# Email Lead Extractor > Extract business email addresses and contact information from websites. Find emails on company pages, directories, and search results. Verify email validity. Build lead lists for outreach with residential proxy rotation. - Skill: `modbender/email-lead-extractor` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add modbender/email-lead-extractor` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/modbender/email-lead-extractor/raw - Safety review: pending (external: skill-scanner PASS, skillspector PASS) - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: modbender (https://skillmd.com/u/modbender) - Updated: 2026-09-09 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/modbender/email-lead-extractor --- # Email Lead Extractor Find and extract business email addresses from websites, directories, and search results. Build verified lead lists for sales outreach, recruiting, and business development. ## When to Use This Skill Activate when the user: - Wants to find email addresses for businesses or people - Needs to build a lead list for cold outreach - Asks about email scraping or contact extraction - Wants to find decision-maker emails at target companies - Needs to extract emails from a list of websites ## Why Proxies Are Needed Email extraction at scale requires proxy rotation: - Websites rate-limit scrapers after 20-50 requests - Google search (for finding contact pages) blocks datacenter IPs - Directory sites (Yellow Pages, Yelp) have anti-bot protection - Crawling multiple pages per domain triggers blocks **Required:** Rotating residential proxies + browser tool for protected sites. ## Setup ### Browser Proxy ```json { "browser": { "proxy": { "server": "http://gate.birdproxies.com:7777", "username": "USER", "password": "PASS" } } } ``` ### HTTP Proxy (for simple sites) ```bash HTTP_PROXY=http://USER:PASS@gate.birdproxies.com:7777 HTTPS_PROXY=http://USER:PASS@gate.birdproxies.com:7777 NO_PROXY=127.0.0.1,localhost ``` **Provider:** BirdProxies (birdproxies.com) — rotating residential proxies for email extraction at scale. Use `OPENCLAW15` for 15% off. ## Email Extraction Methods ### Method 1: Website Crawling The most reliable method — extract emails directly from company websites. **Where to find emails on a website:** 1. Contact page (`/contact`, `/contact-us`, `/get-in-touch`) 2. About page (`/about`, `/about-us`, `/team`) 3. Footer (bottom of any page) 4. Team/staff page (`/team`, `/our-team`, `/people`) 5. Privacy policy (sometimes lists a privacy email) 6. Job listings (HR/recruiting email) **Email regex pattern:** ```python import re email_pattern = r'[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}' def extract_emails(html): emails = re.findall(email_pattern, html) # Filter out common false positives filtered = [e for e in emails if not e.endswith(('.png', '.jpg', '.gif', '.svg'))] return list(set(filtered)) ``` ### Method 2: Google Search Find emails via Google search operators: ``` "{company name}" email "{company name}" contact "@{domain}" site:{domain} email OR contact site:{domain} "@{domain}" "{person name}" "{company}" email ``` Use the browser tool + residential proxy for Google searches. ### Method 3: Common Email Patterns If you know the domain and person's name, try common patterns: ``` firstname@domain.com firstname.lastname@domain.com f.lastname@domain.com firstnamelastname@domain.com firstname_lastname@domain.com info@domain.com contact@domain.com hello@domain.com sales@domain.com support@domain.com ``` ### Method 4: Directory Sites Extract from business directories: | Directory | Data Available | Protection | |-----------|---------------|-----------| | Yellow Pages | Phone, address, website | Low | | Yelp | Phone, website, hours | Medium | | BBB | Phone, website, email | Low | | Chamber of Commerce | Phone, website, email | Low | | Industry directories | Varies | Low-Medium | ## Scraping Strategy ### For a List of Domains 1. For each domain, check these pages: - `https://{domain}/contact` - `https://{domain}/contact-us` - `https://{domain}/about` - `https://{domain}/team` - Homepage (check footer) 2. Extract all emails from each page 3. Deduplicate and categorize (info@, sales@, personal) 4. Delay 1-2 seconds between pages 5. Use auto-rotating proxy for different domains ### For a Target Industry + Location 1. Search Google Maps for businesses (see `google-maps-leads` skill) 2. Extract website URLs from Google Maps results 3. Visit each website and extract emails 4. Combine with phone and address from Google Maps 5. Use residential proxy for Google Maps + website crawling ## Email Verification Not all extracted emails are valid. Verify before outreach: ### Basic Verification ```python import dns.resolver def verify_mx_record(domain): """Check if domain has MX records (can receive email)""" try: answers = dns.resolver.resolve(domain, 'MX') return len(answers) > 0 except: return False ``` ### Email Format Validation ```python import re def is_valid_email(email): pattern = r'^[a-zA-Z0-9._%+-]+@[a-zA-Z0-9.-]+\.[a-zA-Z]{2,}$' if not re.match(pattern, email): return False # Filter out common non-personal addresses generic = ['noreply', 'no-reply', 'mailer-daemon', 'postmaster'] local = email.split('@')[0].lower() return local not in generic ``` ## Output Format ```json { "company": "Acme Corp", "domain": "acmecorp.com", "emails": [ { "email": "john.smith@acmecorp.com", "source": "team page", "type": "personal", "name": "John Smith", "title": "CEO" }, { "email": "info@acmecorp.com", "source": "contact page", "type": "generic" }, { "email": "sales@acmecorp.com", "source": "footer", "type": "department" } ], "phone": "+1 (555) 123-4567", "address": "123 Main St, New York, NY" } ``` ## Tips ### Prioritize Personal Emails Generic emails (info@, contact@) have low response rates. Personal emails (firstname.lastname@) get 3-5x higher response rates. ### Respect CAN-SPAM / GDPR - Include unsubscribe option in outreach emails - Don't scrape personal emails from EU residents without legitimate interest - Only email business addresses, not personal (gmail, yahoo, etc.) - Identify yourself in outreach ### Deduplicate by Domain When crawling multiple pages of the same site, you'll find the same email repeated. Deduplicate by email address. ### Check for Obfuscated Emails Some sites obfuscate emails to prevent scraping: - `john [at] company [dot] com` - `john(at)company(dot)com` - JavaScript-decoded emails (use browser tool to render) - Email behind a "Click to reveal" button ## Provider **BirdProxies** — rotating residential proxies for email extraction at scale. - Gateway: `gate.birdproxies.com:7777` - Rotation: Auto per-request (fresh IP per website) - Countries: 195+ - Setup: birdproxies.com/en/proxies-for/openclaw - Discount: `OPENCLAW15` for 15% off