ContactOut Extension: Complete Guide for B2B Prospecting

What is the ContactOut Extension?

The ContactOut extension is a Chrome browser add-on designed to help sales professionals, recruiters, and marketers find email addresses and phone numbers directly from LinkedIn profiles. Instead of manually searching for contact information or guessing email formats, you simply visit a LinkedIn profile and the extension reveals associated emails and phone numbers in seconds.

ContactOut has built a database of over 300 million professionals across 30 million companies, making it one of the larger B2B contact databases available. The platform claims to be used by 1.4 million users, including teams at major companies like Google, Microsoft, and Netflix. With over 76% of Fortune 500 companies reportedly using the tool, ContactOut has established itself as a mainstream solution in the contact discovery space.

The extension itself has received positive reviews from users, with many praising its ease of use and time-saving capabilities. One user noted that ContactOut made their job significantly easier, stating that instead of spending hours tracking down emails, they can find the right contacts in just a few clicks. However, like any tool, it comes with both strengths and limitations that are worth understanding before committing to a subscription.

How the ContactOut Chrome Extension Works

Getting started with ContactOut is straightforward. You install the extension from the Chrome Web Store, and it automatically activates when you browse LinkedIn. When you visit a profile, the extension searches its database and displays any available contact information in an overlay panel.

Here's the typical workflow:

• Install the extension: Search for ContactOut in the Chrome Web Store and add it to your browser. The extension works with Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Arc browsers, but is not compatible with Safari or Firefox.
• Link your LinkedIn account: The full functionality of the Chrome extension requires connecting your LinkedIn account. This integration allows the tool to access profile data and surface relevant contact information.
• Browse profiles: Visit any LinkedIn profile and the extension will attempt to reveal contact details. The extension displays an overlay showing available personal emails, work emails, phone numbers, and other contact data.
• Save and export: Store contacts in lists, organize by campaigns, and export to CSV or directly to your CRM. You can filter saved contacts by job title, company, and other criteria for targeted outreach.

ContactOut uses a triple-verification system for email addresses, which helps minimize bounce rates. According to the company, emails in their database pass three tests: verifying the email matches the correct individual's social media profiles, confirming it's associated with the correct LinkedIn profile, and passing a bounce test to ensure delivery. This multi-layer verification approach helps ContactOut maintain accuracy rates that users report as being among the highest in the industry.

They also offer a dedicated search portal where you can look up professionals without needing to find them on LinkedIn first-just enter a name and company to retrieve contact information. The search portal includes over 20 data filters including job title, company, location, industry, seniority level, company size, revenue, and technologies used. This makes it particularly useful when you need to build targeted lists based on specific criteria.

ContactOut Extension Features

Beyond basic email and phone lookups, the ContactOut extension offers several features designed to streamline outreach:

• Bulk reveal: Save multiple LinkedIn search results at once instead of clicking through profiles individually. This feature is particularly valuable when working with LinkedIn Sales Navigator search results, allowing you to capture entire lists with a single click.
• Email campaigns: Run multi-stage email sequences directly from the platform with personalization options. You can import prospects in one click, schedule follow-ups, and track open and reply rates all within the ContactOut dashboard.
• AI personalization: Generate customized email drafts based on prospect information. The AI-powered email writer (powered by ChatGPT) analyzes profile data and creates personalized outreach messages, though users report that these still require human review to avoid generic copy.
• CRM integration: Sync contacts with Salesforce, HubSpot, and other major CRM platforms. ContactOut offers one-click export to popular systems, and the integration prevents data overwrites by using custom contact fields.
• ATS integration: For recruiters, export candidates directly to applicant tracking systems including Lever, Bullhorn, and Greenhouse. This streamlines the hiring workflow and keeps candidate data synchronized.
• Search portal: Find contacts using over 20 data filters including job title, company, location, and industry. The portal provides a web-based alternative to the Chrome extension, useful for building lists when you don't have specific LinkedIn profiles in mind.
• ContactOut Anywhere: This feature allows you to find decision-makers on any company website, not just LinkedIn. When browsing a company's site, the extension can surface employee contacts, making it easier to identify and reach the right people.
• API access: For larger teams and enterprises, ContactOut offers API integration for real-time enrichment and automation within existing sales or recruiting workflows. This allows you to enrich CRM records automatically and build custom integrations.

One notable capability is the Preview API, which technical users find particularly helpful. It allows you to check data availability before consuming credits, which is critical for development and business logic implementation. The API documentation is detailed enough for technical users to get started quickly, though some advanced customization scenarios may require additional support.

ContactOut Pricing: What Does It Cost?

