The Chicagoland Consumer Journey through Radio

The Chicagoland Consumer Journey through Radio

The buyer’s journey is a process that sometimes takes a while to complete going from awareness to conversion. For local radio, the buyer journey can often look different from ads targeting individuals across the nation.

Here in Chicago, local radio ads continue to help buyers make smarter buying decisions. To help understand how this works, advertisers need to tap into the psychology of a buyer’s wants and know how their journey relies on local radio ads to generate foot traffic and sales.

What is the Consumer Journey

In some cases, the buyer’s journey could take days or weeks of time and usually encompasses three key steps:

  • Awareness
  • Consideration
  • Decision

The awareness stage involves the customer realizing they have a particular problem they need to solve. Consideration involves further research to figure out what products or services will solve their problem. The decision process narrows down options until only one choice is left: you.

While this is a general outline for the buyer’s journey, a city-specific buyer’s journey adds more layers. It’s more localized and brings elements pertaining to geographic sensibilities.

To completely define this, it’s worth doing a deep-dive into how geographically-specific ads work, specifically in the context of local radio ads.

Why Local Radio Ads Are Effective

Thanks to radio ads airing in local markets, listeners are likely within a drivable (or even walkable) distance to the businesses being advertised.

Aiding this are radio influencers, a secret ingredient to radio advertising. Radio DJ’s were the original “influencers” we all see today on social media.

Local advertisers could go to a radio station and have the radio influencers promote a local business live on-air. In many cases, they’ve already helped local Chicago businesses expand their role in the community. One good example is Chicago Home and Garden Company linking up with 100.3 WSHE to improve their sales and partnerships.

Tapping into Chicagoland Consumers

How can your business create ads that tap into your desired Chicago demographic? Look at all the unique aspects of the city as a good start. Everyone who lives in Chicago knows the community spirit and what the populace typically goes for in advertising.

Sports is still huge in Chicago, including loyal, ongoing support for the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago White Sox. Also, many iconic products started in the Windy City, including Twinkies.

Some other noteworthy things:

  • Chicago is known for its rich history, including becoming an important transportation hub between the west and east coasts.
  • It’s known for its awesome architecture, with many classic buildings in the city.
  • Chicago has a beach near the city, something always worth mentioning in tourism ads.
  • The people of Chicago are known for having a unique mix of New York City attitude with Midwestern generosity.

Using these aspects to create your ads helps speak right to the heart of a typical Chicagoland consumer.

Radio Stays Relevant in What People Buy

Radio is important to a city-specific buyer’s journey. Radio advertising can drive Chicagoland consumers directly to brick-and-mortar stores at any stage of the buyer’s journey. That gives local radio ads a leg up on other traditional and digital marketing channels.

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