In 2026, it's not just our quantitative that needs easing, but also our cognitive load. The battle for attention has been replaced with making things easier to understand, get and use.
As a CMO or Digital Director, you aren't just managing a brand; you are managing a series of choice architectures.
What is a nudge?
Coined by Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler, a nudge is any aspect of choice architecture that predictably alters people's behaviour without forbidding any options. In digital marketing, it's the difference between telling someone to buy and designing an environment where buying is the most natural next step.
The important differentiator here is "without forbidding any options". Cognitive easing only exists if all the options are laid out and transparent. Especially in the current climate of consumer mistrust.
Burying the cheapest option because it costs too much to administer is a you problem, don't do your customers wrong by hiding products, costs and conditions are don't suit you or you don't think will appeal. Not only is it highly unethical, but it also damages your brand integrity and CX.
Here are the three core nudges for good CX
1. The Power of Defaults (Status Quo Bias) - humans are inherently cognitive misers. We tend to stick with the pre-selected option because we don't want a poorer product but we also don't want to pay more for it. But that's not a licence to behave unethically by massaging the message or over-charging.
- The strategy: Ensure your most valuable (or most effective) service is the default choice.
- The stat: Research shows that default settings can increase adoption rates by u,p to 80% because they reduce the mental effort of making a choice.
2. Social Proof 3.0 (informational social influence) - in an era of AI-generated reviews, social proof has evolved. In 2026, users look for real-time validation. It's why influencers became a thing, but they're fast becoming a thing of the past as people are hungry for real experience and expertise.
- The strategy: Use activity nudges. Instead of a static testimonial, show a pod that says "14 people in London are viewing this blog right now."
3. The Salience Effect - our attention is drawn to what is novel or relevant at the moment. Thinking what's trending or those cultural moments we used to share around the water-cooler.
- The strategy: Use contextual nudges. If a reader arrives from a LinkedIn post about ROI, your landing page should nudge them with a headline specifically referencing ROI, not a generic "Welcome."
This goes back to having joined up storytelling across all your platforms to speed up the process of moving from one platform (or marketing asset) to the next until the reader becomes a customer.
It also means that UX plays a much more important role and has a much higher profile than marketing campaigns.
You can't have a sexy multi-million-pound ad with Idris Elba, only for people to head to your website and have to wade through irrelevant marketing messages to get to a broken journey that doesn't deliver what the ad was promising.
It's not science... well, it is actually. What it's not is marketing.
