How to Use Hunter to Build a Partner and PR Outreach List

The short answer: paste the partner or publication domains into Hunter's Bulk Domain Search, filter to the marketing and communications departments, cap the emails per domain and switch on verification, download only the valid addresses, spot-check the top tier in Domain Search, then import the list as leads and send from Sequences with a tracking consent mode you chose on purpose.

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Partner and PR lists fail in a particular way. The domains are easy to collect; the right person at each one is not, and a generic inbox swallows the pitch. Hunter's Domain Search shows the people it knows at a domain, with their department and the public pages where each address was seen, which is the detail this job needs. For plans and credit costs, see the Hunter glossary entry.

Before you paste a single domain:

1. Know the credit bill. For example, 120 publication and partner domains capped at 5 emails each cost at most 120 credits to download, since Bulk Domain Search charges 1 credit per 1 to 10 emails per domain, and verifying up to 600 addresses at 0.5 credits adds at most 300. That is 420 credits at the outside, inside Starter's 2,000 a month at $49, on the pricing page checked on 24 October 2026.
2. Start from the list you have. Pull partner and media domains from your CRM or the spreadsheet the PR team keeps, one per line. Use domains rather than company names: the Bulk Domain Search article says names lead to fewer matches and need suffixes such as Ltd stripped out.
3. Note the reply rate you get today. Your last partner or press campaign is the baseline the new list has to beat.
4. Settle who answers for the data. Hunter's GDPR article makes you the controller of the leads in your account, so the legal basis for contacting each person, and the notice you give them, are yours to provide.

Step 1: Create the bulk task

Go to Bulk, click Domain Search, then + New bulk. Name the task, choose Domain names as the input type, and paste the list or import a CSV, Excel, Numbers or TXT file with the domains in one column. One bulk takes up to 25,000 domains, and the bulk article asks you to keep files under 10 MB. Set the filters in the same window, because closing it discards what you entered.

Step 2: Set the filters for this job

Four settings shape the result, all listed in the Bulk Domain Search article:

• Maximum emails per domain. Set it at 10 or fewer, because verification is only offered at that cap.
• Email type. Choose personal addresses, so info@ and press@ inboxes stay out unless you want them.
• Departments. Pick Marketing, Writing & Communication and Executive. "Only" applies them strictly; "in priority" fills the cap from other departments when too few match.
• Sources and original columns. Include the email sources, and keep your original columns if you uploaded a CSV, so each row maps back to your sheet.

Step 3: Launch, and know when credits move

Click Upload. Verification is charged when the bulk launches, at 0.5 credits per address, while the finding credits are charged only when you download, per the same article. Downloading the same bulk again later costs nothing.

Step 4: Download the valid rows and read them

With verification on, choose between valid addresses only, all addresses including those that could not be verified, and the domains where nothing was found. For outreach, take the valid file. Each row carries a confidence score, the number of public sources, the domain's usual pattern, and both the raw job title and a standardised one. The status article explains the addresses that fall short of Valid: an accept-all domain reports every address as valid, so no check can confirm the mailbox, and those can bounce.

Step 5: Spot-check the top tier by hand

For your ten most important partners, run a normal Domain Search and open the Decision Makers tab, which ranks senior people first and filters by department and location, per the decision maker article. Expand the sources on each address. An address tagged "Inferred" is one Hunter derived from public mentions, which is worth knowing when one pitch is all you get.

Step 6: Map the gaps with Claude

Some domains will return nobody useful. Connect Hunter to Claude through Customize, Connectors, Add custom connector, with the URL https://mcp.hunter.io/mcp, then log in and authorise, as the Claude setup article shows. Then adapt one of the prompts on Hunter's MCP page: "Use Hunter to find everyone at {publication} in marketing, communications or editorial roles, sorted by seniority, with verified email addresses and confidence scores."

The assistant does the lookups; you decide who gets the pitch. Read each suggested contact against what the publication covers before saving anyone, because a correct address for the wrong editor is still a wasted pitch. The MCP page says the connection uses your existing plan and credits, so the lookups draw on the same balance as the bulk.

Step 7: Import as leads and send with a consent mode

Open the finished bulk and click Import to save the results to a leads list. Before the first email, open Sequences, Settings, Email tracking. The tracking consent article offers three modes: Opt-out, the default; Opt-in, which tracks only recipients who allow it; and No consent required. It reads EU ePrivacy rules as requiring prior consent for tracking pixels and puts the choice on you as the sender, so for recipients in the EU, Opt-in or no tracking at all is the careful setting. Check the plan's cap on recipients per sequence too: 500 on Free and 2,500 on Starter, per the pricing page.

How to know it worked

Count replies per 100 contacts against the baseline from your last campaign, and look at bounces separately. A list from the valid file should bounce rarely; if it does not, check the domains with the most bounces in Domain Search before blaming the copy.

What Hunter's help pages warn about

• Leaving results unpaid. Unpaid bulk results are deleted after 6 months with no reminder, while paid results are kept for 15 months with a warning 30 days before deletion, per the Bulk Domain Search article.
• Expecting a re-download to match. Hunter rechecks stored files about every two weeks and removes contacts who claimed their address or joined a legal do-not-contact list, so a later download can have fewer rows.
• Uploading company names with suffixes. Strip Ltd, LLC, brackets and slashes, or the match rate drops.
• Pausing for the discount. The one-time use article says a paused monthly plan resumes with 30% off the first payment. A return discount is there to bring you back; for a single project, cancelling the renewal after one month is the cleaner exit.

FAQ

How many emails can I get per domain?

Up to 5,000 per domain on a paid plan. The Free plan downloads a sample of at most 10 per domain within its 50 monthly credits, per the Bulk Domain Search article.

How long does Hunter keep my bulk files?

Paid results for 15 months and unpaid results for 6, as the same article sets out. Import the valid file into Leads if you need it longer.

Can I verify a list from another source?

Yes. The Bulk Email Verifier checks a list you upload at 0.5 credits per address, and an address that ends as Unknown is not charged, per the pricing page.