Finding the right people to talk to at a company is half the battle in sales or recruiting. If you’re tired of guessing email formats or sending messages into the void, this guide is for you. We’ll walk through how to actually use Anymailfinder to track down decision makers at companies you care about, without wasting credits or spinning your wheels.
This isn’t a fluffy overview — it’s honest advice from people who’ve used tools like this for years, with a focus on what works (and what’s a waste of time).
Step 1: Start With a Concrete List (Don’t Skip This)
Before you open up Anymailfinder, get clear on who you want to find. Wandering around hoping to spot a VP of Marketing is how you burn through credits and get frustrated.
What you need: - A spreadsheet of target companies (names, domains, maybe LinkedIn URLs) - An idea of the job titles or roles you care about (e.g., “Head of Engineering” or “CTO”)
Pro Tip:
Don’t try to boil the ocean. Pick 20–50 companies to start. You can always add more later.
Step 2: Use Advanced Search, Not Just Bulk Uploads
Anymailfinder lets you upload a spreadsheet and hunt for emails in bulk. Tempting, but if you just upload company names and hope for the best, here’s what happens: - You get lots of generic emails (info@, sales@). - You waste credits finding people who aren’t decision makers. - You spend time cleaning up a messy output.
Better Approach: - Use Anymailfinder’s advanced search to look for specific roles at each company. - Search by domain and job title keywords (“CEO,” “VP Sales,” “Director Marketing”). - Save bulk uploads for when you’re sure your data is tight.
What works:
Manually searching for top roles at your most important accounts gets you better data and fewer useless leads.
What doesn’t:
Blind uploads of long lists. You’ll get a lot of noise.
Step 3: Build Smart Job Title Filters
It’s tempting to search for “Founder” or “CEO” and call it a day. The reality? Decision makers often have all sorts of titles: “Head of Product,” “Lead Engineer,” “VP Growth,” and so on.
How to do it: - Make a list of relevant titles for your target buyer. - Use Boolean logic in Anymailfinder’s title search when possible (e.g., “(Head OR VP OR Director) AND (Engineering OR Product)”). - Don’t get too granular — more filters mean fewer results, but too few filters mean more junk.
Pro Tip:
Check LinkedIn to see what decision makers at your target companies actually call themselves. Titles vary a lot by industry or company size.
Step 4: Validate Before You Export
Here’s a dirty secret: No email finder is perfect. Even if Anymailfinder says an email is “found,” it doesn’t always mean it’ll work. (This isn’t unique to Anymailfinder — it’s true for every tool in this space.)
What to watch out for: - “Guessed” or “Pattern” results: These use the company’s likely email format. They’re often right, but not always. - “Verified” results: These mean the tool is more confident, but still not 100%.
Best practice: - Prioritize “Verified” emails for your first outreach. - If you must use “Guessed” emails, use an email verification tool (like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce) before you send. - If you see a lot of generic or catch-all addresses, pause and check your filters — you may be searching too broadly.
What doesn’t work:
Emailing every single address Anymailfinder gives you. You’ll get bounces and maybe hit spam traps.
Step 5: Document As You Go
You’ll save yourself a ton of headaches if you keep track of what you searched for, which domains you’ve checked, and which job titles worked. This helps avoid duplicate work, and you’ll learn what patterns actually get you results.
How to do it: - Add columns to your spreadsheet for “Searched Title,” “Result Type” (Verified/Guessed), and “Date Found.” - Take note if a company has no results. Sometimes it’s just not there — don’t waste time searching again next week.
Pro Tip:
If you have a team, agree on naming conventions and notes. “VP Sales” and “Vice President Sales” may be the same person, but your CRM might treat them as different.
Step 6: Don’t Rely on One Tool
This is where a lot of folks get tripped up. Anymailfinder is good, but it’s not magic. Sometimes it can’t find the person you want, or it only has outdated data.
What to do when you hit a wall: - Double-check on LinkedIn for the person’s exact title and spelling. - Try alternative tools (Hunter, Snov.io, VoilaNorbert) for tricky domains. - If you can’t find a decision maker’s email, sometimes a well-crafted LinkedIn message or a phone call is worth more than another hour searching.
What doesn’t work:
Hammering away at the same domain over and over. If it’s not there, move on.
Step 7: Respect Privacy and Don’t Be a Jerk
Just because you can find someone’s email doesn’t mean you should spam them. Responsible outreach gets better replies and keeps you off blocklists.
What to remember: - Use Anymailfinder for targeted, relevant outreach — not mass emails. - Always personalize your message, show you did your homework, and make it easy to opt out. - Don’t add people to newsletters or drip campaigns without consent.
Pro Tip:
If you get a reply asking to be removed, honor it right away. Burning bridges isn’t worth it.
What Actually Works (And What to Ignore)
Works: - Focused searches by company and title - Prioritizing “Verified” results - Double-checking on LinkedIn - Keeping a clean, well-documented spreadsheet
Doesn’t work: - Bulk hunting for every possible email at a company - Relying on a single tool for every contact - Spraying generic outreach to every address you find
Ignore: - Claims that any tool has “100% accuracy” — it doesn’t exist - Hype around “AI-powered prospecting” unless you see real results for your niche
Keep It Simple and Iterate
The real trick to using Anymailfinder well? Don’t overthink it. Start with a small batch, see what works, and refine from there. You’ll get better results by digging deeper on a few companies than by blasting the same template to a thousand strangers.
Stay organized, take good notes, and remember — finding the right decision maker is half skill, half persistence. The tool is just a helper. The real results come from your process. Good luck!