Near the beginning of the year, prominent hospitality thought leaders pointed to content marketing as a major initiative hoteliers should undertake in 2015. Hotel marketers wanting to master this trend should look to digitally savvy OTA counterparts for examples, many of which have been employing content marketing effectively for years. One company in particular that hoteliers should model their programs around is Hipmunk, which has wholly adopted the marketing tool to engage its target audiences, acquire quality web traffic and keep people using its services.

Here are three ways hoteliers can adopt Hipmunk's methods and techniques to build their own strategy:

Segmented content

Hipmunk divides its blog content into five categories: "Chipchat," "Hiphacks," "Passport," "CityLove" and "Brannan Street." These categories cover, respectively, products and inside information, travel hacks, places to visit, information about specific cities, and general Hipmunk news.

The Chipchat section is a place for more abstract posts that may or may not directly tie into Hipmunk's service offerings. For example, in June Hipmunk released a post in this category titled "Why You Should Be Eating Sushi In Stripmalls." Readers of this post would probably not be inspired to book a flight through Hipmunk to eat stripmall sushi in the next state over. However, this category focuses on entertaining and slightly controversial topics that are designed to create engagement.

Topics like these, which at first glance seem banal, can elicit strong emotional responses from readers and are therefore more likely to resonate and be spread across social channels. These topics help Hipmunk create general affinity and awareness for its brand.

The Hiphacks section targets both frequent and occasional travelers. With headlines such as "Spend Less Time Standing In Line With These 4 Security Tips" and "How To Ship Your Golf Clubs Like The Pros," the section offers insights on subjects those using Hipmunk or a competitor OTA to book trips might actually research. The headlines and copy contain subtle SEO terms that help the posts show up in searches on these topics. The purpose here is that someone about to go on a golf trip—or who is interested in another one of these travel topics—might stumble upon Hipmunk through its content and be persuaded to book their trip with the site.

We also know travelers turn to the Internet for questions on not just how to travel, but what to do and where to go as well. Hipmunk's Passport category attempts to answer the second of these three questions with posts such as "The 6 Best U.S. Cities for Summer Music Lovers" and "5 Must-See American Rose Gardens." The benefit of this section is that it targets people who are in the early stages of their travel decision-making process.

Hotels with a content marketing plan can utilize this concept by creating posts that elaborate on the benefits of traveling to your destination city or cities and outlining various things to do there. If you can creatively persuade readers to travel to your city through content marketing, they will already have your hotel top-of-mind when booking their stay.

The CityLove category is exactly what it sounds like. Posts in this category target people who have already booked a trip to a particular city and are now looking for things to do in that area.

Hoteliers can easily copy this strategy; after all, who knows a city better than the people who live and work there? By placing these types of articles on your website, you can not only attract guests who have decided to plan a trip but also engage current guests residing at your hotel who may also be looking for unique things to do during their stay.

The final category is Brannan Street — a reference to Hipmunk's San Francisco office location. Like many companies, Hipmunk updates users about its products on its website, and Brannan Street is the section that contains these updates. A blog is an excellent place to do this, especially if you've already built up a dedicated readership by releasing entertaining and relevant content on a regular basis. Hotels can use their blogs to update readers on new amenities, new hires and new technologies at their locations.

Frequency

One of the keys to a successful content-marketing strategy is producing and releasing relevant content on a regular basis. In June, Hipmunk posted 70 pieces of content over 30 days, for an average of 2.3 posts a day.

Hoteliers looking to mimic Hipmunk's strategy should start by building a plan to release content on a consistent basis. While Hipmunk has the ability to publish a large amount of content, don't rush the creative process. The key is not just content, but quality content. Determine what is a practical rhythm for your hotel's communication or marketing department. Start small—you can always grow.

Releasing content on a regular basis shows your audience you are engaged and interested in providing valuable information to them — thus increasing the likelihood of attracting new guests, converting interested guests and captivating current guests. There are other reasons, as well. These include:

Google's latest algorithm favors sites with fresh content, and the more you publish, the more your site will be crawled and indexed, giving you the best chance of ranking higher in search results.

You'll increase the chance of inbound links. The more content you have on your site, the more likely other sites will mention that content and link to it.

You'll boost return traffic. If you produce a stellar piece of content, visitors who might have just visited your site once are more likely to return — just make sure you have a way to capture these visitors, such as an email newsletter sign-up or blog-subscription button.

Style and substance

A significant portion of Hipmunk's content-marketing success can also be attributed to the way it accurately caters to its audience's wants and desires. Hoteliers should pay attention to Hipmmunk's content's formatting and style, along with its substance.

According to a 2013 study, the average human's attention span is just eight seconds. Furthermore, people are increasingly accessing the Internet through mobile devices, and all this amounts to a shorter amount of time spent on-page. Anyone producing content has just seconds to capture a reader's attention — otherwise they're gone, looking for the next thing.

How does Hipmunk keep people's attention? The company's articles are typically written in what is known as "listicle" style — beefed-up lists that contain images, subheads and short paragraphs, making the articles easy to scan.

A word of caution, however: While it's true people scan content and have short attention spans, they still want to read information that is useful to them. Not only this, but Google has stated that its ranking algorithms reward quality content, which it often equates with longer content. Hipmunk produces content that is generally in the 600- to 700-word range. Hoteliers should aim for this word count, if not higher.

As content marketing grows in popularity, it's important for hoteliers to have a plan to create content that not only helps them move customers along the conversion funnel, but also supports their SEO efforts. Using Hipmunk as an example, smart hoteliers can create a scalable content plan that will put them at the forefront of the industry.

This article originally appeared in HOTELS Magazine.