Find 100 lookalikes of your best leads using Discover

When you find your perfect lead, prospect them, generate a lead, and close that business, it's natural to look for more of the same.

This Hunter playbook shows you how to go beyond one great-fit company in Domain Search and use Hunter's Discover B2B database to find 100 more.

Why this matters

Most users find one great-fit company in Domain Search, manually research 5–10 lookalikes, and stop there.

But that single company is actually a concrete definition of your ideal customer profile (ICP).

Discover turns that one example into a list of hundreds of similar companies automatically, without needing to know their industry tags, tech stacks, or employee count in advance.

Hunter's State of Email Outreach 2026 found that sequences targeting 21–50 recipients achieve a 158% higher reply rate than sequences targeting 500+.

The goal must be to create highly relevant lists, and the best way to do that is start with smaller numbers, find what Sequences work, and build those into larger lists of similar contacts.

Your plan

• What you'll achieve: 50–150 verified, segment-ready contacts at lookalike companies, with a live Sequence ready to launch in ~25 minutes 
• Features used: Domain Search · Discover (AI Assistant, Similar Companies, Saved Searches) · Leads · Email Verifier · Sequences (AI Writing Assistant, personalization variables) 
• Time to complete: ~15 minutes for your first Discover search and list build
• Prerequisites: At least one company you know is a great fit for your product. Similar Companies requires a paid Hunter plan.

Step 1: Validate your ICP in Domain Search

Go to Domain Search and search for a company you know is a great fit. Before moving to Discover, take 2 minutes to note what makes them ideal:

• Company size range
• Industry and what they do
• Technologies they use (visible in the Domain Search company panel)
• The roles you're targeting (VP Sales, Head of Marketing, Founder, etc.)

This is your ICP benchmark. Click the Decision Makers tab to filter for senior contacts (CEOs, VPs, Directors). Use the Department and Job Title filters to target the specific roles you want.

Read our Help Center article to learn more about Domain Search.

Multi-threading tip: Hunter data shows emailing 1–2 people per company produces a 46% higher reply rate than emailing 3 or more. Plan to contact 1–2 decision makers per company, not the entire contact list.

Step 2: Use "Similar Companies" in Discover to find lookalikes instantly

This is the fastest path, and the one most users miss.

Open Discover (main menu → Discover) and look for the "Companies similar to" filter in the left panel. Start typing the company name in your Domain Search, then select it from the dropdown.

Hunter immediately generates a list of companies that resemble your chosen one across industry, size, and other signals, without you having to set any filters manually.

This is the best starting point when you have a concrete example but aren't sure which categories or keywords to use.

Scan the first page of results.

Do the companies look like the right fit?

If yes, move to Step 3.

If it feels off, try adding one or two manual filters (industry, size range) to sharpen the results.

Step 3: Refine with filters or the AI Assistant

For more control, use Discover's manual filters:

• Industry and keywords: describe what the company does
• Company size: set a range matching your ICP benchmark
• Location: city, country, continent, or economic region
• Technologies used: filter for companies using the same tools as your best customers (e.g. HubSpot, Salesforce, Shopify). This signals a budget and a tech-forward culture
• Contact roles: specify the departments or job titles you are targeting within those companies

Alternatively, use the AI Assistant: type a plain-language description at the bottom of the filters section, for example: "Find executives from marketing and customer support".

Discover then automatically generates the matching filters.

You can adjust them manually afterward.

Tweaking your lists

• Fewer than 50 results → filters too narrow. Remove one constraint (usually Location or a Technology filter).
• More than 300 results → ICP too broad. Add a size range, a technology filter, or a more specific keyword.
• Target: 50–150 companies for a first campaign. Keeps your sequence and copy relevant to the recipients.

Step 4: Bulk-find contacts

Select the companies you want to target, or click Reveal all to find all matching contacts and save them to a dedicated Leads list.

Your new list is now ready to be exported in CSV or added to a sequence.

Step 5: Verify your list before launching

This step is critical - even contacts found through Hunter's own tools can become outdated as people change roles or companies.

To verify unverified emails:

• Go to the list of Leads you have created → apply the Verification status filter → Is Empty to select only addresses that haven't been verified yet.
• Select them → click Verify Leads.

Alternatively, you can verify leads when adding them to a Sequence from the Audience tab. Click "Test all unverified email addresses".

Cost: 0.5 credits per address, total shown before you confirm. Invalid addresses are automatically excluded from sending, even if they remain in your Audience list.

Step 6: Launch a Sequence with targeted, personalized copy

Because every contact came from the same Discover search, you can write copy that speaks directly to their specific context, without a generic template.

Three personalization tools inside Hunter Sequences:

1. Personalization variables: Insert {{first_name}}, {{company}}, {{job_title}}, and other lead data fields directly into your email body. These pull from your Leads data automatically, no mail merge required.

2. AI Writing Assistant: Use Hunter's built-in AI assistant in the Sequence editor to generate a first draft based on your campaign goal and target profile. Edit from there rather than starting blank.

3. Segment-specific copy: If you built multiple Discover lists (e.g., "SaaS UK", "SaaS France", "E-commerce UK"), give each its own Sequence with 1–2 sentences customized to their context.

Deliverability tip: Hunter's 2026 data shows sequences without open tracking generate a 68% higher reply rate than those with tracking enabled (7.4% vs 4.4%). Consider disabling open tracking for better inbox placement. You can track success through reply rate alone.

What this looks like when it's working

• Reply rate above 3%: your ICP filters are working. Duplicate the approach for the next segment.
• Reply rate below 3%: check whether your copy is specific enough to this audience, or whether your ICP needs narrowing. Return to Discover and tighten filters.
• Bounce rate above 2%: re-verify your list before the next send and raise your Accept-All Confidence Score threshold to 90%.

Next up:

Once replies start coming in, connect Hunter to your CRM so conversations don't get lost:

• Go to Integrate Hunter → connect HubSpot, Pipedrive, or your CRM of choice.
• For CRMs not natively supported, use the Hunter + Zapier integration to automatically push leads and replies.

Want to go further?

Set up a Signals-based workflow: configure a Funding Signal for your ICP, and whenever a matching company raises money, reach out within 48 hours.

Companies with fresh capital are ready to spend, and that timing advantage is hard to replicate.

Put all of this into action today with Hunter's Outreach Planner: