You want to be different and surprise your visitors while training them to behave in a particular way that is important for you.
Have a mechanism for showing popup overlays (or drop down, pull up, etc.) when the visitor has done something you wish to train them to do: stayed for a period of time, read a certain amount, clicked on individual links, etc. These pop-ups should offer something surprising while telling the visitor why, for instance: “You have been reading this article with interest – good! As a gift to you, please download this guide – free and no need to opt in.”
In each situation, there is a different optimal time for an opt in pop up to be displayed. These are influenced by many parameters like who is the audience seeing this, how long is the content, what time of day, etc.
Have an option in your pop up management software to request a test where the pop-up will be displayed at random intervals. The more conversions you have for some of the times and the less for other the system will start showing the better ones more and drop the worst performing ones.
For the merchant, it’s income you can count on (and on the customer coming back.) For the regular buyer, it’s a better deal both financially and as a convenience.
Offer your frequent regular clients to pre-pay a certain monthly amount (based on their past records) in exchange for better deals and special VIP service (for instance they can phone in or send an email with their requests and a personal shopper will handpick and prepare them for shipping or pick up.)
Better customer and more income.
Insert a hand written note or card into each product in your store. The card should thank them for their purchase, reinforce in them that they made the right choice (by buying at your store and that particular product), and offer them a one time offer (expiring within a short period of time – they should bring the receipt as a “proof of time of purchase”.) For each product or product category, you should have a few different versions of the card. For products that have a packaging that does not allow such a card to be inserted, insert it into the bag while bagging their purchase. Handwritten, thank you, reinforcing and offering card.
Get the customers to what they want as quickly and as precisely as possible.
On entering the store, ask them what is their primary interest and give them a lost of options. Based on their answer give a map of where they should look first in the store. Each map is specifically made for the category of interest the customer has picked.