The weekly Growth Memo reaches more than 29,000 founders, in-house leads and marketing leaders. But Kevin Indig’s system doesn’t end with the send. He runs the newsletter like a content engine, and the distribution plan starts before the issue is finished.
Indig spent 10 years as an operator and leader at Shopify, G2 and Atlassian, and now advises Meta, Airbnb and Reddit on growth. His research focuses on how search and AI are changing. The operational lesson for marketers is simpler: a strong piece should feed multiple channels for days, not disappear after one launch.
“Publishing is only half the job — you also need a repeatable way to distribute your work.”
Indig said that to Buffer in a case study about his workflow. It is the core of why he treats a single Growth Memo as a week of posts.
One memo, multiple content assets
Each issue can produce several shareable pieces. Indig and his team may pull a chart, a finding or a discussion question rather than simply linking the newsletter. That makes the same research work harder across channels.
Substack Notes is the cheap testing ground
Indig uses Substack Notes for short takes, charts, videos and teasers before a full memo is ready. A Note takes only minutes, while a fully researched memo can take an entire week. When a Note performs well, it often becomes a full newsletter.
For creators, this is validation before investment: put a small version of the idea in front of readers, then commit bigger resources to the winners.
Batch, schedule and review
Buffer handles distribution. Indig’s team preps the posts around each newsletter and schedules them in advance, which keeps the queue moving when he is traveling or booked with clients. He estimates that saves him 2 to 3 hours a week.
The feature he calls out is the Model Context Protocol, or MCP, integration. It lets AI tools connect directly to a Buffer account. Indig points Codex, OpenAI’s coding assistant, at his post history to see what landed and to source ideas for the next post.
“I love the MCP. Being able to connect Codex to Buffer, understand which posts perform well, and get inspiration for what to post next is unbeatable.”
The repeatable loop
- Mine the memo: extract charts, findings and discussion prompts.
- Test on Notes: publish low-lift ideas and observe the response.
- Schedule the week: batch the winning pieces in Buffer.
- Review and repeat: use past performance to guide next issues.
What to steal for your own content engine
His advice works whether you are new to Substack or have 30,000 subscribers: show up where readers already spend time, build a cadence you can actually sustain, and check the data so you can repeat what lands or move on. His version runs on a scheduling queue and a coding assistant, but the routine does the work.
Source: Buffer
