Customer relationships are key to any marketing strategy and having tools that can help you manage and grow those relationships is a must. Implementing a CRM is not difficult and there are many solutions that are cost effective and won't break the bank. A CRM enables you to be more strategic when it comes to your customer relationships and then helps when it comes to serving and developing those business growing relationships.

If there was ever a time that you stayed in touch with your customers it should be today. Relationships are key when it comes to successful and effective marketing.

There is no excuse not to use a CRM tool that helps you to stay in touch with not only your current customers, but also leads that are in your sales pipeline. I recently spent time looking for a customer management solution for a client and I was amazed at the options that are available; not only to large companies but to small and medium sized businesses as well. You can implement a CRM solution for less than $12 per user a month and there are even solutions that are free if you have less than 3 users.

Are you running a CRM to manage and grow your relationships? If not, why? Can you really risk to lose a customer or even a potential customer because you didn't stay in touch? I'm going to assume that the majority of you answer that question with a resounding no.

If you are not using a CRM right now and checking it everyday let me encourage you. I have shared with you the information that I found when searching for a solution and I'm going to share with you my top five CRM solutions that I recommend to businesses. You will see that each solution offers different features and perks, pick the one that fits your needs and begin to implement today. I promise that you will be glad you did.

Your turn: If I did not list your favorite CRM feel free to add it to the comments and tell us why it's your favorite.

I'm often asked how business-to-business (B2B) marketing is different than business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. Although you are still selling a product or a service to a person the marketing is difference for B2B and B2C. The purchase motivation is different and they have different needs when it comes to the information that they need in order to make the decision to purchase. The differences between these markets run deep and they are important.

When we take time to understand what is needed we have a better chance of closing the deal with a B2B or a B2C market. It's when we ignore the differences that we fail to provide the information and the support to turn a prospective consumer into a customer.

A consumer purchases on emotion and a business purchases on logic. Let me show you the difference in marketing to a B2C market vs. a B2B market.

Your Turn: What differences have you found in marketing to a B2C vs. a B2B market?

For those of you interested you can now become a fan of Marketing at About.com on Facebook.

I created the Facebook fan page in order to collaborate with readers on a daily basis as well as give you a community that you could use to ask marketing questions and get to know other readers. I've been wanting to do this for awhile and truthfully it has evolved into a great place for collaboration and discussion.

If you can't get enough of all things marketing-related, you now have an opportunity find people to talk marketing with all day long.

Become a fan, it's easy and I'm sure you will enjoy the community that is developing there.

Recently I shared with you a search engine marketing secret - how to gain market share in Google within your local area. This doesn't take months to do and often can be achieved within a couple of days, if not hours. One reader found themselves struggling with getting a high ranking, because of the competition within their location and industry.

There are ways that you can improve your Google Local Map listing and I wanted to share a few steps that can help in improving your ranking on Google Local.

• Step 1: Claim your Google Local Map listing if you haven't already.
• Step 2: Login to Google Local online.
• Step 3: Verify your information and make sure your description is specific with keywords. Use keywords to describe your location and what your business is by as well as search keywords that customers will use to find you.
  
  
• Step 4: Use keywords in your company and organization name. For example in my Google Local Map listing I used the following as my company and organization name (Keywords are in bold) - Laura Lake Consulting - Small Business Marketing and Social Media Strategy Consulting
• Step 5: Don't forget to categorize your listing and make sure that you complete all 5 categories. The 1st category is the most important, but the next 4 follow in at a close second when it comes to ranking importance. Try to use Google's suggested categories.
• Step 6: Customer reviews will also help in improving your Google local listing rank. Don't write your own review, but ask your customers for a recommendation.

The secret is that Google focuses rank mostly on the businesses closes to the center of the city. If you are not near the center of the city the prior steps are vital to improving the rank of your Google Local Map listing in order to compete with the businesses that are closer to the center of the city than you.