Dogs made me subscribe to a WordPress hosting provider

I've been a WPX customer since June 2021.

For my needs, it's been great with WPX.

• It's fast. WPX is ranked one of the fastest managed WordPress hosts.
• Built in CDN and provides free SSL certificates.
• Crazy fast support. Get help within 6 seconds, really.
• Reliable uptime. Never had a downtime in 4 years.
• Customer centric. The CEO is personally in touch with customers.

Of course, it's not perfect.

• Resources provided are kind of small. (Like only up to 10GB storage on Starter plan)
• No data centers in Asia. (Server response for me has been OK)
• Clunky dashboard. This has recently improved with a new dashboard though.

Yes, WPX's hosting is reliable. But when I think back, one of the biggest reason I became a customer was because: Their founder rescues dogs.

Crazy? But it's true. WPX sold me on how their founder, Terry Kyle, actively saves dogs.

And this is exactly what great positioning feels like.

WPX doesn't just position around technology

WPX position around meaning.

Most hosting companies talk about features. Speed, uptime, support, being customer centric, free migrations, etc.

WPX has all of those. Plus a little more; like having their own global CDN. But that's not what makes them different. In my experience as a customer, what makes them different is this: WPX decided that their brand is not just about websites.

It's about change-makers. Their about page literally calls their customers "people with a dream". They position themselves as the infrastructure for does, creators and builders – people who's trying to make something real.

OK, I identified that. Cool. Still, not enough for me to become a customer.

Then out of nowhere, they one-up their positioning and marketed their commitment into rescuing homeless and abused dogs.

My pet dog, lying down next to me, as I read this section is literally a rescue dog from SPCA.

I was completely sold. I identified a 100% with WPX.

I'm choosing to support a company that is made for their customers, that invests in kindness. That is led with a founder who puts his money where his heart is. I want to support businesses like this.

So I hit the subscription button, and the rest is history.

People don't buy products

They buy the story of a product.

Was my purchase purely rational? No. It was an emotional and an irrational one.

Here's the truth: At some point, every product becomes a commodity.

Seriously, hosting is a commoditized market. WPX stands out not by out-hustling the market, but by being clear to who they want to serve. And that positioning happened to worked really well on people like me.

Real work of positioning

Most entrepreneurs focus on improving their product. And sure, you'll need to do that.

But the thing that makes someone click "buy" is rarely how extensive your product features are. It's the feeling of, "This is made for someone like me", "This company cares about the things I care about", "I want to be part of this."

The good news is, this is something most businesses can create.

Build a unique positioning that makes people choose you.

Even if the alternatives look the same.

I'm running an in-person workshop to teach that in Underdog Live: Positioning That Sells this Wednesday, 10th Dec.

We'll break down how brands determine who to serve, create meaning, position – and how you can apply the same for your brand. You'll also get to use Core, our all-in-one marketing platform.

If your marketing feels hard recently, it's probably a positioning challenge, not a marketing problem. Let's fix it during the workshop.

Join the workshop here (on Luma)