API (Application Program Interface)

Today we find ourselves explaining a computer concept that I’m sure you’ve seen/read/used in dozens of places, but didn’t know exactly what it meant. API means Application Programming Interface. You may have heard your company’s IT team say that they are working on connecting to a vendor’s API. Well, what they’re doing is creating a sort of gateway between your branded application and the application of a company you do businessBusiness-to-business (B2B), also known as B-to-B, is a form of transaction between businesses, such ... More with.

An example that will surely make it much clearer to you what an API is. Imagine buying a movie ticket or a coat through an e-commerceE-commerce or electronic commerce is the exchange of products or services using computer networks, s... More. As you select what to buy, you sign in with your bank account. Well, APIS is the system that allows the e-commerce site where you make the purchase to communicate with your bank’s online platform to confirm that you can proceed with the payment.

WHAT ARE THEY FOR? 📈

The API is the interface that allows you to connect different applications so that they “speak the same language”. But this whole process, which facilitates the buying and digital lead conversion processes, is part of the magical work that developers and IT people do that marketers rarely master. APIs, in general, can process information in two ways; there are others, but we’ll focus on the most well-known:

• SOAP (Single Object Access Protocol): in essence, applications exchange an XML -eXtensible Markup Language document, a meta-language used to transmit data between applications.
• REST (Representative State Transfer): a simpler form of communication that simply shares a piece of data in JSON-Javascript Object Notation, another meta-language or markup language like XML.

HOW IS API USEFUL IN MARKETING? 💭

The most common use of APIs in our industry is in two areas: social networking applications and integrations with other applications. It’s not the only one, as wherever there is an application and a client is needed for it, the manufacturer will release the API to work. It is a “contract” between applications, if we want to use an application for Twitter, for that application to be understood with Twitter it will need the API to be able to tweet, retweet, know the character limit, etc.

Integrations, without going overboard, that’s where they make all the sense. Most applications are integrated with others, and those are built through APIs. If applications don’t have APIs, everything will be more complicated, integrations won’t be possible, and that will hurt users trying to use the application. If our CRM software -Customer Relationship Management software- connects with our social networking application it is precisely because it has an API that allows it to do so.

In short, an API is a form of communication between applications to share content and have a common currency in the form of mutually understandable data. In marketingBusiness-to-business (B2B), also known as B-to-B, is a form of transaction between businesses, such ... More, we use them to integrate applications with each other, as they are critically important to our work.