| | AUGUST 20208CIOReviewIN MY OPINIONBUSINESS APIS ­ THE SECRET SAUCE IN SUCCESSFUL DIGITAL MARKETINGEffective Digital Marketing must be in a constant state of improvement. How quickly a business can iterate across the buying cycle trying new capabilities keeping the successful and discarding those that are unsuccessful is a competitive advantage. Failing fast is good. Failing slow and expensively is going to leave you behind the competition. Effective use of Business APIs and other modern integration capabilities enable the necessary business agility.DefinitionsLet's start with a few definitions:· Business API ­ is a simple to understand programmable interface focused on business recognizable assets ­a product, an order, a customer, etc. Business APIs are targeted toward the consumer of the API, not the provider application(s).· API Management - is about driving the consumption of business assets securely and easily. It consists of creating and publishing APIs, applying security and consumption constraints and enforcing these constraints at run time, socialization to internal and external developer communities, collecting and analyzing metrics, and ongoing testing and monitoring.Applying APIs to Digital MarketingApplying APIs to the sales cycle supports rapid iterations and innovation:1. Opportunity identification ­ In the simplest case, the customer finds you - perhaps using a search engine. But, we still must make it easy for the client to find what they are looking for on our mobile app or web site. User interface development is a specialized skill, but these same specialists are often not skilled in accessing the systems where data about customers or products reside. Business APIs address this issue by exposing complicated systems as easy to consume assets supporting rapid prototyping and agile UI development.But, do not rest on the idea that the customer is going to find you! You need to go where clients are looking. Potential clients may be discussing a vacation on social media which could indicate a travel or clothing opportunity. Someone may be researching cars which could signify a need for a loan or insurance. Perhaps an event such as weather or a geo-location could signify an opportunity. Each scenario is enabled through Business APIs (and/or Events). I call this the "Business Next Door" and every business has one. Partnering through APIs with your business next door can enable significant new revenue streams.For expensive purchases, customers may be doing research or interacting with you (and competition) through multiple channels. Effectively collecting data from all the customer interactions through APIs helps achieve a full view of the customer opportunity.2. Present a compelling offer ­ Now we must act quickly to provide a compelling offer. Presenting your complete set of offerings and hoping they find something of interest is not going to cut it. A tailored offer unique to the situation has a higher likelihood of success. Customer data including buying history may be reflected in your CRM system (accessed via APIs) but is not the full picture. Social media, partner systems, the event(s) that drove By Alan Glickenhouse, API Business Strategist IBM Cloud, IBM [NYSE: IBM]Alan Glickenhouse
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