Learn how to extract email and phone numbers from any LinkedIn profile in under a minute using the ContactOut Chrome Extension. The ultimate guide for recruiters, freelancers, and sales experts.
Introduction
Let's talk about a universal problem in the professional world. You've found the perfect person on LinkedIn. They could be your next star employee, your dream client, or a key decision-maker for a massive sales deal. You send a connection request. You craft the perfect InMail message. And then... You wait. And wait.
Days turn into weeks, and your message sits unread in a sea of other messages. It's frustrating. You know if you could just get their direct email or phone number, you could cut through the noise and make a real connection.
What if I told you there’s a secret way to do just that? LinkedIn Secret: Kisi Ka Mobile & Email ID Nikalo Instantly!
Top freelancers, recruiters, and sales experts aren't just relying on InMail. They are using powerful tools to get the direct contact information they need, and they are doing it in seconds. Today, I'm pulling back the curtain on one of the most effective tools in this space: ContactOut.
This isn't some complex coding hack. It's a simple, powerful Chrome extension that lets you extract email & phone from LinkedIn profiles with a single click.
In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn: ✅ Why LinkedIn is a goldmine for contacts, and why it's so hard to access them. ✅ A step-by-step walkthrough of how to use ContactOut to find anyone's contact details. ✅ Real-world use cases for freelancers, recruiters, and lead-gen experts. ✅ The important ethical considerations to ensure you use this power responsibly.
Ready to supercharge your outreach? Let's get started.
Part 1: The LinkedIn Goldmine and Its Digital Fortress
LinkedIn is, without a doubt, the world's largest and most up-to-date professional database. With over a billion members, it's the go-to platform for anyone looking to network, hire, or sell. Every profile is a rich source of information: job titles, company history, skills, and connections. It's a lead generator's paradise.
But there's a catch. LinkedIn has built a digital fortress around its most valuable data: direct contact information.
Why? The business model is simple. LinkedIn wants you to use its own paid communication tools, primarily InMail, which is a core feature of their premium subscriptions like Sales Navigator and Recruiter Lite. By making it difficult to find emails and phone numbers, they create a strong incentive for users to upgrade.
The Limitations of the "Official" Way:
Low InMail Response Rates: Decision-makers and popular candidates are inundated with InMail messages. It's easy for your message to get lost in the noise, leading to response rates that are often disappointingly low.
Limited Credits: Premium accounts only give you a certain number of InMail credits per month. Once you're out, your outreach stops.
No Direct Ownership: You're communicating within LinkedIn's ecosystem. You can't add these contacts to your own CRM or email marketing software to build a long-term relationship.
This is the wall that professionals hit every day. But as with any fortress, there are secret passages. Tools like ContactOut are those passages.
Part 2: Your Secret Weapon – Introducing the ContactOut Chrome Extension
ContactOut is a sales and recruitment intelligence tool that essentially bypasses LinkedIn's fortress. It works as a Chrome browser extension that overlays on top of LinkedIn profiles, giving you access to a massive independent database of contact information.
When you're on a LinkedIn profile, ContactOut cross-references the person's name, company, and job title with its own database, which it claims contains contact details for over 300 million professionals across 30 million companies.
The result? With a single click, you can often reveal a person's work email, personal email, and even their mobile phone number—information not publicly visible on their LinkedIn profile.
Who is This Tool For?
Recruiters: Find direct contact info for passive candidates who don't respond to InMail.
Sales Professionals: Build hyper-targeted lead lists and reach decision-makers directly.
Freelancers & Consultants: Pitch your services to the right people without getting stuck at the gatekeeper level.
Marketers: Gather contacts for influencer outreach or partnership opportunities.
Business Owners: Network with potential investors, partners, or key hires.
It transforms LinkedIn from a passive networking site into an active, powerful outreach machine.
Part 3: Step-by-Step Guide to Extract Email & Phone from LinkedIn
You don't need any technical skills to use this. The entire process takes just a minute. Here’s exactly how to do it.
Step 1: Go to Google and Search for "ContactOut" Open your Chrome browser and simply search for "ContactOut." The official website will be the top result.
Step 2: Sign Up on the Website Click on the website link and sign up for a free account. You can usually sign up with your Google or Microsoft account, making it quick and easy. ContactOut offers a free plan that gives you a number of free credits each month (typically around 40 emails and 3 phone numbers), which is perfect for trying it out.
Step 3: Install the Chrome Extension Once you've signed up, the website will prompt you to install their Chrome extension. Click the link, which will take you to the Chrome Web Store. Click "Add to Chrome" and then confirm the installation. You'll see the ContactOut icon appear in your browser's toolbar. It's a good idea to "pin" the extension so it's always visible.
