owner of a business email address, Google is more likely to provide results since it’s more likely to appear in context on a corporate directory or contact page. While Google is the most popular search engine, typing the email address in the search field of Duck Duck Go or Bing may provide other results.
Results from a Google search.
Results
Google recognized the proprietors of 2/15 of the email addresses we randomly chose. It was because the email address was displayed on a company website that the individual operated in each of those circumstances. In another instance, Google linked us to a person’s search page but couldn’t deliver direct results without requiring us to join up for a third-party service. Searching on Google, on the other hand, is a simple and free method to get started.
Pros & Cons of Searching on Google
One of the main benefits of beginning with Google is that it’s free and can immediately supply you with the information you need if your contact’s website has their email address. While it is unlikely to provide results for personal email addresses or persons working for major organizations, it might be a good location to start your research on potential customers, particularly single owners who utilize their email address as the main contact on their website.
2. Perform a social media search
In certain circumstances, you search for a social media network using an email address to try to find the owner. To do so, use the search option on most social media sites to input the email address. If a person has made their email address publicly visible on their timeline, for example, Facebook enables you to search using that email address. Because most people’s contact information is kept private by default, this only works if they’ve chosen to provide their email address.
While both Twitter and LinkedIn include search functions, they are less reliable when searching by email. Log into your Facebook account and search for the email address you wish to find in the top left-hand search box. Any profile, post, or page linked to that email will show in the search results. You may receive additional information by clicking on the profile or post, and you can choose to follow the person or Like the page.
Results from a Facebook search.
Results
Using Facebook, we were only able to discover 3/15 of the email owners. Due to Facebook’s privacy settings, the information Facebook was ready to offer was restricted since none of the other two had Facebook friend connections. We were, nevertheless, able to come up with a name. This was helpful, but it’s much better if you can combine it with other social media ties to get more information.
A reverse email search on Facebook will provide information such as friends, job title, and location if there is an established or shared relationship. Even if there is no direct link, employing this strategy to search may help you find common acquaintances with whom you can subsequently seek an introduction.
Searching on Social Networks: Advantages and Disadvantages
Unless a person has deliberately chosen to make their email address public, most social networks have made it more difficult to search for contact profiles by email. This, however, maybe another easy approach to learning more about your contact. One of the benefits is that it may supply you with information on shared connections, which you might use to seek an introduction if you’re looking into a potential.
3. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Auto-enrichment
Customer relationship management (CRM) software may often automatically augment profiles using publicly accessible data. Some CRMs can discover social networks connected with an email address and assist you to find a name if you have leads in your database with just an email address.
Freshsales, for example, will look for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts related to your contacts’ email addresses. Freshsales has a free plan that lasts indefinitely, as well as tiered subscription options that start at $15 per month per user and include contact management, profile enrichment, and sales funnels.
Enrichment of Freshsales’ contact profile.
Results
Because the email addresses originated from an existing marketing list, none of them had been added to our Freshsales account, the findings were skewed in this scenario. We were able to identify the email owner for 6/15 of the email addresses just by inputting the email addresses. Freshsales offered information that includes social media connections as well as extra contact information such as the company’s name and address.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Using a CRM
Because your contact information is already stored in your CRM, it may be a quick and easy approach to learn more about your prospect. However, many CRMs charge extra for plans that include these features, making it a more costly approach to learning more about the owner of a given email address.
4. Lookup for Browser Extensions
Users of Google Chrome may also use browser plugins to automatically identify sender information. FullContact, for example, is a Chrome plugin for Gmail that automatically gives contact information for email addresses when accessed in Gmail. FullContact uses a sidebar in Gmail to automatically provide extra information such as firm, title, social network, and phone number when users get an email.
FullContact features a web and application programming interface (API)-based dashboard that gives rich contact information that you can use to identify contacts by email address, in addition to a browser extension. Users may now immediately search FullContact and build API connections with other software products to add extra contact information.
Dashboard for searching using the FullContact API.
Results
We were able to identify the owner of 13/15 test emails using FullContact. FullContact included a name, connections to social media profiles, and in some instances, a brief bio, affinities, employment history, and profile images. Furthermore, FullContact can search LinkedIn, something that users cannot do directly on LinkedIn. Another benefit of FullContact is that, since it’s a Gmail plugin, you can frequently find information without having to leave your inbox.
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Using FullContact
FullContact is a straightforward and effective method to reveal more information about the sender of an email address since it sits within your Gmail inbox. When all you have is an email address and want to learn more about their professional and demographic information, it’s also flexible enough to be used as a solo search. Because the higher-quality API search functions need a membership, it might be costly for infrequent queries.
5. Fee-based Services
Finally, you may pay for a service like Spokeo. Spokeo is a search engine that compiles information from white pages, public records, and social media networks into contact profiles that users may lookup by name, email, social media account, or even phone number. Spokeo delivers any results related to the information you supply, including address history, employment history, linked social media accounts, and even relatives.
Spokeo costs $11.99 a month, but it can find a lot of information thanks to the huge network of data it searches. Spokeo may be a reasonable purchase for those that want dependable contact search features, including reverse email lookup. This service is very useful for salespeople who get a large number of emails and wish to reach out and establish human contact with them.
The results of a Spokeo search.
Results
Although Spokeo returned many plausible results in some situations, it was able to identify the owner of 14 of the 15 test emails, making it the most effective for this test. To figure out which was the right record, we had to conduct some deductions. Spokeo, on the other hand, provides names, home addresses, career history, family, and even court records information for a fee.
What Are the Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Spokeo?
Spokeo is one of the most complete methods to learn about the owner of an email address since it gives information on current and prior residences, relationships, employment history, and background checks, among other things. You may also search using additional parameters such as your home address, phone number, or social media account. At the same time, it is a paid service, with extra costs for the background and social connections.
Conclusion
Reverse email solutions, particularly for sales and marketing professionals, as well as any firm that gathers email addresses, may be a valuable resource for lead creation. Knowing how to verify the owners of email addresses may provide you with the information you need to connect and create a connection. These five methods for tracing email addresses will assist you in improving your lead generating and communication processes.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I find out if an email address belongs to someone?
You can use a website like https://www.email-checker.com/ to see that or you could also do an external lookup on the person’s email address with services such as https://whois.arin.net/. There are other methods available if those don’t work for you, depending on your needs and what is best for your business model
How can I find the owner of an email address for free?
There is no way to find the owner of an email address for free. The best you can do is search for it on a public website or wait and see if someone with that email comes by in the future so you know who they are.
