Everyone is raving about the cold email supremacy all the time! As they should, because there are plenty of benefits, you can reap by taking a chance and conveying your ideas to a stranger. Reaching out to someone who is your target audience can effectively boost your sales figures.
However, there’s a slight hitch! You cannot always expect to find the correct contact details if your customer persona matches a leadership position like a CEO. Reaching out to such individuals can be trickier than expected because organizations don’t list the CEO’s contact details online to avoid spam.
But as they say – where there’s a will, there’s a way! We are here to list down 8 methods on how to contact a CEO of the company.
Table of Contents
1. Check the Common Email Structures
If you scroll through a CEO mailing list, you will realize that most emails have identical structures. You can easily leverage this point to your benefit by the infamous ‘hit and trial’ method. It is even easier if you are targeting a smaller company. Go to their website and check their email domain through the ‘Help,’ ‘About Us,’ and ‘Contact’ sections.
If you don’t find any relevant results, try mailing standard addresses like: [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]. Write the mail like you expect the CEO to read it; if not, some other employee will probably forward it to them. Because employee emails get priority, it is a win-win situation for you.
Even though the entire process seems highly time-consuming, it can deliver precise results. However, don’t attempt it with sizable corporations.
2. Google Search Operators to the Rescue
(Image Source: Mangools)
What’s the first thing you do when you can’t figure out the answer to any question? For most people, the apparent rescuer would be Google. The same strategy is valid in this case! Simply type the CEO’s name in quotation marks and check the results.
However, it is possible that you won’t find anything concrete for multiple reasons, one of them being the common name scenario. In such cases, be specific and add the website or organization name to the search keyword. Doing so will help you narrow down the results and find legitimate links.
This method is not highly scalable and reliable, but it tends to work well if you don’t have any other options. If the CEO ever published their contact information on Google, this strategy will help you find it.
3. Try Leveraging Twitter Networks
CEOs are not always strict, unreachable personalities. You have to consider that they are also trying to reach out to B2B collaborators to grow their brand. As such, you can simply reach them on Twitter and ask for their email addresses straightaway.
Instead of going through all the trouble of scouring the internet for their contact, mention them in your tweet, asking them to connect with you! If your profile is impressive enough, you stand a high chance of receiving a positive reply.
However, don’t go overboard with the message or tweet. You are not selling them your product or services here. You can continue that in the actual email!
4. Use the Advanced Search Process
If your chances of success are slim, utilize the benefits of Twitter’s advanced search. Here, you should be able to type ‘@’ or ‘.com’ in the search bar and look for any past tweets or replies by the CEO. This method doesn’t give you many options, but it does help you get in touch with other industry leaders.
5. Search for CEO’s LinkedIn Account
Did you know that 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn are responsible for the business decisions of their companies? Needless to explain, you can find many CEOs and other industry leaders on this platform. You can use it to your benefit by looking up your target individual’s account.
6. Check Their Blogging Account
Even though you might not find their email address in the ‘About’ section of any social media platform, you can find other information. Check if they post actively or maintain a blog. Collect all the information and then check if you can narrow your search area.
If not, you can leave them a message on LinkedIn. Again, try to be concise and formal. Also, ensure that your personal profile clearly mentions your work experience, qualifications, and future goals. Doing so will entice them to connect with you and hear your pitch.
7. Look for Other Organizations
When completing the due diligence and researching the company, you might find other companies the CEO works at. It could be anything from a non-profit organization to a startup. Most industry leaders are board members in several event planning commissions as well.
Try searching all these organizations individually. Check their websites and see if you can spot a telephone number or an email address. It might connect you to the CEO directly or their assistant. Even though the channel might be wrong in this process, the message is still delivered to the right individual.
8. Call the Company
If nothing works, you can always try the company telephone number. If the headquarters are in your vicinity, you can even plan to drop by at the office. In the case of small or medium-sized enterprises, this method is likely to yield satisfactory results.
Wrapping Up
In today’s digital era, people are more connected than ever. However, it does not imply that you can reach out to any industry leader on a whim. Such individuals are more selective about sharing their contact details to avoid spam messages.
However, you can always try to look up a CEO’s email address by putting in some extra effort. Start by searching their company’s website and read all the ‘About Us’ and ‘Contact’ web pages.
Follow it up with Google, Twitter, and LinkedIn searches! In the end, you might just strike gold and find the hidden needle in the haystack.
