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9 CIO Email List Providers in Europe and the US [Compared]

Written by Monika Kisielewska | Nov 27, 2023 9:35:46 AM

How many emails you send to target Chief Information Officers bounce?

And how many of them get opened?

If your answer is “could be better”, you might be using generic addresses or outdated buying signals.

To save you time, money, and a few nervous breakdowns, we’ll show you how to generate compliant and accurate CIO email lists to reach decision-makers in your target accounts.

Find out how Cognism stacks up against other providers.

1. Cognism

Cognism is a sales intelligence platform that helps 3,000+ revenue teams find and connect with the right prospects. 

The platform lets you generate highly targeted lists of CIOs, revealing their email addresses and cell phone numbers. Cognism’s global company and contact database allows you to narrow your search results with advanced filters. You can run as many searches as you need to make the CIO email list fit your criteria.

You can also prioritise prospects on your list thanks to intent data, sales events triggers (i.e. job change), and technographics.

After building the CIO lead list, you can easily export it into CRM or sales enablement tools to start your email campaigns (Salesforce, Outreach, HubSpot, etc.).

If you’re mainly prospecting on LinkedIn, Cognism’s browser extension allows you to enrich CIOs’ LinkedIn profiles and Sales Navigator lists. You can also use it to reveal prospects’ emails and phone numbers on corporate websites.

Best features

  • Validated CIO email lists.
  • NAM, EMEA, APAC coverage.
  • Advanced filtering to build lists of ideal leads. 
  • CCPA and GDPR-compliant data.
  • Buying intent data powered by Bombara.
  • Integrations with popular CRMs and sales tools.
  • B2B contact data enrichment. 
  • Phone-verified mobile numbers to connect with 87% of your list (Diamond Data®).
  • Browser extension to enrich Sales Navigator lists and LinkedIn profiles.

Pricing

  • The packages are seat-based.
  • Suitable for individual prospecting and bulk list building and exporting.
  • Unrestricted views and page-level exporting (up to 25 records at a time, subject to fair use).
  • Custom packages with credits for teams with operational workflows that need bulk-list building and exporting.

Customer testimonial

💡  Try cold-calling prospects if they ignore your emails. Check out Cognism’s sales call scripts.

2. Kaspr

Kaspr is an all-in-one prospecting tool for individual contributors, SDRs, and recruiters  looking for contact data on LinkedIn. Kaspr’s Chrome extension can retrieve CIOs’ emails from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite. 

However, it doesn’t have a sales intelligence platform to serve your revenue teams and broader organisation.

Best features

  • LinkedIn automation features.
  • Extract data from LinkedIn lists, groups, events, etc.
  • Lead management and team collaboration functionality.
  • GDPR and CCPA aligned.

Pricing

  • Free plan available.
  • The paid subscription starts at $49 per month/user.

See how Kaspr stacks up against Cognism.

💡 Check out some lead generation techniques for tech companies.

3. BizProspex

BizProspex obtains its data by public data scraping. It mines CIO email lists and cross-verifies them across B2B networking sites. 

It offers extra information such as prospects’ technology usage, keywords on their pages, ads spend, and direct contact information. 

Best features

  • Data mining and appending.
  • Tech install data (focus on ERP/CRM/e-commerce/server-side software).
  • CIO email list cleaning.

Pricing

  • Depends on the number of records you download.
  • The cost of 5,000 CIO records is $499.

💡 Explore lead generation strategies for tech companies.

4. Lake B2B

Lake B2B is another CIO email list provider that finds email addresses in publically available sources. It also offers various marketing services to help sales and marketing teams reach their target prospects.

Best features

  • Basic filtering options, ie. SIC Code, NAICS Code, State.
  • Industry-specific datasets for MarTech, FinTech, Mobile gaming, etc.
  • Coverage in over 160 countries.
  • White label data platform service.

Pricing

  • Available upon request.

5. InfoCleanse

InfoCleanse provides global data solutions. Its services range from data appending, verification, cleansing, and more. The provider covers industries across the US, Europe, and APAC, like Technology, Healthcare, etc.

The tool has a vast database and offers pre-packaged and custom-made CIO mailing lists. 

Best features

  • Data scrubbing and appending services.
  • Customisable, targeted databases based on different criteria.
  • CRM-compatible file formats.

Pricing

  • Custom quotes upon request.

6. Ampliz

Ampliz is a company and contact database that includes CIOs’ emails and direct dials. It focuses on the APAC region and the healthcare industry. 

Ampliz also sources data from publicly available records and third-party data vendors. You can use company, geographic, and industry filters to create custom lists of CIOs’ emails.

Best features

  • Automated CIOs’ email list building.
  • Anti-spam laws compliance.
  • B2B and B2C email appending services.

Pricing

  • Free option (10 free credits per month and limited access to platform).
  • Paid option at $50 per month (100 free credits per month and full access).

7. Thomson Data

Thomson Data is a US-based company that recently joined Datarade. It offers pre-built and customised CIO email lists for sale. It covers a range of industries, from geospatial to financial to commerce.

It sources its CIO email database from business directories, conferences, Yellow Pages, government records, and more.

Best features

  • 75+ specialised segments.
  • Data cleansing and de-duplication.
  • Account profiling.
  • Compliance with CCPA and GDPR.

