Case study
PCLF: a strategy, a brand and a website for a Canadian hosting company
A hosting company among giants needed a niche, a brand of its own and a site that shows who is behind it.
Hosting companyCanada2026pclf.ca(opens in a new tab)
PCLF sets up and runs WordPress hosting for businesses and web agencies.
In 2026, Lucas Cubillos Mialani of Cubilani, a brand and web design studio, worked with PCLF, a Canadian managed WordPress hosting company, on buyer personas and strategy, brand guidelines, brand assets for email and communications, and a new website on WordPress with Elementor. The site names PCLF’s two audiences, business owners and agencies, and gives each its own form. Lucas still works with PCLF on its strategy.
A trusted hosting company with a one-page site
PCLF sells something people only buy when they trust the company behind it: hosting that runs their website and their email. Its customers are business owners who want their site to simply work, and agencies and designers who host many client sites.
The business was trusted; its website hadn’t caught up yet. In May 2025, PCLF’s online home was a single page. The new site needed to say who PCLF serves, speak to the agencies among its core customers, and make it easy to reach a person.
Strategy and brand first, so everything PCLF sends looks like the same company
The main challenge: a niche in a market of giants
Hosting is dominated by big brands with big budgets, so the real work was strategy: finding where PCLF is strongest. The answer is partnerships with professionals who build websites for their clients, like me, and need reliable hosting and technical support for the parts beyond their own work: servers, uptime, the technical side that is its own world.
The site now speaks to two audiences side by side: partners, and business owners who simply want hosting that works. The goal throughout was transparency: people should see what they get, how it works and how to reach a person.
A brand with its own look
Before the website came the brand: a new logo, redrawn as a clean, modern vector, and brand guidelines with its fonts and colours. The idea behind the look is what hosting actually is: a box where your things live. So the brand uses grainy 3D cubes with a Y2K feel, in several forms across the site, with slight animation to make them feel alive.
I chose that on purpose over the usual tech illustrations of oversized people at computers that most hosting and tech companies use. The cubes say the same thing in a cleaner, more modern way that fits the people PCLF serves. The same assets now carry through its email and customer communications.
Branding services, planned with the website
A new website
The new site, on WordPress with Elementor, launched in May 2026. It says who PCLF is for in its first lines, sets out its plan in plain terms, and gives agencies and designers their own partnership route. A four-step “How it works” section runs from getting in touch to ongoing support, and a separate page covers the technical details for people who want them.
Each audience has its own form: “Get Started” for business owners and “Partner With Us” for agencies, which asks how many sites they manage. Both lead to a confirmation page, and the contact email is in every footer.
Website redesign services and new websites
From one page to eight pages and two forms
| Before (May 12, 2025) | After (September 30, 2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | 1 | 8, including two forms, a technical specs page and an FAQ |
| Headline | “Premier Hosting Provider” | “Reliable WordPress Hosting, Built for Performance” |
| Who it is for | One general message | Business owners, and agencies and designers, named on the home page |
| Price | Three plan boxes | One clear plan in USD, and a partnership route for agencies |
| How it works | Not on the page | Four steps, from getting in touch to ongoing support |
| Ways to get in touch | Buttons only | Two forms, a confirmation page, and an email address in the footer |
| Brand | A logo | Brand guidelines, grainy 3D cubes, and assets for email and communications |
The new home page is also quick. In a desktop speed test on September 30, 2026, its main content appeared in 1.5 seconds and the page scored 92 out of 100 for performance.
Ongoing: a website that grows with the business
The work continues: I’m writing new pages and messaging with the team as the partner side grows, and search work comes next.
Full disclosure: I also host my own clients’ sites with PCLF, so I know the service from the inside.
Your strategy, brand and site, planned together
If your business needs its strategy, its brand and its website to say the same thing, start with a free 30-minute call. Have a website? We’ll look at it together the way your customers see it. Starting from scratch? We’ll talk through what your business needs. If it’s a fit, you get a fixed-price proposal within two business days.
With or without a website. Free, no obligation, and a reply within one business day.
