CampaignChain Launches Its Open-Source “Cockpit For Digital Marketing”

A key challenge for digital marketers these days is simply dealing with all their tools.

Today, a Germany-based startup named CampaignChain is launching a free private beta for a product of the same name that it hopes can help.

It describes the new product as “the cockpit for Digital Marketing,” based on the idea that the software acts as a central campaign coordinator for other marketing tools. Potential users can apply to participate in the beta.

The company, which is also announcing that it has received an unspecified amount of angel funding from IT solutions provider YMC, as well as several individuals, said that CampaignChain can be used to plan, create, schedule and edit campaigns and reports for email, social and other campaigns that might be executed in integrated tools.

For instance, an email newsletter might be scheduled in CampaignChain for implementation in MailChimp, although it would have to be created first in MailChimp.

Besides MailChimp, the beta includes integrations for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, SlideShare, the 3Z and Magnolia content management systems, Citrix GoToWebinar, Google Analytics and your website.

Founder and CEO Sandro Groganz told me that the company is planning integrations with HubSpot, Marketo and Adobe Marketing Cloud over the next six months, which will then be followed by the launch of the release version.

CampaignChain is made available as open-source software. The company, which currently consists of the development team in Germany, expects to make its living by offering a monthly fee-based software-as-a-service version that adds several as-yet-unspecified premium levels and automated workflows.

One question any marketer might ask is why they would want to add another layer of control if they’re already using a major platform like Adobe’s Marketing Cloud, which enables management of many channels and functions within the platform, as well as integrations with other tools.

A marketing cloud, Groganz said, is “a large suite that tries to cover everything” and is often much more expensive than what he expects CampaignChain to cost — about $200 monthly. Sometimes, he added, marketers just want to use a few tools, although integration with any tools not already set up by CampaignChain will require the help of a developer.

He pointed to content marketing scheduler Marketing.ai as one potential competitor but added that it is not open-source and doesn’t have a variety of campaign types.

One recently introduced mobile app, Databox, provides the ability for marketers to track status from their portfolio of tools.