Substack — "AI By Design"

Practitioner intelligence on AI integration. Authoritative but warm. Technically credible without being exclusionary. Dispatches from inside real AI implementation work — the decisions, the trade-offs, the results, and the values behind the build.

Status: Launch pending Publication name: AI By Design Profile name: Aureum AI / Auria URL: (to be added once live)

Editorial promise

Dispatches from inside real AI implementation work — the decisions, the trade-offs, the results, and the values behind the build.

Never hype. Always proof. Quietly confident. Honest about what works and what doesn't.

Content Architecture — Three Series

Series One — The Integration Files (Tuesday)

Flagship authority series. Long-form case notes from inside real projects.

Format: 1,000–1,800 words Structure: Problem → approach → build decisions → outcome → what we'd do differently Cadence: Weekly, every Tuesday CTA: Subtle, tied to the specific project type covered

Example titles: - How We Replaced a 3-Person Admin Function With a Single Agentic Workflow (And What Almost Broke) - The RAG Agent That Reduced a Consultancy's Research Time by 60%, And Why We Nearly Built It Wrong - Why This Premium Brand's AI Implementation Failed Twice Before We Got Involved

Series Two — The Design Brief (Friday)

Tactical intelligence. One concept, one framework, one tool — explained through the lens of intentional design rather than hype.

Format: 500–800 words Structure: One idea, clearly argued, with a specific application. Ends with one question for the reader to consider. Cadence: Weekly, every Friday Not: Tutorials. Tool roundups. Generic listicles.

Example titles: - Before You Automate Anything, Ask This One Question - The Difference Between an AI Tool and an AI System (And Why It Costs You Either Way) - What Ethical AI Actually Means When You're Running a 10-Person Business

Series Three — Aureum Notes (Daily)

Daily discovery and distribution. Published on Substack Notes, not as email sends.

Format: 3–6 sentences Structure: One observation → one implication → one honest take Cadence: 3–5 times per week Purpose: Top-of-funnel discovery. Algorithm-friendly. Surfaces Aureum to non-subscribers.

What an Aureum Note never does: listicles, hype, "5 things" framings, vague inspiration, content anyone else could have written.

Example Notes:

"Most AI implementations don't fail because of the technology. They fail because nobody mapped the actual workflow before they started building. The AI just makes the chaos faster."

"Ethical AI isn't a values statement on your website. It's the questions you ask before you write a single line of code."

"A client asked us this week whether they needed AI. Turns out they needed better processes first. We told them that. That's what integration over experimentation actually means."

The Three Pillar Posts (Week 1 — permanent)

These go live in week one and sit permanently at the top of the feed. Every new subscriber in month two or three reads these first. They do positioning work indefinitely.

Pillar One — The Manifesto

Why Most AI Projects Fail Before They Begin (And What We're Building Instead)

Aureum AI's founding statement. What's broken in the AI industry, what Aureum exists to fix, why how it's built matters as much as what it does. Introduces the women-led, intersectional, ethical angle — not as a badge but as a design philosophy with real consequences.

Pillar Two — The High-Value Guide

The Business Leader's Guide to Moving From AI Experimentation to AI Integration

Authority demonstration piece. Practical, specific, immediately useful. Covers: questions to ask before adopting any AI solution, the difference between tools and systems, what genuine integration looks like in professional services or premium brand contexts.

Pillar Three — The First Case Study

What We Built, What Broke, and What It Delivered: Our First AI By Design Project

Detailed, honest breakdown of a real project. Numbers included. Decisions explained. Mistakes acknowledged. This piece alone generates more qualified enquiries than any promotional content.

Content Pillars

Every piece sits within one of four strategic territories:

Pillar	Purpose	Tier
The AI Landscape	Market intelligence, regulatory developments (EU AI Act), insider briefings	Free
Building What Lasts	Bespoke AI architecture vs. disposable automation	Free + Paid
Conscious Implementation	Ethical frameworks, bias auditing, responsible scaling	Free + Paid
Behind the Studio	How we approach client work, strategic decisions	Paid + Founding

Tier Structure

Tier	Price	Access
Free	—	One high-value article per week. Primary discovery + trust-building mechanism.
Paid	£10–15/month or £100–150/year	Everything free + one additional premium piece per week (audio briefings, deeper frameworks, regulatory deep-dives)
Founding Members	£180–250/year	Everything + monthly behind-the-scenes (how we're building AI systems, market observations, client engagement patterns anonymised)

Monetisation rule: Don't wait for a large audience. Velocity of paid subscriptions matters more than total subscriber count for Substack's discovery algorithm.

Funnel Architecture

The newsletter is not the destination. It's the trust-building surface that routes the right people to the right offers.

