MCP

Multichannel orchestration

TL;DR

  • Email is the spine of most outbound cadences: it scales, it is asynchronous, and it leaves a record. The other channels are woven around it.
  • Vendor claims of large multichannel uplifts are real-sounding and self-interested — the honest version is that adding channels adds reach, and reach is not free.
  • Sequence the channels so each one has a reason to exist at that point, rather than firing all of them at once.

The spine-and-weave model

Cadence designs in the sequencing literature share a shape: email carries the narrative from touch to touch, and calls, social messages and occasionally video appear at points where a different channel does something email cannot. The most documented high-touch example runs roughly fifteen touches over about a month across three channels, with the email thread as the continuous element [1].

The reason email takes the spine role is mechanical. It is the only channel where the recipient can see the whole prior conversation, which is what makes a follow-up feel like continuity instead of repetition — Follow-up emails.

What each channel adds

Calls compress the timeline. One conversation resolves what four emails cannot, including finding out you are wrong about fit. Their cost is time, and they do not scale past a small list.

Social messages carry identity. The recipient can see who you are before deciding, which is worth more early in a sequence than late. Volume ceilings are low and platform rules are stricter than email's, so treat them as a supplement.

Video and voice notes buy attention through effort — the recipient can tell it was made for them. Expensive per touch, so reserve them for a tier that justifies it (Segmentation and tiering).

Ads provide familiarity rather than contact, and only make sense at a segment size where the spend is meaningful.

About the uplift numbers

Multichannel vendors publish large multipliers — email plus social messaging producing roughly three times the replies of email alone is a commonly cited figure (2026) [2]. Treat these as directional at best. They are produced by the companies selling multichannel tooling, from their own customers' campaigns, with no control for the fact that teams running multichannel cadences are usually also targeting better and working smaller lists.

The mechanism is believable and the size is not established. What is safe to say: more channels reach more people, and each added channel adds cost and adds ways to annoy someone.

Sequencing rules that hold up

Give every touch a reason. A call whose purpose is "because it is day three" is a worse call than no call. The strongest cadences vary the angle per touch rather than merely the medium — Sequence architecture.

Do not stack channels on the same day. An email, a call and a social message within an hour reads as pursuit rather than persistence.

Let one channel's outcome change the others. An out-of-office should pause the calls too. A "not interested" on any channel stops all of them — Stopping rules and suppression.

Suppress everywhere at once. An opt-out delivered by email covers the human, not the inbox. Continuing on another channel is the fastest way to turn a polite exit into a complaint.

References

  1. Sam Nelson — The Agoge Sequence (framework write-up, ~2018-19)
  2. La Growth Machine — LinkedIn automated messaging (vendor data page, 2026)