If you’re looking for an email marketing platform that can also integrate with third-party apps, then you’ve come to the right place. We’ll cover the various integrations available with HubSpot and some best practices for using them. Let’s get to it.
Apps To Link
The obvious answer to the question of ‘how to integrate apps with your email marketing platform’ is by linking them to your account. After all, the more apps you have linked to your account, the easier it will be for users to find what they’re looking for. If you run a business that sells luxury goods, having links to brands such as Gucci, Montblanc, and Hermes embedded in your email might just get some clicks.
You can have apps communicate with your email marketing platform directly through the APIs (application programming interfaces) available within the HubSpot platform. Or, you can use a tool such as Zapier to connect apps and websites together, essentially allowing you to connect the dots.
Whichever method you choose, having all of these connections between the email marketing platform and apps is incredibly powerful and can do more than just improve conversion – it can provide you with entirely new marketing channels.
Direct Communication Via API
The best way for an app to integrate with your email marketing platform is through the use of APIs. An API is a set of rules that allow two applications to communicate with each other, regardless of their platform or environment. So, for example, if you have an email marketing platform and an app for sending out letters, you could integrate the two of them through the use of an API. This would make it possible for users to send a letter through the app and have it tracked as a communication through your email marketing platform.
The beauty of using APIs is that they make it simpler to integrate with various platforms and applications. For instance, you could have your email marketing platform use the Twilio API to communicate with your app, which is what we’ll discuss next. Twilio is a communications platform that makes it easy for developers to build and maintain communications features into their applications.
Using The Twilio API To Integrate Apps With Your Email Marketing Platform
If you’ve ever used the Twilio API, you’ll know exactly what’s coming. We’re going to integrate an app with our email marketing platform through the use of the Twilio API. So let’s get started.
In the first step, we need to make sure that our Twilio account is set up correctly. To do this, go to Settings on your Twilio dashboard and make sure that you’ve entered the correct account number and security details. You’ll also want to check off the boxes that allow notifications, test messages, and webhooks. Finally, upload a screenshot of your company’s website as your Website Image.
Now that our settings are confirmed, let’s begin building our integration. Back in our email marketing platform, click Add to add a new integration.
Once the screen for adding an integration has loaded, you’ll see a form that asks for your app’s name, the type of content your app provides, and a short description. (1) For the name of our app, we’ll use Gumroad. You can find more information about Gumroad at https://gumroad.com. For the type of content our app provides, we’ll use Educational. In the description, we’ll write that our app helps businesses gain more customers by allowing them to send personalized emails to prospective customers.
Now that we have our app’s name, description, and type of content, let’s move on to the the second step.
Step 2: Select Which Platform To Use
On the next screen, we need to select which platform to use for our integration. From the pull-down menu, you’ll see that there are three options: Webhooks, HTTP POST, and API Key. Since we’re using the Twilio API, which is already set up, we’ll choose API Key from the pull-down menu. This is the simplest option and the one we’ll use for our example.
Back on the home page of our email marketing platform, we’ll see a code section. At this point, we can begin configuring our API key. Enter your API key in the box next to API Key, then click Save.
Now when a user clicks on a communication from within our app and it’s imported into our email marketing platform, we’ll see two entries in the activities section. The first entry is a webhook, and the second is an HTTP POST. A webhook is when a third party (in this case, the Twitter API) connects to our email marketing platform automatically whenever there’s new activity on an account or an email within an account. An HTTP POST is when a user clicks a link or types in an address into a form on a website and transmits data to a server. In this case, the user is submitting data to the Email From application with the click of a button.
At this stage, you might want to test out your integration by clicking on the Launch button next to Gumroad. On the next page, you’ll see a message that your integration is working correctly.
Additional Best Practices
The example above was pretty easy to follow, but there are a few additional things you should do to make sure your integration is as effective as possible. First, you should make sure that your app’s icon is easily identifiable in your email marketing platform. Ideally, you’ll want the icon to be a unique depiction of your app’s logo. However, no matter what, it should be consistent with the overall theme of your account.
Another important detail is to make sure that your app can process emails and track opens and clicks just like any other email. In the example above, we made sure that our app, Email From, could process emails by checking the box next to Can process emails. On the next screen, make sure that you’ve entered a valid email address for the account that you’re using to test out the email integration. Finally, click on the Save button to complete the setup process.
That’s it! Now whenever a user clicks a link or types in an email address within our app and it’s imported into our email marketing platform, we’ll see two entries in the activities section. The first entry is a webhook, and the second is an HTTP POST. If you’d like to see more details or have additional questions, feel free to contact us and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.