Reach Isn't a Relationship: What a Podcast Adds to Your Newsletter, Social, and Reports

Quick answer: Reaching an audience and building a relationship with them aren't the same thing. Newsletters, social, and reports reach people. A podcast builds familiarity: listeners pick up how the host talks and thinks, and start to feel they know the people behind the work. It works best alongside the channels an organization already runs.

Reach and relationship are different jobs

Reaching an audience and building a relationship with them aren't the same thing. Most organizations already have channels for the first: newsletters, social, and reports. Those channels tell people what's happening and what the organization has found.

A podcast is there for the second, and it works best alongside everything else you share. It doesn't replace the other channels. An episode can take up what a report found, a newsletter can point to the conversation, and a clip can carry one moment of it into social. (We've written about how one conversation feeds all of those.)

Why a podcast builds familiarity

Think about a podcast you listen to regularly. Episode after episode, you pick up the way the host talks, the questions they ask, and how they respond to guests. Eventually, you start to feel like you know them, at least to a degree.

Researchers have studied that feeling. In an online survey of 804 German podcast listeners, Daniela Schlütz and Imke Hedder asked which characteristics of a host build ties with listeners and whether those ties have persuasive effects. They found that audio media can foster "parasocial" relationships with hosts, and that those relationships can have an impact on listeners' attitudes and behaviour. The study was published in the Journal of Radio & Audio Media in 2022.

Two caveats. The survey was exploratory and looked at hosts and listeners in general, not at organizations. And "parasocial" means one-sided: the listener feels they know the host, but the host doesn't know the listener.

That second point is useful for organizations. The familiarity is already there from listening. What an organization can add is the other direction: inviting questions, answering them in later episodes, and showing listeners that someone is on the receiving end.

What changes for the organization

For organizations, that familiarity changes the relationship. Your audience knows your work and feels invested in it. They look forward to the next episode and make time to listen.

A newsletter subscriber is aware of your work. A listener who has spent several hours over several months with the people doing it is in a different position when you ask them to attend, reply, or get involved. That's the difference between reach and relationship.

What carryover looks like: Energy vs. Climate

It also carries beyond the episode. Energy vs. Climate, which we've produced for several seasons, shows what that looks like: the engagement extends into live shows, policy discussions, and the hosts' side projects. The show itself is a live, interactive webinar and podcast, and its feed regularly invites listeners to send in questions and to support the show.

We've written separately about what that show taught us about impact, including why who listens can matter more than how many. The relationship is what shows up when listeners do something other than press play.

One caution: Energy vs. Climate is host-led, so it won't map one-to-one onto every organization. A membership body or a foundation will see carryover in different places, such as event registrations, member questions, or partnership inquiries. The mechanism is the same: familiarity that leads people to show up somewhere else.

Making a podcast work alongside what you already do

• Point to it from the channels you already run. Link episodes in the newsletter, quote them in reports, and share clips on social.

• Close the loop. Invite questions and take them up in later episodes, so the one-sided relationship becomes a two-way one.

• Look for carryover, not just downloads. Watch whether listeners show up elsewhere: event attendance, replies, questions, memberships, partnerships. A download count says how many people pressed play. It doesn't say who they are or what they do next.

For a related view on why this format earns trust, see why a podcast is a high-trust vessel.

If your organization already reaches its audience and wants to build the relationship, let's talk.

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Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between reaching an audience and building a relationship with them?

Reach means people are aware of your work, through channels like newsletters, social, and reports. A relationship means they know the people behind it, feel invested in it, and take part. A podcast contributes mainly to the second.

Does a podcast replace a newsletter or social media?

No. A podcast works best alongside the channels an organization already uses. Episodes can feed the newsletter, inform reports, and supply clips for social, while the other channels send listeners to the conversation.

Why do listeners feel like they know a podcast host?

Hearing the same person talk episode after episode gives listeners a sense of how they think and respond. Researchers call this a parasocial relationship: a one-sided bond. A survey of 804 German podcast listeners by Schlütz and Hedder found that audio can foster these relationships and that they can influence listeners' attitudes and behaviour.

How do you know whether a podcast is building a relationship?

Look for carryover as well as downloads: event attendance, replies and questions from listeners, memberships, and partnership inquiries. Downloads show how many people pressed play. Carryover shows what they did next.

Does this apply to organizations, or only to individual hosts?

The research studies hosts and listeners in general. For organizations, the same mechanism applies when the people doing the work are the ones speaking, and when the organization responds to listeners. Results will differ by organization, so it helps to decide in advance where you expect carryover to appear.