9 C-level Executives Email List Providers [2024]

Our revenue teams work with C-level executives' contact data every single day. We also talk to our prospective customers and open up discussions on LinkedIn about the challenges sales reps encounter while prospecting.

Broken emails and mobile numbers, lack of data, outdated buying signals, and insufficient filtering options, to name a few.

These all lead to wasted time and money and a few nervous breakdowns.

As a contact data provider, we want our customers to be able to generate accurate C-level executives’ email lists for efficient prospecting.

Find out how Cognism stacks up against other prominent email list providers.

1. Cognism

Cognism is a premium sales intelligence platform that assists more than 1,800 revenue teams in finding and connecting the right prospects. 

The platform lets you generate C-level executives' lists and reveal their verified cell phone numbers. Simply use seniority and job title filters to narrow your search results in Cognism’s global database and create your list.

You can also prioritise C-level prospects thanks to intent data, sales events triggers (i.e. job change), and technographics.

After building the C-level contact list, easily export it into Salesforce, Outreach, and other sales enablement tools, and start your email campaigns.

Through its Chrome Extension, you can access enriched C-suite prospects’ LinkedIn profiles and SalesNavigator lists and see their contact details on corporate websites.

Best features:

• Validated C-level executives' email lists in NAM, APAC, and EMEA.
• 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:

2. Kaspr

Kaspr is a B2B prospecting tool that helps sales teams easily access chief executives’ email addresses. With their Chrome extension, you can retrieve real-time contact information from LinkedIn and organize leads in the dashboard.

Kaspr also allows users to map out the entire LinkedIn workflow, from connection requests to integrations. It doesn’t have a platform to build C-level executives' email address lists. 

Best features:

• Automatic enrichment workflows.
• Extract data from LinkedIn lists, groups, events, etc.
• Send automatic LinkedIn invitations and follow-ups.
• Lead management and team collaboration functionality.

• Free plan available.
• The paid subscription starts at $65 per month/user.

See how Kaspr stacks up against Cognism.

3. Lake B2B

Lake B2B is another data provider that helps sales, marketing, recruitment, and growth teams find C-level executives' email addresses in publically available sources. It also offers a vast range of marketing services to help businesses reach their target audience.

Best features: 

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

Pricing: 

• Available upon request.

4. Thomson Data

Thomson Data is an American company that has recently joined Datarade. It offers pre-built and customized B2B and consumer data lists. They have an extensive C-level executives' email database. The industries they cover include geospatial, financial, commerce, consumer, environmental, real estate, legal, healthcare data, and many more.

Their C-suite execs’ emails are sourced from business directories, conferences, Yellow Pages, government records, and more.

Best features:

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

Pricing:

• Pricing is publicly disclosed.

5. InfoCleanse

InfoCleanse is a global B2B data solutions provider. Their services range from data appending, verification, cleansing, and more. The tool has a vast database and offers pre-packaged and custom-made C-level executives mailing lists. They cover industries like Technology, Healthcare, etc., across the US, Europe, and APAC.

Best features:

• Data scrubbing and appending services.
• Customizable, 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 C-level executives' emails and direct phone numbers. It focuses on the APAC region and the healthcare industry. The data is sourced from publicly available records and third-party data vendors.

To create custom lists of C-level executives' emails, use company, geographic, and industry filters.

Best features

• Automated C-level executives' 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. Hunter.io

An all-in-one email outreach platform, Hunter.io helps B2B salespeople create a C-level executives' email database and verify addresses as accurate. 

To use its name-based email finder, type in the executive's name and the domain name of their company, then click search. 

You can also bulk search for emails by uploading a TXT or CSV file of your leads — the software will then check them and return only the verified email addresses list.  

Best features

• Bulk email finder.
• Email verification tool. 
• Domain email finder (finds C-level executives' email address 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).

8. Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a lead intelligence and sales engagement platform that helps salespeople find, email, call, and nurture B2B leads. 

With its Prospect feature, you can use its B2B database, ICP search, and 65+ filters to build targeted C-level executives' email lists, for example, lists of CMOs emails or CFOs' emails.

Best features

• Filterable B2B lead database with top professionals' email addresses.
• CRM data enrichment.
• GDPR-compliance.
• LeadSift intent based on public web scraping. 

Pricing

• Free option available.
• Paid plans at $39 and $79 per user per month. 

Check out Apollo.io alternatives list.

9. RocketReach

RocketReach is an email lookup tool which lets you build a C-level executives' email database. 

Users can find emails of target executive leaders 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. 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 C-level executives' emails for ABM campaigns?

