APIs have been around us for a long time, facilitating applications to exchange data. Today, an API can serve many purposes. For example, it can fetch a share price data from LSE (London Stock Exchange) into a website, and allow FB to share what I hear on Spotify. APIs offer endless possibilities in every aspect of our lives.In the wake of enterprise mobility and BYOD concepts, the role of API becomes more vital. It is interesting to know what APIs can do for your business.Here we mention some of the exceptional benefits offered by APIs to your business regarding the website, social, cloud, and mobile domains:

• Site loyalty and conversion rates

If you run a tourism company, you require a separate page for each and every key holiday destination across the world. Prospective customers can visit your website, select a destination and switch to inquiry or booking section-well, this is an ideal situation. But, what if the prospect want to know more about the chosen destination like its currency, peak season, etc.? Probably your prospects would go back to Google if you fail to provide the information they want and there, the chances are high that you lose your potential customers. You can empower your site with the latest and relevant data through a customized API. An API can pull a weather report from one site and currency tables from the other. In brief, your prospective customer can get all the answers without leaving your site through an API.

An API significantly improves your website’s loyalty that eventually converts in higher conversion rates.

• Lead generation

Nowadays, social presence is a backbone for marketing of your products or services. You also need to maintain customer database for offering more personalized experience. With the right API in place, you can take a holistic approach to managing database while integrating all the data with social media profiles. You can readily find out the people who are engaging with your brand through checking all the profiles against both FB and Twitter followers. For example, Rapportive has built a Gmail plugin to attach with LinkedIn that can give you a wider context for email addresses. You can build a robust CRM program along with social insights through using APIs that ultimately assist you in lead generation.

• Remote processing power and BI

If on the basis of above discussion, you’re thinking that APIs are only useful for pulling data, then you’re mistaking. APIs are also useful for processing power to enable other servers in managing computations. You don’t need to write a sophisticated algorithm for this purpose. In a way, APIs offer you a remote processing power to enhance BI (Business Intelligence).

• Remote storage

The cloud is no longer a new term for anyone. From search engine giant Google to eCommerce giant Amazon, all big tech companies offer consumer level file storage in the cloud. You can use an API to store policy documents, images, inventory, and what not remotely.

• Mobile apps with reduced size

An average mobile app has a size of around 7mb. But, an enterprise-grade mobile app is bigger than the average size that can cause longer time  The remote storage in the cloud facilitates you to come forward with the smaller file size for your enterprise mobile app. You can deliver a lightweight customized app in the app store without losing its functionality or any related service to your business through using an API. That’s not all. You can significantly strengthen cyber security of your enterprise through APIs. It’s time to consider an API-first approach together with a mobile-first approach as APIs emerge as strategic tools.

Conclusion

As conclusive remarks, it is fair to mention that APIs can offer significant business benefits to the corporate users. Customized APIs can facilitate entrepreneurs to explore new horizons while leading them to offer better services to customers. An API can also encourage internal innovation in the company and you can unlock its real potential for business.