This idea – that customer experience is the first, last and primary consideration and that all strategies and tactics serve (the customer's) priorities – is the premise of most of the trends we'll mention here. Let's take mobile, for example. example. An important trend, certainly. But it is vitally important because today people use mobile devices more than desktops. Making messaging and services mobile-friendly (if not mobile-first) is smart because it better meets customer needs. Then there is the trend towards personalization – again, another symptom of customer-centric marketing. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Personalization, clearly, puts the customer's needs and preferences first. The same also applies to account-based marketing. It's just another aspect of customer-centric marketing, i.e. “customer first” marketing. This also applies to videos. This is a trend because, as you guessed it, people like to watch videos. Of course we'll look at each of these trends individually, but this may be the only question you need to ask yourself if you want to stay ahead of the curve in 2018: Does this tactic/channel/campaign meet the customer's needs first and foremost? Of course, while we want to put the customer's needs first, we also need to stay in business. But often the initiatives or business practices have been instituted to benefit the company by keeping customers “happy enough.” We may all have to turn this around in the next year and years to come. It may become necessary to do things that satisfy customers, while keeping business needs (primarily profit) “satisfied enough.” This reminds me a little of Amazon in the years before… around 2000. Remember when people joked about “Amazon .org” because Bezos kept investing in making Amazon better and better, profits be damned? Most of his investors he was pulling his hair out, but Bezos kept building his platform… kept building for the customer.