Reaching local customers keeps getting harder and more expensive. Social feeds are crowded and pay-to-play, third-party cookies are disappearing, and programmatic display often spends your budget on out-of-market impressions instead of real neighbors. Email bucks the trend — it’s a direct line to a person who chose to hear from a brand they trust.
That’s the advantage of an owned-and-operated email audience. The Post and Courier has built its database from real residents who opted in — so when your email goes out through P&C, it arrives with the credibility of a local news brand readers already invited into their inbox. Here’s how to put it to work.
🎯Play 1: Choose your reach — database, segment, or market
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🎬Play 2: Target the segment that actually buys
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| Segment | Subscribers |
|---|---|
| Food | 6,008 |
| Family | 3,873 |
| Events & Entertainment | 3,048 |
| Sports | 1,881 |
| Shopping | 1,523 |
| Home & Garden | 1,065 |
| Beauty & Health | 741 |
| Business | 720 |
Seasonal options like Events and Holiday Events are also available for time-sensitive promotions.
✏Play 3: Send custom-designed creative worth opening
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📊Play 4: Read the signal and refine
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A family-owned restaurant on Coleman Boulevard wants more covers on weeknights. Instead of boosting a social post to a broad, unverified audience, they run a Segmented Email to P&C’s Food audience — 6,008 opted-in local readers who have signaled interest in dining. The custom-designed email features a Tuesday-through-Thursday prix-fixe offer and a reservation link. Because it lands in inboxes that already trust the P&C brand and chose to receive it, the open and click numbers give the restaurant a clear read on demand — and momentum for the next send.
Short answer: The Post and Courier’s email marketing lets local businesses send a custom-designed message to 145,000+ opted-in South Carolina subscribers — as a full-database send, a targeted interest segment, or a specific market.
- Total reach: 145,012 deduplicated opt-in subscribers across the SC footprint
- Charleston flagship: the O&O Sales list reaches 79,865 inboxes
- Engagement: 22.28% average open rate in April
- Full Database: your message to the entire O&O Sales list — best for broad awareness
- Segmented: target a Charleston interest audience — Food, Family, Events & Entertainment, Sports, Shopping, Home & Garden, Beauty & Health, Business
- By market: Columbia, Myrtle Beach/Georgetown, Aiken, Greenville, Summerville and more
- Creative: every send is custom-coded and professionally designed
- Current offer: BOGO half-off on the O&O Sales list — first email $1,750, second $875, or a 3-email bundle at $1,000 each ($3,000 total)
Do this next: decide whether your offer is broad, segment-specific, or market-specific, then contact the P&C Advertising team to plan the send.
- ☐ Define your goal — website traffic, foot traffic, sales, or awareness
- ☐ Decide: full database, a specific interest segment, or a specific market
- ☐ If segmenting, pick your audience from the eight interest categories
- ☐ Build one clear offer with a single, obvious call to action
- ☐ Write a benefit-first subject line and scannable body copy
- ☐ Provide brand assets so the team can build your custom creative
- ☐ Include links to both your website and your location and hours
- ☐ Schedule the send with the P&C Advertising team
- ☐ Review open and click results and plan the next send
If you want help putting this to work for your business locally, contact The Post and Courier Advertising team. They’ll help you choose the right format, pick the segment or market that fits your customer, and plan a campaign around your goals and budget.