Everything you need to know about email APIs

Email APIs play an important role in providing interactive experiences and seamless interactions. From the beginning to the end of the customer journey, the email API works tirelessly to automate the sending of emails.

In this article, we dive into email APIs, examine what they are, what benefits they bring, what to look for when choosing one, and also take a quick look at some great solution options for your email marketing.

What is an email API?

Let’s start our journey with the basics. An email API (i.e., application programming interface) is a tool that becomes integrated with your software and allows it to automatically send emails, receive them, analyze email performance, and create other email marketing tasks (depending on the API’s capabilities). Think of it as giving your software the ability to send emails on its own without needing someone to do it manually and using separate tools. For example, when you sign up for a website and instantly get a welcome email, that's likely done with an email API.

Simply put, it’s key to starting email marketing fast and without a hassle, delegating routine and complex tasks to specialized algorithms you set up within your chosen API.

Types of email APIs

Now that you know what an email API is generally, it’s time to reveal the types of email APIs you can come across when trying to choose the right one for your email marketing efforts.

There are three types of email marketing APIs:

1. Sending APIs. Their primary goal is to make it easy to send email. You can use this type to automate transactional emails, such as order confirmations or password-reset requests. Furthermore, you may submit APIs for commercial purposes, such as participating in promotional emails or surveys.
2. Receiving APIs. This type is responsible for processing incoming emails. You can use receiving APIs to analyze incoming emails and automate processes based on content. For example, when your customer service agent and a customer communicate via email, the customer's response can trigger an update to the support ticket automatically.
3. Tracking APIs. The last type is needed to receive tracking data and statistics about outgoing emails. Some tracking API services that are related closely to sending APIs may integrate functionality directly into sending APIs instead of providing separate tracking APIs.

Despite this division, when looking for your ideal email marketing API, you’ll encounter both individual solutions from one of the above types, as well as hybrid ones that combine several types.

Benefits of using email APIs 

Email APIs wouldn't exist if they didn't bring benefits to the table. By implementing such APIs in your email marketing processes, you can count on the following benefits.

Increased email marketing efficiency

The email API saves you valuable time and resources at various stages of creating campaigns, starting with email design and automation of email newsletters. Whether you're sending individual, personalized transactional emails or thousands of emails for a marketing campaign, the email API not only streamlines, but also automates, the entire process.

For example, an email API may have convenient features for simultaneous updating of many emails, such as smart elements (e.g., a popular product’s price changes, the banner in all emails needs to be replaced, etc.). This is a powerful feature that saves marketers a huge amount of time and effort when working with email newsletters.

From our special article (link below), you can learn more about what these are and why you need to integrate them into your processes.

Better flexibility

Email APIs make it possible to create flexible and personalized campaigns, as well as adapt to market trends and tendencies, thanks to segmentation capabilities, e.g., setting sending times, personalization, and other tools for creating unique experiences for recipients. Marketers have observed a 760% increase in email revenue from segmented campaigns.

Armed with such a benefit, you’ll increase your email campaigns’ efficiency significantly because you’ll be able to configure which segment and emails will be sent and when precisely.

Segmentation is the cornerstone of email marketing because people have their own preferences. A successful marketer clearly knows his audience segments and their preferences, which helps provide the most personalized experiences. We explain segmentation and its benefits in detail in our feature article and recommend that you read it (link below).

Improved email deliverability

Many solutions, in addition to detailed analytics, have tools for improving deliverability (bounce rate management, addressing spam complaints, etc.) that positively affect email campaigns’ overall success. After all, the fewer emails that end up in spam filters or are sent to the wrong recipients, the higher the conversion rates for email campaigns in general.

With a flexible and functional tool, you easily can apply all the possible deliverability improvement tips that we listed in our article. Check out the blog post below to boost your marketing performance.

Room for price scaling

Email APIs have pricing plans for various needs and stages of business development, thereby allowing you to expand your email marketing strategy gradually. As your capabilities and goals expand, you can be confident that the email API you choose will be able to provide you with all the tools you need to achieve your goals and support your ambitious email marketing strategies.

What to look for in your perfect email API 

Finding the perfect email API is a difficult process, particularly if you have no idea what to look for in such solutions. We put together a short list of what you should seek when choosing a solution to suit your needs.

List of features

First, you should start with a list of features that the solution you want should have. The most common features are:

• contact list management;
• bulk email sending;
• scheduled sending;
• bounce and spam protection;
• email personalization;
• email logs.

These are must-have features for the email API you’re looking for, but you can search further for solutions with advanced features, such as a built-in email editor, webhooks, etc.

Deliverability rate

Let’s imagine that you liked the email API, the list of features completely suits you, and you’re ready to shake hands with the metaphorical salesman. However, none of this matters if the tool of your choice can’t provide high deliverability. Email APIs with high deliverability rates dramatically increase your chances of emails landing in recipients' inboxes, rather than in the spam folder. When choosing a tool, don’t hesitate to contact the company that provides your solution and ask them what kind of delivery rate they can offer.

