Get Fresh COO Email List 2025

Chief Operating Officers are the engines behind execution. While CEOs set the vision, COOs ensure everything runs smoothly, overseeing teams, streamlining operations, and managing performance across the organization. If you sell enterprise software, workflow automation tools, operational consulting, or B2B services that improve internal efficiency, reaching COOs directly can be a game-changer.

The challenge? Most prebuilt COO email lists are outdated, inflated, or filled with irrelevant contacts. You end up with generic info@ addresses, bounced emails, or people who no longer hold the role. That’s not just frustrating, it’s a waste of time and budget.

The better solution is to build your own COO email list using an email scraper that pulls live data from public platforms like LinkedIn, company websites, and business directories. With the right filters, you can target COOs by industry, company size, region, or even recent hiring activity, giving you a clean, custom list built for outreach that works.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to source, refine, and activate a COO contact list in 2025. Whether you’re targeting fast-growing SaaS firms, mid-market logistics companies, or enterprise healthcare providers, you’ll learn how to build a high-quality pipeline of operational leaders who actually reply.

Top Ways to Get a Fresh COO Email List

Reaching Chief Operating Officers means getting past gatekeepers and into real inboxes. But most off-the-shelf COO email lists are filled with stale contacts, irrelevant roles, or generic emails that never get opened. If you want to connect with actual decision-makers, the smart move is to build or extract your own list from trusted, real-time sources.

Here are the most effective ways to get a clean, targeted COO email list in 2025.

Use LinkedIn with advanced filters

LinkedIn is still the most reliable source for identifying COOs and operations leaders across industries. With tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, you can filter by title, location, industry, company headcount, and even recent job changes.

Tips for LinkedIn search:

• Use titles like “Chief Operating Officer,” “Head of Operations,” or “VP of Operations”
• Filter by company size to match your ICP (ideal customer profile)
• Save searches to build custom lead lists and track changes over time

Use an email scraper like IGLeads to pull COO contact data

Instead of searching manually, an email scraper lets you extract COO data from public platforms at scale. Tools like IGLeads let you select filters by title, company type, industry, and region — and then generate a ready-to-use COO email list in minutes.+

What IGLeads works well for:

• Targeting COOs by niche (e.g. eCommerce, logistics, SaaS)
• Pulling emails from LinkedIn and company websites
• Exporting clean CSVs that plug into CRMs or email tools

No technical skills needed. Just pick your targeting criteria, run the scrape, and download fresh leads.

Explore company websites and leadership pages

Many company websites include detailed leadership bios with names, roles, and sometimes direct contact information. This method is great for high-value accounts or ABM (account-based marketing) campaigns.

Best for:

• Manually verifying senior titles
• Gathering background info to personalize emails
• Building a short list of strategic COO targets

While time-consuming, this method ensures high-quality, verified contacts.

Tap into business databases and directories

Platforms like Apollo, Crunchbase, and ZoomInfo provide rich business data, including job titles and firmographics. While most require a subscription, they offer strong filtering capabilities for pinpointing operations leadership roles.

Look for:

• C-level filtering (specifically “Chief Operating Officer”)
• Company size and industry breakdowns
• Export options with email and LinkedIn links

Always validate contacts before outreach, as even paid tools can include outdated data.

Avoid generic list vendors

Low-cost list sellers often pull from recycled or unverified data sources. These lists might promise thousands of COOs, but you’ll likely end up with low-quality leads, bounce backs, or compliance risks.

If you do consider buying:

• Ask when the list was last updated
• Verify that emails are role-specific, not generic
• Check if the data complies with GDPR and CAN-SPAM

In most cases, building your own list with an email scraper gives you better results and more control.

How to Use Your COO Email List Effectively

A high-quality COO email list is only valuable if you use it the right way. Chief Operating Officers are time-pressed, strategic thinkers who don’t respond to generic outreach. To earn a reply — or even a click — your message needs to be sharp, relevant, and respectful of their time.

