When we talk about Belgium outside the country, most people think chocolate, waffles, fries or beer. We certainly have all that but what about our digital marketing? As an international marketing agency based in Belgium, Moondust has a good knowledge of the country’s digital landscape. In this article, we’re going to share some stats, insights and takeaways. Let’s explore the digital landscape of Belgium in 2020.

Thank you to the awesome people at GlobalWebIndex for providing the stats for this article.
89% of Belgians are internet users, and the percentages were obtained by asking a panel of 5,000 of those internet users. Data is from November 2019.

Why Do We Look At Demographics?

When we start working with clients, we look at the demographic of their audience and target audience. Brands today need the edge in marketing products and services to generate more revenue and profit margins. Demographics are a key factor in getting that edge. Essentially what this means in marketing is finding the group of people who fit the mold of your product. Find those who need what you have, and you will be more successful.

Marketing to Generational Groups- It’s important to understand which generation your target market belongs to. Baby Boomers have very different buying habits to those of Gen X or millennials.

Marketing to Age Ranges - Age ranges can transcend generations. For example, an insurance company could target couples having their first baby. This age range spans several generations and is contingent on the common thread of having a baby.

Marketing to Ethnic Backgrounds- People from different cultures have different tastes and have different buying habits from one another. The three predominant cultures in Belgium are Flanders - primarily Dutch, Wallonia - primarily French and the northeast - primarily German influenced. Additionally, there are of course numerous other cultures present in Belgium.

Marketing to Family Structure- Knowing whether a person is married, single or divorced, is also an important demographic to understand. Family structure affects buying habits and also affects the sales process. In Belgium, young people marry and have children less often and later than former generations did. The divorce rate has increased to about one in three marriages.

Income and Investments- Knowing if you are targeting a group that can afford your products and services is important. You don't want to market a luxury car to someone who can’t afford it. Marketing data on client income is available on social media and Google Analytics and can be a useful guide in the marketing direction.

Analysing your niche- A niches can look at political affiliations, hobbies, favorite sports teams, buying habits or most eaten foods. The theory is that the more focused your demographic is, the better you can speak to their emotions and get them to buy.

A Snapshot Of Belgian Internet Users

· The gender split of internet users is 50/50

· The age of internet users in Belgium is: 16-24 19%, 25-34 21%, 35-44 21%, 45-54 21%, 55-64 18%

· They rank their top interests as music (63%), films and cinema (62%, travel (61%), television (61%) and eating out 60%.

· 49% are employed, 10% work part time, 5% are self-employed, 9% are students, 9% are unemployed, 7% are retired, 3% are full time parents.

· 92% own a mobile phone

· 83% have Facebook accounts, 77% have Messenger accounts, 69% have a YouTube account, 66% have Whatsapp and 49% have Instagram

· 76% of Belgians use online banking and 40 % use online payment systems like PayPal

· 64% prefer information from online newspapers to paper print

· 1 hour and 44 minutes per day is spent on radio ( we will come back to that!)

Why Do Belgians Use The Internet?

Starting at the beginning, it’s essential to know why Belgians are using the internet in the first place. This helps to form a basis for the type of content you will be providing.

· Finding information 79%

· Keeping up to date with news & events 64.5%

· Researching how to do things 59.7%

· Filling up spare time/browsing 53.8%

· Saying in touch with friends & family 53.5%

Based on these figures, we can say that a brand providing useful and informative content, news and information will be meeting the needs of most Belgian internet users.

- Be original – It’s essential that your content matches the needs of internet users, but it also has to stand out from all the other content available.

- Produce actionable content – You should always include strong CTAs (call to actions) in your content. It’s great that users have read it but what do you want them to do next?

- Publish accurate information – The majority of internet users in Belgium are searching for news and information. It’s essential that you publish accurate news, information or product descriptions on your site.

- Master your headlines – Article headlines not only have the power to captivate a reader, they can also rank highly for SEO. The same is true for social media captions so be sure to pay attention to these if you want to be discoverable.

- Create sharable content - With over half of Belgians browsing to pass the time, provide sharable and interesting content that will entertain.

- Have a multichannel presence – As you can see from the below statistics, Belgian internet users are not only using search engines to look for information. They are, among others, using reviews (36.7%), social media networks (26.2%) and Q&A sites (14.1%). This makes it essential for your brand to be monitoring its online presence and contributing to different sites, networks and forums.

Digital Buying Trends in Belgium

Online shopping is absolutely a thing in Belgium and internet users are embracing purchasing, reviews and incentives. Here are the stats:

- 72% have bought online in the past month (33% on mobile)

- 28% have posted an online review in the past month

- In terms of product discovery, the ranking looks like this: 39% search engines, 38% tv ads, 37% word of mouth, 24% radio ads and 23% magazine and newspaper ads.

Radio Advertising

In Belgium on average, 1 hour and 44 minutes per day is spent on radio. This is often in peak commute times so it’s an important part of the country’s marketing fabric.

Radio 2, a radio station belonging to the Flemish Radio and Television Group (VRT), dominated Dutch-language radio in Belgium in 2019, with an audience market share of almost 30%. This meant the radio channel nearly made up one third of total listening time. Radio 2 also reached over one million people on a daily basis.

It’s important to note that Belgium separates its radio data into Dutch-only and French-only and does not provide a national overview. So, marketers need to decide where they want to advertise if they choose radio.

Additionally, brands should adhere to the following best practices:

1. Grab attention - Right from the start, a great spot should grab and hold the listener's attention. Do it with comedy, music, a clever tagline or a catchy word.

