How can podcasts help your brand?

Editor

Dymitr Romanowski

Published

8/18/2026

5 Min Read

About podcasts

Hi, I wanted to share a few thoughts on the value of podcasts. For years, podcasts have often been treated as an additional content format - something a brand might launch if it has a host, a studio, guests and a budget for regular production.

But podcasts give companies access to a different kind of attention than articles, newsletters or social media.

Tobin, S. J., & Guadagno, R. E. (2022). Why people listen: Motivations and outcomes of podcast listening.

↘︎ Research suggests that one of the key reasons people turn to podcasts is the desire to gain information and knowledge. That is why brands whose value is built on expertise should start thinking about podcasts in a different way.

Who can you reach with audio content?

Research by Tobin and Guadagno (2022) on the motivations and outcomes of podcast listening suggests that podcast listeners tend to have stronger informational needs. Seeking knowledge plays a particularly important role in podcast consumption - rather than podcasts serving only social or emotional needs.

That makes audio especially interesting for technology, consulting, financial and medical companies, as well as other organizations whose marketing is built around expert knowledge.

Jabbari, Y., Gottlieb, M., von Mohrenschildt, M., Lee, M., Arnold, K., Shedden, J. M., & Sherbino, J. (2025). The impact of driving versus undistracted listening on podcast knowledge acquisition and retention using a driving simulator.

Jabbari and colleagues (2025) examined how listening to an educational podcast while driving affects knowledge acquisition.

In a randomized study using a driving simulator, they found no significant differences in overall knowledge acquisition between participants listening without additional distractions and those listening while driving in urban and non-urban conditions.It points to a simple insight: knowledge can still be consumed in situations where giving a screen your full visual attention is impossible.

↘︎ An article needs a screen. A podcast can follow your audience into the car, onto a train, on a walk or during a workout.

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How can podcasts support SEO?

Podcast distribution gives you more than another channel for reaching your audience. Publishing on platforms such as Apple Podcasts can also create a backlink to your website from a domain with a very strong link profile.

In traditional link building, acquiring valuable links from large, trusted domains such as Apple.com or Amazon.com can require time, budget and dedicated outreach. With podcast distribution, that backlink can emerge naturally as a result of publishing valuable content.

We tested this ourselves by publishing The Story content on Apple Podcasts. We gained not only another touchpoint with our audience, but also a link from Apple’s platform directly to our website.

See how it works

How should you think strategically about audio content?

If a company invests in research, expert knowledge, analysis and editorial work, it should think about the resulting material not as a single article, but as an intellectual asset that can work across multiple formats and channels.

A report, analysis, case study or expert article can become the starting point for multiple forms of interaction with the audience. This is not simply about “recycling content”, but about adapting the same knowledge to different ways of consuming information — and, in turn, creating more opportunities for people to engage with the brand.

From a content strategy perspective, this requires a different way of thinking: when developing knowledge, we should already consider how it can be distributed across different formats.

↘︎ One well-developed piece of content can work many times over: building search visibility, delivering knowledge on your website, reaching audiences through audio and creating additional brand touchpoints.

How does audio drive engagement?

Podcasts can create a sense of closeness between the host and the listener, which over time may develop into a parasocial relationship (Berry, 2016; Moe, 2023).

Closeness → trust → greater engagement → stronger impact for the brand

Milovan, A.-M., Dobre, C., & Moisescu, O.-I. (2025). Boosting brand behavioral intentions via integrated explicit product placements in podcasts.

Research by Milovan, Dobre and Moisescu (2025) found that listeners’ relationship with the host and their perception of branded content were associated with brand recall, attitudes toward the brand and behavioral intentions.

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Podcasts can also improve accessibility

Introducing audio versions of articles or product descriptions makes content available in more formats and gives users greater freedom in how they consume it.

Instead of only reading the material, users can also listen to it — for example while driving, walking or carrying out everyday activities.

Audio can therefore become part of a broader accessibility strategy and complement other solutions supporting WCAG compliance.

How do you get started?

If you want to bring your brand to podcast platforms quickly and efficiently, or are considering how audio could support product presentations, expert articles or your blog, let’s talk about how to incorporate audio into your content and SEO strategy.

Valuable backlinks from platforms such as Apple Podcasts and additional points of visibility for your brand - come as a bonus. :)