SMS has long remained one of the most preferred forms of business communication across the globe. To keep it relevant and effective, businesses must adopt the right practices and strategies.
To gain insights into how organizations today can make the most of SMS, we spoke to Dhanush Raju, Lead Partner Alliance at OneXtel, who shared his thoughts and expertise on the topic.
1. What are the most important elements of crafting clear, concise, and engaging business messages that drive action?
SMS remains one of the most powerful business communication tools today, offering high open rates and near-instant reach. At the same time, customers are flooded with messages across channels. To truly stand out and drive action, your SMS messages need to be crafted with precision.
Keep messages short and simple while staying within character limits, and make sure every word adds clear value. Whether it’s an alert, an update, or an offer, the message must clearly communicate the benefit to prompt immediate action.
2. How can businesses best leverage personalization and smart timing to ensure messages truly resonate with their audience and avoid becoming intrusive?
While the key to enhanced communication lies in personalization and smart timing, it's equally important to maintain authenticity and establish a streamlined communication strategy. Here’s how businesses can achieve it:
Use customer data wisely: Go beyond simply inserting a name. Tailor messages based on purchase history, preferences, or engagement patterns.
Relevancy matters: A product restock alert or a tailored offer adds value, while a generic promotional blast feels like spam.
Behavior-driven triggers: Send messages when customers are taking action, such as cart abandonment, signups, or service inquiries.
Time-of-day sensitivity: Avoid sending messages at odd hours. Align with local business hours or moments when customers are most active.
Frequency balance: Space out messages to ensure they remain helpful and not overwhelming.
3. With increasing privacy regulations and consumer awareness, what best practices do you recommend to ensure messaging remains compliant while building trust with customers?
Privacy regulations are evolving by the day, and compliance is no longer just a legal requirement—it’s a trust-building strategy. Customers want to know that their data is safe, their preferences matter, and that every message they receive provides genuine value.
The key lies in transparency and respect. By securing consent, being clear about intent, and delivering relevant communication at the right time, brands can maintain customer privacy, stay compliant, and strengthen relationships. After all, trust is the foundation of loyalty, and today, compliance is how you earn it.
4. Which emerging technologies or trends do you believe will shape the future of business messaging, and how should brands prepare?
The future of business messaging is being reshaped by AI-driven personalization, multilingual capabilities, and sentiment-aware communication. Customers no longer expect just fast responses—they want meaningful, context-aware interactions in the language and tone that feel natural to them.
Multilingual AI ensures inclusivity, allowing brands to connect with diverse audiences across regions without friction. Sentiment-aware messaging takes it a step further, detecting customer mood and tailoring responses to match—whether it’s resolving frustration with empathy or amplifying delight with gratitude.
Brands can prepare by building a flexible communication stack that integrates with CRM and martech tools while remaining open to rapid innovation. Businesses that leverage automation, personalization, and smart workflows will be future-ready for the next wave of messaging intelligence.
The future belongs to brands that don’t just send messages but listen, understand, and respond with relevance.
5. What is your top recommendation for organizations looking to put these strategies into practice and implement business messaging the right way?
Organizations looking to get business messaging right need a structured approach, which can be briefly summarized as:
Start with strategy, not just channels.
Keep customer needs at the core.
Personalize and time messages intelligently.
Build trust through compliance.
Users of Zoho CRM can achieve all this with our SMS platform, OneXtel. By combining OneXtel’s multichannel communication stack with Zoho CRM, businesses can transform messaging from a one-way push into a trusted engagement engine.
With OneXtel’s integration for Zoho CRM, businesses can manage consent seamlessly, automate preference handling, and ensure every SMS is delivered within regulatory frameworks. More importantly, they can do all this while maintaining the personalization and timeliness customers expect.
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