2. Keep them listening - The best radio spots make you want to listen all the way through. For that, an audience must be able to relate to the story or be waiting for an incentive.

3. Focus on a single message- Resist the temptation to include all your USPs or features

4. Reward the audience - Your radio spot should close with a solid CTA, offer or reward. Listeners won’t remember a telephone number, but they will remember this.

Social Media In Belgium

As you would expect, social media in Belgium is rapidly growing and is no longer considered something for “young people”. When asked why they use social media, the Belgian test group gave a diverse range of answers.

- To stay in touch with friends 45.4%

- To fill up spare time 41.6%

- To stay up to date with news and events 36.5%

- To find funny or entertaining content 30.4%

- To share photos or videos with others 28.9%

- General networking 22.1%

- To research/ find products to buy 21.6%

- Because their friends are on them 18.4%

- To follow celebrities and celebrity news 13.2%

- To share their opinion 13.3%

- To meet new people 12.1%

- To network for work 12.7%

- To watch sports and follow sports events 11.2%

Why does it matter to us as a marketing agency why people are using social media? Actually, it matters tremendously. It serves as a reminder that social media users are not logging on to see our brand messages. They are logging on to view content that meets their needs. Our marketing messages need to fit into the needs and desires of social media users.

Over 70% of Belgian businesses have a profile on at least one social media platform. However, fewer than one in three have company guidelines or a strategy on how it might best help the business. Additionally, Belgian companies are not always understanding that social media is a tool to communicate with customers. If a negative comment about a company’s service/product is posted on social media, 1/3 of companies would not react to it and 20% would not answer openly.

Belgium is ranked 12th in the world for the export of merchandise and it’s a favourite with investors, B2B businesses and international meetings. If you check out the top brands in Belgium, you can see that they are fully utilising trending hashtags, videos and short status updates.

Top 10 Social Media Networks Ranked From Most Popular

1. Facebook 83%

2. Messenger 77%

3. YouTube 69%

4. Whatsapp 66%

5. Instagram 49%

6. Twitter 39%

7. Linkedin 38%

8. Pinterest 36%

9. Snapchat 36%

10. Skype 34%

And Belgium is very closely correlated to the rest of the world on most of the platforms. The global average for Facebook is 84% for example, while Messenger is 73%. The only anomalies are Instagram, YouTube and Twitter where we see a large difference. Belgian social media users use Instagram 15% less, YouTube 11% less and Twitter 17% less than the rest of the world.

Top 3 Instagram Influencers in Belgium

Jennaminnie.

Followers: 826K.

Focus: Baby, beauty, travel, health

Gaellegd.

Followers: 1.1 million

Focus: Fashion, beauty

Aurelievandaelen.

Followers: 728k

Focus: Family, travelling, lifestyle

And talking of Instagram, here’s how Belgian users behaved on the platform in the past month:

- 21% liked a photo or video clip

- 19.3% uploaded a photo

- 16.1% logged in without posting or commenting to see what was happening

- 14.1% visited a celebrity’s page

- 13.4% watched a video clip

Video in Belgium

38% of social media users in Belgium share pictures, videos and movies on a daily basis. Meanwhile, 41% watch online videos every day and music streaming, downloads and podcasts continue to rise in popularity. 40% of Belgians have watched a music video, 25.9% watched a film trailer, 26% watched a tutorial and 18.7 watched a clip of a tv show.

Other answers include watching a consumer review of a product, watching the news, watching a celebrity video and at just 13% - watching a video advert made by a brand.

And indeed, Belgians are getting increasingly irritated by intrusive ads. Not only on search but also on YouTube with 65% stating that they find ads annoying or irrelevant. That’s compared to the international average of 49%.

If you’re looking to target Belgians with video marketing, then it’s essential not to fall into the “annoying or irrelevant” category. Here’s how:

- Consider the age of your ideal user and tailor your content to them. This may be via podcast, webinar, YouTube videos.

- Remember that today’s users have a short attention span. Videos that are 60 seconds and under are most watched however 1-2 minutes is also fine.

- 85% of Facebook feed videos are played with the sound off! So, annotate your social media videos.

The top subscribed-to video channels in Belgium are:

top subscribed video channels belgium 2020

Video Gaming in Belgium

Video gaming has grown by 40%+ in the past 4 years and there’s no sign of a slowdown either. This statistic shows the total revenue of video games in Belgium in 2016 with a forecast from 2017 to 2022, by segment (in million euros).

In fact, 45% of internet users in Belgium have used their smartphone to play games.

Fun Fact

There have been several Belgian video game characters including:

- Anna from the game Valiant Hearts: The Great War is a nurse who was born in Ypres

- In most of the international sports games, such as the FIFA football games and olympic video games, teams or players from Belgium are featured.

- Phillipe Loren, one of Saints Row The Third's villains is of Belgian origin.

For marketers interested in tapping into the gaming market, there’s Twitch. Launched in 2011, Twitch is an online service for watching and streaming digital video. It was initially created to stream video games but has since expanded to stream a broad range of videos. It now enjoys more than 120 million monthly viewers, with 2.2 million unique streamers each month. And looking more locally, there are 1.2 million Twitch users in Belgium. This, in a population of 11 million inhabitants cannot be ignored. Read more about Twitch in our recent article here.

Of course, we have zillions more insights for Belgium, but we also know that blogs over 2000 words tend to lose readers! We are the leading social media and marketing agency in Belgium and we would love to work with your brand. Speak to our team now to get started.

Exploring The Digital Landscape of Belgium in 2020