Step 4: Visit Any LinkedIn Profile Now for the magic. Go to LinkedIn and navigate to the profile of the person you want to contact. It can be a standard LinkedIn profile, or it also works with Sales Navigator and Recruiter profiles if you have those premium accounts.
Step 5: Click "Get Contact" and Reveal the Information! With the LinkedIn profile open, you'll see the ContactOut extension pop up as a sidebar on the right side of your screen. It will show the person's name and company. You'll see buttons that say "Show" next to fields for email and phone.
Click the "Show" button.
ContactOut will use one of your credits and instantly display the contact information it has for that person. It often finds multiple email addresses (work and personal) and phone numbers.
That's it! You now have the direct contact information you need to reach out. You can copy the details or save the profile to a list within your ContactOut account to keep your leads organized.
Part 4: Using Your New Power: Best Practices & Ethical Considerations
Having the ability to extract email & phone from LinkedIn is a superpower. And with great power comes great responsibility. How you use this information is what separates a professional from a spammer.
This is NOT a tool for spam. Blasting a generic message to a hundred people is a surefire way to get ignored, reported, and damage your reputation.
The Ethical Outreach Checklist:
Personalize, Personalize, Personalize: Do not send a generic template. Reference something specific from their LinkedIn profile. Mention a recent post they made, a shared connection, or an article their company published. Show them you've done your homework.
Provide Value Immediately: Your opening line should not be about what you want. It should be about what they might find valuable. Offer a helpful insight, a solution to a problem their industry faces, or a genuine compliment on their work.
Be Respectful of Privacy: Just because you have their personal email or phone number doesn't always mean you should use it first. For initial professional outreach, the work email is almost always the appropriate channel. Using a personal number for a cold sales call can be seen as intrusive.
Comply with Regulations: Be aware of data privacy laws like GDPR (in Europe) and CCPA (in California). These laws govern how you can collect and use personal data. The core principle is transparency and providing a clear way for people to opt-out of your communications.
Don't Abuse the Tool: LinkedIn's terms of service prohibit scraping. While using tools like ContactOut is common practice, excessive use (e.g., trying to pull thousands of profiles a day) could flag your account. Use it strategically and in moderation.
By following these rules, you build trust and start relationships on the right foot, making your outreach far more effective.
Conclusion: Stop Waiting, Start Connecting
The world of professional outreach is evolving. The most successful people are those who leverage technology to work smarter, not just harder. Waiting for an InMail response is no longer a viable strategy when direct lines of communication are accessible.
Tools like ContactOut democratize access, allowing a freelancer to have the same outreach power as a massive corporation. They remove the gatekeepers and let the value of your message speak for itself. You can now extract email & phone from LinkedIn in less time than it takes to read this sentence.
The key is to combine this powerful technology with a human-centric approach. Use the tool to open the door, but use genuine personalization and value to walk through it.
🚀 Follow for more growth hacks, automation tools, and lead-gen tricks!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q1: Is it legal to use ContactOut? Will my LinkedIn account get banned? A1: This is a gray area. ContactOut itself operates legally and states it is compliant with GDPR and CCPA by sourcing data from public records. However, using any third-party tool to scrape data from LinkedIn is technically against LinkedIn's User Agreement. While thousands of people use these tools daily, there is a small but real risk of LinkedIn restricting your account if you use them excessively. The key is moderation.
Q2: Is ContactOut free to use? A2: Yes, ContactOut has a free plan that provides a limited number of free credits each month (e.g., 40 emails). This is great for occasional use or for testing the platform. For heavy users like sales teams or recruiters, they offer paid monthly subscriptions that provide thousands of credits and advanced features like CRM integrations.
Q3: How accurate is the information from ContactOut? A3: The accuracy is generally very high, often cited as one of its main strengths. However, no tool is 100% perfect. People change jobs and old contact information can sometimes remain in the database. It's always a good practice to use an email verification tool if you're sending out a large campaign.
Q4: Why can't ContactOut find information for every profile? A4: ContactOut's database is massive but not exhaustive. It can only provide information that it has been able to find and verify from public sources across the web. For very private individuals or people in niche industries, it may not have any data.
Q5: What are some alternatives to ContactOut? A5: The sales intelligence market is competitive. Some other popular and highly-regarded alternatives that offer similar functionality to extract email & phone from LinkedIn include Apollo.io, Lusha, RocketReach, and ZoomInfo. Each has slightly different pricing models and database strengths, so it's worth exploring them to see which fits your needs best.
0 Comments
Please Don't Enter any Spam Link in the Comment box