Everything You Need to Know about Email APIs

Anjali Nair
ByAnjali Nair

8 mins read

Whether you are a marketer, a business owner or just someone who happens to own a website, you may have realized by now that you need to send quite a few emails to keep your customers or audience engaged. When the number of emails you have to send increases, this becomes a daunting task.

Whether you are sending bulk emails that market your products or transactional emails confirming your orders, email APIs are reliable tools that can help you seamlessly integrate email functionality into your website/application and save you a lot of time and effort.

In this guide, we will explore what email APIs are, how they work, their advantages, and how you can implement them effectively.

What is an email API?

To understand what an email API is, it is vital to understand what an API (Application Programming Interface) is.

An API (application programming interface) is a set of codes that allow communication between two applications or programs. This enables developers to use the functions of existing programs without having to build a similar application from scratch or export and import data from one to another manually.

💡 Related guide: What Is API and How Does It Work?

Now, coming to email APIs. So, Email APIs do the same thing but the main function of email APIs is to connect to and use the features of an ESP or an email client. In other words:

An email API is an interface that allows you to integrate email functionality into your applications, websites, or services. They allow websites and applications to communicate with email service providers (ESPs).

What are the advantages of using an email API?

Below are a few key advantages of using an email API for your website or application.

  • Automation: Email APIs allow you to set up triggered emails based on user actions or events. It can also help you to integrate email functionality into your existing workflows.
  • Scalability: By using an email API, you can handle large volumes of emails without worrying about maintaining large email servers. This allows you to scale depending on your sending needs.
  • Customization: Email APIs offer great scope for customizing your emails according to your needs. This allows you to send custom templates and dynamic content, and personalize your emails based on customer data.
  • Email analytics: Email APIs can allow you to efficiently track various email metrics such as open rates, click-through rates, bounces, etc. to help you optimize your email campaigns.
  • High deliverability: Email APIs allow applications and websites to benefit from the API provider’s established sender reputation. Most email APIs also have built-in tools that allow you to reduce bounces and spam reports. This includes configuring protocols such as DMARC, DKIM, and SPF.
  • Integration: You can also easily integrate your email APIs with other systems such as CRM (customer relationship management) systems to enable seamless functionality and workflows by allowing you to fetch data directly from these systems.

How does an email API work?

An email API allows a website or application to trigger certain actions like sending emails by acting as a bridge between the website and an ESP. The following steps illustrate the process by which this is done.

Step 1: The user initiates an action.

Step 2: An API request is sent by your website/application. This request contains various details that instruct the API to perform a certain action.

Step 3: The API conducts an authentication process to verify the API token which is a unique identifier.

Step 4: The required action is taken, such as sending an email to a user.

How does an email API work_.png

So, now we know that an API request contains the instructions and the data required to perform these actions. But what is an API request exactly and what does it look like? Let’s find out.

What does an API request look like?

An API request (also known as an API call) is a set of codes that is sent by a web application to an API to request a particular action. An API request is the most important part of the process for successful functioning of an API.

Below is an example of an API request sent to the Mailmodo API for sending a campaign email.


curl --request POST \

--url https://api.mailmodo.com/api/v1/triggerCampaign/campaign-id \

--header 'Accept: application/json' \

--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \

--header 'mmApiKey: ' \

--data '{

"email": "string",

"subject": "string",

"replyTo": "string",

"fromName": "string",

"data": {

"first_name": "string"

},

"campaign_data": {

"transient_variable": "string"

},

"addToList": "string"

}'

An API request contains the following key elements:

Type of API: Various types of API requests can be made to achieve various functions. These can be seen in the following table.

Type of API request Function
POST Send data to the API, which is usually used for sending emails.
GET Retrieve data from the API, such as fetching email statistics.
PUT Update existing attributes, such as updating an email template.
DELETE Remove existing data, such as deleting a contact from your mailing list.
  • API URL: An API request is sent using a specific web address, which is known as the API URL or endpoint.
  • Path parameters: These are the variable parts of a URL that are used to identify the specific resources that the API should act upon.
  • Header: The API header provides some additional information that helps the server to process an API request. This can include the content type and an API key for authentication.
  • Body: This is the main part of an API request that contains the data being sent or received from the server. This data is also known as the payload. For instance, if you are sending a marketing campaign email, the API request body may include elements such as the email address, subject, reply-to address, email content, etc.

Mailmodo API for transactional email

As you have seen, an email API can enable better and smoother workflows with zero hassle. The transactional email API by Mailmodo allows you to set up transactional email campaigns without going through the hassle of coding the emails. You can also integrate Mailmodo with various other platforms such as Shopify, Hubspot, Facebook, and Google Sheets or use connector platforms like Zapier, and Integromat for other connections.