ContactOut offers a free tier with limited functionality-you get approximately 5 free credits daily to test the extension, with some sources mentioning up to 100 free credits per month for email enrichments on the personal plan. However, most useful features require a premium subscription.

The paid plans break down as follows:

• Email Plan: Starting around $39-49/month when billed annually, this plan includes approximately 300 exports per month and 6,000 email lookups per year. This tier provides access to the Chrome extension, search portal, and basic CRM integrations.
• Email + Phone Plan: Approximately $49-99/month (pricing varies based on region), with up to 600 exports per month and 6,000 emails plus 600 phone numbers per year. Note that US/UK data may require an additional premium, with some users reporting extra charges for accessing North American contact data.
• Recruiter Plan: Starting at $199/month (billed annually), with up to 12,000 personal emails and 600 phone numbers per year. This plan includes advanced search capabilities, LinkedIn Recruiter integration, and enhanced ATS connectivity. It's specifically designed for recruitment teams who need higher volume and recruiter-specific features.
• Team/API Plan: Custom pricing for teams requiring API access, collaborative features, unlimited users, and advanced integration capabilities. This plan supports bulk enrichment, team dashboards, priority support, and custom data requirements.

One thing to note: ContactOut requires annual commitment rather than month-to-month billing on most plans, which means you're looking at a minimum investment of $948/year for the Sales plan or $2,388/year for Recruiter. Some users have noted that the credit system can feel restrictive, with lower plans providing limited exports (300-600 per month) that may not be sufficient for high-volume prospecting operations.

Monthly plans are available but come at a premium compared to annual subscriptions. You can cancel monthly plans at any time prior to your next billing date while retaining remaining lookups. For annual subscriptions, cancellation within the first 30 days is possible if you've used fewer than 100 credits, with a refund of the annual price less one month's cost.

ContactOut Limitations to Consider

While ContactOut is a solid tool, users have reported several limitations worth considering before committing:

• Credit restrictions: The free plan provides very limited searches, and even paid plans have monthly or annual caps that can constrain high-volume prospecting. Users report that credits can run out quickly when handling high-volume sourcing that requires numerous lookups each day.
• Data accuracy variations: While email accuracy is generally high, phone number data can be inconsistent. Some users report outdated or inactive contact numbers, resulting in bounced messages or unsuccessful calls. Several reviewers noted that the accuracy diminishes significantly for mid-market and emerging professionals, requiring manual verification on 15-25% of results in some verticals.
• LinkedIn dependency: The Chrome extension requires linking your LinkedIn account, and the tool is primarily focused on LinkedIn profiles-limiting coverage elsewhere. This dependency means you're subject to LinkedIn's terms of service and any changes to the platform.
• Geographic limitations: Data availability in the EU is currently not as strong as in North America, with the company acknowledging they're working to improve European coverage. US and UK data may also require additional payment beyond standard plan pricing.
• Contact management gaps: Some users find the built-in contact organization features lacking compared to dedicated CRM tools. The campaign features are described as "extremely basic" compared to specialized email outreach platforms.
• Extension performance: The Chrome extension occasionally slows down or fails to load on certain profiles, disrupting workflow. Some users report compatibility issues on Brave and other Chromium-based browsers, causing the extension to fail or underperform. Stability problems including intermittent failures and slow or endless loading when browsing have been documented.
• One-user limitation: Each plan typically allows only one user per company (except for Team/API plans), making it restrictive for larger teams unless they opt for expensive custom plans.
• Browser limitations: The extension only works on Google Chrome, Edge, Brave, and Arc-not on Safari or Firefox. This limits flexibility for users who prefer other browsers.
• Real-time verification latency: Some users report that the platform's real-time verification features have latency issues during peak usage windows, which can delay campaign launches.

For teams doing high-volume prospecting, the one-profile-at-a-time workflow can become tedious. While bulk reveal helps, the credit system still limits how many contacts you can extract monthly. The export limits of 300-600 contacts per month on standard plans may not justify the expensive pricing for organizations with aggressive outbound strategies.

Understanding ContactOut's Data Sources and Accuracy

ContactOut sources its contact data from multiple channels including public records, social media platforms (particularly LinkedIn and GitHub), company websites, and other online sources. The platform's database is updated monthly with real-time email verification to ensure accuracy and relevance.

The triple-verification system is a key differentiator. Each email address is cross-checked through multiple data points and sources to confirm it's current and deliverable. According to ContactOut, this approach results in 99% confidence ratings on verified emails. Independent user reviews suggest accuracy rates of 97-98% for emails, with some users reporting it as "one of the highest accuracy rates" compared to alternatives.