Discovery (Notes, recommendations, Lighthouse audience)
    ↓
Welcome Page (reads like a landing page, not a bio)
    ↓
Welcome email sequence (segments via one qualifying question)
    ↓
Subtle CTAs in Integration Files + lead magnet + live sessions
    ↓
Aureum Diagnostic (lead magnet) → Discovery Audit → Client
    ↓
Proof loop: new case study → back to top of funnel

See Aureum Diagnostic for the lead magnet.

Welcome Email Sequence

Day	Subject	Purpose
0	Welcome	Set expectations. Ask one qualifying question: "overwhelm with where to start, or frustration with implementations that haven't delivered?" Segments replies.
2	Your best existing piece	Send Pillar Two guide with minimal preamble.
5	The honest take	Short, personal. An observation from recent work, or an industry misread.
8	The Lead Magnet	Introduce the Aureum Diagnostic. Frame as design tool, not checklist.
12	The Soft CTA	For subscribers who replied/clicked: discovery call invitation with honest capacity framing.

The 90-Day Plan

Month One — Foundation & Ignition (Days 1–30)

Goal: Establish pattern, publish 3 Pillar Posts, build back catalogue, make right first impression.

Week 1: Pillar One (Manifesto) on Tuesday. Daily Notes. Welcome Page + email sequence configured. Personal outreach to Lighthouse audience.
Week 2: Pillar Two (High-Value Guide) on Tuesday. First Design Brief on Friday. Identify 25 adjacent Substacks for engagement.
Week 3: Pillar Three (First Case Study) on Tuesday. Second Design Brief on Friday. Launch Aureum Diagnostic lead magnet. First live session if 10+ subscribers.
Week 4: First Integration File (new, not a Pillar) on Tuesday. Third Design Brief on Friday. Subscriber survey.

Target end of month one: 150–300 subscribers.

Month Two — Amplification & Cross-Pollination (Days 31–60)

Goal: Build recommendation engine, introduce partnership layer, begin converting subscribers → leads.

Week 5: Formal recommendation outreach to 5 adjacent Substacks.
Week 6: Second live session with a collaborator. Begin softly introducing paid tier concept.
Week 7: Dual-byline piece — Maria-Ines (strategy) + Gemma (technical) on one question.
Week 8: Refresh Welcome Page based on subscriber data. First cross-post swap. Repurpose strongest Integration Files for LinkedIn.

Target end of month two: 400–700 subscribers.

Month Three — Conversion Architecture & Velocity (Days 61–90)

Goal: Build conversion layer, launch paid tier, establish Aureum as go-to authority.

Week 9: Launch paid tier. Frame as community + enablement, not paywalled content. Founding subscriber pricing for first 25.
Week 10: Third live session, paid-only. Begin podcast/newsletter guest pitching.
Week 11: Transparency piece — "90 Days of AI By Design: what surprised us, what the data showed."
Week 12: GA4 review. Plan group subscription offer. Publish 90-day roundup. Pin permanent orientation post.

Target end of month three: 800–1,500 subscribers, meaningful open rates, discovery calls flowing from Diagnostic + Integration File CTAs.

Daily Growth System (30 min/day — delegable)

Activity	Time	What it does
Notes	5–10 min	Post 1–3 short notes. Pull from running quotable-lines doc.
Restacking	5–10 min	Restack aligned Substacks. Builds relationships + algorithmic signal.
Thread engagement	10 min	Browse For You, genuine comments on high-performing posts.
Chat participation	5 min	Promotional chat threads. Direct traffic.

Launch Checklist

Confirm before publishing anything:

[ ] Welcome Page written as conversion surface (not bio)
[ ] About Page optimised — positions Aureum as studio, not newsletter
[ ] Welcome email sequence configured (Days 0, 2, 5, 8, 12)
[ ] Aureum Diagnostic built and ready to deliver
[ ] Privacy notice published (PECR + UK GDPR alignment)
[ ] GA4 connected, UTM conventions documented
[ ] SPF, DKIM, DMARC authentication confirmed for sending domain
[ ] Brand Voice Guide loaded into AI content system
[ ] Cross-platform subscriber sync to email platform (Kit/ConvertKit)
[ ] Meta pixel configured (if running paid traffic)

Key Metrics

North star: Qualified conversations per week (replies, form submissions, discovery call bookings that meet minimum criteria for real leads).

Cadence	Track
Weekly	New free subscribers per post + per channel. Notes reach + subscriber contribution. Replies per send.
Monthly	Free-to-paid conversion rate. Paid net growth. 30-day retention. Post-specific conversion.

Do not optimise for open rates. Optimise for replies and bookings.

Compliance & Deliverability

Privacy notice published before launch
Marketing consent language aligned with PECR + UK GDPR — default to explicit consent
No importing contacts who haven't specifically opted into Aureum AI
Double opt-in for lead magnet subscribers
SPF, DKIM, DMARC confirmed on sending domain

Sources

sources/raw/substack-strategy.md — Full Substack strategy & 90-day growth plan
sources/raw/substack-setup-strategy.md — Launch setup & optimisation checklist

Substack — AI By Design