Here’s how to turn your list of COOs into real conversations and qualified leads.

Segment your list for better targeting

Not all COOs face the same challenges. Segment your contacts by company size, industry, or geography so your emails can speak directly to their day-to-day concerns.

Examples:

• COOs at fast-scaling startups may care about automation and efficiency
• COOs in manufacturing are focused on logistics and supply chain stability
• COOs at SaaS companies may want better team productivity or analytics

The more relevant your message, the higher your response rate.

Write short, value-driven emails

COOs don’t have time for fluff. Keep your email under 100 words and get to the point quickly. Skip attachments and avoid sounding like a pitch deck.

Use this simple format:

• Line 1: Reference something specific (their company, role, or industry)
• Line 2: Explain why you’re reaching out
• Line 3: Highlight a clear benefit or result
• Line 4: Include a low-friction CTA (calendar link, reply, or intro request)

Make the message about them, not about you.

Use a multi-step email sequence

Don’t rely on one email. Most decision-makers need 2–4 touches before replying. Set up a thoughtful, spaced-out follow-up sequence with different angles and added value.

Example sequence:

• Day 1: Personalized intro with clear benefit
• Day 3: Follow-up with a relevant stat or short case study
• Day 6: Share a helpful resource (guide, report, checklist)
• Day 10: Ask if there’s a better contact or timing

Keep each message conversational and focused on outcomes.

Provide value before you pitch

Earn trust by leading with something useful. COOs respond well to data, benchmarks, and tools that help them make better decisions — even if they’re not ready to buy.

What to offer:

• ROI calculators or cost-savings projections
• Process optimization checklists
• Industry-specific whitepapers or research
• Case studies with quantifiable outcomes

You’re not just selling — you’re helping them do their job better.

Track your outreach performance

Use analytics to improve your messaging. Monitor open rates, reply rates, and click-throughs to find weak points and optimize your approach.

Benchmark goals:

• 40–50% open rate
• 10–20% reply rate for well-targeted lists
• Bounce rate under 2%

Run A/B tests on subject lines, email copy, and CTAs to find what works best.

How to Use Your COO Email List Effectively

Having a curated COO email list gives you direct access to some of the most execution-focused leaders in business. But unlike broader outreach strategies, connecting with Chief Operating Officers requires precision. These are people who don’t want small talk, vague pitches, or unnecessary meetings. They want clarity, relevance, and efficiency — just like the systems they manage.

Start by narrowing your focus. Instead of treating your list as one large campaign, divide it into key segments based on company size, industry vertical, and operational complexity. A COO at a high-growth tech startup is making decisions about scale, speed, and automation. A COO at a manufacturing firm is likely managing logistics, supplier timelines, and cost control. Your messaging should reflect those realities — not just the benefits of your product.

When it comes to writing the actual emails, forget long introductions and feature lists. Your first message should be no more than five sentences, and every word should earn its place. Lead with insight, not an ask. Show them you understand the operational challenges they face — whether that’s inefficient internal workflows, fragmented tech stacks, or costly downtime. Make it immediately clear why you’re reaching out and what outcome you’re proposing.

You don’t need to close a deal in the first email. A better goal is to create momentum. Use a short, well-timed sequence that gradually builds interest. For example, your first follow-up might reference a relevant industry trend. The next could include a stat or short success story from a similar company. Your final message might be as simple as, “Let me know if this isn’t a priority right now — happy to circle back next quarter.”

Avoid pushing product too soon. Instead, offer something useful — a benchmarking report, a cost-savings model, or a short process optimization checklist. Content that helps them do their job better is content that gets read.

And finally, track everything. If your open rates are low, your subject line isn’t strong enough. If no one replies, your value proposition might be unclear. Measure performance, adjust your approach, and test new angles. This isn’t mass marketing — it’s a conversation with people who manage complexity for a living.

