Ever wonder why Amazon would own and produce a series like Jack Ryan? I mean, that show costs $60 million to make for one season alone—the company isn’t going to invest that much unless its leadership is very sure the show will earn a lot of money in return. So how does the process work? Why is Amazon so sure content is such a good investment?
Amazon gives its content to its Amazon Prime customers, along with free shipping, easy returns, and overall better service. It’s a gift given with two very important people in mind: the subscriber and the non-subscriber.
The subscriber might be a loyal (even raving!) fan, or might be lukewarm about the service, maybe even considering dumping the service. And then Jack Ryan comes out, and suddenly the loyal fan is even more loyal, telling all their friends “you have to get Prime because Jack Ryan is on it!” Meanwhile, the lukewarm fan is thinking “I can’t cancel right now, I need my Jack Ryan fix!” And so Amazon has more time in which to win the customer over to the rest of the service.
The other person is the non-subscriber, the prospect. They have friends telling them that Prime is the best, how could anyone live without it, but they also have friends who say it’s not worth it. They’ll make up their minds in their own time, for their own reasons. But with John Krasinski playing the lead role in a hit series, Prime gets a lot more appealing. Once the person signs up, they start to wonder what other shows exist, what music is there, what products are available, oh this free shipping and return thing is cool, oh there’s Audible, and on and on.
All of this to say, Amazon creates content to sell Amazon Prime subscriptions—and it works.
Now, maybe $60 million seems a little steep to you. Maybe $30,000 is too much. But you don’t have to have Amazon’s resources in order to make content work for you—the strategy scales down quite well. You can invest what you are comfortable with. Yes, it costs time, energy, and money, but if you want to grow your business, I’d say that investing in content is time, energy, and money well spent.
We do it for our own business. You’re reading our content right now.
Are you ready to learn from Amazon Prime and get started on your content creation journey?
Amazon Prime logo via public domain, via Wikimedia Commons