API or application programming interface, do you know what it is and how it is used in marketing?

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We live in an age in which we interact with technology and the digital world on a daily basis. Children are introduced to these new tools from a young age and they become a natural part of their lives. We use various resources and we cannot imagine what our daily lives would be like without them. However, we do not know how they work nor have we thought about what is behind them.

One of these tools that help a lot without going unnoticed canada mobile number database are APIs. If you want to understand more about them and discover how they can help you with your marketing tasks, I will tell you about it in this post. You will be able to understand what an API is, what it is used for, how you can use it, and I will also show you some examples of how it is part of our daily lives.

Come with me!

What is an API?
API is the acronym for “Application Programming Interface” . An API is a set of commands, subroutines, procedures and functions that allow programmers to create specific programs for certain systems.

In other words, it is a set of codes and specifications for applications to communicate or interact with each other. Simply put, it is a communication system between applications.

What is it for?
As we have already told you, APIs are used to allow applications to communicate with each other . This allows, for example, you to share a blog post on your favorite social network . If APIs did not exist, this would not be possible, or it would be a resource that would be difficult to access.

One of the great advantages of APIs is that they make the work of programmers much easier, since they do not need to create an entire application from scratch. They can use APIs to integrate the application they are creating with other existing ones.

Examples of APIs that are part of our daily lives
Social networks
It could be Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Instagram or Pinterest. They all have APIs that integrate them with other platforms.

I mentioned an example earlier, where you can share the content of a website on your profile on a social network like Facebook for example. You can only do this because one of the social network's APIs (in Facebook's case: Graph API) was integrated with the blog's content management system.

Another example on Facebook is the games for the platform, there are a large number of games that can be downloaded and stay connected to your profile on the network. In this way you can interact with your Facebook contacts through the games.

APIs are also what make it possible to schedule posts on social networks. Tools such as Hootsuite, Buffer, Postcron, etc., use APIs for this task.

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Price comparators
Another example of the use of APIs is price comparison sites. Google Shopping, Ciao, Twenga, etc., work effectively thanks to APIs. They are responsible for identifying the values ​​of online stores and updating the platform with the best prices. A resource that greatly benefits customers.

Online Payments
There are several online payment and transaction options: PayPal, PayU, Nubepago, etc. When using any of them to receive payments on your website, there is an API that makes all of this work, connecting your website with the online payment platform. Thanks to them, the user does not need to enter their bank details on all the sites where they make their purchases. The username and password of the payment platform are enough to authorize the transaction, which gives more security and practicality to the user.

When making a payment by credit card, for example, in an online store, the website uses an API that sends the information to another program that is responsible for verifying whether all the bank details are correct; if so, the purchase is completed.

As you can see, there are countless cases in which APIs work discreetly to make platforms and applications work correctly, performing actions that seem to be automatic. And they really are, thanks to APIs.

All this automation is quite interesting and makes the day-to-day life of those who use the Internet easier, whether it is to consume, have fun, stay informed, etc. But since the focus of our website is marketing, let's move on to the next question.

How are APIs used in marketing?
For users, the function of APIs may go unnoticed, but for a business, never. That is why we are going to answer this question now, which can help you improve your results.

In marketing, APIs can be used both for social media app integrations and for integrations with other apps.

Creativity has no limits when it comes to marketing . Below I will give you some suggestions on how to use APIs in this area, but I am sure you will be able to find many more:

Integrate your website with your social networks
You probably already integrated them a long time ago. Nowadays, it's almost second nature to do so, but you may not have known yet that this was possible thanks to APIs.

If you haven't done all the integration yet, don't wait any longer. There are several ways to integrate your social media with your website. In addition to sharing buttons, you can allow your website visitors to go directly to your social media. Make those invites really attractive to get good results.

The more integrations there are between them, the more your audience will circulate and you will be able to create a better brand image, in addition to increasing engagement between the company and the public.

Integrate Facebook Lead Ads with other tools
Facebook Lead Ads is a Facebook feature that allows you to create an ad where users are invited to leave their basic data and become leads, without having to leave the social network platform.

If this Facebook resource is integrated via an API with other automation tools , you can make many tasks easier.

Imagine if every new lead coming from Facebook could automatically be added to your email marketing list, for example, that would be fantastic. And this is just one example of what you can do by integrating Facebook Lead Ads with other tools.

To do these integrations you don't need to be a computer expert, you can do it very easily directly on the Facebook platform. Within your brand's page you just have to go to Tools and then to Potential Clients Configuration, from there you just need to follow the instructions that Facebook itself gives you to do the integration with your CRM .

Integrate forms with your marketing automation system.
We are in the era of online forms, nowadays it is very common to find a form while browsing the Internet. There are several options to create forms, Typeform , SurveyMonkey, Wufoo, etc.

If your website uses any of them, there is nothing better than integrating the tool you use to create your forms with your marketing automation system.

Regardless of the flow of information you receive, integrating these tools will allow you to have more time for other tasks that are not yet automated.

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Integrate the tool you use to receive payments with your marketing automation system
Just as integrating the tool you use to create your forms will make your life much easier, integrating your payment tool with your marketing automation system will also make your life much easier.

There’s nothing better than segmenting your audience in your marketing automation tool, right? Now imagine this done automatically, as it’s possible through these types of integrations. The moment the customer pays, they’re no longer just a lead, they’re now a customer, and your automation software can receive this information if it’s integrated with your payment tool.

Integrate your website with localization tools
If you have a physical business, there is nothing better than integrating your website with Google Maps. There are various functionalities that you can benefit from with this integration.

As you can see, there are many application options that you can give to APIs to help you with your company's marketing. I'm sure that while reading these recommendations you have thought of some other ones to integrate some tools that you use daily.

Plus, the more integrations there are between your tools, the easier it will be for you to manage the metrics you get. With everything in one place, analysis is much more practical.

Technology brings us many possibilities that we should take advantage of to make our daily lives easier and Rock Content wants to keep you informed so that you can discover all the possibilities that exist in digital marketing. For this reason, I invite you to subscribe to our newsletter and stay up to date with all the news in the area.