The Total Vehicle Value Email System
A lifecycle email automation system designed to convert quote requests, organize preventive maintenance, improve customer retention, and demonstrate scalable email operations.
Extending a website redesign into a full lifecycle system
Total Auto Repair's redesigned website generates quote requests and service interest, but a website alone can't follow a customer through confirmation, decision-making, maintenance planning, and re-engagement. This project builds the email layer that carries that relationship forward.
What this project is
A complete lifecycle email automation system: five connected campaigns, ten fully coded email templates, a reusable module library, and the operational documentation an email team uses to run it day to day.
Who it's built for
Vehicle owners who want clarity instead of pressure — a system that separates urgent repairs from future planning and treats maintenance like a manageable expense rather than a surprise.
What it demonstrates
Copywriting, email coding, template systems, UTM tracking, QA process, semi-weekly A/B testing, and performance reporting — the full operating loop of an email automation role.
Vehicle ownership creates recurring uncertainty
Customers rarely lack access to a repair shop. What they lack is a clear, ongoing way to understand what their vehicle needs and when.
The customer-side problem
- Cost uncertainty around repair recommendations
- Anxiety about whether a recommendation is necessary
- Reactive maintenance behavior instead of planning ahead
- Difficulty knowing what is urgent versus what can wait
- Difficulty budgeting for future service expenses
- Long, disorganized gaps between visits
- Promotion fatigue from generic, repetitive offers
- Reminders that keep arriving after a vehicle is sold or replaced
The strategic solution
A connected lifecycle system that follows the customer from website quote request through appointment, service completion, preventive maintenance, promotional eligibility, and re-engagement — treating vehicle maintenance the way a financial planner treats a household budget: organized, transparent, and paced to the customer's timeline.
One connected path from visit to re-engagement
Select any stage to see what triggers it, what it needs to communicate, and which branching condition moves a customer forward.
Five connected campaign systems
Each campaign has its own trigger, sequence, and exit logic, but all five share the same customer data, template modules, and tracking conventions.
Segments drive which message a customer receives
No customer sees every promotion. Segment membership determines campaign entry, offer eligibility, and message tone.
Personalization fields & fallbacks
Every merge field used across the system resolves to a safe fallback so no email ever renders a blank or broken value.
| Field | Fallback value |
|---|
Every email in the system, coded and previewable
Toggle desktop, mobile, or plain-text views. Filter by campaign, then step through with previous and next.
Tracking detailsexpand
QA notesexpand
One module library, used across every campaign
Click any module to see its purpose, data fields, content rules, and QA risks.
Built for real inbox rendering, not just the browser
Sent emails use table-based layout, inline CSS, bulletproof buttons, and Outlook-safe structure — no JavaScript, no background-image dependency, and a plain-text fallback for every template.
Coding standards used in every template
- Table-based layout with
role="presentation"on structural tables - Inline CSS on every styled element
- Max content width of 600–640px
- Responsive single-column stacking on mobile
- Accessible font sizes and high-contrast text
- Descriptive alt text on every image reference
- Bulletproof, table-based CTA buttons
- Outlook-safe conditional structure
- Hidden preheader text separate from visible copy
- Plain-text fallback for every HTML template
UTM naming convention
Every CTA link carries a consistent parameter set: utm_source=email&utm_medium=automation&utm_campaign=[campaign]&utm_content=[email_and_placement]&utm_term=[segment].
Example email ID: TAR_WELCOME_E02_PLAN_REPAIR_VA
| Segment | Meaning |
|---|---|
| TAR | Total Auto Repair |
| WELCOME | Campaign |
| E02 | Email number in sequence |
| PLAN_REPAIR | Message theme |
| VA | Version A (test variant) |
The day-to-day trackers that keep the system running
Search, filter, sort, and export any tracker below. All data is simulated for demonstration.
1. Campaign production tracker
Simulated production data — owner: Marquan Whitelaw2. Email copy inventory
Click any row's "Open copy" button to view the full copy structure.3. QA tracker
20+ simulated QA rows across the ten emails — not every row passes cleanly.QA issue-resolution log
Four simulated issues detected and corrected during production.Content update log
Six simulated updates, including a promotion expiration date change tracked end to end.Automation exit rules
A customer leaves or pauses a sequence the moment continuing would no longer be useful. Example: a lead who schedules an appointment after Welcome Email 2 should not continue receiving appointment-reminder emails.
Semi-weekly optimization cadence
Four active tests, each with a stated hypothesis and a confidence label rather than a claim of statistical significance.
Reporting note
Open-rate signals are treated as directional only, since privacy features (like Apple Mail Privacy Protection) can inflate opens artificially. Click-through rate, appointment-request rate, and redemption rate carry more weight in every recommendation below.
Reporting built to support decisions, not vanity metrics
Performance metrics are simulated and included to demonstrate reporting, organization, and optimization workflows.
Delivered vs. clicked, by send
Appointment requests by campaign
Promotion redemptions by code
Maintenance-plan engagement & re-engaged customers
What the system is built to prove
Marquan Whitelaw
I extended the Total Auto Repair website redesign into a lifecycle email automation system designed to convert quote requests, support preventive maintenance, improve customer retention, and demonstrate organized email operations. The project combines campaign strategy, responsive HTML email coding, reusable templates, QA documentation, UTM tracking, A/B testing, and simulated performance reporting.
None of this reflects a real deployed campaign — every customer record, test result, and performance number in this project is simulated for demonstration purposes.
This project mirrors the day-to-day of an Email Automation Intern role: transferring copy into coded templates, maintaining a module library, adding and checking tracking links, assisting with QA, updating semi-weekly test results, tracking production status, and coordinating across strategy, design, and reporting.