Hiring an Ecommerce Growth Agency: Red Flags with Sunnyside

Matt Raminick spent nearly two decades of his career on the brand side (Quiksilver, Volcom, Pacsun, Mophie) hiring and managing agencies before founding Sunnyside.Working with dozens of agencies big and small led him to realize that in most cases they repeatedly optimized for vanity channel metrics instead of outcomes that impacted the bottom line, often having no line of sight beyond a siloed view of the channels they managed.So in 2020, after getting laid off from a high-profile exec role and with no prior agency experience, he founded Sunnyside and built a framework called Profit360™.This system connects finance, brand moments, products, creative strategy, and paid media to reliably produce sustainable, predictable, and profitable growth at the business level, not isolated channel wins.Sunnyside's unfair advantage is that every client gets a team of former brand-side marketers who've sat in the client's seat and know what's actually at stake because they've been in their shoes.To date, Sunnyside has successfully helped brands in the surf, action sports, outdoor, fashion apparel, and DTC space — including Brixton, Municipal, Goodr, Xcel Wetsuits, Beek, Nixon, Salt Optics, and Jetty — profitably increase new customers, e-commerce revenue, and overall business growth.In This Conversation We Discuss:[00:00] Introduction[05:04] Red flags to watch for early in an agency pitch[09:44] Sponsor: Klaviyo[11:55] Matching case studies to your actual business[13:55] Building traction for a brand with nothing yet[17:43] Sponsor: Intelligems[20:02] Why RFPs fail to find the right partner[22:00] Sponsor: eFulfillment Service[26:27] Green flags that signal a strong agency fit[28:40] Callouts[28:50] What a good first 90 days looks like[30:34] When a brand shouldn't hire an agency yet[34:22] What to disclose before signing with an agency[35:42] Profit360 and how the brand operatesResources:Subscribe to Honest Ecommerce on YoutubeA Better Way to Grow sunnysidecalifornia.com/ Follow Matt Raminick linkedin.com/in/mattraminick Get your free demo klaviyo.com/honestBook a demo today at intelligems.io/ Lower scale costs today eFulfillmentService.com/honest If you're enjoying the show, we'd love it if you left Honest Ecommerce a review on Apple Podcasts. It makes a huge impact on the success of the podcast, and we love reading every one of your reviews!