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Stuart Gentle Publisher at Onrec

What is Email API?

Email is the de-facto method of communication for many businesses, big and small

Billions of people use email every day around the globe. Sending emails can, at times, be daunting and time-consuming, especially if you are sending to hundreds or thousands of people. With a website or app, you can ease the process of sending emails to multiple recipients by integrating an email API into your platform.  

We understand that the term "email API" may be a little confusing, which is why in this article, we will delve into everything you need to know about email API.    

What is an Email API?

An Email API (also known as Email Application Programming Interface) allows websites and applications to access the features and functions offered by email service providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Microsoft Exchange.  

By using email API, websites and apps can access functions such as:  

  • Generating and sending emails
  • Creating draft emails
  • Creating and editing email templates
  • Bulk emailing
  • Analyzing email metrics  

Categories of Email APIs

Email APIs fall into two categories— transactional email APIs and contextual email APIs.  

Typical uses of transactional email APIs are sending routine and bulk emails. In most cases, these transactions happen when a user interacts with a website or app. For example, when you subscribe for newsletters from GLM, which is the leading online casino review website, newsletters will be sent to you automatically through a transactional email API.  

Websites and services can also use transactional email APIs to send email notifications like those you receive when someone checks out your LinkedIn account or when you log in to your Gmail account using a different browser. Other examples of the transactional email API include:  

  • Password resets
  • Account confirmation emails
  • Order notifications and receipts
  • Mass marketing campaigns   

Contextual email APIs  are designed to assist software application developers with embedding email connectivity into their programs. Contextual email API allows the developer to sync and send emails and collect analytics.  

How Does An Email API Work?

An email API enables you to send emails to your users and customers through your website or app. Email APIs are particularly useful when you want to send rich media emails to a large number of people. You can also use the API to access email metrics like the number of emails sent, the number of recipients that opened the email, and the number of recipients that clicked on the call-to-action.  

Here is a short description of how an email API works:  

  • A user interacts with a website or app, for instance, when you place an order on an e-commerce site. 
  • The app communicates with the email API and gives information like user email address and order details. 
  • The email API crafts a message with the order details using a pre-designed template. 
  • The email API sends the email to the user through the email address provided on the website or app. 
  • The email API records details on how the user interacted with the email.    

Conclusion

In summary, an email API allows you to access the features and functions offered by an email platform. Software developers can use email API to send emails through your website or app. Email APIs can be very beneficial to your business if you occasionally send emails to your customers, allowing you to send emails to multiple recipients. 

Effectively implementing email API can save you a vast amount of time.  

Email APIs are easy to use, and they can send automatic emails on specific days or hours, as requested. The reports gathered by the email API can also come in handy when you want to assess your marketing strategy.