The New Year starts tomorrow. I really cannot believe this year went by so fast. Where does the time go? That’s a rhetorical question—I know where it goes. 10 hour days spent working on my business make the days and weeks fly by.

You may have resolutions for the New Year, I know, I do. I find, I have about a 50% success rate at keeping my resolution til ---oh about March. I hope, your success rate is better than mine. I find my resolutions are easier to keep if they are simple and basic. Which leads me to my point… yes, I do have a point here…

The New Year may be the perfect time to get back to basics in your business. If you look around the marketing scene, the prevalent system you will see is aimed at an one shot, sell them now! philosophy. Most marketers have gotten away from relationship building and laying a foundation for steady and continued growth. It is easy to get caught up in the desire to make money immediately and forget the value of your customer can stretch on for years if you handle them right from the beginning.

For what it’s worth, here’s a refresher course in the basics of building a long term foundation. Before we go any further let me say, it does require you focus on your business. It is a lot of work. It does require you forget your desire for immediate gratification and be patient.

First and foremost, set yourself up to build a list. I know, you hear it over and over, but it is the keystone of a successful business. You can find or create something of value to offer your visitors in return for their name and email address. You may hear advice to make this a teaser with the aim of selling them something right away. This can and does work, but we’re trying to get down to long term basics. Let’s look to the future and not at the moment. So, give your subscribers a dynamite product, period.

Build a relationship with your list by providing your subscribers with high quality content and information. Resist the urge to send them rehashed PLR that they have probably seen 5 or 6 times before. You might take a few moments and put yourself in your subscriber’s shoes. What is your reaction when every mail you get from a marketer is nothing but an attempt to sell you something? Mine is usually the unsubscribe button. So, put your offers on the back burner for now.

Create a high quality product geared to your list by tapping into your own buying experiences. It’s a similar thought process to finding a USP. What disappointed you about the products you’ve purchased? Fill in the gaps from your experience and you will find yourself the owner of a product that not only fills a need, but has long term value. You will be able to keep on promoting it for a long time.

Fine tune your sales process. Go through it step by step to make sure there are no glitches, and it is easy for your customer to buy from you. This will save you plenty of future headaches and customer support issues. I’d recommend checking back on the whole set up monthly to make sure you haven’t developed any issues. Don’t wait for a flood of customer emails to catch you by surprise.

You’ve heard this many times before, under promise and over-deliver in all areas of your business. From content to support, information marketing has a lot more to do with providing a service than you might suspect. High quality products can and do command high prices, but using restraint in your price point can pay dividends down the road. Your subscribers are going to stick around and continue to buy from you if you give them so much valuable information for a modest price. The same applies to any customer support issues. If you build a reputation for giving great value and support, word will start to get around. Your subscriber list and your sales will grow virally through word of mouth.

Then, you just repeat the process over and over and build the whole structure over time. Remember, this is a long term process and intended to raise the lifetime value of each and every customer. If you build your business this way, you will find that your business will grow steadily and be much more robust than if you try to squeeze every penny possible from your customers immediately.

Happy New Year!