Turning Podcasts into Pipeline: What Smart Brands Do Differently

BrandStorytelling x Jar Podcast Solutions

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Marketers are under more pressure than ever to prove ROI. Branded podcasts used to be a “nice to have,” focused on top-of-funnel awareness. Now they’re being asked to deliver across the entire customer journey, from first touch to consideration, nurture, and conversion.

We sat down with Co-founders Roger Nairn (CEO) and Jen Moss (Chief Creative Officer) from JAR Podcast Solutions - a team that’s worked with global brands to build podcasts that deliver real business results - to talk about how smart brands are evolving their podcast strategies into full-funnel marketing engines that perform.

Your company’s name recently evolved to JAR Podcast Solutions. What does that change reflect?

Roger Nairn: It reflects how podcasting itself has evolved. When we started, “podcast” meant audio. Now it can mean audio, video, short-form social clips, even live events. We changed our name to JAR Podcast Solutions because our work spans all those channels.

Podcasting isn’t just an audio format anymore. It’s become a cross-channel strategy that supports every stage of the funnel. We wanted our name to reflect that shift.

What’s changing about how brands use podcasts in their marketing mix?

Roger Nairn: For a long time, podcasts were mainly seen as awareness tools. They’re still great for building trust at the top of the funnel. But marketers today have tighter budgets and tougher questions. They want to know how to get more out of the content they’re creating.

Brands are treating podcasts as integrated pillar assets that support the whole funnel. One episode can fuel email campaigns, social clips, blog posts, and even give sales teams stronger talking points.

Here are a few of the common “jobs” a podcast can do for a brand: 

Jen Moss: And the medium itself has grown up. A few years ago, brands were asking, “What is a podcast?” Now it’s, “What job should this podcast do for us?”

The answer depends on your goals and how well you tailor your content to your audience. That means making deliberate choices about format and distribution.

So you’re making a podcast—great. But is it interview-driven? Narrative? Co-hosted? It could even be scripted fiction. It might be audio, video, or both. And it often needs to work alongside your LinkedIn strategy, TikTok presence, or YouTube Shorts. You have to think about where your audience spends time and meet them there.

Roger Nairn: A good example is our work with Amazon on This Is Small Business.

The podcast is the foundation, but it extends well beyond the episodes. Andrea Marquez, the host, gathers interviews live at business accelerator events, writes supporting blog and LinkedIn content, and has served as a judge at Rice University’s business competition to connect with the next generation of entrepreneurs. She’s also collaborated with Amazon Prime’s business show Buy It Now to dig deeper into the winners’ stories on her podcast. It’s all about using the podcast to build connection and trust.

All of this reinforces the idea that Amazon is a place where small businesses can grow, with real tools to help them succeed. It also raises indirect awareness of the products sold on the platform, but it happens naturally through genuine storytelling.

This season, they’re focused on helping entrepreneurs make the most of Amazon’s tools. To avoid feeling like a hard sell, they start by earning trust with emotionally compelling stories—real entrepreneurs talking about the risks they take and the challenges they face.

Beyond all that trust-building, they’ve seen measurable results. Amazon ran a brand lift study showing that listeners felt considerably warmer toward the brand after engaging with the podcast. It’s a clear sign this approach doesn’t just create awareness—it improves perception and moves people further down the funnel.

Jen Moss: That’s the key. It’s about meeting people where they are—online and in real life—and offering them stories that actually matter, and that might encourage them to take action, dive deeper, and get even closer to the brand. 

For example, Gen Z uses TikTok to discover new ideas, but they turn to long-form podcasts when they want to learn more about something. Brands need to make it easy for people to move between those channels seamlessly and keep exploring.

Why is podcast content so well-suited to that kind of strategy?

Jen Moss: A podcast is incredibly versatile. When you do it right, you’re not just creating an audio or video file. You’re capturing in-depth conversations and uncovering ideas that can travel, and multiply impact across formats.

