“Newsjacking” & other terms marketers need to know

Glad to be with you this morning with a 70-degree afternoon forecasted for my little town 🙏. Hope you catch some good weather too. Today’s Feature Story lays out a bunch of marketing terms you may be only vaguely aware of but would be wise to know more about. Things are changing fast, so it’s easy to miss the latest marketing terms and definitions of 2025. 

After that story, you can feast your eyes on the following sections: 

• The Knowledge Base  

• Self Help (3 advice-giver tips)

• Facts & Stats (Facebook Ads)

• Get Hacking (smart way to raise your prices) 

Now, let’s get into today’s Feature Story…

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Marketing Definitions

Judging by the nearly 10,000 monthly Google searches for “marketing definitions,” a lot of people doing marketing probably shouldn’t be😁. Could be lots of rookies too. No shame either way because…

Marketing isn’t exactly a paint-by-numbers profession. AI-bros and Analytics-gals will tell you otherwise, though.  

They’re wrong. Marketing is half science, half art, half B.S., which adds up to more than 100%, which makes total sense in the marketing world, right? 

You don’t have to know all the freshest marketing terms and their definitions to be a good marketer. Still, it doesn’t hurt to keep up-to-date because every little advantage can take you from good to great.

New Phrases Lead to New Marketing Strategies

The first time I heard the phrase “build in public,” was in Dru Riley’s Trends.vc newsletter. I may’ve heard it mentioned before that but didn’t pay it any attention. Dru mentions it often and he’s a big fan of the strategy, which is a business-building and marketing strategy, IMO. 

Build in Public: When companies deliberately choose to share the entire process of product or company creation with the public.

This strategy can create buzz, if done right and Lady Luck’s on your side. It’s also a way to generate helpful feedback from your target market. Plus, building in public automatically generates tons of content as you document the creation of your new company or new product. 

And documenting the process is something any business owner should do anyway, even solo operators building a super-simple business. 

Ok, hopefully you can see how a fresh marketing phrase can spark new ways to grow and promote your brand. So, let’s look at more marketing definitions that may’ve slipped under your radar. I purposely limited the number of AI-related terms since you’re likely sick of seeing AI-anything due to too much AI hype.

Lesser-Known Marketing Definitions  

Newsjacking

The practice of leveraging breaking news for brand visibility. Had an example in Monday’s edition of Inbox Hacking. I highlighted Moosehead Breweries offering a sale on a year’s worth of their Canadian beer. This was newsjacking the endless news about Trump’s tariffs. No one's gonna buy a pallet of beer! But all the major news outlets and countless smaller outlets mentioned it. Free press coverage for Moosehead.

Growth Marketing

Not growth hacking. Growth marketing emphasizes sustainable scaling through continuous experimentation across customer lifecycles. It employs frameworks like the HEART model (Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success) to optimize long-term value. For example, a meal delivery service might test 12 variants of its loyalty program to refine retention tactics.

Hyperlocal Marketing

Combines geofencing technology with community sentiment analysis to target audiences within a 500-meter radius. Example: A hardware store might increase sales by using Bluetooth beacons to promote snow shovels during real-time weather alerts.

Advertainment

Combo of advertising and entertainment, used to promote a brand or product. Super Bowl Ads are a prime example. But interactive ads like this serve the same purpose, maybe even better. 

Convergence Media

Aligns paid, owned, and earned media into cohesive narratives. A dance school could connect TikTok challenges with podcast sponsorships and in-store QR code campaigns, for example.

Prosumer Ecosystems

UGC (user-generated content) model that provides customers with brand-approved tools to create professional-grade marketing assets.  

Sovereign Content Systems

Self-updating knowledge bases that automatically adapt to trending queries and algorithm changes. An accounting firm’s AI-driven tax law resource could rake in more organic traffic while powering its chatbot support by leveraging automations that update its web pages and PDF files.

Incentivized Co-Creation

Programs rewarding users for strategic contributions to product development. Heard something like this in a podcast recently (can’t recall which one) where the host mentioned crowdsourcing film production. Like Shark Tank for screenplay ideas, where writers pitch ideas and get paid for ones that go into production. 

Addressable TV

Targeted advertising format delivering household-specific commercials via streaming platforms. Example: A supplement company could reduce wasted ad spend by using viewership data to show allergy relief product ads only to homes with pollen alerts.

Retargeting 2.0 

Uses new techniques to lure shoppers back to finish the purchase after they abandon their cart. An example could be using AI-image generators to create dynamic 3D product visualizations to entice these shoppers to finish the checkout (similar to how Netflix changes movie covers to find a more appealing graphic for individual viewers). 

AI Share of Voice (AI SOV)

Newer metric for measuring how frequently brands appear in AI-curated responses relative to competitors. 

Reverse Marketing

Reverse psychology works in the right situations. So reverse marketing presents products in a negative light or downplays their importance to fire up consumer curiosity. This strategy can make people more interested in learning about a product. Worth testing simply due to the opportunity to stand out in a crowd of products that scream “I’m the best, I’ll save you time and money, maybe your life!”

I threw together 11 more marketing phrases and definitions specific to non-profits here. Now, let’s keep it moving…

Self-Help

Three tips for giving advice.

#1 “When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.” ~Philosopher Baltasar Gracián (via Brain Food blog)

#2 “People will not care what you have to say to help them until they know you really care about them.” ~Dr. Venus Nicolino

#3 “The advice you give usually won’t affect your life. But could greatly affect the other person’s life. That’s good to know, because sometimes it’s wise to remain silent.” ~me

Facts & Stats

Bonus: What percentage of Americans think it’s acceptable to ban kids under 6 from movie theaters (even kid films)? Answer at end of email.

Get Hacking

A specific strategy to implement today

When comparing products, people are willing to pay up to 13.7% more for a product that looked more complex because it looked more expensive to produce (*not more complex to use).

So, it might not take much to make your product or service look like it took complicated steps to create it. 

Get hacking with simple artwork changes. Upgrade packaging. Or improve the words that describe your product (often suggested by StoryBrand’s Donald Miller for increasing the perceived value of your offers).

Alt Hack: Focus is precious. Protect yours by making a simple sign for the back of your chair: “Please do not disturb, unless it’s a 911.” Further boost odds of avoiding disturbances by dropping constant reminders that you’re terrible under pressure and usually panic during emergencies😉.

Thanks for reading Inbox Hacking. Please share it with your peeps - it’s sugar-free but stings a bit.

Shane McLendon - Copy Kingpin

Bonus answer from Facts & Stats section: 39% of Americans think it’s acceptable to ban kids under 6 from movie theaters (YouGov).

“Time spent in nature is the most cost-effective and powerful way to counteract the burnout and sort of depression we feel when we sit in front of a computer all day.” ~Richard Louv