In 2008, the Obama campaign tested the creative used on its website splash pages to maximize e-mail sign-ups and donations.

President Obama’s reelection campaign is doing the same thing. When you visit BarackObama.com today, you are automatically redirected to one of several splash pages, each of which has a different layout or call to action.

Variant 1: Campaign button

This simple landing page, decorated with a campaign button, asks site visitors a simple question and invites e-mail signup. If they do not wish to sign up, visitors are offered a bail-out link to the main campaign website.

Variant 2: Are you in?

This simple landing page is like Variant 1, only with the campaign logo in place of the button.

Variant 3: Are you in?—with the President

A twist on Variant 2, this page includes a large photo of President Obama overlaid in front of the signup form.

Variant 4: 2012 starts here—I’m in

This page swaps out the “Are you in?” question for a statement.

Variant 5: 2012 starts here—let’s go

Continuing the evolution begun in Variant 4, this one replaces the submission button text so it reads “let’s go!”

Variant 6: Fired up?—let’s go

This next variant again changes the main call to action, once again asking visitors a question.

Variant 7: Are you in?—no bailout

This one returns to the simplicity of Variant 2, but drops the “continue to website” bailout link that allows visitors to skip this splash page.

Variant 8: Sign up

Variant 8 tests some drier but perhaps more effective copy: “sign up for campaign updates” with a generic “submit” button. Sometimes being straightforward is best.

Variant 9: Be the first to know

This landing page variant makes site visitors an offer of exclusive information: “be the first to know.” The submission button now reads “sign up.”

Variant 10: Help build this campaign

Variant ten, in turn, appeals to visitors’ belief in the campaign’s mission and invites them to “help build this campaign.” The “from the ground up” and “join us” language suggests a certain exclusivity.

Variant 11: Are you in?—photo background

This is a very different take on the landing page, including a large photo of the President and a much smaller signup form using language from Variant 2.

Variant 12: Are you in?—photo background, take 2

Modifying Variant 12 slightly, this version includes the exclusive offer also seen in Variant 9.

Variant 13: Are you in?—photo background, take 3

Another take on Variant 11, this one repeats Variant 8’s to-the-point “sign up for campaign updates.”

The winning splash page variant. Photo: Optimizely

President Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign ran an excellent online operation. Much of their success derived from their successful use of A/B testing.

In an article on Optimizely, Dan Siroker explains a test the Obama campaign ran on the website’s splash page. They tested both the content of the page–pictures and video–and the wording of the call to action. They used the winning variant through the rest of the campaign, driving increased signups and increased revenue.

Siroker also reminds us a marketer’s intuition isn’t necessarily right:

Before we ran the experiment, the campaign staff heavily favored “Sam’s Video” (the last one in the slideshow shown above). Had we not run this experiment, we would have very likely used that video on the splash page. That would have been a huge mistake since it turns out that all of the videos did worse than all of the images.

2. A few simple changes that can improve your e-commerce checkout page

In a post on Smashing Magazine, Christian Holst outlines 11 “fundamental guidelines” for e-commerce usability.

Perhaps the most universally relevant guideline is his suggestion to visually reinforce the security of credit card fields. This resolves an important issue that comes up with e-commerce forms of all sorts, including donation forms: “Customers might hesitate if credit card fields don’t appear secure (regardless of actual security).”

“By adding visual cues (such as borders, background color, and security icons and badges) around the form fields for credit cards,” Holst argues, “you can increase their perceived security for non-technical customers.”

Other tips include:

• Make the checkout process linear, without redirecting users to a previous step
• Apply clear labels to form fields and buttons
• Use shipping address as billing address by default
• Allow users to complete the transaction without registering
• Request only pertinent information

Implementing even some of these changes—testing, of course, to ensure they work—can result in large increases in conversion rate and revenue. Holst’s guide offers essential first steps for anyone looking to improve the effectiveness of their online transaction pages.

Newsweek says neoconservatism is alive and kicking.

CAP responds to Citizens United:  “Indeed, with hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate profits at stake every time Congress begins a session, wealthy corporations would be foolish not to spend tens of billions of dollars every election cycle to make sure that their interests are protected.” Of course, it’s the fact that billions are at stake whenever Congress meets that’s the real problem. Ilya Somin, meanwhile, defends free speech rights.

And finally, Conan O’Brien stays classy in his final Tonight Show.

What happens when science becomes politicized? The truth is sacrificed to the “greater good.”