Find The Editor's Email Address For Cold Pitching: Free Tools

If there is one challenging task in a freelance writer’s life, that will be finding the correct email address of the content manager at the target publication. For some editors, you can just type “[editor’s name] email address” in the search bar and you get immediate results.

However, this is not always the case.

Luckily, today I am going to how you dead simple tactics of getting the right email address of the people who make decisions at the target company.

They are the people you need to contact because they make things move. For instance, they are the people who decide whether your pitch will be accepted or not.

That is a big deal because it will make the difference between being featured in authoritative publications like Forbes and Entrepreneur or remaining in the gutters with the rest of the struggling writers.

Getting the right email address will set you ahead of the pack of the other writers who send their pitches to generic email addresses.

If you have been sending pitches but not getting responses,

The following could explain your predicament:

The content of your pitch is horrible
You are sending a good pitch to the wrong email address, such a waste

You need to get the right email address to increase your chances of success. It will push you past the door into the room where you will negotiate on engagement terms with the content manager of your target company.

I have said time and again just how critical social proof is to your success as a freelance writer. It makes your work more believable because you have someone (authoritative) to vouch for the quality of your work.

Getting the right email address is the first step to moving closer to your dream. It will accelerate your exit from the gutters.

Let’s now go into the intricacies of finding the email address of the content manager.

There are many ways to go about it. Some methods will cost you time and money, others will just need your time. However, after practicing for several hours, you will find it very easy to find contacts.

Free methods of getting the editor’s email address for cold pitching:

1. Look at their website

Most notable publications like Entrepreneur have a masthead where you get the contacts of all the people who work there. This is the easiest way of getting the email address of the person you want.

If you do not find the email address listed there, you can hit them up on Twitter and ask for the email address. You should know where your prospects hang out and place yourself strategically. Be wise when doing this.

Other smaller publications provide their email addresses on the “About” page or on the call-for-submissions page.

Just search “[publication name] write for us” on Google and you will land on the page of your choice. Read their guidelines and how to submit your work.

In most cases, they will provide the email address of the content manager on that page.

If that is still too much work, then you can check my list of publications that accept guest posts and those that pay for submissions. You will have more than enough prospects to pitch from that list.

2. Get their phone number and call them

If you are totally unable to find the email address from these avenues, look for the company telephone number (usually listed on the contact page) and make that call.

Since you already know who the content manager is, ask to be redirected to him/her. Once you reach the person, use your wisdom to get the email address from them.

Don’t waste their time, provide value and they will be glad to give you the information you want.

3. Use an email hunting app

In this era of digital revolution, many apps have come up that literally mine any type of information contained on the web, personal email addresses included.

They are so simple to use that all you need is the contact person’s full names and the domain name of the company they work for.

The email hunting apps have a predetermined quota for free users. Once that quota is filled, you will have to upgrade the account to continue hunting for the leads.

The most popular email hunters you can use to find the editor’s email address include:

a) Clearbit Connect: my preferred email address hunting tool

My go-to email address hunting tool. Has very high level of precision and integrates well with Chrome and Outlook.

b) Voila Norbert: send pitches directly from the interface

This is a paid tool but you can get 50 free leads when you sign up. You can send pitches from within the app. Has a very easy to use interface

c) Rocket Reach: large database and powerful search engine

Highly rated tool trusted by big brands to deliver the results. You can perform three look-ups per month on a free account. Rocket has a powerful search engine with a large database of information.

d) Find That Email: quite accurate and easy to use

One of my favorite apps for finding leads. All you need is the prospect’s name and the company domain and it does all the work for you.

e) Hunter: gives you a lot of head space every month

With Hunter, you can search up to 100 leads per month on a free account. Quite something when you have a list of target prospects ready.

f) Lusha: hunts more info about the prospect, including the telephone number

Lusha is like Clearbit. It also yields phone numbers of the prospect. Good for marketers, especially if you want to make that call.

These are not the only email address hunting apps in the market, many more are being develop right now and will probably topple some of the names listed here. Keep your eyes open when they come out.

Paid methods to find the editor’s email address:

This is the easiest and the fastest route to finding the email address of the prospect you’re targeting.

First, you can choose to buy this annual writer’s market guide from Amazon.

It is updated annually and contains information about emerging opportunities, book publishers, consumer and trade magazines, contests and awards, and many more.

As you will notice, the freelance economy is very fluid and you may find many details missing from the guide. It is sufficient for a start, though.

The second paid method of finding the email address of your prospect involves hiring a researcher to mine the information for you. Marketplaces such as Upwork and Fivver are teeming with highly rated researchers who will give you a valuable list for a few bucks.

This method will work best for you if you have the target publications or businesses in mind. Even then, you will need to vet the list to ensure that you get value for the money.

Making the most of your email address hunting app.

Since most of the listed apps allow search up to a certain quota, it will work to your advantage to integrate them. Doing that will blow your quota through the roof.

That small trick will give you enough room to test and optimize until you find the app that you love most. When you do, you can stick with it.

I personally prefer (and use) Clearbit for my leads. The results are quite amazing.

For instance, let’s find the email address of Matt Burns, the managing editor at TechCrunch. You should have already done your homework to know something about your prospect.

Since I already have the Clearbit Connect Chrome plugin connected, I will launch the app as shown in the screen shot below and search for TechCrunch…

After getting the name of the person I want in the list, I’ll just click on it have their contact information as shown below.