5 Lessons from the RNC’s 2016 Test Booklet

It’s important to learn as much as we can from past experiences, so we don’t make mistakes in the future. In January, The Republican National Committee released its Test Booklet from 2016. This document contains results from the RNC’s fundraising efforts during the presidential election last year, goes into great detail on the effectiveness of A/B testing, and contains lessons for future candidates to model. The entire document can be very helpful for campaigns (at any level) going forward.

In their own words: “Optimization & Experiments Team (POET) ran over 300 A/B and multivariate tests on DonaldJTrump.com from July through November 2016. A sampling of these tests can be found in the RNC Testing Booklet.” https://www.gop.com/rnc-testing-booklet/

Here are 5 takeaways from the Testing Booklet that may help your campaign in the future.

Go Green in 2017

No, that is not an environmental plea. In this case, the RNC was highly successful using green buttons on both donation-related action buttons and call-to-action buttons for home phone-banking. In nearly every test conducted on multiple pages of the website, a green contrast had high conversion rates. Many of us have used the color red to create urgency in our donate buttons, and this still may be effective in some cases (including for Trump)! Test out green, red, and blue color combinations for your website buttons.

“We found that the thumbs up image continued to be more effective.”

This was a theme for the RNC last year – thumbs-up pictures of Trump were the most effective. In some cases, it increased per-visit revenue by $.30-.40 over other images! The next time you send your donors to a splash page for donating or signing up, try using an image of the candidate with their thumbs up (and definitely smiling!). Maybe your candidate has a different “signature look.” Use images that make your candidate look the most appealing and positive to a website visitor.

Speaking of positivity

Positive, inclusive language was consistently successful for Trump website engagement. Using phrases such as “I’m in” and “Contribute” were more effective than “Sign Up” and “Donate.” Your campaign is a team, and good teams are inclusive. This language is effective at making voters feel as though they are a valuable part of the campaign, not just another email or a revenue source. On the topic of positivity, it was ineffective for the Trump team to use images of Hillary Clinton – a person about whom most Trump supporters feel negatively. Bringing up negative feelings did not make donors want to give more. Keep this in mind if you are trying to raise money using negative messaging. Run some tests on that strategy before going all-in on negativity.

Make it official

One of the most interesting results from the RNC testing was that donation forms that read “Official Website of Donald J. Trump for President” at the top were far more successful than those that did not. In addition, donation forms that had a “login” option at the bottom also yielded a higher conversation rate. In the age of “fake news” and a general distrust of media outlets, it is interesting that online donors who see something as “official” are more likely to give. Even though it is usually apparent when a campaign website is legitimate (especially at the presidential level), donors felt more secure when it was pointed out.

The digital campaign world has become more competitive

In our American Majority trainings, we often note that the Obama digital campaign infrastructure was years ahead of Mitt Romney’s in 2012. Trump’s digital team used lessons from 2012 and new technology available to make valuable fundraising gains in 2016. Going forward, the competition for online donations will only be more fierce. All major campaigns now utilize digital specialists to maximize donations, and you can bet that your opponent will be looking for ways to get ahead! Even if you don’t have the financial means to hire digital staff, you should still be intentional and strategic about your website appearance, content, and fundraising asks. Paying attention to the details will lead to campaign victory!