If there’s one thing business owners wish they had, it’s a crystal ball that grants the ability to see into the future. Since we don’t have that, we rely upon trends reports from insightful industry thinkers, including the team at Forbes. They’ve just released “How Digital Marketing Will Change in 2018”, covering 15 digital marketing trends you’ll want to know about.

Let’s start with achieving a better understanding of the customer journey. There’s an introductory piece on what a customer journey map is and why you want one here. Forbes sums it up thus: Strive first to use data to know where your consumers will be on every step of their purchasing path, learn what appeals to them, and design your marketing to touch them all along their journey.

Better Ad Targeting & Personalization: It All Starts with Data

In addition to giving business owners a better understanding of their market with customer journey maps, data plays a huge role in other top digital marketing trends. Shoppers expect a highly tailored online experience, with their needs and preferences prioritized at every touch point.

Social media may be where your customer first encounters your brand. Ideally, we’d like that to occur through organic content, but pragmatically, most brands need to use advertising to extend their reach. Throughout 2018, plan on using data to refine your social media advertising. There are two ways this plays out: content creation and targeting efforts; identify what resonates with your audience and put it front of lookalike audiences to enjoy higher conversion rates.

Attention is a currency, Forbes reminds us, adding that the days of impersonal eblasts are behind us. Personalization extends beyond email marketing; today, the expectation is that highly targeted ads will lead to personalized landing pages – all part of a process meant to make the customer feel seen, valued and catered to.