WheelPad L3C

Building the foundation for sustainable, inclusive growth

As an L3C (Low-Profit Limited Liability Company), WheelPad bridges the gap between a non-profit organization and for-profit corporation with its mission of inclusive housing for people with disabilities.

Headquartered in rural southern Vermont, they asked Marketing Partners for a strategic plan to build a sustainable foundation for growth to meet exploding national demand for the accessible modular homes they design and build. Since the original project, we are their partners for ongoing market research, strategy responses to economic challenges, education outreach on universal design and accessibility, and support to implement a flexible, integrated marketing program in the ever-changing manufacturing industry.

Focus Areas

Mission-Driven Businesses

Social Equity & Community

Related Services

Brand Strategy & Positioning

Content Strategy & Development

Digital Strategy & Web Design

Integrated Marketing Communication

Market Research

The Challenge

How can we build a strong brand, increase awareness of the growing demand, and stimulate understanding of accessible design without exaggerating or overpromising a rural startup company’s ability to deliver products quickly as it expands its manufacturing capacity?

Insight: Accessibility is misunderstood and inclusion often neglects people with disabilities

The myriad details that make universal design work for accessible real-world buildings are assumed knowledge among many professionals and inclusion efforts frequently omit PWDs.

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Strategies

Research and develop resources for each distinct audience segment: individuals with mobility challenges and their families, veterans, nonprofits, government agencies, healthcare professionals, and older adults planning to age in place.
Develop a flexible, scalable content strategy and production support workflow that minimizes the time investment for team members.
Design and build a CRM-driven website and automation processes that can scale with increased production of the accessible modular home products the firm designs and builds.
Share resources on the need for universal accessible design and inclusion for people with disabilities.

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What We Did

We began quietly by building on WheelPad’s compelling story and developing basic, low-key resources and tools for individuals. Over the years our work evolved to add an integrated CRM and website with automated workflows and processes, market research and marketing mix modeling to reach new audience segments, social media messaging, and a low-key drive-to-web focus, actively supported by ongoing visibility earned through speaking opportunities, community involvement, and proactive inclusive messaging.

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CRM-based website planning, design, build, and maintenance

Freedom to Focus on People-First Design and Manufacturing

When we began, WheelPad L3C did not own its own domain name or website. In the years since, we’ve transferred domain ownership, refined their visual identity, integrated a new digital strategy with an established people-first focus on a scalable CRM-based website platform, and expanded the site as demands and capacity grew—freeing the company’s mission-driven team to focus on people first.

WheelPad education materials

Education Resources

Answers to questions in everyday language

Talking points & leave behinds for meetings with families

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How We Roll blog

Demonstrating deep expertise in accessibility

Everyone has questions when suddenly faced with the need to make their inaccessible home accessible. Here are answers for individuals, families & caregivers.

Social Media Examples

Social Media Messaging

Building awareness through consistency and interaction

Consistently engaging and sharing a wide range of resources and Gradually engaging and sharing resources and information about WheelPad’s knowledge areas and mission brings increasing awareness of the need and benefits of inclusive, accessible, universal design.

SuitePAD, an accessible bedroom bathroom home attachment, was the first product WheelPad designed and manufactured to meet escalating demand.

Impact

WheelPad enjoys growing visibility, media recognition, financial support, and customer appreciation.
As production capacity increases, the housing advisor sales team has the specialized resources they need for each audience segment.
The flexible marketing implementation strategy minimizes cash drain and enables the WheelPad team to focus on people and product quality.

WheelPad SuitePAD overlooking mountains