I can’t help but think about conversion rate optimization in my day to day life outside of work.

A friend of mine who studied film (making movies) in college once told me that he can no longer watch a movie without dissecting it in his head.

Every know and then I have a similar experience (usually as part of an “a-ha” moment) in my life where I realize something about human behavior – specifically how to get someone to do something.

I have quite a few of these in my head which I’ll start sharing on my blog.

Today it’s a lesson I learned from a crying toddler.

David is a 3 year old boy. He has a cat called Muffins. David and Muffins get along very well, but if Muffins bothers him at night while he’s sleeping, it scares him and we wakes up.

Last night when David started to cry, I saw Muffins run out of his room and immediately understood what happened. I went into his room and tried to calm him down.

David: Crying
Me: It’s OK David, Muffins won’t hurt you
David: Crying
Me: I’ll close the door so Muffins won’t come back. Daddy’s here.
David: Crying
Me: Did Muffins scare you?
David: Yes (and stops crying)

David calmed down at that point and quickly fell back to sleep.

As you can see, I was only able to get through to David once I acknowledged his feelings. This is parenting 101 but the point here is:

Acknowledging someone’s feelings is a very powerful way to get through to them.

Some examples off of the top of my head:

• Do you suffer from high blood pressure?
• Are you frustrated by your child’s behavior?
• Worried about your debt?

Personally, I’m not crazy about using “informercial” type headlines, but the reason they are so widely used is that they usually work. Of course like any good marketer you are testing your copy so ultimately you know what works best for your audience.