However, accuracy varies significantly based on several factors:

• Geographic region: Data accuracy is particularly strong in North America and AMEA regions, but weaker in Europe and other markets.
• Professional prominence: Well-known professionals and those at larger companies typically have more accurate data. Less-known professionals or those in niche sectors often return incomplete or outdated information.
• Data type: Email accuracy is consistently higher than phone number accuracy. Many users report phone data as the weakest link, with numbers frequently being outdated or incorrect.
• Information freshness: The platform updates data monthly, but in fast-moving industries or during periods of high employee turnover, some records may lag behind reality.

ContactOut emphasizes GDPR and CCPA compliance, ensuring all data collection and processing adheres to privacy regulations. The platform prioritizes data privacy and security, giving users confidence that their prospecting activities remain compliant with data protection laws.

How ContactOut Compares to Traditional Prospecting Methods

Traditional B2B prospecting methods-cold calling, manually searching for emails, buying purchased lists-are time-consuming and often yield minimal results. ContactOut represents a fundamental shift in how sales professionals and recruiters approach contact discovery.

Time savings: What once took hours of research per prospect now takes seconds. Instead of manually searching Google, guessing email patterns, or navigating through company directories, you simply visit a LinkedIn profile and instantly access verified contact information. Users consistently report that ContactOut saves them hours in prospecting and reduces research time significantly.

Higher accuracy: Purchased email lists often have accuracy rates below 60%, leading to high bounce rates and damaged sender reputation. ContactOut's triple-verification system maintains accuracy rates in the high 90s for emails, dramatically reducing wasted outreach and protecting your email deliverability.

Better targeting: Traditional prospecting often involves spray-and-pray tactics. ContactOut's integration with LinkedIn allows you to leverage the platform's rich professional data to identify exactly the right prospects-by title, company, industry, seniority, and more-before you invest time in outreach.

Multi-channel capabilities: Rather than being limited to a single channel, ContactOut provides both email addresses and phone numbers, enabling sales teams to execute multi-touch campaigns across LinkedIn messages, email, and phone calls-all from data gathered in a single tool.

However, it's important to recognize that ContactOut doesn't replace the need for strategic thinking. The tool excels at the tactical execution of finding contact information, but successful prospecting still requires defining your ideal customer profile, crafting compelling messages, and building genuine relationships. Technology accelerates the process but doesn't eliminate the need for thoughtful, personalized outreach.

Best Practices for LinkedIn Prospecting with ContactOut

LinkedIn prospecting has become essential for B2B sales and recruitment. Over 40% of social media traffic to websites comes from LinkedIn, and B2B digital marketers have found that 80% of their social media leads come from the platform. To maximize your results with ContactOut, follow these proven strategies:

1. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile First

Before reaching out to prospects, ensure your own LinkedIn profile positions you as a credible professional. Your profile is often the first thing prospects see when you connect or message them. Include a professional photo, compelling headline, detailed experience section, and recommendations. When prospects research you (which they will), you want them to see someone worth talking to.

2. Define Your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

The art of prospecting lies in the relevance of the message you convey. Before hunting for contacts, achieve crystal clarity on who you're targeting. Define your personas by determining their job titles, seniority level, company size, industry, geographic location, technologies they use, and pain points your solution addresses. ContactOut's 20+ search filters make it easy to narrow down your target audience, but only if you know what you're looking for.

3. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator

To make LinkedIn your main B2B lead generation channel, invest in a Sales Navigator license. This premium LinkedIn tool offers advanced search capabilities that pair perfectly with ContactOut. Sales Navigator provides filters that the basic LinkedIn search lacks, allowing you to identify prospects based on nuanced criteria. You can then use ContactOut to extract contact information for your qualified leads.

4. Leverage Boolean Search

LinkedIn Boolean search helps you narrow or expand keyword searches to find exactly the prospects you're looking for. Use operators like AND, OR, and NOT to create precise searches. For example, "VP Sales" AND "SaaS" NOT "retired" helps you find active SaaS sales leaders. ContactOut works seamlessly with Boolean searches, allowing you to build highly targeted lists.

5. Build Relationships Before Pitching

LinkedIn prospecting emphasizes relationship-building over immediate selling. Connect with prospects, engage with their content (like, comment on their posts), share valuable insights, and establish credibility before asking for anything. When you do reach out via email or phone using ContactOut data, you're no longer a complete stranger.

6. Personalize Every Outreach

Generic messages get ignored. Use the wealth of information available on LinkedIn profiles to personalize your approach. Reference their recent post, congratulate them on a company announcement, or mention a mutual connection. ContactOut's AI personalization can provide a starting point, but always review and customize messages to reflect genuine research and interest.

