Open application programming interface, or Open API, allows users to integrate text alerts with websites, databases, and other programs. SMS text message marketing is one of the many areas where Open API text alerts can help a business.
Open API text alerts are a way for businesses to deliver targeted text messages directly to the cell phones or mobile devices of interested customers, partners, or employees. To understand how Open API text alerts can help a business, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of what Open API is.
Open API describes a type of program that is designed to be able to interact with other programs, generally to share content or information. An example of this on the Internet would be a user who has posted pictures on a photo sharing web site and wants one of those pictures to show up on an online forum, both of which use an Open API. Through Open API, the websites are able to share content, so the user’s photo can show up on the forum, and if the user makes changes to the photo on the free image hosting website, the photo will automatically be updated on the forum as well. This occurs because the websites are designed to share information through Open API.
Open API text alerts, then, are text alert programs that can be linked to other software programs to create dynamic content. This means that a person who is signed up to receive the Open API text alerts on their cell phone or mobile device can get text alerts that can be personalized in several ways. There are many uses for Open API text alerts:
- A website administrator can send text alerts directly to customers’ phones from their website through an Open API text alert program.
- A chain of restaurants can use an Open API text alert program to tell a customer where the nearest restaurant is when the customer sends a text to the restaurant’s number. This is because the restaurant’s Open API text alert program can ask the customer’s phone where it is located when the customers sends the text request.
- A service provider can send text alerts to customers in certain areas to notify them if a service is having maintenance issues or will be unavailable.
- A retail store with multiple locations can send text alerts about a special promotion that is occurring at only one of their store locations to customers who are in that area.
- A venue or promoter for a concert or special event can send customers text alerts with last minute weather or traffic reports.
- Businesses can send customers reminders when they have a payment due or have a low balance in their account with the business.
- Text alerts can also be integrated with a database, so customers can be notified about information such as when a specific item they are interested in goes on sale.
- Small businesses can also use Open API text alerts with their internal databases to send alerts about low inventory, maintenance problems, or upcoming meetings.
As Open API becomes more common in new software programs and websites, businesses will be able to continue to find new ways to use Open API text alerts to deliver dynamic, personalized information to their customers.
Businesses that are just beginning to use Open API text alerts should set a budget and goals for what they want to accomplish, then evaluate their success and make adjustments as they move move forward with their text alert campaign. Businesses should look for an Open API program that fits their budget, is easy to use, and provides adequate technical support if they have to maintain the program themselves. Businesses using Open API text alerts should remember to always get the customer’s permission before sending text alerts, and to keep the text alerts relevant to the customer so the customer considers them a helpful benefit and not a nuisance.