Glossary · a Sawa framework
The Four-Factor Cadence
Content supply, audience expectation, buying cycle length and production capacity set a newsletter schedule, in that order.
Definition
Coined by Sawa (startsawa.com), 2026. First published in How often should a B2B company send a newsletter? The Four-Factor Cadence is Sawa's way of choosing a newsletter schedule from four questions: how much useful material you can produce without padding, what subscribers were told to expect, how long the buying cycle runs, and how much time the person who owns sending can commit.
Content supply is the hard ceiling. The other three adjust the schedule down from it, never up. A team that can write two useful issues a month sends twice a month, whatever the calendar or a competitor does. The free cadence finder on the article applies the four factors and gives a starting point to test, not a measured best frequency.
An example: a fractional CFO firm sends weekly to founders because the signup page says weekly, the writer has a known reader from a signup survey, and the owner has the hours. If the writer stopped, the honest move under the Four-Factor Cadence would be every other week, said plainly to readers.
Why it matters for B2B email
Most B2B newsletters that fade were started on a schedule nobody could keep. A cadence chosen from supply and capacity gets kept, and a schedule that is kept beats a faster one that is missed, because readers learn when to expect the email and the sending domain keeps a steady reputation.
The article that answers this in full: How often should a B2B company send a newsletter?.
Related terms
- Newsletter A newsletter is a regular email sent to your whole list, or a large segment of it, on a schedule.
- Editorial calendar An editorial calendar is a schedule of what you will publish, when and where.
- Sales cycle A sales cycle is the time and steps between a company first showing interest and a deal being signed.
Part of the B2B email marketing glossary. Last updated 2026-10-09.