When you work in B2B sales, it’s common to know a prospect’s name and the company they work for, but not their email address. If this is a situation that you find yourself in, don’t worry, as there is a fairly simple process to figure out what their email address is, and we explain that in this short video.
Common Email Naming Conventions
This is possible because most companies use a naming convention for their email addresses, which combines the person’s first name, last name, and the domain name for the company’s website.
Here are some examples of common naming conventions used by companies.
- [First Name]_[Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name].[Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First letter on first name][Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name][First letter of Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name][Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [Last Name][First Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [Last Name].[First Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [Last Name]_[First Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name]-[Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First letter on first name]-[Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name]-[First letter of Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First letter on first name].[Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name].[First letter of Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First letter on first name]_[Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
- [First Name]_[First letter of Last Name]@websiteaddress.com
If you have the prospect’s name and website address, there is probably a 90% chance that one of these different combinations is going to work for guessing your prospect’s email address.
Figuring Out Which Email Address is Correct
Even though we can see that list and know we have a 90% chance our prospect’s email address is on it, we still need a process to identify the correct address. Here are a few options:
Trial and Error
The crudest but most effective way to use this knowledge to guess an email address is to simply plug your prospect’s details into a format that you think might work, send off an email, and see if it bounces. If the email comes back as “Undeliverable,” you can then use the process of trial and error and try another format until you send an email that does not bounce back.
While this process will work if you have no other options, it is a bit clunky and time-consuming.
Use an Email Verifier
There are tools that let you enter an email address and run a test to verify its validity. The way this works is that the software communicates with MX record databases on the Internet (or something like that) to verify whether the email address is valid, without sending anything to the contact.
Use an Email Guesser
One way we help you guess a corporate email address is by providing an Email Guesser. This tool lets you enter a contact’s name and company website URL, and the software will test all combinations we outlined using email verification.
Our tool helps remove some of the thought process and manual effort from your plate, getting you to a valid email address faster and more easily.