7. Use Multi-Touch Campaigns

Don't rely on a single touchpoint. Combine LinkedIn connection requests, LinkedIn messages, emails (found via ContactOut), and phone calls (also from ContactOut) into a coordinated sequence. Research shows that multi-channel campaigns significantly outperform single-channel approaches. A typical sequence might include: LinkedIn connection request, email after acceptance, LinkedIn message, phone call, and follow-up email.

8. Respect LinkedIn's Limits

LinkedIn has strict terms of use designed to prevent spam. Violating them can result in account restrictions or bans, which would compromise your entire prospecting strategy. Keep connection requests to reasonable daily limits (typically 20-30 per day), avoid copy-paste messaging, and space out your activity to mimic natural human behavior. Using ContactOut to take conversations off LinkedIn (via email or phone) actually helps you stay within platform limits.

9. Track and Measure Results

Monitor your hit rates carefully. Track how many ContactOut emails reach inboxes, generate responses, and convert to meetings. If accuracy drops in your target market or response rates decline, it may be time to adjust your approach or supplement with other tools. ContactOut's campaign features provide basic tracking, but consider using dedicated outreach platforms for more comprehensive analytics.

10. Clean and Verify Your Lists

Even with ContactOut's triple verification, run exported lists through a secondary email verification tool before major campaigns. This extra step protects your sender reputation and ensures maximum deliverability. Tools like our Email Verifier can catch any remaining invalid addresses before they hurt your campaign performance.

Building a Complete B2B Prospecting Stack

The reality is that no single tool solves all your prospecting challenges. ContactOut excels at finding individual contact details from LinkedIn, but successful B2B outreach requires more than just email addresses. You need to:

1. Define your ideal customer profile (ICP): Before hunting for contacts, you need crystal clarity on who you're targeting
2. Find companies that match your criteria: Industry, size, technology stack, location, funding stage
3. Identify the right decision-makers: Which roles should you be reaching?
4. Gather contact information: Email, phone, social profiles
5. Verify data accuracy: Reduce bounces and wasted outreach
6. Execute personalized campaigns: Scale your outreach effectively
7. Track and optimize performance: Measure what's working and iterate

This is where combining tools becomes essential. Our B2B Targeting Generator helps with steps one and two-using AI to analyze your ideal customer profile and identify target companies. Rather than guessing which companies to pursue, you get a data-driven target list based on firmographic criteria that actually matter for your business.

Once you know which companies to target, use ContactOut to find specific contacts within those organizations. Then verify those contacts with our Email Verifier before launching campaigns. For phone outreach, our Mobile Number Finder can supplement ContactOut's phone data when you need additional contact methods.

This layered approach-strategic targeting first, tactical contact finding second, verification third, and multi-channel outreach fourth-creates a prospecting machine that's both efficient and effective.

Complementary Free Tools for Your Stack

To build an effective prospecting workflow without breaking the bank, consider layering these free resources:

For targeting and company research: Start with our B2B Targeting Generator to define your ICP and identify companies worth pursuing. This gives you a strategic foundation before you start looking for individual contacts. The AI-powered analysis helps you understand which firmographic characteristics correlate with your best customers, allowing you to build more precise target lists.

For email verification: Before sending any campaign, run your addresses through an email verification tool to check deliverability. This catches invalid addresses before they hurt your sender reputation. With stricter sender rules from Google and Yahoo, high bounce rates can seriously damage your domain reputation and land your emails in spam folders. Real-time verification ensures you're only sending to valid, active addresses.

For finding direct contact info: Our Mobile Number Finder can help locate cell phone numbers when email isn't getting responses. Sometimes a quick call is more effective than competing in crowded inboxes. Direct dials allow you to bypass gatekeepers and reach decision-makers immediately, which can be particularly valuable for high-value prospects or time-sensitive opportunities.

For background research: Use our Background Checker to get comprehensive information about prospects including trust scores and verification data. This helps you qualify leads more thoroughly and approach conversations with better context about who you're speaking with.

For technology-based targeting: Our Tech Stack Scraper lets you find websites using specific technologies. This is invaluable if your product integrates with or replaces particular software. For example, if you sell a Salesforce alternative, you can build lists of companies currently using Salesforce and target them with replacement messaging.

For cold outreach execution: Tools like Smartlead or Instantly handle email warming, sending limits, and follow-up sequences automatically-features that ContactOut's basic campaign builder doesn't match. These specialized cold email platforms provide better deliverability, more sophisticated automation, and deeper analytics than ContactOut's built-in campaigns.

For CRM and workflow automation: Close CRM offers powerful sales automation features that integrate well with contact data from tools like ContactOut. You can build sophisticated workflows that automatically move prospects through your pipeline based on their engagement.