Ease of integration

Having purchased an email API, you're still far from starting successful email campaigns because you still must integrate the API into your own marketing tools. Ease of integration speeds up the company's entry into the market and the start of email marketing, so a good solution would be to look for an API with a simpler integration process or a full integration process that the provider company maintains.

Analytics and reporting tools

Analytics are the key to insights and business decisions that can transform your email marketing performance radically. An email API simply needs detailed analytics and reports that allow you to see patterns, make adjustments to strategies, predict trends, and evaluate your successes.

Security and compliance

The email API of your choice should pay close attention to data encryption, authentication, and similar security measures. Furthermore, APIs must be GDPR- and CAN-SPAM Act-compliant and use API keys. High security is necessary because personal data are being processed, and gaps in the tool can lead to financial and reputational losses. Furthermore, clients whose data are at risk will file claims against you and not your email API provider.

Pricing

All of the above aspects are good, but your budget has the final say in choosing an email API, i.e., you need a tool with solid features that you can afford. The pricing model should suit you because the service packages should not only fit into your budget, but also contain everything you need for the price.

Best email APIs 

Now that you know everything about email APIs, it’s time for a quick overview of the most popular APIs that might come in handy for your email marketing efforts.

Stripo

Price: From $0/month to $550/month, with custom pricing plans available.

Stripo is a popular email design platform that provides an advanced email editor for creating emails of any complexity. In addition to the web version, Stripo also has its own plugin. The Stripo plugin is JavaScript-embedded into your solution, and after all Stripo editor features are deployed, the plugin will become available to you. All server components are deployed on the Stripo side, which makes this plugin incredibly accessible.

Distinctive feature: The Stripo plugin has a whole list of unique features, such as a modular email design that allows you to speed up the process of creating emails by more than two times. Furthermore, you’ll be pleased with the convenient drag-n-drop editor, which has the ability to connect your own image providers for a more convenient email creation process. However, the icing on the cake is the ability to adjust plugin styles to match your solution’s look.

Mailchimp

Price: From $13/month to $350/month.

(Source: BTW.so)

Mailchimp is one of the most widely used email APIs, offering a universal platform for marketing, automation, and email marketing that allows you to build complex, automated email workflows for welcome series, re-engagement campaigns, cart recovery programs, etc. It also provides a robust set of endpoints to manage audience data, create campaigns, send emails, and analyze campaign performance.

Distinctive feature: Mailchimp has a full-fledged landing-page builder, allowing you to support your email marketing campaigns with an easy-to-create landing page. You can create landing pages from the ground up or use a wide variety of pre-built templates packed in the convenient library with sorting options.

SendGrid

Price: From $0/month to $89.95/month, with custom pricing available.

(Source: SendGrid)

The SendGrid API service offers an easy way to embed robust email capabilities into your solutions applications. SendGrid allows for sending both transactional and marketing emails, tracking delivery metrics, and creating customizable email templates. Furthermore, it includes advanced features, such as event webhooks for real-time notifications, providing a comprehensive solution for managing email communications.

Distinctive feature: SendGrid provides its users with an easy-to-use WYSIWYG email editor, allowing it to create email templates without coding skills within the tool.

Mailgun

Price: From $0/month to $90/month.

(Source: BTW.so)

Mailgun is a comprehensive email automation service with a powerful API that simplifies the process of sending, receiving, and tracking emails, enabling marketers to integrate email functionalities into their applications seamlessly. Mailgun allows for sending both transactional and marketing emails at scale, featuring bulk-sending capabilities and robust template management. Advanced analytics also are provided, allowing users to monitor email performance and engagement effectively.

Distinctive feature: Mailgun has a wide range of advanced features right out of the box, such as email validation, analytics, A/B testing, and customizable email templates, allowing users to create and optimize effective email campaigns all in one tool.

Mailtrap

Price: From $0/month to $750/month, with custom pricing available.

(Source: Mailtrap)

Mailtrap is a comprehensive email delivery platform featuring a flexible API that caters to diverse requirements. It’s ideal for users who need a reliable API to test and deliver emails efficiently while also providing robust control over email infrastructure performance through actionable analytics.

Distinctive feature: Mailtrap has a unique deliverability alert feature that sends you weekly reports every Monday and critical alerts if your deliverability metrics drop, keeping you up to date on your email performance.

Wrapping up

Email APIs are a lifesaving tools for marketers who want to roll out their email marketing efforts live quickly. APIs can increase overall email performance greatly, boost email deliverability, and provide necessary room for marketing scaling, all in a flexible environment for experiments.

We created this guide to help you navigate the email API marketplace so you can make the right choice to support your email marketing needs. Pick the correct API and enter the world of email marketing without a hassle.