Roger Nairn: We always encourage clients to turn episodes into blog posts to boost SEO, publish transcripts to improve search visibility, and pull quotes for social content. Segments can be edited into short LinkedIn or TikTok videos. Even summaries at the end of transcripts make the content easier to find and use. We’re now optimizing our shows for Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), so the AI LLMs can discover our clients’ podcasts more easily. 

Further down the funnel, brands can offer gated premium episodes, bonus interviews, or even discount codes to gather email signups and nurture leads with richer content.

That’s why a podcast is such a smart investment; it’s content you can keep using in meaningful ways.

How do brands keep that repurposing from feeling inauthentic or salesy?

Jen Moss: This part is critical. Repurposing only works if you stay true to what the audience needs and respect the platform you’re posting on.

Chopping up an episode to make a lazy ad is the fastest way to lose trust. Audiences see right through that.

Repurposing isn’t about cutting clips for the sake of it. It’s about creating content that respects the listener’s curiosity and vibe.

Your supplementary content should help people keep learning, reflecting, or applying what they heard. That means choosing the right moments to highlight—a guest’s best insight, a funny bit, a surprising takeaway, or a story that resonates.

This is exactly where you need a human touch. AI can slice and dice audio, but it can’t decide what really matters to your audience. People can tell the difference between something thoughtfully curated for them and something churned out automatically. When you do it well, it feels like an invitation to go deeper—not a generic sales pitch.

Roger Nairn: Exactly. We always tell clients: a podcast is a communication platform, not a sales pitch.

If you build trust at the top of the funnel and keep that spirit intact, you can invite your audience to take the next step without breaking that trust.

That could mean a follow-up interview that’s gated, a more niche podcast series, a white paper that expands on a theme, or even a webinar with your guest that opens the door to sales. These moves work because they deliver something genuinely useful at every stage.

What do you say to marketers whose budgets are under pressure?

Roger Nairn: That’s honestly one of the strongest arguments for thinking full-funnel. You’re already investing in the podcast—so make sure it delivers more. Be strategic about it. 

It’s about doing more with less. Instead of separate campaigns for awareness, consideration, and conversion, you can design one unified strategy that does it all.

It’s more efficient, and it also feels more coherent to the audience. Same voice. Same values. Same brand story. Just delivered in the right way for each stage.

And with better analytics, you can see how someone moves from discovering your podcast to visiting your site, signing up, or converting later on.

Channels like email or even text communities also let you share new episodes directly with people who actually want them. That kind of integrated approach helps prove the value of the investment.

What trends should brands be watching as they plan their podcast strategy?

Jen Moss: Video podcasting is huge. So are short-form clips that drive discovery.

And of course, there’s AI making production faster. That’s good in some ways, but it also means there’s more noise than ever. Brands need to tell real human stories with authentic voices to stand out. The bar for trust-building content is higher than ever.

Roger Nairn: We’re also definitely seeing more brands experiment successfully with gated bonus content as part of lead/nurture strategies. Imagine, say,  a B2B podcast on scaling startups. At the end of one episode, listeners hear: “Want the bonus segment with our guest’s exact playbook? Drop your email at XYZ.com/playbook and we’ll send it over.” That bonus triggers a short nurture flow: Bonus content, a follow-up case study, maybe an invite to a private Q&A. That’s gated content done right.

Being intentional with how you guide listeners through the funnel is important. It’s truly not just about tracking downloads anymore, but understanding real engagement and what resonates.

At the end of the day, the best podcast strategies meet the target audience’s needs at every stage—top, middle, and bottom of the funnel.

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About Roger Nairn

Roger transitioned from a career in advertising account management to co-founding JAR, a podcast agency that uses storytelling to captivate brand audiences. As CEO, he propels JAR’s growth by prioritizing audience engagement and marketing impact. Under his leadership, JAR has built a global client base that uses immersive storytelling to deepen customer connections.

About Jen Moss

As Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, Jen Moss brings stories to life. With a background in theatre, arts journalism, and documentary storytelling for CBC Radio and the National Film Board of Canada, she treats stories as living, breathing things with real impact. She also lectures on podcasting and New Media at the University of British Columbia.