Engaging high-value prospects in ABM campaigns can significantly increase the average deal amount and the company’s revenue. All you need is a tailored C-suite email list and additional B2B data to personalise your emails—think of intent data, sales triggers, and technographics! 

You can gather all these data points using Cognism Prospector. First, create a lead list based on your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). Next, narrow down your search to specific criteria using Cognism’s advanced filtering options. You can filter your search down depending on simple 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 a super-specific ABM campaign tailored to a series of concrete events, go the extra mile by leveraging Cognism’s company event triggers to filter them down to dates and other criteria.

Once you generate C-level executives lists, export them to Salesforce, Outreach, or another tool you use. 

For example, Metikus, a PropTech company, uses the Cognism platform to find the best accounts that fit their ICP. They use the hiring trigger to search for organisations hiring for relevant job titles in the last six months. This gives them a clear indication that the business is looking to scale in their space.

They also track 25 intent topics to filter their ICP and discover companies in demand for their services. They also use Cognism’s email addresses for LinkedIn paid ads.

Check out the best places to buy email leads online.

What to do when executives ignore your emails?

As an average C-level executive typically gets 100 emails per day, chances are high that decision-makers will ignore or simply miss your email.

In this case, your best bet would be directly calling the lead. As many as 57% of C-level and VP buyers across industries prefer the phone call versus directors (51%) and managers (47%). But ensure that you call them using verified mobile data rather than direct dials to avoid gatekeepers and answering machines.

Cognism’s Diamond Data® is a premium cell phone numbers dataset. We manually check each mobile number to make sure 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®. 👇

💡 Not sure how to speak with C-level executives? Check out our cold-calling script for CEOs.

How to prospect to C-level executives? 

After you create a C-level contacts email list, don’t bombard them with a series of campaigns. Prospecting to them requires a strategic multi-channel approach with a lot of preliminary preparation. Here are four fundamental tips to effectively market to executives. 

1. Build trust with thought leadership

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

2. Segment your prospect list

Not every C-level executive on your email list will need your service. Use Cognism Intent Data to identify accounts that are actively searching for your product or service and target key decision-makers when they’re ready to buy. 

3. Emphasise your value proposition

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

4. Leverage referrals

If you have mutual connections, ask them for a warm introduction. This will break the ice between you and the executive on your email list. Or mention that person X recommended contacting them.

5. Demonstrate your offering’s ROI

Buying a new product or service is an investment. That being said, you need to convince a CxO that your offer is likely to 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 C-level executives!

How to find C-level executives' email addresses for free?

There are several tactics for finding contact information for company executives for free — using freemium plans of sales intelligence tools or doing manual research.

A couple of email finder tools, such as Kaspr, have freemium plans. For example, Kaspr offers unlimited B2B emails if you invite three colleagues to try their platform.

Alternatively, you can create C-level executives’ lists manually. It involves analysing the LinkedIn profiles of your target executives and finding the email addresses from their profiles. Some executives might include their email, contact info, or featured posts in their bios.

You can also try your luck by guessing email patterns firstname.lastname@company.com or firstinitial.lastname@company.com are two of the most common formats.

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

Tips for emailing C-suite 

Still not sure how to approach the C-suites by email? Four actionable tips wait for you.

1. Customise the messaging 

Tailor your message to the executive’s role, industry, or specific pain points that you’re aware of. Be authentic and show that you’ve done extensive research.

Examples include:

• Refer to your prospect’s LinkedIn or X (Twitter) post as an ice-breaker.
• Offer a case study from their industry.
• Forge initial trust by presenting your thorough understanding of your ICP’s pain points. Say, you hold the same position and name your struggles. Assume that the recipient deals with one of them, too.
• Mention open vacancies, company’s news, etc.

2. Showcase social proof 

Include testimonials, case studies, and references to notable clients to build credibility and demonstrate what you’re capable of. This will encourage decision-makers to consider your offering.

3. Include a professional email signature

Having a professional email signature is critical for any individual who wants to make a good impression, build credibility, and streamline communication. A good email signature should include essential contact information, such as your business address, phone number, and website, as well as a relevant CTA. 

4. Attend offline and online industry events

CxOs often attend offline and online industry events and conferences. These are excellent places to connect with the C-suite in person and a surefire way to compel executives to respond to your email. How does it work?

• Add an event’s name to the subject line to increase the open rate.
• See event attendees on LinkedIn and tailor your email to their interests/problems.
• Host your own executive events or roundtables to build relationships and trust with top-level execs.
• Conduct industry research/a study prior to the event and launch an ABM campaign to invite your target audience to find out key takeaways.