Omnichannel vs. Multichannel

• Being in all channels is incredibly important due to the diversity of the marketplace — but just being in a channel is not a successful strategy.
• Ensuring your message is consistent across your channels so your constituents learn and become aware of you in multiple places is very important, but putting the same stuff up in all the channels is not the right way to do it. You need to understand the differences between the consumer groups that have prioritized specific channels, and aim your messaging, tone and information toward them. Just as it never works to take a successful direct-mail piece and make it an email, we have to respect the unspoken rules of each channel and how people want to engage within those channels and understand who the audience is and its uniqueness.
• Experience marketing is something that I believe is a success factor for the future. So, the concept of omnichannel is one that I would prioritize. The question is about timing. Shouldn't we really focus on multichannel first and making that as successful as possible? We, as an industry, are getting better and better at being in multiple channels and leveraging those channels to help us raise money, raise awareness and bring more people to the table for support. But we can improve.

My main point is that I'd rather see us exhaust all the possibilities and opportunities that are still out there across all of our channels — especially social-media channels — before we take on omnichannel. If, as an industry, we had common metrics that we all felt comfortable with measuring the effectiveness of each of the channels available to us, perhaps I would feel better. But in some instances we are not even all in agreement about the primary goals for certain channels. I can go from one meeting where it is believed Facebook is a direct fundraising tool to another meeting where it is adamantly believed that Facebook is not a fundraising tool and should not be measured that way.