Application programming interfaces (APIs) - it’s not just our digital marketing team here in Melbourne who are keen to talk about all things APIs. If you’re an avid reader of our blogs, you would know that we regularly write about the API economy.

Why? The online space is moving faster than ever before and as a result, businesses have naturally evolved to become more digitalised over time. We’re big believers at Pronto Woven that any activity in the digital space, needs to relate back to a company’s digital strategy and more importantly, their overall business strategy. In other words, we don’t promote digital activity just for activity’s sake.

It’s pretty easy to see why our digital team is so keen to tap into the API economy to execute digital strategy. The benefits are there for all to see, regardless of whether we’re talking about a smaller business in Melbourne or an established player who has a global presence. When implemented correctly, APIs can definitely support or even enable an entire digital strategy. It’s what we call the API economy.

For those who are fairly new to the game, the API economy sees companies exposing their internal business assets or services using APIs to third parties. The motivation behind doing so is to unlock additional business value by gaining exposure to new asset classes. Chances are, you’ve interacted with numerous APIs without even realising it. Facebook, Google Maps, Twitter and so on … they all use APIs.

As far as digital marketing teams are concerned, two key benefits for tapping into the API economy can be pin-pointed without too much thinking:

1. Wider reach
2. New or extended revenue streams

Even though the notion of the API economy is relatively new, we can already identify some examples of the economy being used to generate incredible results. One of the most notable is evident with Expedia who launched their Expedia Affiliate Network developer program in recent times. In a nutshell, the program gave third parties access to their travel services. In turn, this created a vast number of new revenue sources for Expedia to tap into. Recent stats indicate that the company now has an estimated 5,000 developers whose apps and services are responsible for generating over half of Expedia’s revenue. Now that’s pretty impressive!

When it comes to devising a successful digital strategy, it’s well worth looking into what assets can be wrapped into an API to produce wider reach and new or extended revenue streams. Of course, when doing so, you’ll want to look at some key questions such as:

1. Digital marketing and strategy wise, where is the business currently at?
2. Where do we want to be? For instance, for a local company based in Melbourne, they may ask if servicing their clients locally is enough or if they’re looking to expand and establish a national or even international presence.
3. How can the API economy help to get us to where we want to be?

With that third question, comes another area to consider: an API strategy. If you’re dedicated to investigating this space, you’ll need to devise a strategy that considers:

• How the API strategy fits in and adds to your company’s overall business goals.
• What API business model would seamlessly support your company’s overall business model.
• Your limitations - do you have budgeting issues or limited marketing resources? Communicating an APIs value is an essential element in terms of ensuring that your API strategy is a success.
• Operational aspects - how is the API economy maintained and supported? Do you have the resources on-hand in-house to co-ordinate this internally?

When tapped into successfully, there’s no doubt that the API economy can help businesses of all sizes and across numerous industries, to grow. If talk about the API economy and strategy leaves you with a big question mark, get in touch with our team.

Our digital marketing crew is committed to helping your business grow however we can - get in touch with our friendly team so that we can lock in a time to chat about your business needs.