The Discerning Man: men’s lifestyle and working with brands

The Discerning Man is the men’s lifestyle blog written by Ed Lemont. Ed has huge experience of working with brands and PRs and recently spoke to us about best practice and how to get the most from collaborations. Ed also gave advice for new bloggers and revealed the secrets to his success.

You refer to The Discerning Man as both a lifestyle blog and online magazine – how do you see the split between the two or are they one and the same?
I initially created The Discerning Man anonymously because I always knew I wanted to create a collaborative platform. My plan, both then and now, is to work with other amazing food, fitness and travel bloggers to contribute and guest post in the niches they are passionate about and educated in. I was thinking in five or 10 years, if blogs ever crossed over to online magazines, then The Discerning Man would already be an established and recognised title to adapt to such a shift.

In terms of it being a blog, that’s where you get the ‘Ed Lemont’ part coming in and the crossover with Instagram, where I’m speaking directly with my audience. Essentially, I am The Discerning Man but I feel the whole blogging industry is about collaboration and I wanted to celebrate that, which is why it took a long time for me to put my name to the blog.

How has the blog changed from when you first started to today?
Initially, it was very much product-led and I started as a grooming blogger. But the blog wasn’t with my face or under my name, it was anonymous. Gradually I realised, after attending events, that as much as it’s your content people are interested in – it’s you too, which was kind of nice in a way. I did my first big feature back in 2016 where I underwent a hair transplant and was even commissioned by GQ to write this up for their grooming section. That’s when I really started to get to know my audience and the kind of guys following and interacting with me.

So now the blog has changed because it’s a little less product-based and a little more me.

Has this changed the way you work with brands and PRs?
Yes. What I like about the brands I collaborate with is they understand me and The Discerning Man and its audience. So, they know my audience is more aligned with my age, as it’s mainly built up from 25-40-year olds.

One of my clients is Just For Men, who do hair dye that covers greys. I love that because leading on from my hair transplant, anything to do with hair and hair insecurity continues that journey, so I can share my experience and educate people along the way. Even though I wrote my hair transplant posts and feature over two years ago, I still get emails and DMs daily as it’s the most searched-for hair transplant article ever!

What’s a typical collaboration?
I’m at the stage where I’m one of those blogs that has management, so everything goes through them and they run it past me. I went through a phase early on of working with brands because the work was there. Recently I’ve taken it back to what The Discerning Man was originally about – ‘to have good taste’.

I never want to work with brands that I feel don’t represent The Discerning Man and that audience. I have a filter now: is this right for my audience, am I going to be passionate about it and will I enjoy my time creating content for them? Anything to do with fee is the last consideration because I’m so keen on getting the right brand first.

As with your work with Just For Men, do you see a trend towards multi-content, long term collaborations, rather than one-offs?
Yes – I think the ambassador thing is really taking off. The Just For Men collaboration began at the start of the year, with a few projects taking place throughout 2018: we collaborated a few months ago on their moustache colouring launch; I created content with research about which area of the UK is the most well-groomed; I’ve just collaborated about their NFL sponsorship; and we’ll do the Gentleman’s Grooming Show in November.

The ambassador thing is working well – I’ve also been an ambassador for Primark in the past and have a long running relationship with ASOS.

And initial contact goes through your management?
It does. I’m with The Blogger Programme and they manage a bespoke email address that’s linked from my Instagram. Obviously because I’m listed in Vuelio – which is great – I also get some emails directly from PRs, which gives me a foot in the door and keeps those relationships going.

What advice would you give someone that wants to work with you?
I think just having all of the information up front: what they want me to do for them, the type of content they want me to produce and if there’s an option for me to pitch some ideas for their campaign.

Travel is an area I would love to grow but you have to self-fund that or be lucky enough to be invited on press trips. I love any events-based opportunities because it gives me an opportunity to create content, probably more than if it’s a product-based campaign. For example, I’m going to the Seychelles with Hilton and I’m really excited because I get to produce a wide range of content when I’m there.

What advice would you give bloggers who have just started?
Try to attend as many events as possible but don’t bring a friend or another blogger because going alone makes you talk to people and brands. When I first started blogging, I didn’t get invited to any events so I went on Eventbrite found panel discussions with bloggers and chatted to them afterwards to get a few tips.

Create content for brands you’re interested in. If you’re passionate about a product you’ve bought, write a post about it, post it on Instagram and send the content to them. I’ve done this before – I included ASOS in a blog post about what to wear for Valentine’s day; I sent it to them just to let them know, and now I work with ASOS.

The Primark ambassador role happened because they invited me to a dinner launching the Harris Tweed range. It was such a beautiful dinner that I took photos on the night, wrote a blog post and I sent it to them. I created the blog post for free as a bit of a thank you, which clearly went a long way!

How do you use different social platforms and how do they work with your blog?
Obviously, Instagram is nearly everyone’s main platform. On Instagram I post a lot of outfit shots, which work well for me and get good engagement based on the community I’ve built up over the last couple of years. I use stories as a diary to tell the story of an event where I’ve taken pictures throughout. I also use the swipe-up link on my stories, so I’ll promote blog posts through that and any kind of links to demo the products.

Twitter is a sharing platform for me, so I share my blog posts and retweet any brands I’m working with. I’ve got a YouTube channel too but it’s mainly to host my branded video content and so I can also offer YouTube to brands as an added extra if we’ve collaborated on video content.

Do brands ask for just Instagram collaborations?
Yes – a lot of start-up or fashion brands see the value in the ‘click and shop’ Instagram element and some collaborations will ask for one Instagram post and one or two Stories. When I’m creating content on my blog, it’s very much about giving advice, which may not work as well on Instagram. When I go to the Seychelles, Hilton want a blog post about the hotels I’m staying in as opposed to just an Instagram post. The blog is the right place for anything to do with travel or advice and allows you to elaborate on your experiences without being restricted by a caption.

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Ed Lemont and The Discerning Gent is listed in the Vuelio Influencer Database along with thousands of other blogs, vlogs, outlets and opportunities.