Best Use Cases and Industries for COO Email Outreach

COOs are laser-focused on making things run better — faster, cheaper, and with fewer moving parts. If your product or service can help streamline operations, reduce costs, or unlock scale, email outreach can be an effective way to open the conversation. The key is aligning your message with the specific outcomes they’re responsible for.

Below are industries where COOs play a pivotal role in purchasing decisions, along with outreach strategies that work.

SaaS and Operational Tech

COOs are often the final decision-makers on software that affects internal workflows, cross-team communication, or customer delivery. They want tools that don’t just sound good — they want tools that work.

When reaching out, highlight:

• Faster implementation or adoption across teams
• Reduced tool sprawl and integration headaches
• Quantifiable improvements (e.g. “Cut ops time by 34% in 90 days”)

A COO doesn’t need a product tour in the first email. They need to know why your platform will make their systems cleaner, not messier.

Logistics, Supply Chain, and Manufacturing

In industries where physical goods, timing, and margin are everything, COOs are the operational architects. Outreach that references specific bottlenecks or opportunities for streamlining will stand out.

Appeal to their priorities:

• Route or delivery optimization
• Inventory visibility or automation
• Better vendor management systems

Even a 5% efficiency gain at scale could mean hundreds of thousands in recovered value — and they know it.

Consulting and Strategic Ops Services

When internal teams hit capacity or leadership is navigating change, COOs often bring in outside experts. This is a great angle if you offer process consulting, ops audits, or implementation services.

Make your pitch resonate by showing:

• You’ve worked with similar org sizes or industries
• You bring clear frameworks — not fluff
• Results, not resumes (“Reduced cross-team errors by 18% in 6 weeks”)

Position your service as a partner in execution, not just advice.

Financial Services and Operational Spend Optimization

Whether it’s procurement, software spend, or general budgeting, COOs are always looking for ways to reduce overhead without sacrificing output. Financial tools, analytics dashboards, or cost-optimization platforms are a great fit here.

What to emphasize:

• Real-time financial visibility
• Overspending alerts or predictive insights
• Easy integration with existing systems

If you can show them where money is being wasted and how to fix it, you’ll get their attention.

Tips for Keeping Your COO Email List Clean and Updated

COOs change companies. They get promoted. Sometimes, they move into advisory roles or launch ventures of their own. That means even the most carefully built COO email list can go stale faster than expected — and a single outdated contact can derail an otherwise strong campaign.

Here’s how to keep your list sharp, relevant, and ready for high-level outreach.

Schedule regular list refreshes

Don’t let your list sit for months untouched. Tools like IGLeads allow you to re-run scrapes based on your original filters, helping you stay up to date without rebuilding from scratch.

Try this cadence:

• Re-scrape every 30–60 days for active campaigns
• Refresh before launching new industry- or region-specific pushes
• Set automated reminders to keep data aligned with real-world changes

Use bounce rate as an early warning signal

If more than 2% of your emails are bouncing, it’s a red flag. COOs may leave companies without updating their profiles — and sending to a dead inbox damages your sender reputation.

Best practices:

• Run your list through an email verification tool before each campaign
• Remove hard bounces immediately
• Track soft bounces and recheck those contacts before your next send

Trim cold or inactive contacts

Even valid emails lose value if they’re unresponsive. If a contact hasn’t opened, clicked, or replied after multiple attempts, it’s time to let them go (or re-engage strategically).

Set a simple rule:
Remove anyone who hasn’t engaged after 3–4 email sequences — unless they’re high-value enough to revisit with a more personalized touch later.

Track job and company changes

A COO moving to a new company doesn’t mean they’re lost — it could mean they now have a bigger budget or different problems to solve. Monitor job changes through LinkedIn or re-scraping filters.

Pro tip:
If someone leaves their role, look up their replacement. Now you have two potential contacts: the person who knows your offer, and the person currently in the seat.

