Abstract
Introduction: Contemporary content marketing increasingly relies on identifying users’ informational needs and creating content that responds to questions arising at different stages of the decision-making process. One approach reflecting this perspective is the They Ask, You Answer (TAYA) concept, which emphasizes educational content addressing users’ actual questions and concerns. However, little is known about how individuals learning copywriting understand and operationalize TAYA categories when formulating blog article topics. Research Aim: The study aimed to examine how postgraduate
copywriting students understand and apply the TAYA framework. Method: The exploratory case study examined an instructional exercise involving 18 postgraduate copywriting students. The exercise was embedded in a process-genre approach and focused on the pre-writing stage. Participants worked with a fictional language school brief, analyzed user queries generated using SEO tools, and created topic proposals corresponding to three TAYA categories: prices and costs, user problems, and comparisons. Results: In total, participants generated 75 topic proposals. Alignment with TAYA assumptions was highest in the comparisons category (59%) and lower in user problems (43%) and prices and costs (35%). Participants frequently transformed user concerns into instructional content or replaced cost-related questions with promotional messages. A tendency toward overly broad or slogan-like topic formulation was also observed. Conclusion: The findings suggest that familiarity with audience needs does not automatically translate into the ability to formulate TAYA-consistent topics. The findings indicate that copywriting education should address the difficulties involved in translating user questions and concerns into precise topic formulations.