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Marketing is the key to success, failure, and public perception. I am reminded how a certain British car maker (now owned by an Indian firm) used to make autos with a stunningly bad reputation for build quality. Their electrical systems were particularly famous for failing. When that company was purchased by a US manufacturer back in the ’80s, the PR department started a campaign that extolled the style, history, and so-called quality of the cars. Not much actually changed for a couple of years, but the repeated message of how good the cars were changed public perception.

I was reminded of this about a week and a half ago when I was traveling through Massachusetts. The key to many projects is clever marketing, and the Massachusetts marketers must have been working over time. On I-95 southbound just below the New Hampshire border there is a rest stop. This should be a premier first-class stop that gives travelers their first very positive impression of the Commonwealth. However, the rest stop’s big feature is its pit toilets.

Of course they do not call them pit toilets. Instead they are classified as eco-friendly high-green low-impact sewage systems. The by-products are composted with some sort of special machinery, and just to demonstrate how fantastic this system is there are spotlights in the pits so that you can see the mess being, well, composted, I guess.

Not to make too fine a point on this, here we have a state that has taken what is by any standards a very primitive and generally unpleasant system (the pit toilet) and jazzed it up with a couple of spotlights and signage. Make sure that negative phrases such as “pit toilet” and “outhouse” are replaced by terms like “eco-friendly” and “earth sustainable.” Suddenly we have a glorified high-tech system that sounds pretty darn good.

What does this have to do with Web sites? Well, strictly speaking, not much directly. But indirectly we can learn a few things. For the moment we should consider that everything is a balancing act. Weaknesses in certain areas have to be offset by strengths in other regions. If you have an outhouse, for instance, your interior decoration has to be pretty darn good.

When we apply this concept to a web site we have take into account the same considerations. We have have a weak site, those weaknesses have to be balanced by some high powered strengths. Of course, the goal is to have every element in the mix balanced. Total balance makes a an excellent site. But that is not always the case.

When we examine the components of a site we have to look at the layout, graphical elements, message, goals, usability, and so on. If we are weak in the photo department, for instance, our text has to be especially good. That’s how one weakness is balanced by something else. But there are some things that can never be ignored.

Such a thing is is the message of the site. What are you trying to say? Is the message getting across? Do your visitors understand what you are trying to do and what you want them to do? A weak message will result in a weak Web site. A weak Web site will be unsuccessful.

Your site’s message is conveyed in both words and pictures. Photos, diagrams, and anything controlling appearance must be up to date. The wording of your text must also be accurate and carefully chosen. Avoid negative phrases, make sure you only write in a positive manner. Have you noticed that in the television ads for cars “options” are not longer mentioned? What used to be called an option is now phrased as being “available.” To say that something is available is more positive than saying it is optional.

The same is true for the so-called 0% interest auto loan. Isn’t “zero percent” the same as “no interest?” Yes, it really is the same, but the phrase “no interest” is too negative. Once again clever language is used to reduce anything that might remotely seem off-putting.

Everyone should closely examine the text on his or her Web site. Use the same techniques as the big-time marketers and be sure that you aren’t using negative phrases. It is perfectly OK, and to your benefit, to turn your Massachusetts outhouse into a high-tech earth-friendly byproduct composting system.

Do it today.