Stay compliant — always

High-level contacts like COOs are more likely to report unsolicited or poorly targeted emails. Avoid legal and reputation risks by following data privacy laws like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and others in your target regions.

Compliance checklist:

• Always include a visible unsubscribe option
• Never scrape data behind login walls or private profiles
• Document where each contact came from and when

Good data hygiene builds trust — and keeps your outreach efforts sustainable long term.

Real-World Examples of Successful COO Email Outreach

You don’t need a massive list to see results, you need a clean one, the right message, and a value proposition that speaks to how COOs think. These real-world examples show how businesses are using well-targeted COO email lists to land meetings, close deals, and build partnerships at the executive level.

SaaS platform lands high-value demos with mid-market COOs

A project management software company targeted COOs at companies with 100–500 employees in the logistics and distribution space. Instead of buying a list, they used an email scraper to build a segment of 1,200 verified contacts based on title, location, and industry.

Results:

• 46% open rate
• 122 demo bookings in 21 days
• $1.1M in qualified pipeline generated

Why it worked: They tailored each email to operational pain points — focusing on delivery delays, staff coordination, and reporting automation. The list was fresh, the copy was tight, and the sequence avoided bloat.

Ops consultant books enterprise calls with 12-person campaign

An operations consultant targeting enterprise COOs in the healthcare sector scraped just 12 personalized contacts from hospital networks in the Midwest. The initial email included a single case study and a 15-minute meeting link.

Results:

• 6 replies from 12 contacts
• 3 discovery calls
• 1 ongoing contract worth $75K+

Why it worked: The messaging was lean and focused on patient throughput, compliance workflows, and internal friction — issues only a COO would care about. A small list, but deeply relevant.

B2B AI startup runs outbound test, closes early-stage pilots

A machine learning startup targeting COOs in retail and eCommerce built a list of 600 COOs using IGLeads, filtering by companies doing over $5M in annual sales. Their email sequence emphasized automation in inventory forecasting and labor scheduling.

Results:

• 38% open rate
• 47 replies
• 5 pilot deals signed within 60 days

Why it worked: The offer was framed as a test, not a pitch. Their subject lines referenced operational KPIs, and their follow-up emails included visuals from previous deployments.

These aren’t viral campaigns — they’re targeted, disciplined, and operationally aligned. That’s what works with COOs.

What to Do Next With Your COO Email List

You’ve built a COO email list. It’s clean, targeted, and ready to go. Now what?

This is the point where most teams either move too fast (sending the same generic pitch to everyone) or too slow (overthinking every detail). The sweet spot is structure — a clear process that respects your list and maximizes every contact on it.

Here’s what to do next to turn your list into pipeline:

1. Prioritize by segment

Not every COO on your list will be equally valuable. Sort by industry, company size, or strategic fit. Start with the contacts most aligned to your ideal customer profile.

2. Craft one message per segment — not one message for all

Write a short, relevant intro email for each segment. Use language they’d actually use. Address the operational challenge they’re probably thinking about this quarter — not your product’s features.

3. Send a thoughtful 3–4 step sequence

Your first email is rarely the one that gets the reply. Follow up with something useful — a case study, benchmark, or resource. Space out your messages over 7–10 days.

4. Monitor your metrics and adjust fast

If your open rate is under 30%, change your subject line. If replies are low, your value prop may need tightening. Don’t send 500 emails without learning from the first 50.

5. Keep the list fresh and track movement

Re-scrape regularly, remove bounces, and pay attention to job changes. A COO who moves companies could become an even more valuable contact tomorrow.

6. Stay compliant, always

Use public data only. Include unsubscribe links. Respect opt-outs. You’re reaching senior decision-makers — your professionalism is part of your pitch.

The bottom line? One good email to the right COO can open doors that a year of ads can’t. Treat your list like a strategic asset, not a send-and-forget database. With tools like IGLeads, you’re not just getting emails — you’re building a faster path to real decision-makers.