How to Export LinkedIn Connections With Emails

You've spent years building a LinkedIn network — and when you finally export it, half the "emails" are blank or personal Gmail addresses you can't sell to. The data you actually need isn't in the file.

The straight answer: LinkedIn lets you export your connections (names, companies, titles, and only the emails people chose to share), but to get verified work emails and direct dials you enrich that export through a B2B contact database. The export is the input; verification turns it into a usable sales list.

What does exporting LinkedIn connections give you? LinkedIn's data export includes your connections' names, current company, position, and connection date — plus email only where the connection allowed it. It does not reliably include work emails or any phone numbers, so the file needs enrichment before outreach.

Step 1: Export Your Connections From LinkedIn

LinkedIn provides an official export under Settings → Data Privacy → "Get a copy of your data" → Connections. You'll receive a CSV with first/last name, company, position, and connected date. The email column is mostly empty — LinkedIn only includes an email if that connection opted to share it.

Step 2: Clean and Segment the File

Before enriching, tidy it: Filter to ICP-fit titles and companies. Drop personal-only contacts. Dedupe against your CRM so you don't re-touch live deals. A focused 300-row file beats a 3,000-row dump.

Step 3: Enrich With Verified Work Emails and Direct Dials

Upload the cleaned name+company list to a B2B contact database; it appends verified work emails and verified direct dials by matching each person to their current role. Enrichment returns the current, verified work address at ~98% deliverability — and a phone number LinkedIn never had.

Step 4: Verify Before You Send

Never send to the raw export. Verified addresses send at ~98% deliverability, while stale or guessed ones bounce 15–25% and push your domain toward spam past a ~3% bounce rate. Re-verify anything older than 90 days.

The Compliance Line

Your connections are professional contacts, which makes B2B outreach generally legal in the US and GDPR-compliant in the EU under "legitimate interest" — provided you reach out about relevant business matters and offer easy opt-out. Use a GDPR-compliant data source for the enrichment step.

Use the "Warm" Angle in Your Outreach

A connection export has an edge a cold list doesn't: you're already connected. Reference it naturally — "We connected a while back around [topic]; thought this was relevant." That single line lifts reply rates because it's true and specific.

Common Mistakes

Sending to the raw export — mostly blank or personal emails. Skipping enrichment — without verified work emails, the file is just a contact directory. Ignoring staleness — people changed jobs; old roles bounce. No segmentation — blasting your whole network burns goodwill.

Conclusion

Exporting LinkedIn connections is step one, not the finish line. The export gives you identities; enrichment and verification turn them into a reachable, dialable sales list with a built-in warm angle. The move today: export, filter to your ICP, then enrich to verified work emails.