Additionally, Mailmodo allows you to incorporate interactive AMP elements to create unique experiences for your recipients. This allows you to display dynamic content, in addition to gamifying your emails and making them more engaging with multi-step forms, surveys and polls that can be conducted within the emails. Combining this with the power of email APIs, you can provide a truly exceptional customer experience.

Target users based on their behavior data for better opens

cta-img

The following table gives you the various API requests and their type that you can raise through Mailmodo.

API request Type of request
Send campaign email POST
Broadcast campaign to a list POST
Add a new user to the journey POST
Abort the journey for a user POST
Send an email with a dynamic form POST
Send an email with repeatable block POST
Add contact to a list POST
Bulk add contact to a list POST
Get all contact lists GET
Suppress/unsubscribe a contact POST
Update subscription POST
Get contact details GET
Resubscribe contact POST
Remove contact from a list POST
Archive an existing contact DELETE
Add event POST
Get list of campaigns GET
Get summary data for all campaigns POST
Get summary data for an individual campaign POST
Get all templates GET

Use cases of triggering emails via API

The API requests mentioned above can have a wide variety of practical use cases that your organization can employ. These include functions that deal with adding contacts, sending emails, triggering email journeys, etc. Let us take a look at a few of these use cases where emails are triggered by a specific user action.

Account notification emails

Account notification emails are triggered by unusual activity in the user’s account like a login attempt on a new device. The emails provide timely alerts to the user so that the user can take any action if required such as changing their password to ensure account security.

6.png

Email verification for opt-in

Email verification emails are triggered when a user creates a new account on a website/ application. These emails require recipients to confirm their email address as a part of a double opt-in process. 1.png

Password reset emails

Password reset emails are triggered when a user clicks on a ‘forgot password’ option. These emails provide a link to the recipient using which they can reset their password.

3.png

Feedback and review emails

Feedback or review emails are generally triggered when a defined time has passed after a customer’s purchase of a product. These emails prompt the user to enter their feedback and can include interactive AMP elements such as forms. 4.png

Onboarding emails

Onboarding emails are triggered when a user creates a new account and confirms their email address. These are often personalized welcome emails that provide the user with further steps that they can take after signing up to your email list. These emails may contain promotional offers, product recommendations, a company vision statement, etc.

5.png

Conclusion

Email APIs embody the principle of ‘work smart, not hard’ as they provide a powerful and flexible solution for businesses’ email communication needs. By continuously optimizing your email strategy, you can drive better engagement. Using a good ESP along with email APIs can allow you to provide a much better customer experience. With the right approach, email APIs allow you to focus on your core competencies while simultaneously letting you utilize the full potential of emails.

FAQs

Some of the email API providers that you can check out include Mailmodo, SendGrid, Mailgun, Amazon SES, Mailchimp, and Postmark.

While SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is the underlying protocol that is used to send emails across the internet, email APIs build upon SMTP to provide an easy-to-use and feature-rich way to send and manage emails.

Most popular email API providers have a free plan with limited features. For instance, using the free plan by Mailmodo API, you can send up to 1000 emails per day and enjoy all the features of the Gold Plan with Mailmodo branding inside emails.

Email APIs enable various functions that can improve user experience. These include personalized emails, instant transactional emails, timely notifications and alerts, customized templates, interactive elements, etc. Email APIs also help you to monitor deliverability metrics that you can use to further optimize your emails for a better user experience.

What should you do next?

You made it till the end! Here's what you can do next to grow your business:

2_1_27027d2b7d
Get smarter with email resources

Free guides, ebooks, and other resources to master email marketing.

1_2_69505430ad
Do interactive email marketing with Mailmodo

Send forms, carts, calendars, games and more within your emails to boost ROI.

3_1_3e1f82b05a
Consult an email expert

30-min free email consultation with an expert to fix your email marketing.

Table of contents

chevron-down
What is an email API?
What are the advantages of using an email API?
How does an email API work?
Mailmodo API for transactional email
Use cases of triggering emails via API
Conclusion

Fresh Marketing Ideas, Every Week.

Get the latest marketing roundup & news

Get 3X conversions
with interactive emails

Check.svg

Create & send interactive emails without coding

Check.svg

Put revenue on auto-pilot with pre-built journeys

Check.svg

Save time with AI-powered email content creation

1000+ businesses grew with Mailmodo, including

Frame_1110165681_3_b26b1a7573
Group_1110165532_1_bf39ce18b3
Ellipse_Gradientbottom_Bg
Ellipse_Gradientbottom_Top
gradient_Right