The most common answer to a prospecting email is nothing.
Nothing is also the only answer that never tells you why. A no teaches you something. Silence lets you assume your portfolio was weak, your price was wrong, your timing was off, and in Belgium it is frequently none of those. It is that the email arrived in a language the person does not work in, and they moved on without ever forming an opinion about you.
Silence has a cause worth checking before you rewrite anything
Belgium runs on Dutch and French, with a German speaking community in the east, and everyone knows that much. What trips up creators is the second layer: the language a company works in and the language it sells in are different variables, and they come apart constantly.
The operating language is not the postcode
A company in Ghent whose marketing team runs on English. A company in Brussels whose internal language is Dutch. A Walloon manufacturer whose owner does business in Dutch because that is where the customers are. None of these is unusual, and none of them is predictable from an address.
So the map in your head is a bad instrument. The company's own surfaces are a good one, and they are all public.
English is a third option, not a compromise
Writing in English is not a way to avoid choosing. It is its own choice, and it works well in exactly one situation: when the company already operates in English, which in Belgium usually means an international group's office, a scale-up, or a team assembled from several countries.
Sent to a domestic company that runs in Dutch or French, English does not read as neutral. It reads as someone who did not check, which is the same signal as a mail merge.
The reader may not be the buyer
In a subsidiary, the person who replies to you often cannot approve you. That is not a reason to skip them, it is a reason to write something they can forward. A message that survives being pasted into an internal thread is worth more here than a clever hook, because the second reader arrives with no context and only your words.
Reading the language before you write
| What you can observe | What it tells you | Write in |
|---|---|---|
| The site opens in Dutch, French sits behind a switcher | A Dutch first company serving both markets | Dutch |
| Both languages equally, English only for investors | A domestic company, bilingual by obligation | Whichever the site opens in |
| The site exists only in English, address in Brussels | A regional or European office | English |
| Job ads require Dutch, the team posts in English | The team works in English, the market is served in Dutch | English to the person, Dutch for the content |
| Packaging in two languages, LinkedIn in one | The team works in one language, the market gets two | The team's language |
The last row is the one that saves the most time. Packaging tells you about the market and tells you nothing about the person reading your email, and creators mix the two constantly.
Where the lists actually are
Belgium is small enough that generic databases are thin, and specific ones are unusually good. Sector federations publish member lists. Regional export and enterprise agencies publish directories. Retail chains list their suppliers on the shelf, which is a directory with photographs. Trade fairs publish exhibitor lists months in advance, and an exhibitor list is a list of companies who have already budgeted to be seen.
None of that is scraped or bought. It is public, it is current, and it is specific enough that the first line of your email can name something true about the company.
When you cannot tell
Write in the language of the site's default page and add one line offering the other. Not an apology, an offer: you deliver in Dutch and French, tell them which they need. That sentence does two things at once. It answers the question they were going to ask, and it tells them you know the country has two answers, which is most of what a Belgian client wants to establish before taking anyone seriously.
Keep reading
- UGC Creators in Brussels
- UGC Creators in Flanders
- Invoicing and VAT for UGC Creators in Belgium
- Who Hires UGC Creators in Belgium
- The complete UGC guide for Belgium
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Frequently asked questions
Should I just write everything in English to be safe?
Only when the company already works in English. Sent to a domestic Dutch or French speaking business, English reads as someone who did not check rather than as neutral ground.
I only speak one of the two languages. Is that a problem?
No, it narrows your market rather than closing it. Be explicit about which language you deliver in, and prospect inside it. Pretending to cover both and then subcontracting the other badly is what actually costs clients.
Where do I find Belgian companies worth writing to?
Sector federation member lists, regional enterprise and export agency directories, and trade fair exhibitor lists. All public, all current, and specific enough to write a first line that is true.
Why does my email get no reply at all rather than a no?
Often because it never got read as addressed to them. Language is the first filter, and it happens before anyone forms an opinion about your work.