Pricing

  • Pricing isn’t publicly disclosed.

8. Hunter.io

Hunter.io is an all-in-one email outreach platform for B2B salespeople. You can build a CIO’s email list and verify the addresses’ accuracy. 

To use its name-based email finder, type in the Chief Information Officer’s name and the company’s domain name, then click search. 

You can also bulk search for and verify emails by uploading a TXT or CSV file of your leads. 

Best features

  • Bulk email finder.
  • Email verification tool. 
  • Domain email finder (finds CIOs’ email addresses associated with a company domain).
  • Campaigns (manage and automate cold email outreach).

Pricing

  • Free option (25 monthly name-based searches, 50 email verifications).
  • Paid options at $34, $104, and $349 per month (unlimited seats).

9. RocketReach

RocketReach is an email lookup tool which lets you build a CIOs’ and IT management email list manually. 

Users can find emails of target executives or bulk download lists of leads that meet their specific criteria. 

You can also uncover email addresses connected to social media profiles via a browser extension. But it might not be best for supplying lead phone numbers.

Best features

  • Contact and company data research tools. 
  • Bulk emails lookup.
  • LinkedIn browser extension. 

Pricing

  • Individual plans at $39, $99, and $249 per month.
  • Team plans available.
  • Custom plans available.

What’s the best way to get CIOs’ email list?

The best way to get a tailored CIO email list with additional B2B data points to personalise your emails is to use a sales intelligence provider like Cognism.

You can gather all these data points using Cognism Prospector

  1. First, create a lead list based on your ICP.
  2. Next, narrow your search to specific criteria using Cognism’s advanced filtering options, like job title, seniority, sales event triggers (e.g. job change), etc.
  3. You can filter your search down depending on firmographics, such as industry, company name, number of employees, and revenue size, or further explore their specific SIC, ISIC, or NAICS codes.

If you want to create an ABM campaign tailored to a series of concrete events, go the extra mile by leveraging Bombora’s intent data fully blended into the Cognism platform.

Once you generate CIO lead lists, export them to Salesforce, Outreach, or another tool you use. 


For example, Metrikus, a London-based PropTech company, uses the Cognism platform to target sustainability, workplace, and property managers in large multinational businesses with intent-fuelled ABM campaigns.

Intent data plays a crucial role in finding customers before they make purchasing decisions. The ability to generate lead lists in Cognism Prospector, using intent topics, helps BDMs refine the list according to surge number. After syncing the list into their CRM, BDMs contact the prospects within the surging accounts with a personalised message.

What to do when CIOs ignore your emails?

Just about every IT company across the world are trying to sell to CIOs. To ensure your message gets across, you can call them directly using Cognism’s phone-verified mobile numbers (aka. Diamond Data®). Unlike direct dials, Diamond Data® lets you avoid gatekeepers and answering machines.

Cognism’s data team manually checks each mobile number in the premium data asset to ensure you connect with the right prospect. 

With Diamond Data®, you can:

  • Connect with 87% of your list.

  • Increase connect rate by 3x.
  • Stay CCPA and GDPR-compliant.

We also clean the numbers from global DNC lists from the following countries: the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium, Croatia, Portugal, Sweden, and TPS/CTPS in the UK.

Get an overview of Cognism Diamond Data®. 👇

Is buying a CIOs email list online a good idea?

Buying pre-made email lists of CIOs online isn’t the best option.

First off, these lists tend to be filled with outdated, inaccurate data that drives down your deliverability rates. You’ll likely send many well-crafted emails to people who aren’t in charge of information technology strategy and implementation.

Another common issue with buying a generic C-level executives’ email database is that you may run into compliance issues. 

Unlike Cognism, some email list-makers don’t abide by GDPR and other regulations when collecting their email data. This puts your business at risk.

💡 Find out the best places to find free sales leads.

How to prospect to Chief Information Officers? 

Prospecting to Chief Information Officers requires a strategic multi-channel approach with a lot of preparation. Use the tips below for maximum efficiency. 

1. Build trust rather than sell

Collaborate with subject matter experts in technology and security to gain industry insights and deliver thought leadership content to showcase your expertise. It will boost your credibility, and technology leaders will take your advice/offers more seriously.

2. Segment your prospect list

Only some CIOs on your email list will need your service. Use Cognism’s intent data to identify accounts actively searching for your product or service and target key decision-makers when they’re ready to buy. 

3. Add meaningful value

Show immediate value by clearly explaining how your product or service can address the pain points and challenges the CIO and IT senior management face in their company. Focus on the long-term value rather than quick wins.

4. Act in a credible, trustworthy manner

If you have mutual connections, ask them for a warm introduction. You may also ask the CIO’s counterpart in your organisation to break the ice between the two of you. Or mention that person X recommended contacting them. 

Remember: use only a compliant CIO email list and phone numbers.

5. Demonstrate your offering’s ROI

Buying a new product or service is an investment. You must convince the CIO that your offer will likely translate into more money or other business goals.

Share success stories or case studies from clients who achieved measurable ROI with your solution. Quantify the benefits of your solution; provide numbers or percentages if possible.

💡 Grab our cold email templates to impress your target CIOs!