How do I find email addresses for cold outreach?

Finding email addresses for cold outreach involves tradeoffs between scale, accuracy, and legal compliance.

Common sources:

Company websites: Contact pages, team directories, press releases. Generally public but may have terms restricting use.

Professional networks: LinkedIn and similar platforms. Scraping often violates terms of service and may have legal implications.

Data providers: Companies like ZoomInfo, Apollo, and Lusha aggregate and sell contact data. Quality and compliance vary significantly.

Event and conference lists: Attendee information from industry events. Usually has restrictions on use.

Critical considerations:

How was this data collected? Is there documented consent for marketing?

How current is the data? Business email addresses change frequently.

Does your use comply with GDPR, CASL, and other applicable laws?

Can you explain your data source if a recipient asks?

The source of your data affects both legal risk and deliverability. Low-quality lists contain invalid addresses and spamtraps that damage sender reputation. Where you found the cargo matters as much as what it contains.