If you’ve ever run an online campaign and felt like you were talking to a wall, you’re not alone. You post, you pray, you boost, and then nothing but crickets 🦗. The truth is, your creative and messaging are the life force of your marketing, they determine whether your audience scrolls past your ad, or stops mid-scroll to say, “Wait, what’s this?”

I’ve always believed that great marketing doesn’t just sell, it connects. And in this tough economy, where every rand must stretch, the right creative and message can be the difference between burning budget and breaking records.

1. Be Different or Be Forgotten

If your ad sounds like your competitor’s, then congratulations, you’ve just given them free marketing. 😅
To win, you have to stand out. Your message should scream (in a polite marketing way): “We’re not like the others”. Whether it’s your tone, visuals, or offer, being different grabs attention.

When I worked on Assupol’s campaigns, we had competitors saying the same things: “We’re affordable,” “We’re reliable,” “We care.” The magic happened when we flipped the message to focus on what customers actually cared about: trust, speed, and value.

2. Add Emotion: People Buy Feelings, Not Features

Humans are emotional beings. We buy because something makes us feel safe, smart, happy, or even nostalgic.
I’ve found that weaving emotion into your messaging makes your brand memorable. Don’t just say what you do, say why it matters. If your ad can make someone nod, smile, or tear up (just a little), you’ve won half the battle.

3. Build Trust Like It’s a Long-Term Relationship

You can’t just whisper sweet nothings to customers and expect loyalty. Trust comes from consistency, transparency, and delivering on your promises. When people trust your brand, they click faster, convert easier, and stay longer.

At Assupol, emphasizing trust was a game changer, people need to know that when life hits hard, their insurer won’t ghost them. Once that trust was clear in the messaging, conversions skyrocketed.

4. Be Cost-Effective, Not Cheap

Here’s the part where many marketers mess up, chasing volume without value. You don’t always need a bigger budget to see bigger results. Sometimes, you just need smarter creative and sharper messaging.

When I started with Assupol, we were generating around 70,000 leads a month. After refining our creatives and tweaking our messaging, without increasing the budget, that number jumped to 95,000 leads a month. 🚀

How? By communicating value more strategically.
For example, if a product cost R100, but had an entry point of R49, I led with the R49 in the ad. That single shift made people feel, “Okay, I can afford this.” The result? My Cost Per Lead dropped from R120 to R50 on Meta, and from R250 to R130 on Google PPC.

5. Keep Testing: Because Audiences Change Like the Weather

The right creative and message today might flop tomorrow. Test your copy, try new visuals, tweak your CTAs, and don’t fall in love with your first idea.

At the end of the day, the right creative and message aren’t just about selling, they’re about connecting, standing out, and doing more with less. In marketing, you don’t need to shout louder than everyone else, you just need to say something worth listening to. 🎯