For LinkedIn automation: While ContactOut focuses on data extraction, tools like Expandi can automate LinkedIn outreach sequences while staying within platform limits. This allows you to scale connection requests and follow-up messaging without manual effort.

ContactOut Alternatives Worth Considering

If ContactOut doesn't fit your needs or budget, several alternatives serve similar purposes:

Lusha offers a browser extension with similar functionality at a lower starting price point. The basic plan starts around $22.45/month with 3,000 credits annually. It provides accurate email and phone data, though the database is smaller than ContactOut's. Lusha is particularly strong for teams that need a simple, affordable solution without advanced features. Users praise its 98% accuracy rate for valid email ids and phone numbers, though the limited database means coverage may be spottier for niche industries.

RocketReach is ideal for teams needing to build large lists quickly. With 700+ million profiles and powerful bulk lookup features, it solves the scale problem that ContactOut's one-profile-at-a-time approach creates. The Essentials plan starts at $33/month for 1,200 exports annually. RocketReach excels at high-volume prospecting and offers a more robust search portal than ContactOut, though some users find the pricing comparable with limited exports for the cost. The platform has been transformative for users who need to move beyond manual profile-by-profile searching.

Apollo.io takes a different approach by combining prospecting, enrichment, and engagement in a single platform with automatic CRM syncing. This eliminates the constant tool-switching that ContactOut's Chrome-extension-only setup requires. Apollo offers a massive database of over 250 million contacts, built-in email sequencing, and powerful analytics-all in one place. While the interface can feel overwhelming at first due to the extensive feature set, it's a true all-in-one solution for teams tired of ContactOut's manual workflows. The free plan is generous, making it easy to test before committing.

Seamless.AI offers a database of 1.3 billion+ contacts with AI-powered verification and cold email features. It outperforms ContactOut on both database size and outreach capabilities, with advanced filtering allowing you to find prospects that closely align with your ICP using 100+ filters. The AI-generated sales scripts help personalize outreach at scale. However, pricing is not publicly disclosed and user reviews suggest it's quite expensive.

Hunter.io focuses specifically on email finding and verification, offering a more specialized (and simpler) solution than ContactOut. It's ideal for users who only need accurate email addresses and don't require phone numbers. Hunter excels at domain-based searches, allowing you to find all emails associated with a particular company. The free plan is more generous than ContactOut's, and paid plans start at $49/month with API access for developers.

Kaspr is a lightweight Chrome extension that pulls emails and phone numbers from LinkedIn profiles and lead lists. It's particularly popular among users who primarily need LinkedIn data enrichment without a native database. Kaspr allows you to export contacts from Sales Navigator or Recruiter Lite in one click and integrates with major CRMs. The tool is straightforward and affordable, making it a good fit for smaller teams or individual SDRs.

GetProspect offers a database with 230+ million email addresses and strong email finder and verification capabilities. Unlike ContactOut, it provides separate verification credits with all plans, allowing you to verify emails you already have. The bulk LinkedIn email finder and tech-based prospecting features (tracking 3,000+ technologies) make it versatile for different prospecting strategies.

Dealfront (formerly Leadfeeder) takes a different approach-identifying companies visiting your website rather than hunting for contacts cold. This gives you warmer leads to pursue since they've already shown interest by visiting your site. You can then use ContactOut or similar tools to find contacts at those companies, creating a powerful inbound-outbound hybrid strategy.

Reply.io combines contact finding with robust email automation. If your goal is end-to-end outbound, having prospecting and sequencing in one platform reduces tool switching. Reply offers multi-channel sequences (email, LinkedIn, calls), AI-powered personalization, and comprehensive analytics that ContactOut's basic campaign features can't match.

Each of these alternatives has different strengths. Consider your specific use case: Do you need high volume or high accuracy? Are phone numbers essential or email-only sufficient? Do you want an all-in-one platform or best-of-breed point solutions? Your answers will guide which tool makes the most sense for your prospecting stack.

Advanced ContactOut Strategies for Power Users

Once you're comfortable with the basics, these advanced strategies can help you extract more value from ContactOut:

Use the Search Portal for Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Rather than searching for individual contacts, use ContactOut's search portal to build comprehensive lists of decision-makers within your target accounts. Filter by specific companies, then identify multiple contacts across different departments and seniority levels. This allows you to orchestrate multi-threaded ABM campaigns where you reach out to several stakeholders simultaneously, increasing your chances of breaking into the account.

Combine with Intent Data

Pair ContactOut with buyer intent platforms that track which companies are actively researching solutions in your category. When a company shows high intent signals, use ContactOut to quickly identify and reach relevant contacts at that company. This timing advantage-reaching prospects when they're actively looking for solutions-can dramatically improve conversion rates.

