Built with Kit
E-commerce and Digital Product Strategy for Make a Wood Sign
Doc Williams
I spend a lot of time live streaming and researching no code tools, but my proudest achievements are when I get to help someone succeed and expand in doing what they love.
Take the example of Dave and Eric Rhoten. Dave's Signs had been a family business for over 50 years, and while they had a growing YouTube channel, they needed help optimizing it and making the most of their customer base.
They started by selling their products in-store. The business grew quickly, and after just ten years, their sales figures exceeded $200,000.
Dave and Eric were ready to take their business to the next level.
They believe the future lies in e-commerce, so they created a website to expand into online sales.
The Problem
Dave’s Signs was using YouTube as a video marketing tool.
Even though they’d been uploading videos, doing live online sessions, and creating playlists, they still weren’t getting the leads and conversions they wanted.
“I was creating a lot of content, but I wasn't good at knowing what to do with that content ... our website was archaic. It was so old-fashioned. How do I take what I do and put it in a context, and put mechanisms in place to turn that into adding more revenue for the business? That was the missing piece.” - Eric Rhoten.
And there was another problem - they weren’t making the most of their substantial customer database.
“Second, we had thousands of customers, but we weren't doing anything with those as far as remarketing, not even knowing how to do that. Our customer management system was non-existent.” - Eric Rhoten.
Pro tip: make sure your content strategy is connected to your overall business growth strategy.
The Solution
Dave's Signs partnered with Brand Factory Inc. a year ago. Since then, they’ve seen a significant uptick in their revenue stream.
Eric learned about new business systems - and began using online marketing strategies like newsletters and automation.
“Our revenue has jumped a minimum of 50%, and maybe even a little bit higher because of all the different mechanisms that Brand Factory Inc. has introduced. We are able to automate a lot of the things that we were doing.”
Eric says Brand Factory Inc. founder Doc Williams brought clarity, strategy, and growth to Dave’s Signs by emphasizing brand development and developing a group coaching product.
“I'm doing a six-week course for my students ... Zoom sessions where I'm doing group coaching. And that's a digital product that I had always dreamed of. But I never knew how to put something like that together. And Doc was able to put all those pieces together.”
The Results
“Doc makes it very doable, and he wants to walk you through every step of the process... it's like you're doing business with somebody that really wants you to succeed. I 100% recommend him to any company that is looking to put together mechanisms and ideas to grow your business.”
Dave, Eric, and Vicki Rhoten
Doubling Sales on Black Friday
On Doc’s advice, Eric sent several emails instead of just one to increase engagement during the Black Friday Sale. He got a massive response to each one.
“We did a Black Friday sale the year before ... this year almost doubled what we did the year before. The big thing was that because I have this list of our customers, Doc was very instrumental in helping me send out emails and kind of organize these emails and organize these thoughts in different ways. I think I sent out five or six emails, and every time we sent out an email, BAM, we just got a jump in orders.”
Launching a successful online course pilot
The Dave’s Signs team has a mountain of knowledge and expertise and was looking for additional revenue streams that could be generated online.
So Brand Factory Inc. helped them to validate an idea to sell a group coaching program.
“It’s just kinda getting our feet wet. We’re out here in the Arizona desert, so our internet connection isn’t the best, so we were apprehensive, but fortunately, it’s going really good. I’m only charging $150 per attendee for a 6-week course, but we ended up with nine attendees. It’s a way for us to take what we do and get to the next level. So far, everyone’s been happy with week one, and we’ll see where it goes. I’m super happy with it so far.”
A free course that gets leads in the door helped build Eric’s confidence in selling digital products
“Doc also helped me put together a free course. We’re approaching 1,500 to 2,000 people (since launch) who have taken my 7 Steps To Sign Carving Basics Course. I would never have put that together if Doc hadn’t encouraged and helped us set that up. It’s a free course that leads people to 3 to 5 people every day that watch that course, and they get added to the list. That’s how that mechanism grows. It’s amazing how these ideas that Doc has put into play have led to us saying, ‘yeah, we could really get to that revenue goal as far as digital products.”
A system for lead nurturing and generating more sales
A common challenge businesses like Dave’s Signs is a “spray and pray” approach to marketing and sales.
By implementing a customer nurturing and email marketing system with tools like Kit, the team can fully leverage the great work they were already doing with publishing content.
“We set up mechanisms that helped us to contact all of our customers every week. I send out emails to them every week with specials. Doc showed us how to generate great emails in running specials and that kind of thing. So it brought all the pieces together while I had just been throwing mud on the wall- basically creating all this content but not utilizing the systems and mechanisms out there to generate more business. And man, it has worked amazingly.” - Eric Rhoten.
The Brand Factory Inc. Difference
Dave’s Signs now has a clear strategy for setting goals and an experienced advisor to help focus on the right things.
“I'm very good at working off lists and getting things done. But when it comes to tech and ideas of how to grow the business and different things to do, the neat thing that Doc does is give me assignments of things to do. He’s like my coach and personal trainer. We have Zoom calls regularly, and he gives me a timeline of what we want to shoot for each week and not trying to overwhelm me. If I need help, he gives me direction. It’s always a delight and pleasure - he’s a cool guy.” - Eric Rhoten.
The Rhoten family of MakeAWoodSign.com
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Posted Sep 8, 2025
Consulted with a custom sign-carving company to boost e-commerce and digital product sales.
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Timeline
Jan 7, 2020 - Ongoing
