inclined Raises the Bar on Customer Data with Panoply

From client onboarding to whip smart marketing campaigns, data fuels everything inclined does. Get a peek at how they use Panoply as part of their sales process and supercharge clients' marketing programs using personalized data.

The Company

“There’s too much web development out there that’s not really driven by data,” says inclined Co-Founder and CEO Sean Larkin. That’s why inclined was born. 

Sean and his business partner realized that many companies want to leverage their customer data, but don’t know how to get started. inclined is a growth marketing agency helping businesses from small DTC brands to Fortune 500 companies drive lifetime value by using data to better understand their customers. 

“Our goal,” explains Sean, “is to create long-term value for ourselves as partners by empowering our clients. We don’t want to be the secret sauce, we just want to open doors and create value so they keep us around.”

The Challenge

inclined uses data in two ways: First, they rely on data for the growth marketing audits they do for prospective clients. Sean says at that stage, potential clients are understandably reluctant to provide direct access to their data warehouses or databases, so having a fast and easy way to ingest and analyze .csv files is key. 

We don’t want to be the secret sauce, we just want to open doors and create value so clients keep us around.
- Sean Larkin, inclined Co-Founder & CEO

But there’s a second layer to inclined’s data needs: Once hired, Sean and his team create custom data stacks for clients who want to leverage their customer data but who are often reluctant to invest in what they assume will be an expensive and time-consuming infrastructure project.

The Solution

When he first encountered Panoply, Sean admitted he was skeptical: “My thought was, ‘Well, Panoply’s this extra layer. I’m a software developer, why wouldn’t I just go straight to the underlying tool?’” 

Panoply has reduced an incredible amount of friction and just allows us to get into the analysis really quickly.

Once he tried Panoply, though, Sean was sold. When it comes to prospective client audits, he says, “Panoply has reduced an incredible amount of friction and just allows us to get into the analysis really quickly.” That enables inclined to provide value right out of the gate. 

Panoply also helps inclined sell clients on building out their own data stacks. “Historically, when brands think about data warehouses, they think it’s a half a million dollar or million dollar project with so much effort and so many people in the room. Panoply has really turned that narrative on its head.”

When brands think about data warehouses, they think it’s a half a million dollar or million dollar project with so much effort and so many people in the room. Panoply has really turned that narrative on its head.

Rather than taking weeks or even months to build out client data stacks, Sean’s team can spin up a data warehouse and connect a client’s data with minimal fuss. “When we’re working with clients, Panoply saves at least 40 hours up front,” Sean says. “In terms of cost savings, for our direct-to-consumer ecommerce brands, the total cost of ownership of a Panoply warehouse is 50% of a traditional warehouse solution that they maintain.”

There are a lot of tools where I’m like, “Ugh, this feels overpriced!” That’s not the case with Panoply.

“I could probably get some cost savings with Redshift,” he continues, “but I’d still be paying the development costs to keep it optimized. What I realized is that for most of our clients, Panoply is a better option, more affordable, and less work.”

Sean says that Panoply stands out in a sea of SaaS tools because, “There are a lot of tools where I’m like, ‘Ugh, this feels overpriced!’ That’s not the case with Panoply.”

The Results

The best part of bringing Panoply on board are the insights that inclined can deliver to clients. For example, one of their premier clients is a direct-to-consumer CPG (consumer packaged goods) brand in the food space. While analyzing their customer data, Sean’s team did cohort analysis and found a really interesting buying cycle: customers were making repeat purchases at month 12, month 24, and so on.

There’s no better choice for a direct-to-consumer brand that’s using Shopify or BigCommerce.

“That’s a really clear indicator that these are gift purchases,” explains Sean. “That immediately allowed us to start building marketing automation campaigns around those anniversaries and collecting more information to personalize those campaigns. We couldn’t have done that without Panoply making it so easy to just run the analysis.”

Sean now regularly recommends Panoply to clients. “There’s no better choice for a direct-to-consumer brand that’s using Shopify or BigCommerce,” he says.

The Future

What’s next for inclined? A ton. Sean and his team are interested in two avenues of data analysis: using event triggers to increase customer engagement and using machine learning to solve new problems for their customers. 

“I’m excited about how we can leverage Panoply as part of that kind of work for our clients. Once people realize what we can do with those advanced analytics, it’s going to change the way brands look at their data. We want to be the ones doing it first.”