Enrich Existing CRM Records

Many companies have CRM databases full of contacts with incomplete information. Use ContactOut's API or bulk enrichment features to fill in missing email addresses and phone numbers for existing records. This breathes new life into old databases and gives your team more ways to reach prospects who may have gone cold.

Build Competitor Customer Lists

One little-known prospecting tactic is targeting your competitor's customers. Use LinkedIn to identify people who work at companies using competitive solutions (check their job descriptions, posts about the tools they use, or company technology pages). Then use ContactOut to extract contact information and reach out with messaging about why your solution is superior.

Leverage the "People Also Viewed" Feature

When you find an ideal prospect on LinkedIn, check the "People Also Viewed" sidebar. This shows similar profiles that LinkedIn's algorithm has identified as related. Often these are people with similar roles at similar companies-perfect additions to your prospect list. Use ContactOut to quickly capture contact information for these similar profiles.

Monitor Job Changes

Decision-makers who change jobs represent prime opportunities. They're evaluating new vendors, building new teams, and looking to make their mark. Use LinkedIn to set up alerts for job changes among your saved leads, then use ContactOut to get updated contact information at their new companies. Reaching out with congratulations and an offer to help them succeed in their new role can be highly effective.

Create Lookalike Audiences

Analyze your best customers to identify common characteristics (job titles, company sizes, industries, technologies used). Then use ContactOut's search portal filters to find prospects matching those exact characteristics. This lookalike approach helps you prospect into audiences most likely to convert based on proven data rather than assumptions.

Segment for Personalization at Scale

Rather than sending identical messages to all prospects, segment your ContactOut lists by specific criteria (industry, company size, pain point, etc.). Then craft targeted messaging for each segment. The more specific your segmentation, the more personalized your outreach can be while still maintaining scale.

Making the Most of ContactOut

If you decide ContactOut is right for you, here are some tips to maximize value:

Use your free credits strategically: Don't waste daily credits on casual browsing. Save them for high-priority prospects you've already qualified. Before clicking to reveal contact information, verify that the prospect actually matches your ICP criteria. This disciplined approach ensures you're not burning credits on people you'll never contact.

Leverage the search portal: When you have a target company but no specific LinkedIn profile, the search portal lets you find contacts by name and company without burning through LinkedIn searches. The portal's 20+ filters allow you to build precise lists based on multiple criteria simultaneously.

Export and verify: Even with ContactOut's triple verification, run exported lists through a secondary email verification tool before campaigns. The extra step protects your sender reputation and catches any edge cases that might have slipped through. Our Email Verifier provides an additional layer of protection.

Combine with company research: ContactOut finds individuals, but you need company-level targeting first. Use a B2B targeting tool to identify which companies deserve your outreach, then use ContactOut to find specific contacts within those organizations. This strategic sequencing ensures every contact you find is actually worth reaching out to.

Track your hit rate: Monitor how many ContactOut emails actually reach inboxes and get responses. If accuracy drops in your target market, consider supplementing with other tools. Keep detailed records of source quality by tracking bounce rates, response rates, and conversion rates for ContactOut-sourced contacts versus other sources.

Use bulk features wisely: The bulk reveal feature saves time but can consume credits quickly. Before bulk revealing an entire LinkedIn search, manually check a few profiles to ensure your search criteria are dialed in correctly. This prevents wasting credits on poorly targeted lists.

Integrate with your CRM immediately: Don't let ContactOut data sit in CSV files. Set up direct CRM integration so every contact you find flows immediately into your pipeline. This ensures contact information is available to your entire team and prevents data from getting lost or outdated.

Supplement phone data: Since phone number accuracy is ContactOut's weakest point, consider using our Mobile Number Finder to supplement phone numbers for high-priority prospects. Having multiple phone numbers gives you better odds of reaching someone directly.

Stay within daily limits: Even with ContactOut, respect LinkedIn's rate limits and terms of service. Using ContactOut doesn't give you license to spam. Maintain reasonable daily activity levels to avoid account restrictions.

Combine with multi-channel outreach: Use ContactOut data to build coordinated campaigns across LinkedIn, email, and phone. Don't rely solely on one channel. Decision-makers are busy and may miss messages on any single platform. A multi-touch approach across channels dramatically increases your chances of getting a response.

Common ContactOut Mistakes to Avoid

Even experienced users make mistakes that reduce ContactOut's effectiveness. Avoid these common pitfalls:

Skipping verification: Assuming all ContactOut data is 100% accurate is a mistake. Even with high accuracy rates, always verify critical contacts before important outreach. The 1-2% of inaccurate data can hurt your reputation if you reach the wrong person or get bounces on high-stakes campaigns.

