An application programming interface is what you see when you’re using an app on your phone. Anytime you’ve opened up Facebook to check out who has been updating their status, that’s an API.
Knowing how to use APIs could let you innovate your business approach. The right tools make it even easier. Here are 5 tools you should start using as part of your API development program.
1. Phone Validation
2-factor authentication decreases the likelihood fraud will be a problem in your organization. Integrate a 2-factor system into your existing infrastructure. You’ll speed up the development process quite a bit by using an established API’s source code.
Getting it to support everything you’ve built isn’t hard once you’ve seen the source code. By using that as your base, you can create something different without starting all over.
Have it send a link each time people try to login onto the company’s network. If your API can manage that, it’ll work well enough to reduce how much the company spends on fraud prevention.
2. SMS Messaging
Text messages usually use a network architecture called Short Message Service, or SMS. This lets operating systems communicate with each other. That’s how you and your friends can talk to each other, even though your phones are using independent code.
If you’re marketing an online product, sending it to people by automating an SMS service would help a ton. They’d be way more likely to check out whatever you’ve sent them if they’re able to read it on their phone. More than likely, their phone has settled into the bottom of their pocket, just waiting for them to get a message.
Using an API to automate your messages would make it easy to send one to them at a specific time each week. That’s how you’ll cast the widest possible net. Reaching out to potential customers has a way of making your company look like it’s desperate.
However, letting them know you’ve still had them on your mind is another story. That’s going to make them feel as if you’re really putting in the effort to care about their experience. An SMS API has a great ROI if you’re intentional about how it’s implemented.
3. Automated Emails
You could run an ad during the Super Bowl, but it’s not going to change their mind when it comes to your company.
Not everyone uses email to conduct business nowadays, but a few do. It doesn’t take long to develop an automated email list if it has pre-built code serving as its base.
4. Direct-to-Voicemail Messaging
We recommend leveraging each avenue. Everyone that’s available has something to add to your business’s pipeline. Whenever you’re marketing products and trying to drum up business, use all the avenues you can.
You might’ve had a telemarketer call you while you were eating dinner after getting done with a long day at work.
If you’ve experienced that, it rang until the answering machine picked up.
Leaving a message would probably be more effective. Messages tend to get attention, especially if the call went straight to voicemail. That’s why implementing a voicemail API is such an innovative marketing idea.
You can record a message, and then your software could send it to everyone in your calling list. Best of all, it bypasses the rings altogether and goes straight to voicemail.
5. Programmable Voice Messages
What happens if you’d like to use an automated caller to speak when someone answers the phone?
That’s when you’d use a programmable voice API. It would speak to someone once they’ve picked up the phone to answer your call.
If they didn’t answer the line, your voicemail API could just leave them a message. They’ll hear what you’re trying to tell them at some point, one way or another.
Programmable voice APIs let you change what they say when someone answers. If you come out with something new, updating the API doesn’t take long.
How API Tools Might Be What Your Business Needs
Developing a long-term solution to marketing issues helps businesses make a profit. Start by building a solid understanding of API fundamentals. Each project is different, but the groundwork is the same, even after a thousand trials.
