Boosting your business: Five ways to do so in 2021

We spoke to customers, laser experts and the community to collate wisdom for how you can position your business for a successful 2021

Cathrin Pfeiffer

12. März 2020 • 6 min

Position your laser engraving business for a successful year

2020 was a turbulent year that presented us with completely new challenges and a great deal of uncertainty. For several of our customers, the pandemic has caused sales to slump over the past few months, particularly for those in the event sector and those who engrave trophies and awards. Others -- such as those who produce signage, sneeze guards, or acrylic safety screens -- have had well-filled order books, sometimes struggling to keep up with demand. Whatever the case may be for your business, we want to do everything we can to help you succeed. So we spoke to customers, entrepreneurs, and veterans in the laser engraving business and asked: What has made your laser engraving company successful over the past year? Which laser applications or marketing activities will you continue to work on in 2021? With the wisdom we gathered, we put together the following list of tips to help you position your business for success in 2021.

#1: Broaden your product line to meet new demands

COVID-19 created a number of new market demands that were urgently needed in large quantities almost overnight. Some of these high-demand products produced on a laser include safety screens made of acrylic glass for supermarket checkouts, counters, or as room dividers. Counters, checkouts, and offices are still being fitted with acrylic safety partitions, so the demand for these is likely to remain high in the near future. Other examples of new product demands include signs for public areas such as signage stating “keep your distance” or “wash your hands”. Another new laser application related to the COVID-19 pandemic is the cutting of textiles for textile masks (face masks). These health safety measures will continue in the future, so it's safe to assume that there will continue to be great demand in this area.

#2: Stick with the personalization mega trend

Personalization with a laser engraver will remain lucrative in years to come. Personalized items have continued to delight people for many years, and the demand has remained constant. Laser engravers can take a rather “simple” everyday object and turn it into something special and valuable with a name engraving. Whether they are seasonal items, gifts for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, birthdays, or simply a small gesture, the individual touch personalization provides allows a high margin.

More information on this can be found in our blogs “In focus: The “individualization” megatrend” and “Refining with laser engraving”.

#3: Update your website

A focused website is more important than ever today. Sixty-three percent of shopping opportunities start online (ThinkwithGoogle, 2018). Regardless of whether people shop locally or online, the majority of customer journeys begin online. If your website is found during this initial research, the chances are much higher that a customer will ultimately buy from you. Make it easy for customers to find you online. Optimize your website and use free advice services from Google, Facebook and co.

#4: Use online sales channels

According to Statista, 75 percent of people shop online at least once a month. The trend is clearly moving toward more online shopping. Facts such as the closure of stationary stores due to high infection rates and other restrictions are pushing this development.

At the same time, many customers want to support local providers. The easiest way to accommodate this is to offer your products online – e.g. in your own webshop or in partner webshops. This will make your company more future-proof.

#5: Automate your processes

Put your company on a digital footing. This not only applies to the website and sales channels but also internal processes.

Automate as many steps as possible from order to delivery. This saves time and money and frees up you and your team for other activities. How does it work? For example, with an online product configurator like our customer “Pichl Medaillen” www.pichl-medaillen.com.

Trotec Ruby. Digital to the core.

Do you want your laser work to be even more user friendly and faster? How about a simplified workflow and profitable order processing with a thoroughly digital setup? Then download the new Trotec Ruby software free of charge:

Download now

With user guidance that inspires and enables direct work with a Mac.

More about the author: Cathrin Pfeiffer

Cathrin Pfeiffer is a passionate marketing expert. For more than 15 years she has been successful in B2B and B2C marketing and she has led the international Trotec marketing team as Head of Global Marketing since 2019.