Ignoring compliance: GDPR and other privacy regulations apply to how you use contact data. Ensure your outreach complies with applicable laws, includes opt-out mechanisms, and respects recipient preferences. ContactOut's data may be compliant, but your usage of it must be as well.

Generic messaging: Having someone's email address doesn't mean you should immediately pitch them. Use the wealth of information on LinkedIn to personalize every message. Reference their background, recent activity, or specific pain points relevant to their role.

Over-relying on automation: ContactOut and associated tools can automate much of prospecting, but don't lose the human touch. Decision-makers can spot automated, generic outreach from a mile away. Build automation for efficiency but maintain personalization for effectiveness.

Neglecting follow-up: Most prospects won't respond to your first message. Build systematic follow-up into your process. ContactOut gets you the contact information, but you need a proper cadence (typically 5-7 touches across multiple channels over 2-3 weeks) to maximize response rates.

Burning through credits inefficiently: Revealing contact information for anyone who vaguely matches your target profile wastes credits. Qualify prospects based on their LinkedIn profile before using ContactOut credits. This disciplined approach extends your credit allotment significantly.

Forgetting to update data: Contact information gets stale as people change jobs. If you've exported ContactOut data that's been sitting in your CRM for months, re-verify it before launching campaigns. Job changes, company acquisitions, and email updates happen constantly.

Mixing personal and work emails inappropriately: ContactOut often provides both personal and work email addresses. Use work emails for professional B2B outreach during business hours. Personal emails might be appropriate for certain contexts (recruiting passive candidates, for example), but for most sales scenarios, stick with professional addresses.

The Future of Contact Data and Prospecting

The contact intelligence space continues to evolve rapidly. Several trends are shaping the future of tools like ContactOut:

AI-powered enrichment: Artificial intelligence is becoming more sophisticated at finding, verifying, and enriching contact data. Expect future versions of ContactOut and competitors to leverage AI not just for email generation but for predictive scoring (which prospects are most likely to respond), automatic data updates, and intelligent list building.

Privacy regulations tightening: As data protection laws continue to tighten globally, contact data tools will need to prioritize compliance even more strongly. The platforms that survive will be those that balance data accessibility with rigorous privacy protections. Expect more emphasis on consent-based data and transparent sourcing.

Multi-source verification: Rather than relying on a single database, leading tools will increasingly aggregate data from multiple sources and use consensus verification. This multi-source approach improves accuracy and provides redundancy when individual sources have gaps.

Real-time data updates: Monthly updates will become insufficient as the pace of business accelerates. Expect real-time or near-real-time data updates that reflect job changes, company moves, and contact information updates within days rather than weeks or months.

Deeper integration ecosystems: Standalone tools are giving way to deeply integrated ecosystems. Future contact intelligence tools will work seamlessly within your entire go-to-market stack-CRM, email platform, phone system, marketing automation, conversation intelligence, and more-creating unified workflows rather than requiring constant tool-switching.

Intent-enriched contact data: Combining contact information with buyer intent signals creates powerful targeting capabilities. Knowing not just who to contact but when they're actively researching solutions transforms prospecting from interruptive to helpful.

ContactOut and similar tools have already revolutionized B2B prospecting by making contact discovery dramatically faster and more accurate. The next generation of these tools will make prospecting even more intelligent, automatic, and effective.

The Bottom Line on ContactOut Extension

The ContactOut extension is a legitimate tool for finding contact information, particularly for LinkedIn-heavy prospecting workflows. Its strengths include a large database, user-friendly interface, solid email accuracy, and seamless integration with LinkedIn and major CRM platforms. Users consistently praise the time savings and ease of use, with many reporting it as an essential daily tool.

The main drawbacks are credit limitations, annual billing requirements, inconsistent phone data, and relatively basic campaign features. The credit system can be restrictive for high-volume prospecting, and export limits of 300-600 contacts per month may not justify the cost for aggressive outbound teams. Phone number accuracy lags behind email accuracy, sometimes requiring manual verification or supplementation with other tools.

For individual salespeople, recruiters, or small teams doing moderate-volume outreach, ContactOut provides good value. The time saved finding contact information quickly pays for the subscription cost. For larger teams or high-volume prospecting operations, you'll likely need to combine it with other tools-or look at alternatives with better bulk capabilities and more generous credit systems.

ContactOut excels as a tactical execution tool for contact discovery, but it doesn't replace strategic thinking. You still need to define your ideal customer profile, identify target accounts, craft compelling messaging, and build genuine relationships. The tool accelerates the mechanical process of finding emails and phone numbers, but successful prospecting requires the complete stack: strategic targeting, contact discovery, data verification, multi-channel outreach, and continuous optimization.

Remember that contact finding is just one piece of the puzzle. The most effective B2B prospecting starts with strategic targeting. Know exactly which companies and roles you're pursuing before spending credits on contact lookups. Our free B2B Targeting Generator can help you build that strategic foundation, so every contact you find is actually worth reaching out to.

Consider ContactOut as part of a complete prospecting stack that includes targeting tools, verification services, multi-channel outreach platforms, and CRM integration. The companies seeing the best prospecting results aren't relying on any single tool-they're building complementary stacks where each tool handles what it does best, creating prospecting machines that are both efficient and effective.

Getting Started with ContactOut: A Step-by-Step Implementation Plan

Ready to give ContactOut a try? Here's a practical implementation plan:

Week 1: Setup and Testing

• Install the ContactOut Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store
• Sign up for the free plan to test functionality before committing to paid
• Connect your LinkedIn account and verify the integration works properly
• Test the extension on 10-15 profiles that represent your ideal prospect to assess data quality
• Check both email and phone accuracy by verifying a few contacts through alternative methods
• Explore the search portal and familiarize yourself with available filters

Week 2: Process Development

• Define your ideal customer profile based on your best existing customers
• Create saved searches in ContactOut for your most common prospect types
• Set up CRM integration to automate data flow from ContactOut to your pipeline
• Develop a qualification checklist to use before revealing contact information
• Create email templates for different prospect segments
• Establish a multi-touch cadence combining LinkedIn, email, and phone outreach

Week 3: Pilot Campaign

• Build a small list of 50-100 highly qualified prospects using ContactOut
• Verify all emails using our Email Verifier before outreach
• Launch a pilot multi-touch campaign to test messaging and approach
• Track response rates, meeting booking rates, and data accuracy
• Document what works and what doesn't for future optimization
• Calculate your ROI: time saved vs. subscription cost vs. pipeline generated

Week 4: Scale and Optimize

• Based on pilot results, refine your targeting criteria and messaging
• Scale up to larger list sizes if pilot results justify the investment
• Upgrade to a paid plan if free credits are insufficient (or find you don't need the tool)
• Set up reporting to track ContactOut-sourced leads through your entire funnel
• Train additional team members on your proven ContactOut process
• Continuously test variations in targeting, messaging, and cadence

This structured approach prevents common mistakes like immediately purchasing an annual plan before verifying it works for your specific use case, or scaling up outreach before testing messaging effectiveness. Take the time to validate both data quality and your ability to convert ContactOut-sourced contacts before making significant financial or time commitments.

Final Recommendations: Is ContactOut Right for You?

ContactOut makes the most sense for:

• Individual SDRs and recruiters who prospect primarily on LinkedIn and need reliable contact information quickly
• Small sales teams (1-5 people) doing moderate-volume outreach (less than 500 contacts per month)
• Recruitment firms focused on LinkedIn sourcing who need both email and phone contact for passive candidates
• Companies with LinkedIn-heavy ICPs where your target buyers are active on the platform and maintain complete profiles
• Teams prioritizing email accuracy over volume who value high deliverability rates over massive contact lists

ContactOut may not be the best fit for:

• High-volume prospecting teams needing to contact thousands of prospects monthly (consider Apollo, RocketReach, or similar)
• Budget-conscious startups that need month-to-month flexibility rather than annual commitments
• Teams targeting less LinkedIn-active audiences like traditional SMBs, healthcare, or e-commerce where profile data is sparse
• Organizations requiring extensive phone outreach where phone number accuracy is critical (supplement with alternatives)
• European-focused companies where ContactOut's data coverage is currently weaker

The bottom line: ContactOut is a solid, reliable tool for LinkedIn-based prospecting with excellent email accuracy and a user-friendly interface. It's not perfect-credit limitations, phone data inconsistency, and annual billing reduce its appeal for some users. But for the right use case, it delivers meaningful time savings and prospecting efficiency.

Before committing, start with the free plan to test data quality for your specific target market. Validate that the contacts ContactOut surfaces actually work and match your needs. Only after confirming the tool works for your use case should you commit to a paid annual plan.

And remember: ContactOut is a tactic, not a strategy. The tool helps you execute prospecting more efficiently, but it doesn't tell you who to prospect or what to say. Invest time in defining your ideal customer profile using our B2B Targeting Generator, craft compelling value propositions, and build genuine relationships. Technology like ContactOut amplifies good strategy-it doesn't compensate for bad strategy.

With the right approach, ContactOut can become a valuable component of your prospecting stack, helping you connect with the right people faster and more effectively than ever before.